DIY Network

Go Green for Spring and Summer: DIY Gardening & Landscaping Highlights DIY brings you information and inspiration for your warm-weather gardening endeavors.

Spring and summer brings out the gardener in many of us, but a trip to the nursery or home center can be daunting. Where to begin? What to plant? How to care for it?

DIY is here to help with a sampling of some of our best in gardening, lawn and landscaping projects. Whether your interest lies in gardening basics or something a little more exotic or challenging, there's something here for you — selected from a range to suit both the novice and experienced DIY'er.

Just pick a subject category below and click on a topic of your choice. The boldfaced links at the bottom of each article will guide you through a selection of information within your chosen subject.

The final link in each article series will bring you back to this index page so you can explore another gardening or landscaping category.

*Articles marked with asterisk also contain video content.

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Gardening Basics

Want to take on some gardening, but not sure how green your thumb is? Here's a DIY beginner's gardening guide — featuring some of the best from DIY's program The Dirt On — to take some of the mystery out of spring and summer gardening and yard care.

• Basic Gardening Techniques
  
• Gardening Basic: Selecting Plants at the Nursery*
  
• Gardening Basic: Potting Soil Mixes
  
• Gardening Basic: Mulch
  
• Your Mulch Match
  
• Fertilizers 101
  
• Repairing Your Lawn: Seed or Sod?
  
• Pruning Basics and Common Mistakes
  
• Pest Detectives: Dealing With Problem Insects

Gardening Specialties

Ready to take on something a little more specific or specialized? Here's a selection information for the adventuresome gardener. But if you're a beginner, fear not! Most of these are projects and techniques that even the novice gardener can take on. And don't stop until you reach the final article in this series for something really beyond the mainstream.

• Bonsai for Beginners
  
• Creating "Containerscapes"
  
• Moss Gardens
  
• The Beginner's Orchid*
  
• Outdoor Container Gardening
  
• Coming Soon to a Nursery Near You
  
• Going Beyond the Ordinary
  
• The Avant Gardener*

Very Special Gardens

A selection from DIY's The Dirt On Gardening Series for the armchair gardener — and armchair traveler: public gardens where a particular style or genre of gardening is taken to the next level.

• The Hakone Foundation and Japanese Garden
  
• Copia's Edible Gardens*
  
• A Healing Garden
  
• The Formal Gardens of Filoli
  
• A Passion for Purple: The Lavender Farm
  
• San Francisco's Flower Conservatory

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	After

Desperate Landscapes, Drastic Measures

The problem: busy homeowners who don't have time or means for landscaping and yard care. The result: a home and yard with an appearance that makes the neighbors wince. The solution: Jason Cameron, landscaping pro and host of DIY's Desperate Landscapes. In each episode, Jason takes on the task of helping transform drab and overgrown yards into a show stopper. Each of these landscape makeover projects includes step-by-step instructions for some yard or home-exterior improvements, and a detailed list of plants and shrubs custom-selected for that yard's transformation. See if any of the projects or planting are something that might make a difference in your landscape.

• Bachelor Pad Rehab
  
• Garage Facelift and Sod Replacement
  
• The Front Yard That Lived Happily Ever After
  
• A Battle of Walls
  
• The Garden Spot of Garden Road
  
• Desperate Landscape: Cooking Up a New Look
  
• Desperate Landscape: Strike Up the Band

Hardscaping with the Rock Solid Guys

One of the hottest trends in exterior home improvement is hardscaping, a subspecialty of landscaping that involves stone or concrete — and some of the principles of stonemasonry. Join Dean Marsico and Derek Stearns, real-life stone masons and hosts of DIY's Rock Solid, as they tackle some ambitious projects that involve hard materials and easy steps. In these projects, the end result is an exterior feature with good looks and lots of staying power.

• Stone Column Entryway
  
• Travertine Patio
  
• Stone Steps Repair: Fieldstone and Bluestone
  
• Granite Facade
  
• Front Walkway Rehab

The Green Gardener

Just because it's green doesn't necessarily mean it comes from the most "green practices." Here's a selection of gardening-related information for the environmentally conscious — which is something all of us should be! Whether it's selecting plants that help facilitate conservation of water, dealing with harmful invasive plant species, sharing your garden with native wildlife, or just starting a compost pile, there are simple things you can do to help keep our world both beautiful and healthy. Here's some food for thought.

• Composting 101
  
• Gardening Techniques: Companion Planting*
  
• Lawn Alternatives: Ornamental Grasses and Sedges
  
• Drought-Tolerant Plants
  
• Xeriscaping
  
• The Dirt On Growing Organic
  
• What Every Gardener Should Know About Weeds and Invasives
  
• Garden Wildlife: Hummingbirds and Butterflies
  
• Pet-Friendly Gardening
  
• Plant an Allergy-Free Garden

How To Grow It

Not all plants are created equal. Different varieties and species have varying requirements. From seed to tree to fruit, here are some of DIY's gardening tips for dealing with common outdoor planting issues.

• Growing from Seeds
  
• Herbs in the Landscape
  
• Heirloom Tomatoes
  
• The Right Way to Plant a Tree
  
• Growing Fruit Trees
  
• Growing Blueberries and Strawberries
  
• Japanese Maples

A "pizza garden" shows kids there's more to pizza than pepperoni.

Just for the Fun of It

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Though for some, gardening and landscaping can be serious business, here are a few projects that are fun, easy and a little out of the ordinary.

• Do-It-Yourself Salsa Garden
  
• Gardening With Kids: "Pizza Garden"
  
• Creative Containers
  
• "Sweating Rock" Water Feature