Is your garden a visual eyesore? Is it filled with hot, glaring colors that don't really complement each other? Perhaps it's time to add a little blue to your garden. Blue flowering plants add serenity to a garden and can even make a hot garden feel a bit cooler. The relaxing shades of blue flowering plants can be enjoyed throughout the season and blend well with other cool colors such as purples, pinks and white.

For starters create a backdrop of taller shrubs such as blue hibiscus, caryopteris, plumbago or perhaps a blue clematis vine against a fence. Now layer in some perennials such as agapanthus, agastache, aster, delphinium, blue geranium, platycodon or rosemary. Finally, add some low growing growing spreaders such as lithodora, phlox, or isotoma.

Do you have shaded areas? No problem. You can create the same effect with a background of hydrangea (feed them with aluminum sulfate each year to keep them blue). Then layer in liatris, ligularia, or polemonium and add some ajuga or isotoma (which tolerates sun or shade) for a groundcover.

Don't just limit your planting to the ground. Many blue-flowering plants look great in containers for patios and decks, or in hanging baskets. You can even create a blend of annuals, perennials, and ornamental grasses to make any pot, urn, window box or decorative planter look fantastic all season long.

Many blue flowering perennials such as caryopteris, delphinium, penstemon, salvia, scabiosa and veronica are also wonderful at attracting butterflies and birds, particularly hummingbirds. But most of all they will provide a wonderful relaxing contrast to a brightly-colored garden. So what are you waiting for? Come on down and pick up some blue flowering plants for your garden today!

It's that time of year that so many of us look forward to. Next to Christmas, Halloween and the Fall Harvest Season is the most popular time of year, and at Anawalt Lumber-Hardware Nursery, we want to celebrate it with you!

We offer pumpkins and gourds in addition to other fall décor to help turn any home into a fall harvest paradise. Anawalt Lumber-Hardware Nursery is the perfect place to shop for all of your Halloween and fall decorating needs. Hurry in while supplies last!

Groundcovers are low-growing plants that spread quickly to form a dense cover. While they add beauty to the landscape, they can also solve many planting problems in difficult sites. Unlike grass, most groundcovers cannot be walked on, but they more than make up for lack of foot traffic tolerance with a much lower water requirement. Many are compatible planted between shrubs, providing contrast for a classic finished landscape look.

Groundcovers are used most frequently for erosion control on steep banks or slopes. In addition, many shade-loving varieties can grow under trees where grass would thin out or die. When planted under trees, groundcovers reduce mower damage to the base of the tree. Since most groundcovers require less sunlight, moisture and nutrients than grass, they create less competition with trees and shrubs. Groundcovers also can survive where tree roots grow close to the surface and prevent grass from growing.

The groundcover you select depends on the area where it will be grown. Some groundcover plants prefer shade. Others thrive in full sun. Some prefer moist soil, while others need dry or well-drained soil. To work well as groundcovers, plants have to be tough, durable, and relatively fast-growing, but not invasive. All groundcovers are perennial and most are evergreen.

SOIL PREPARATION
Because groundcovers live for many years in the same spot, it is worth the effort to prepare the soil well before you plant them. This allows plants to establish good root systems. Work the soil to a depth of six inches and add a two-inch layer of organic amendment, such as Kellogg Amend to improve drainage and water-holding capacity in soils. Then apply a starter fertilizer, like Dr. Earth Organic 2 Starter Fertilizer to aid in root development.

PLANTING
Most groundcovers can be planted at any time of the year. However, fall planting takes advantage of lower temperatures and natural rainfall. Watering is reduced and plants establish a stronger root system before summer. Space the plants according to their size, the immediate effect desired, and their rate of growth and habit.

If individual plants are spaced too far apart, weeding can be a problem and the time required for complete coverage can be quite long. On the other hand, planting too closely will force the plants to compete as they grow into maturity. We recommend spacing plants so the groundcover areas will be completely covered by the end of the second growing season. A staggered row-planting pattern usually will result in the quickest cover of the planting bed.

All groundcover will benefit from a two-inch layer of mulch, such as Kellogg Gromulch, to help retain moisture and keep roots protected until they become established. Mulch, of course, also aids in weed control. We stock a great selection of ground cover year-round and invite you to come in and discover the multitude of choices available for your garden. Our staff of nursery professionals will be happy to guide you with all of your groundcover needs.

By Tamara Galbraith

As your fall garden clean-up gets underway, don't sabotage your efforts by using dirty tools.

One of the best ways to prevent the spread of fungus and other plant diseases is to prune out infected parts. However, seemingly healthy wood can also be infected, so disinfecting your pruning tools between cuts becomes very important as you trim.

In 1992, scientists at Kearney Agricultural Center in California's Central Valley tested various readily available and commonly recommended disinfectants. The disinfectants tested were chlorine bleach, hydrogen peroxide, Listerine, Lysol concentrated disinfectant, Pine-Sol, and rubbing alcohol.

The scientists found that soaking or spraying pruning blades for a minute or longer in either a full-strength or a 1-to-5 solution of chlorine bleach, Lysol, or Pine-Sol brought the most consistent protection. Interestingly, just dipping the blade quickly often did not disinfect properly. Chlorine bleach generally did a better job for quick dips, although none of the disinfectants proved completely effective.

Although chlorine bleach is the least expensive and generally most effective disinfectant, bleach corrodes tools quickly and--as many of us know from clumsy experience--can splash up and ruin clothes. Lysol caused the least damage to clothes and tools; keeping a small can of Lysol and an old rag in your gardening bucket is a good idea as you work your way through fall pruning.