| How much does your veggie garden save? | |
Your veggie garden not only provides you with the freshest possible vegetables in their season, it saves you money. Have you ever wondered how much? Here are some examples:
1 tomato plant like Better Bush or Early Girl, heavy producers of medium size fruit, can yield over 20 lbs of tomatoes and save you up to $75 at the grocery store
1 zucchini squash plant can yield 9-10 lbs of squash and save you about $35.
9 square feet of mesclun salad mix can yield 10 lbs of salad mix and save you $25. It takes less than 30 days to mature so can be resown if the weather remains cool, or when cool fall temps return. Spinach provides about the same yield and savings.
A couple pepper plants will yield about 15 lbs of peppers in a good year and save about $15 at the store.
Thanks to Garden Gate Magazine, March 2011, for the calculations in this summary.
Why not add up your yield this year, just for fun, and calculate how much you are saving, while you eat well all season? Of course you have to deduct the cost of seeds, plants, and compost. But how do you add in all the fun of being in the garden? |
| Contact us |
Lurvey Landscape Supply & Garden Center
2550 E Dempster St. Des Plaines, IL 847-824-7411 Hours and Directions
|
|
|
| Featured Plant: Allium 'Summer Beauty' |
 | |
Ornamental Chives
(Allium 'Summer Beauty')
Photo courtesy of Northscaping |
Alliums are members of the Onion family and are very popular for their round flower heads, which are actually clusters of tiny flowers.
'Summer Beauty' has bright green mounded, grass-like foliage that stays neat after blooming, but the clear pink blossom heads may last all summer, thus its name. The flower stalk on this Ornamental Onion usually grows 12-18" tall. It blooms in mid-summer through fall and tolerates both dry conditions and hot weather. It will combine nicely with many of the other perennials listed in our article below on plants for dry conditions. |
| Xeriscaping: What kind of landscaping is that? | |
Very simply, xeriscaping is landscaping to conserve water. Often understood to be "dry landscaping," it is actually landscaping of any type (English garden-style, Japanese, native plant, etc.) that applies 7 principles to creating a landscape that uses little or no supplemental water, once established.
Xeriscaping is most often used in dry climates for obvious reasons, and therefore is often understood to be synonymous with "landscaping for dry climates." In fact, the principles of xeriscaping can be applied anywhere.
The seven principles for xeriscaping include design, soil analysis and preparation, appropriate turf, appropriate plant selection, efficient irrigation, use of mulch, and proper maintenance. In the article below, we suggest plants that are appropriate for dry areas and may be used in a Midwestern xeriscape. If you are interested in creating a xeriscape and want to apply all these principles, we can help. |
| Plants for dry areas | |
Dry areas can often be a challenge in the garden, but not if you use plants designed for dry areas.
Spring flowering plants for dry sunny areas include many varieties of Campanula, Coreopsis, Prairie Smoke (the native variety of Geum), and Penstemon.
Mid-summer bloomers include several varieties of Sunflower, Coneflower, Black-eyed Susan, Liatris, Veronica, and some varieties of Goldenrod. Another beauty that blooms mid-season with stunning orange flower heads is Butterfly Weed.
 | Sedum 'Thundercloud'
Photo courtesy of Northscaping |
Sedum is the most widely used late blooming perennial for dry spots. Many varieties of Asters are also suitable and they are doubly significant in that they bloom late in the year. Consider Smooth Aster, White Wood Aster, Heath Aster, Large-leaved Aster or Aromatic Aster. And don't forget that many ornamental grasses, which bloom in late summer or fall, are tolerant of dry conditions.
Many varieties of Ssedum are also used as the most common groundcover for dry areas (including roof gardens!) Others to consider are Lamb's Ear, Candytuft, and Creeping or Wooly Thyme.
Shrubs for dry conditions include Quince, many varieties of Spirea, Blackhaw Viburnum, Alpine Currant, Sumac and Aronia just to name a few.
Trees? Consider the lovely Amur Maple or Cornelian Cherry Dogwood! |
| Native plants: Perfect for our conditions | Natives are plants that grew in our area before people settled here and brought plants from other areas. They are ideally suited to our climate conditions - that's why they grew here before we came along! As such, they are often the best answer to any extreme condition - including dry areas in the garden and very hot summer days.
With native plants, what you see is not what you get! They have root systems that may go 15 feet underground! This is one reason they are so tolerant of the extremes of our growing season, including not only dry conditions, but drought, midsummer heat, intense sun, wind, and anything else that a Chicago summer can throw at them.
Many native plants are now available for the cultivated garden. When designed carefully, they don't look or act like "weeds." We can help you select the right ones for your conditions. |
|
|
|
|
