Creative Container Gardening

With Spring right around the corner many will begin the yearly "Spring Cleaning" task around your home. But wait! Before you toss out those old chairs, tires, buckets and wheel barrows get creative and think about the endless possibilities that those old items could provide in your garden!

Container gardening is a great way to fill an empty space in your patio or porch. The possibilities are endless to a creative gardener as to the type of container they can use!

Do you have an old wooden chair collecting dust in your attic or garage? Turn it into a beautiful container garden!  Sit it in the corner by your front porch and you've got a welcome chair!

Some guidelines to follow when planting containers are:

- Make sure your pot has adequate drainage

- Covering the drainage holes with a layer of small stones or broken pots will help from the soil plugging up the drainage hole.

- If your planting vegetables in a container deep pots are recommended.

Selecting the correct soil is important when planting containers.

Potting mix or potting soil are the best soil choices for containers. They will allow the roots to grow freely and will retain adequate moisture for your plants. The use of topsoil alone should be avoided as it is heavy and will compact the roots. However, if you add peat moss and compost to top soil it would be suitable.  The use of Osmocote fertilizer is a wonderful product to add to your containers as it will fertilize your containers slowly over its growing period.

What to grow in your container?

Today the choices are endless as to what you can grow in a container! Annuals are popular favorites, but also vegetables, perennials and grasses will work as well. Imagine an area of your patio filled with herb containers! Not only are they beautiful but they'll be close by when you need to snip a fresh herb for your culinary dishes!

Container gardens provide a splash of color to any space in your landscape.

Here are pictures of a 'Shoe Garden'. Have some old shoes laying around? They're a "shoe-in" for your next creative garden! Just remember to poke some holes in the bottoms!

Want to learn more?

Mark your calendars as Rutgers Nursery is holding a "Hands-On" seminar on Container Gardening on

May 29th!

Container Gardening -- it's the new wave of gardening!

What's the most creative container you've planted in?

Tips on Freezing Herbs!

During our last seminar on Seed Starting, it was discovered that many people have not enjoyed the benefits of freezing herbs!  Since we planted basil, parsley & chives the day of the seminar, you may soon have use for these tips on how to freeze them.

  

Freezing herbs is a great preservation method. It's much faster than drying and they hold their flavor so you can use the same amount as if it were fresh while cooking!

Herbs that freeze well are: parsley, basil, chives, mint, sage, oregano, savory, dill, thyme and tarragon.

Keep in mind that while freezing your herbs is a great way to preserve their flavors & aromas, it will soften their texture thus making them suitable for cooked dishes, soups and salad dressings.

STEP 1

Wash the herbs and pat them dry. If you are freezing larger leaves you may want to lay them out on a pan in a single layer and put them in the freezer until frozen first before putting them in a sealed bag or container.  Other methods of this step would be to clip the herb leaving the stems on them, bunch the bottom of the stem up with rubber bands, wash and hang them to dry instead of patting them.

STEP 2

Once dry, you can chop the herbs into preferred sizes. Chopping chives into small pieces is advisable as they are very thin and will freeze within minutes.

STEP 3

Put the chopped herbs into sealed containers or ziplock freezer bags, labeling them for easy identification. Push all the air out of the bag or container before sealing.  If you would like to keep your basil leaves from breaking, try adding a drop or two of olive oil to the bag or rub them on the leaves before freezing. Also, basil can sometimes turn a darker green or light brown while frozen, to help prevent that, try adding a drop or so of lemon juice to the bag as well. You won't taste the lemon juice when you use the basil later. Herbs in the freezer will last up to 6 months or more and rarely need thawing before using them!

Freezing Herbs in Ice Trays Works Well Too! 

- Wash your fresh herbs under cold water.

- Pat with papertowel to dry slightly.

- Chop up your fresh herbs finely.

- Place 1 tablespoon of the chopped herb into each square of the ice cube tray.

- Add a little water, filling the tray just below the top of the squares.

- Carefully place the entire tray in the freezer. When the cubes are frozen, pop them out to a labeled container or ziplock bag.

Freezing herbs is such a convenient method of enjoying fresh tasting herbs all year long!

Are You Tired of Winter?

Are you tired of winter?

While it may seem like a long, snowy winter, there are some benefits of snow.

One major benefit of a good snow cover is snow functions as an excellent insulator of the soil. Without snow, very cold temperatures can freeze the soil deeper and deeper. This could lead to damage of root systems of trees and shrubs.

The insulation effect of snow also helps protect perennials, bulbs, ground covers, and strawberry plantings from alternating freezing and thawing cycles. Without snow, milder temperatures and the sun could warm the soil surface, leading to damage from soil heaving, which can break roots and dry out plant parts. Snow also helps conserve soil moisture over the winter.


Ways to overcome the winter blues...
One way to overcome the winter blues is to start planting some seeds inside. We had a great seminar about starting seeds and the turnout was tremendous! Click on this link to print out our seminar handout.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/26771702/Seed-Starting-Seminar

Other ways of looking forward to Spring might be to look over your garden area and think about where you'd like to add some new color, a new tree, or an ornamental piece to your landscape. Thinking about adding a new garden, Rutgers has a free design service to help you with that too! http://www.rutgersln.com/doityourself.asp It's never too early to start thinking about your landscape and the beauty it can provide.

Spring ahead with Rutgers Nursery!


At Rutgers Landscape & Nursery we are looking forward to a great Spring too!

We've added a beautiful pavilion and installed a new 'park-like' area where we will hold our seminars!

Many new and exciting things will start to bloom at Rutgers coming this Spring! It's definitely worth the visit and right around the corner!

Our 2010 Seminar Program is chock full of valuable, educational experiences, many of which will be 'hands-on' this year!http://www.rutgersln.com/s_s_sched.asp

Looking for the perfect flowering or shade tree? Look no further! Rutgers Nursery has the best selection in town from flowering to shade trees, beautiful flowering and evergreen shrubs, perennials for ever season and unstoppable annuals to provide color in every part of your landscaping!  Maybe you'd like to add to your grove by selecting a fine new fruit tree? We have that too!  New this year is the addition of Monrovia plant material! Imagine what a beautiful tropical plant will look like nestled in your patio..

The possibilities are endless for that perfect 'Stay-Cation" Casa or outside entertaining area with the assistance of our friendly and knowledgeable sales associates 

and superior nursery stock!

Want to stay connected to Rutgers Landscape & Nursery?

What Was In Your Grandmother's Garden?

Today, some of the old-fashioned shrubs grown

and loved by our grandmothers are now back in fashion – and for good reason. Most of these selections have few or no pests, grow fast

and get quite large, filling up empty garden spaces quickly.

Some old-fashioned favorites are:

-Forsythia
-Mock Orange

-Deutzia                                       

-Lilac
-Rose
-Weigela

Do you remember what

was growing in your Grandmother's garden?

We'd love to know!

February Landscape Maintenance

February Landscape Maintenance

Thinking about your landscape and wondering what you could be doing in your garden?

Here are a few tips to help you get a head start to Spring!

- Plant seeds indoors that need 10-12 weeks before transplanting

- Continue looking for plant damage and pruning dead wood

- LIGHTLY prune the ends of spring-flowering shrubs to "force" them

- Prune deciduous trees, EXCEPT River Birch, Flowering Cherries, Maples and Lindens

- Continue removing heavy snow from shrubs

- Formative pruning on barberry, summer-flowering shrubs

- Regenerative pruning on shrubs with colorful branches, such as red or yellow twig dogwood

- Apply Weed Pre-Emergent

Rutgers Landscape & Nursery Celebrates 25th Anniversary!

Rutgers Landscape & Nursery is proud to announce our 25th Anniversary!

We wish to thank all our loyal customers because without your continued support we would not be here today.                         

Old Route 31 Nursery Location

Over the last quarter century we have witnessed many exciting events in history. Do you remember the year 1986?

- The cost of a postage stamp was .22 cents

- The NY METS won the World Series over the Boston Red Sox (4-3)

- Ronald Reagan was President

- The Oprah Winfrey show aired for the first time

- Song of the Year was "We Are The World"

- The Statue of Liberty celebrated 100 years and received a face lift

- America celebrated the national holiday Martin Luther King Day for the first time

- A gallon of regular gas was .93 cents!

Although many things have changed since 1986, the goal that we started with in 1986 remains the same today, "To create an enjoyable shopping experience for our customers and help them create beautiful outdoor environments to enjoy with family and friends for years to come".

Our logo of "Where you always get the help you need" stands true and ready to serve you as we look forward to the next 25 years!

                             

                      New Route 202 Nursery Location