Different plants have different water needs.  It’s important to keep this in mind when selecting plants and when choosing the area of your yard where you will be planting them.

Some tolerate drought during the summer but need winter rains.

Others need a consistent supply of moisture to grow well.

Careful attention to the need for supplemental water can help you select plants that need a minimum of irrigation to perform well in your garden.

If you have poorly drained, chronically wet soil, you can select lovely garden plants that naturally grow in bogs, fens, and other wet places.

If you do not want to spend much time watering your plants, choose accordingly. The wide variety of plants available will allow you to pretty much do what you want and still give you a colorful backyard.

Do you remove the fish? The plants? Or what?

Actually the first year I had a pond, I brought in the water lilly plants - they died. After that, I always left the plants and the fish. I remove the hose from the pump and simply keep the water running all winter.

This keeps the pond from totally freezing and very seldom do I lose any fish. And the plants all come back in the spring.

Nothing. The ants are only on the buds to collect sugars excreted by tiny nectaries on the surface of the petals. While they don’t need to be present for the buds to open properly, they won’t hurt your peonies either, so don’t be concerned.

My grandson likes to knock the ants off the buds, and that’s fine. But they are not going to do any harm - nor are they going to do any good.

Prune your roses lightly in autumn, removing canes long enough to be whipped by winter winds and those canes with signs of disease.

Pruning to remove remaining dead, diseased, and damaged canes is done in early to mid-March just before growth starts.

Species and climbing roses are pruned by removing entire canes all the way to the ground to encourage an open, vase-shaped habit.

The rest of the roses get pruned to knee height at an outward facing bud. You can do some light pruning to shape the plants during the summer as needed.

Here are a few simple guidelines for selecting healthy conifers that will please you for many years to come:

Check the root system. Most conifers are sold either balled and in burlap, as well as in containers. Since they are shallow-rooted plants, check to be sure that the plants have adequate, healthy roots. The root tips should be creamy white or reddish in color - not black. Check to see if the plant is loose and wobbly - push gently on the plant and watch the base of the stem. If the pot or the burlap looks old and worn, the plant may have been sitting in the sales yard for several seasons, and the root system might not be healthy.

Bigger is not necessarily better. Many conifers acclimate better to a new planting site if they are young and vigorous. If faced with the choice of planting a hedge with 5-6 ft tall plants or 3-4 ft tall plants — the 3-4 ft plants is the better choice. After two or three years, the shorter plants will very often surpass the 5-6 ft tall plants in growth because the larger specimens will take longer to adjust to the site.

These tough perennials have a reputation for low maintenance and require little in the way of special care.

Daylilies are very adaptable and can be grown in almost any soil in every corner of the country. They bloom best if given full sun, and they produce more flowers if they are divided periodically. Division is also a great way to expand your planting and share plants with gardening friends.

When they cluster, it’s time to divide them. This is not a hard task and can be done anytime from late spring to early fall. Their roots will have time to grow before winter comes if this task is completed in early September.

The easiest, most effective way to begin is to use a garden fork to lift the clump from the ground.  Start by placing the fork in the ground 6 to 12 inches away from the base of the plant. Gently push down on the handle to pry the clump up and out of the soil. Work around the root ball repeating this process until the roots are freed.

Carefully lift the root ball from the hole.

Look for weak or thin areas at the center of the clump and insert the garden fork. Gently pry until you break the clump. You can further divide this into smaller plants.

Dig a wide shallow hole. The depth should be slightly less than the height of the rootball. The width of the hole should be 6 to 9 inches greater than the width of the rootball.

Place the rootball in the hole and backfill with soil. Lightly tamp the soil into place.  Apply mulch to a depth of one inch to discourage weeds and protect the roots from drying out and from temperature extremes. The area should be watered thoroughly. As a finishing touch, the foliage may be cut back to a length of about 12″ which helps the plant retain moisture while it is getting established.