Select a special gift for Mom at Norway Gardens and then bring her out to the garden center for a visit this weekend. All moms will receive a free plant when they visit Norway Gardens on Saturday or Sunday, May 12 & 13, 2012.

Take a look at some gift ideas for Mom. You will find fabulous hanging baskets, large tubs of blooming geraniums, exquisite blooming calla lilies in vibrant colors, hibiscus trees and other exotic tropicals for the patio, blooming shrub rose bushes, and much more. Inside our gift store you will find lots of great Mothers Day gift ideas. Check out our jewelry from the Kristina Collection. Don't forget a special card. We have those also. Below is a glimpse of some of the beautiful Mothers Day gift ideas we have for you:

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Last year you filled your pots with good potting mix before you planted. Don't throw all that good soil away. Follow this procedure instead:

1. Dump used soil into a wheelbarrow and take out all plant roots.
2. Sprinkle the remaining soil with Fertilome Soil Activator or Dr. Earth Starter Fertilizer.
3. Put soil back in your pot and top with Baccto Professional Potting Mix (enough to replace the rooted clumps that you removed.
4. You are now ready to plant your pots.

Both Fertilome Soil Activator and Dr. Earth Starter Fertilizer are composed of all-natural products -- completely organic! Here is more info about each product:

  Fertilome Soil Activator contains humic acid which promotes chelation of available nutrients, assists in nutrient uptake, and improves the growth of beneficial organisms. It can be used on lawns, in vegetable and flower gardens, and to enhance soil in your pots. To use in pots, sprinkle 1 tsp. to soil for a 9" or smaller pot and 1 tbsp. for pots larger than 9." In gardens apply 1 to 1 1/2 lbs. per 100 sq. ft. On lawns apply 10 to 15 lbs. per 1000 sq. ft. Note that Soil Activator should be used in conjunction with a good garden fertilizer such as Gardeners Special.





Dr. Earth Starter Fertilizer does much of the same plus includes organic fertilizer. It contains a blend of alfalfa meal, fish bone meal,
feather meal, mined potassium sulfate, soft rock, phosphate, seaweed extract and PRO-BIOTIC™ seven champion strains of beneficial soil microbes plus Ecto and Endo Mycorrhizae. I helps prevent transplant shock and helps make plants more drought-tolerant. This product is a fertilizer!






Baccto Professional Potting Mix is the best you can find. We use it in everything we plant at Norway Gardens. It combines peat moss and perlite with other ingredients to help your plants hold moisture and nutrients. It never gets hard or clumps. Our customers who have tried Baccto Professional Potting Mix don't want to plant with anything else!

When you instill in your child a love of gardening, you are giving many invaluable gifts: the habit of good exercise and a healthy lifestyle, including the love of flavorful and nutritious vegetables; the joy of watching nature's wonders unfold; a way of relaxation; the knowledge that the child is being kind to the environment; the sense of pride in accomplishment, and more!

In this article we are focusing on vegetable gardening. It is important that the child has the experiencing of growing some plants from seeds so he or she can see the growing process in its entirety. Bean seeds are fun -- quick to germinate and easy for a child to sow. Lettuce and radishes are quick-germinating and can be harvested quickly. They will help a child learn to love salads! Growing and harvesting potatoes can be like a treasure hunt for children. My husband Tom takes our small grandchildren out to the garden when he is ready to dig potatoes. They scamper in glee to find the potatoes with each shovel scoop! Consider letting your child grow one of our new vining cherry tomatoes in a hanging basket. What fun to pick! Don't forget herbs. Children delight is the fragrances of each new herb and with your help can learn how to use them to make food taste even better.

When you help children garden, be sure to give them their own garden space, whether it be a garden spot in the ground, a raised garden, or a few pots. They also need tools that really work -- not toys that will break when they try to hoe or to dig. Be sure these gardens have good soil in them and are fertilized. You want your children to enjoy success in their new hobby so give them every opportunity to be successful. Finally, don't be afraid to help them a little -- perhaps by moving the sprinkler when they forget or by pulling a slug off a tomato plant. They don't even need to see those little helps. Finally, praise them for their work and show their work off to guests. You children will feel immense pride in their accomplishment.

Consider trying this fun project. Form tall bamboo stakes into a teepee shape and secure each stake into your garden. Plant pole green beans at the base of each stake and grow a green bean teepee. Be sure to leave space for an opening to the teepee. Your children will love this hiding place. They will delight in being able to pick beans inside and out!

Following is a summary of the seminar at Norway Gardens on Saturday, April, 14, 2012. Entitled "Gardening for Seniors," it included tips to make gardening easier for senior citizens and people who suffer from arthritis:



Gardening is a great hobby for every age. As we become older, its benefits are especially important. Consider the fact that gardening has all these physical, mental, and emotional benefits:
                                                    i.     Burns calories and helps weight control
                                                   ii.     Enhances cardiopulmonary capability and endurance
                                                  iii.     Offers fresh air and sunshine
                                                  iv.     Provides fresh and nutritious produce if you grow a vegetable garden
                                                   v.     Offers means of creativity
                                                  vi.    Gives  time for reflection and peacefulness
                                                vii.     Helps mental health by increasing attention span and giving opportunities for problem solving
                                               viii.     Provides social benefits – garden with a companion; have gifts from the garden to offer family or friends.

Gardening can be very helpful to those suffering from arthritis since it helps keep us moving and gives our joints greater flexibility. For dementia sufferers, gardening can provide an outlet for feelings of restlessness, agitation, and aggression and can provide a stimulator for the senses of sight, smell, sound, and feel.
                                                 
We know the benefits of gardening but now let's consider the special needs of seniors. It is important to make gardening less strenuous and make sure it is safe. A few preparations and hints can take care of these concerns. First, do some preparing so your time in the garden will be pleasurable and not overly taxing:

1. Stretching exercises can be very beneficial before you begin your gardening session. Try the following:

             a. Lie on floor; pull knees up to chest and wrap arms around them & hold for a minute. Repeat 2 or 3 times.
             b. Stretch shoulders by holding a towel over your head and bringing it down behind your head with one hand and lower other hand below shoulder height. Then gently pull on the towel. Repeat with other side.
              c. Hold on to a counter top and stretch one leg behind you and then the next.

      2.    Choose best time of day for you for gardening. If you are stiff and sore in the morning, plan your gardening for later in the day. If it is very hot, choose early morning or late day for your garden experience.

Tips for making gardening easier::

1. Weeding issues -- Using a weed preventer such as Fertilome Weed and Grass Preventer with Treflan will prevent a lot of weeds, making the chore of weeding much easier. If you need to weed, try to do it following a rain when the weeds can be pulled much more easily.
2. Listen to your body. Do the harder gardening chores first while you are fresh. Pace yourself, taking breaks as you feel the need so you don't get overly tired.
3. Don't hunch. Keep your back as straight as possible. When you need to bend, do so from the knees, not the waist. When you have to lift, do so bending your knees. Don't lift and twist at the same time.
4. Wear knee pads. You may find it is easier to kneel on one knee and keep the other foot on the ground. A gardener's kneeling bench, such as the one shown here, can be of great help. It is collapsible and reversible. One way it provides a cushioned kneeling bench and when turned over, it becomes a bench for sitting.
5. Wear proper clothing. Loose clothing makes movement easier. Wear light shirts when it is hot since light colors reflect the sun and dark colors absorb it.
6. Mulch around your plantings. This not only helps retain water, making watering chores less frequent, it also helps deter weeds.

Garden Spots:

Be creative with your gardening spots! If kneeling is difficult, consider having raised garden beds built for you. One easy way to make raised beds is with concrete blocks. A raised bed two or three blocks high gives a good height for gardening while you sit on the ledge which the blocks provide. Make your raised bed no more than 2 1/2' to 3' wide if it is against a wall or fence. If you can get on all sides of the raised bed, build it 5' to 6' wide. Gardening in big pots is an easy way to garden. You can grow many vegetables as well as flowers in pots. Pots especially designed to sit atop deck ledges provide other ways for easy gardening without having to stoop or kneel. Vertical gardening is another alternative. Growing some vegetables such as squash and cucumbers on trellises makes for easy picking without having to bend. Planting a tomato in a large pot with a tomato cage on it is an easy way to grow and harvest tomatoes. If you are laying out a garden, allow for wide garden paths (3' or more if you need to allow for a wheelchair) and select a non-slick surface for your garden path. If necessary, have handrails built along the path. Plan to have the garden as close as possible to your back door.

Garden Tools:

1. Use garden gloves. If you suffer from arthritis, you may wish to purchase larger gloves than you need and put padding in them.
2. Select light weight tools with soft and/or shaped handles to sit comfortably in your hands.
3. Choose the right pruners to cut the kinds of plants you need to trim or deadhead.
4. A wheelbarrow or garden cart is invaluable for making gardening easier. You can put everything you need in it and push it around as you work.
5. Long-handled tools are great when you want to cut down on bending.
6. Wearing a garden apron with deep pockets for holding seeds, tools, cell phone, etc., can be very handy.

Watering concerns:

We mentioned earlier the helpfulness of mulch in keeping your garden moist. Another great garden aid is drip irrigation. It is very inexpensive and easy to install. With it you can automatically water pots and garden spots when they need watering. If you are watering by hand, a water wand is a must.

Safety suggestions:

Be sure to wear a garden hat and put on sunblock. Take your cell phone to the garden with you in case of an emergency. Another suggestion is to wear a whistle around your neck so you can whistle for help from a neighbor if you are in distress. Take a bottle of water to the garden with you. It is important to stay hydrated.

Easy-care plants:

Choose plants that don't require lots of spraying or deadheading. Vegetative petunias, for example, are self-cleaning. The spent blooms drop off without your having to deadhead them. Many of the newer varieties of annuals are self-cleaning. Look for that when you shop. Select plants that are disease resistant and aren't targets for insect pests so you don't have to spray. If you need to spray, there are light-weight and hose-end sprayers that make this job much easier.

Special concerns for Alzheimer's patients

If you are a care-giver for a person suffering from Alzheimer's or dementia and want to give your charge the wonderful benefits of gardening, keep these tips in mind:

1. Plan your garden path in a circle or a figure eight design so the patient can't stray.
2. Make sure all areas of the garden are visible to care givers.
3. Include garden benches as well as sheltered areas in the garden. However, avoid dark areas since they can make the patient feel anxious.
4. Let the patient, as much as he or she is able, plan what if to be planted in the garden.
5. Plant perennials and annuals that are colorful and fragrant for the patient's enjoyment.

Don't be afraid to ask a family member (or hire someone) to do the heavy preparations of gardening -- building raised beds, bringing in soil, etc. Save the easier and more fun tasks to do yourself. With a little planning and thought, gardening can continue to be a rewarding and very pleasurable hobby!