Beautiful fall color trees

Fall color is the best time to enjoy the outdoors.  Numerous trees, shrubs and plants that make this time of year explode with all types of color.  From light gorgeous yellow to bright full red.  Here are my recommendations for trees and shrubs that will light your garden landscape.

Chinese Pistache Trees (Scientific Name: Pistacia chinensis)

Loves Full Sun can be planted in USDA Zones: 4-10 This Southwestern tree is a desirable ornamental with attractive, umbrella-like crown. Lustrous green leaves turn a brilliant orange crimson in fall. Very drought tolerant, deciduous and extremely handsome tree. About 30-40 ft. tall and wide. Does well in the desert heat.

Modesto Ash Scientific Name: Fraxinus velutina 'Modesto'

They Love the full southwestern sun.  Can be planted in USDA Zone 8 - 9.  They can grow up to 40ft tall and 30ft wide. An excellent shade tree and moderate grower. Does very well in the southwest, moderate watering check for parasite growth (Mistletoe) deciduous. All varieties of Ash trees will do well in the southwest. Fall cleanup moderate. Stunning full bright Golden Yellow in the fall.

The Raywood Ash tree Scientific Name: Fraxinus oxycarpa.  This is an excellent easy care drought tolerant tree to use for your southwestern landscape or just about any part of the U.S. It grows about 2ft per year but will grow much faster if watered and fertilized more often. The Raywood ash tree turns a fantastic deep red during the fall seasons. It grows to about 50-60ft tall and about 40ft wide.

You can see some photos of these trees at:  Greenhouse Trees

How to make a pond

The placement of any in-ground pond is essential. You will need to consider several factors into deciding where and what you and your family, friends and neighbors are going to actually see when the pond is completed.


You can build your pond, water feature, patio water garden, koi pond or whatever you like to call it, from a variety of materials, including hard plastic liners, rubber liners, rigid plastic or fiberglass liners or even from concrete. This article will tell you how it should be done using the plastic method.

A plastic liner can easily be purchase online or at your local nursery. When purchasing your pond liner, be sure to read the fine print. Basically, flexible liners are either rubber or plastic. Rubber is more expensive but works much better and it does cost more. The thickness should be about 40 milimeters or more and should work well with most average size ponds.

The pool itself should be placed on a low, level area, where it would naturally occur. A small slope is fine especially if you are going to have a waterfall in the garden pond. The water flow needs to look natural and flow down hill. You can leave the ground sloped or even enhance the slope where you intend to put the waterfall while easily leveling the pond area.

It is best to avoid placing the garden pond underneath trees or large shrubs as they will need more frequent cleaning of the pond. Shade will generate more moss, and algae, which means less types of water plants and frequent cleaning. This should not impede your quest for a natural pond. There are many low light water plants that can used. Hiring a pond cleaner is also an option.

Don’t place your garden pond where you will receive runoff containing debris or water from roof tops, street, streams or any water that might be toxic. You will probably want to have plants and fish in the pond which are highly sensitive to foreign chemicals in the water. Even runoff which passes over cement can be effectively toxic. Cement contains lime which raises the pH level. Fish can tolerate a wide range of pH levels, but the constant changes will stress them out and could kill them.

It is important to note what your final view of the pond will look like. A pond visible from a large main window in the home can add considerable enjoyment of your home. If placed in the front entry-way a pond can be quite a view for your visitors.

Imagine coming home everyday and enjoying the koi fish and the soothing sound of water cascading downstream. A waterscape pond feature in your garden will turn your hard day at work into a tranquil environment.

Remember these are pond garden tips and are for those who are looking to do it themselves.

See exceptional ponds at Pond Kits

How to start a garden that gets noticed

If you're thinking about starting a garden, the first thing you need to consider is what type of garden you will have. There are many different choices and often it can be hard to pick just one, but hopefully you can narrow it down. But by narrowing it down, you'll make the gardening experience easier on yourself and the plants.

If all your plants are similar, then it shouldn't be very hard to care for them all. So here are some of the main garden ideas for you to choose from. If you're just looking for something to look nice in your yard, you'll want a flower garden. These are usually filled with perennial flower. Perennial flowers are flowers which stay healthy year-round. They're basically weeds because of their hardiness, only nice looking. Different areas and climates have different flowers which are considered perennials. If you do a quick internet search for your area, you can probably find a list of flowers that will bring your flower garden to life. These usually only require work in the planting stage - after that, the flower take care of themselves. The only downside to this is that you don't have any product to show for it.

Another choice for your garden is to have a vegetable garden. These usually require a little more work and research than a flower garden, but can be much more rewarding. No matter what time of the year it is, you can usually find one vegetable that is still prospering. That way you can have your garden be giving you produce almost every day of the year! When starting a vegetable garden, you should build it with the thought in mind that you will be adding more types of veggies in later. This will help your expandability. Once all your current crops are out of season, you won't be stuck with almost nowhere to put the new crops. A vegetable garden is ideal for someone who wants some produce, but doesn't want to devote every waking hour to perfecting their garden (see below.)
One of the more difficult types of gardens to manage is a fruit garden. It's definitely the most high-maintenance. When growing fruits, many more pests will be attracted due to the sweetness. You not only have to deal with having just the right dirt and fertilizer, you have to deal with choosing a pesticide that won't kill whoever eats the fruits. Your fruit garden will probably not produce year-round. The soil needs to be just right for the plants to grow, and putting in another crop during itsoff-season could be disastrous to its growth process. If you're willing to  put lots of work into maintaining a garden, then a fruit garden could be a good choice for you.

So now that I've outlined some of the main garden types that people choose, I hope you can make a good decision. Basically, the garden type comes down to what kind of product you want, and how much work you want to do.

What type of colorful plants to use for winter

Colorful Winter Plants

Camellias do well in a winter garden.  For some reason many folks in the southwest have forgotten about these plants very colorful winter plants.  These amazing plants produce masses of pink, white and red blossoms over a long season in winter and throughout early spring.
Hellebores


Another winter plant for the garden is the hellebore. It is also called the winter rose. The foliage can withstand cold temperatures even snow.  The most common are tthe Helleborus x hybridus (or H. orientalis). They come in greenish to pure white, spotted pinks to deep maroon and almost black. Attractive forms are sought and many, often expensive, named varieties can be found. They come back up in seed form in early spring.

Pansies are another wonderul colorful cold hardy plant.  They come in numerous colors and sizes.  The nice thing about pansies are the numerous variety of colors. They are available in almost all home garden nurseries.  They come in white, yellow, purple and blue are old fashioned favorites.  The hybrids have made the color array much larger.  Ask for them at your local friendly Nursery.

Other cold hardy plants are stock, viola's and snapdragons they are not quite as cold hardy as pansies but they can take temperatures down to about 34 degress farenheight.

If you are in the Las Cruces Southwest area be sure to visit Color Your World Nurseries located at 540 N. Telshore or call us at 575 521 0496. 

Thanks from Paul and Gary Guzman
Guzman's Garden Center

Easy Care Houseplant Tips

Houseplant problems and how to correct them.

Tips of leaves turning brown at the tip.
Humidity is probably too low

Maybe over fertilizering can cause leaf burn.

You might have too much excess salt in soil.

Too Much Fluoride in your water.

Leaves Turning Yellow.
You need more nitrogen (fertlizer) in your soil.

You might be overwatering.

You could have hot or cold draft.

The lower leaves will naturally turn yellow then fall off. This is the natural aging process.

Leaves fall off from the plant

You need to add some humidity into the air.

You could be overwatering or underwatering...symptoms are very similiar.

Plants need time to adjust to new environment.

The foliage on new plant stay small

Too low or high light can cause leaves to remain small.

You might need to fertilize your plant use a houseplant fertilizer.

Growth of plants seems long and leggy.
You may be overfertilizing

Place the plant where it get more light.

Plant does not seem to grow.
Possibly temperature is too cool. Put in a warmer place.

Place plant where it gets more light.

The Flower Buds always fall off

There could be a draft in the room cold or hot.

Up the humidity.

Potting soil needs more water. Do NOT let it go dry.

Do NOT move the plant around keep it in one area.

You may need more phosphorus in your soil.

Most houseplants will need water at least once per day, especially during the hot summer months. Deep watering 4-5 times per week is better than light watering once per day. You can cut back on watering during the winter months and little to no fertilizing during the cold weather months.

Fall Fruit Tree Care and Pruning

Easy Fruit Tree care and Pruning Tips

Here are a number of things you should do to your fruit trees before winter to ensure the best possible production next season.

Fruit trees need so many chilling hours in order to produce fruit. Call and ask your friendly nursery what kind of fruit trees do well in your area.  Also call you local extension agency for the number of chilling hours in your area.

Fig trees are productive with or without heavy pruning. Pruning fruit trees brings fear and concern to southwestern gardeners. Pruning and training your fruit trees are important to creating an arrangement that will yield the maximum crop of fruit.
Pruning tools can be disinfected with a 10% solution of bleach before and after use to prevent diseases from spreading with the cuts that you make. Pruning in the late summer or fall may encourage the tree to continue growing. The pruning of the tree in early years is called tree training as you have to prune the tree so it is a triangle shape with a point at the top. This means that no part of the tree is blocking another part from the sun.

Also there may be variations in the best pruning methods depending on where you live. Start your pruning by removing any dead, damaged or diseased branches. Fruit trees need regular pruning and insect treatments to keep them healthy and by proper pruning and care will encourage optimal growth and most importantly a good healthy large harvest during the fall season.

Always remove any diseased or damaged branches, any crossing branches, any narrow angling branches, and one of the branches in a fork. If you want healthy fruit crops, spray your trees with Neem Oil to control pests and diseases.  This should be done in early spring to prevent a large infestation of insects.  You can also use a systemic insecticide to get rid of fruit tree insects.  However be sure to read the label for the proper time to apply this insecticide.

Outdoor furniture in Las Cruces

Outdoor decor in Southwestern New Mexico.

Have you ever bought outdoor furniture at you local big mart stores? The following year it looks old or worse it breaks apart. The southwestern New Mexico heat will deteriorate this cheap outdoor furniture quickly. How do I know...I bought some myself and you and I know it never lasts.

There is a new type of outdoor decor that can last almost indefinitely and it comes from Hanamint.com. Their stuff looks so good you might be tempted to used it for indoor furniture. This fine outdoor furniture has a 10 year warranty. Hanamint warrants the powder coat finish for three (3) years from date of purchase, including peeling or blistering. (1) year for wood, cushions, sling fabrics and umbrella frames. This limited warranty applies to residential use only.

Hanamint makes it easy to enhance the beauty of the outdoor room with its innovative and classic designs. With over 10 years in the outdoor market, Hanamint provides high-quality products with outstanding workmanship, supported with the highest standards in customer service, business integrity and strategic partnerships.

You can see some of this furniture at Color Your World Nurseries in Las Cruces, NM. Ask to see the Hanamint Outdoor Decor Catalog. Or check out some the products right here on our webpage - outdoor furniture.