Unless you have possessed a system similar to this before in a home you wouldn’t believe exactly what a huge difference it can create to the aspect of your residence at night.

A low voltage landscape light system is so simple to set up and maintain that you wouldn’t believe how special everything will look in your plot once it is illuminated.

You might go for spread lighting that is able to light up an part of backyard in general and not pinpoint any precise part.

In several ways it may look as a communal garden or recreational area where lights makes it feasible to stroll daytime or nighttime, obviously a smaller size but just as pleasing.

The helpful idea regarding low voltage systems is that the power, i.e. 12V, is small enough to be completely safe. It is so reliable that you can even have the lighting on when you are siting them to greatest effect. There is no hazard to yourself.

One disadvantage I should like to bring up is that the illumination farthest away from the electrical device will never appear as brilliant as those nearby.

As a planting season September is second only to April and May; and now that cooler weather has arrived, you will doubtless be raring to go.

Corms of autumn-blooming crocus and colchicums should be planted as soon as they become available. Two or three weeks after they are planted, they may bloom. Winter aconite tubers and snowdrop and narcissus bulbs should also be planted when received, for they deteriorate if they are kept out of the ground too long.

This is the best time to divide peony clumps and Japanese and Siberian irises. The soil is warm now and consequently favorable to root development, so that the plants will become established before the onset of winter.

Biennials also can be transplanted either to a coldframe or to the spot where they are to bloom. Whether they will need the protection of a coldframe depends upon their hardiness in your area.

Although spring planting is usually preferred for broad-leaved evergreens such as mountain-laurel and rhododendron and cone-bearing or narrow-leaved evergreens such as pine, spruce and fir, their new growth has now hardened sufficiently to permit transplanting them without much injury. However, in areas where these evergreens are just barely hardy, it would be wiser to postpone transplanting them until spring.

For your spring-blooming bulbs, the next ninety days are important ones. They will be going through the ugly-duckling stage. their leaves withering and the bulbs maturing. It is during this time that the bulbs store food to enable them to bloom the following year.

With the exception of daffodils, most of the spring-blooming bulbs should be dried off gradually so that they will go into dormancy. Daffodils, however, dont mind summer watering. In Ireland, where some of the worlds finest daffodils are grown, rains keep the soil constantly moist in summer.

Home vegetable gardens are more popular in the Pacific Northwest than they are in California and points south. Nevertheless, with just a couple of hours attention each week all sections of the West can produce fine crops.

Except at the higher elevations, all warm-weather vegetables can be started now. Those most popular in home gardens are: snap beans, corn, tomatoes, lima beans, cucumbers, peppers, squash and eggplant. Cool-weather vegetables that can still be started now from seed include: beets, carrots, parsley and Swiss chard.

Questions of the Month

Question: When do the dwarf flowering tea roses from New Zealand bloom? Are the plants long-lived?

Blow Wind Blow and go garden go! Wind always creates problems in the garden but in March in the South the problem becomes acute. All gardeners know of the damage that results from plants whipping back and forth, being bruised or crushed against each other, the cutting action of the fine soil, and the silting action of the blowing dust. All these are bad. enough, but the real damage comes from the drying action of the winds the dehydration of plant tissues.

In this area there has been more, moisture during the last year than for, any previous season. For this reason many gardeners will neglect to supply needed moisture to the top soil, the layer in which feeder roots of plants are present. Many gardeners rely on winter mulches to prevent excessive drying of the top soil, and rightly so! But in at least half of our area even the mulch material is blown away, therefore surface watering becomes absolutely necessary.

The easiest method to water the garden at any time is by a permanent sprinkler system. More and more of these are being installed each year by gardeners.