Updating your softscape is one of the best ways to refresh your property every spring. When you enhance or add to your landscape, you are bringing the essence of life in to give your surroundings a flourish of vitality. Gardens can be built for growing a variety of plants including fruits and vegetables, flowers, ornamental grasses, shrubs, and more. Keep these five tips from a garden nursery near me in Orange County, NY handy when planning a garden in the Ulster County and Orange County, NY areas.
Fruits and Vegetables
Adding an edible garden will give purpose to your landscape that goes beyond beauty. The seasonal growing cycle of New York’s Hudson Valley allows for a wide variety of fruits and vegetables to be grown in a home garden. All seeds and sprouts can be obtained at your local garden nursery.
During the late spring, you may harvest fast-growing asparagus. During the summer your garden can bring you blueberries, cherries, nectarines, and eggplants. During the fall, you can count on pumpkins and cauliflower. Throughout this time, you’ll have incredible pride in growing healthy and delicious fruits and vegetables.
Native Flowers
You can save on maintenance and watering if the majority of your landscape is populated with native plants. New York has incredibly beautiful native flowers such as the Smooth White Beardtongue, which has stunning white flowers that attract a multitude of pollinators. The Canada Anemone, with its propensity for providing ground cover, and the Northern Blue Flag, with its striking color contrasts and shapes, can round out an amazing flower bed that will delight you all season with fragrance and color.
Native Grasses
Grasses are often overlooked as stunningly beautiful additions to gardens and landscapes. Certain ornamental grasses that are native to New York will provide a hospitable environment for many of your other plants to grow while giving your landscape wonderful visual texture. Big Bluestem is a wonderful prairie grass that flowers in different colors depending on the season. Broad-Leaf Sedge is perfect for all areas of your garden that tend to dry out as it provides ground cover. Bottlebrush Grass has billowy seed heads that show a variety of different colors.
Native Shrubs and Trees
Shrubs and trees provide an excellent anchor for your overall greenscape. They can grow big and tall, can be pruned over time into elegant shapes, have culinary uses, and provide excellent ground cover to keep the soil cool and moist. Many shrubs flower, such as the Highbush Blueberry which not only provides bell-shaped white flowers but also bunches of plump blueberries.
Likewise, the American Elderberry provides delicious elderberries that can be used in a wide variety of foods. Meanwhile, the Virginia Rose is a bush with gorgeous glossy leaves, rose hips that make excellent tea, and large pink flowers. Shrubs such as Dogwood and trees such as Red Maple will also give you dazzling fall color.
Visit the Nursery Quickly
As the snow begins to melt, it’s important to grab supplies quickly. The spring rush is the beginning of most of the seasonal landscape work across the country and any necessary supplies may be bought up before they can be restocked, potentially causing headaches and setting your projects behind.
If possible, visit your local garden nursery as early in the season as you can and get the seeds, tools, soils, fertilizers, and other essentials you might need. This is also an excellent time to set up contracts with landscaping professionals that can make the installation and maintenance of your greenscape far easier. Before you know it, you’ll be enjoying the benefits of your updated landscape.
