The trees that we plant in our garden provide us with personal pleasure and are a useful contribution to the environment more than any other plant we can put in our yard. They add height and depth to any garden design and provide privacy and shelter. Deciduous trees, those which lose their leaves in the fall, give shade in summer but in winter their bare branches are a stark beauty against the sky.
Trees condition the environment by taking in carbon dioxide and giving off oxygen, but they also give off water. A large tree can release many thousands of gallons a day through its leaves.
A successful rose garden is fairly easy to accomplish. Most rose gardens will grow in a wide variety of soils and situations, and will survive with relatively little attention. The best rose garden is an open, sunny location that has a fairly rich, slightly acidy soil. Good drainage is essential, although roses need ample watering in the absence of rain. Once planted, a successful rose garden will survive in the same bed for many years if your ground is regularly mulched and fed.
Moisture retention in the soil is of the utmost importance. A month before planting, dig the ground to the depth of a spade. You will need to work in about one-third by volume of humus like material and gardening supplies such as compost, peat moss, leaf or well-rotted manure. Commercial fertilizer does not need to be added at this time. If you leave the topsoil untrampled so that it is loose the air can circulate. You can level the soil for the sake of appearance if you desire.
Basic vegetable gardening tools have not changed for centuries, and if you do any gardening at all, you probably own most of them already. Because vegetable gardens require a great deal more digging and cultivating than flower gardens, it is a good idea to make certain that your vegetable gardening tools fit your height, weight and musculature.
Long handled spades are difficult for short stature people to use, and if you are taller, doubling over a short hoe will give you a backache. Before buying a tool try it out for size, it should feel well balanced when you pick it up; the working end should not weigh too much; and the handle should fit your grip comfortably.
Three gardening tools are used for pruning shrubs: pruning shears for removing shoots and small stems; long-handled lopping shears for larger stems; and a pruning saw for large branches. An excellent garden accessory would be a sharp knife that may be needed for trimming around large wounds.
A shrub will rarely die if it is left unpruned. However, it is often desirable to control its size, to improve the overall shape, or to remove dead or diseased branches, such pruning is basic for all shrubs. On some shrubs growth may be improved if light is let into the center by cutting away old and/or dead branches. And some shrubs will bear larger, but generally fewer, flowers if they are pruned each year. To sum up, do your pruning selectively.
Mixing roses and other plants in our garden can be an interesting idea. They can be combined with other shrubs or herbaceous perennials by placing them individually in a particular position. A rose bush can be placed in a particular position or used to fill a corner, flank a doorway, or adorn a house wall. For instance, tall, arching, modern shrub roses look splendid behind a bank of low evergreens or other shrubs of moderate size or behind some of the lower-growing hybrid teas or floribunda roses.
If you are combining roses of different varieties, or growing them among other plants, keep in mind the size and flowering seasons of all the plants. Also, be certain to allow at least 2 feet of space between the plants to provide air circulation. You always want to make sure that short varieties of hybrid teas and floribunda roses will not be hidden by tall grandiflora roses in your garden.
Sometimes our gardening rituals take us indoors. The secret to growing indoor plants is to provide the right conditions of light, heat and humidity. You need to keep this in mind when choosing the indoor garden plants you want different rooms of your house.
The reason that indoor plants have been so popular is, in general houses provide more favorable conditions for plant growth. The plant assortments are enormous and the concern for our natural environment has soared.
We can have our entire garden mapped out as one garden theme or have many different gardening areas with different garden themes for each one. Our home and garden centers should have a variety of plants to choose. Having more than one theme will make your garden stand out among your neighbors. The following are a number of different garden themes:
Animal: This one could really be fun for your children or grandchildren by having them go with you to the nursery or garden supply store and help pick the plants with an animal name. Your plants could include for instance tiger lilies, pussy willow, happy kitten or catmint.
Growing cucumbers in our vegetable garden can be fun and easy. They can grow in "hills" (clusters of two or three plants) or in rows. Hills are to some gardeners the traditional way to plant them, but rows of cucumbers are particularly well suited for growing cucumbers up a fence or trellis. Rows should be spaced 6 feet apart while making hills 1 foot in diameter, spacing the perimeters 6 feet apart. Soil preparation is particularly important as cucumbers need fertile soil with good drainage.
In most areas cucumber seeds are sown indoors in individual peat pots two to three weeks before the last expected frost. Seedlings will be ready for transplanting outdoors in three to four weeks. In regions with long growing seasons, sow the seeds directly in the garden at about the time of the last expected frost. Young cucumber plants are often set back by spring rain and cold. You can protect them against the elements by covering them with translucent caps, which are available at most home and garden centers.
Want a fuller flower bed fast? All you have to do is transplant some hanging baskets or other larger pots of flowers in the ground. You'll need fewer plants and you won't have to wait for small ones to grow by doing this we are using our flower power.
Almost all nurseries and home and garden centers have a wide variety of hanging baskets. This method is a little more costly but if you plant seeds in the vacated baskets and leave them outside for the bees to pollinate you will have more flowers for your patio or deck in about a month.
Who doesn't enjoy watching butterflies winging around your yard or garden? They are the most beautiful creatures on Earth. Butterfly gardening is an easy way to bring us back to nature and to see more of them. Many butterfly habitats have been lost to mankind activities such as building homes and roads.
A butterfly garden can be any size - a window box, a section of your landscaped yard or an untended area of a large yard. The best way to start is to investigate how many different butterflies are native to your area. Of that composite choose the ones that you would like to see visit your garden and learn which flowers and plants that they both feed on and lay eggs on.
Whether you have a flower bed, landscaping, garden or a starter kit, you probably started out with some kind of container for holding your plants. Vegetable gardening can be done on the smallest patio, can have a vegetable garden, porch or inside garden can boost a crop of vegetables and flowers while still only in containers.
Container-gardening supplies come in many shapes and forms, some are purchased at your local home and garden center or they can be various containers found around your house. An old planter box or a mis-matched old coffee mug can be used for instance.
Blueberries are delicious and nutritious, not only that, they can help lower cholesterol and have more cancer-fighting and disease-fighting antioxidants than foods like spinach and salmon. Blueberries are not only good in pies, breakfast toppings or in muffins, but they are becoming a tasteful choice in the garden or landscape.
July is usually Blueberries Month because most are harvested in this country during July. There are a number of varieties now that you can harvest them anywhere from early to mid summer all they way into fall.
Logically, watching the weather conditions in your area is very basic day to day thing aside from receiving them technologically on television, on your cellphone, or the radio or thru e-mail or the paper. Being able to know the upcoming weather helps you in a lot of ways from taking care of your garden or livestock to what to wear before venturing out of your home.
Since our technology is highly advanced, devices or advanced weather instruments are now being made and promoted. But advanced as they are so are their technical problems. Home weather stations now can record temperature, humidity, air pressure, wind strength and direction, and rainfall in one small device. Choosing a wireless home weather staton will take all the hassles out of where all the wires will go.
Reforest Teak is an exceptional line of furniture made from top quality teak with excellent joinery and hardware. Its gentle curves and hand finishing offer unprecedented comfort and beauty. The teak comes from forests that are rebuilding, not destroying, the fragile ecosystems.
Quality
Most teak is made with Class C wood which contains holes, cracks and/or imperfections that are filled with putty and stained. Some of the furniture is actually built with a veneer over lesser wood. This grade will look good to start, it will quickly age, crack, loose joints and have a rough surface.
With warmer weather comes outdoor gatherings. Why not entertain your guests while they are relaxing on a patio sectional? Now is the time to find great deals on all outdoor furniture that you have been searching for, for a long time. Anytime is a good time to accent your landscape. Why not try the perfect arbor, or garden benches, or a fire pit or outdoor TVs and swings?
Garden decor, along with things related to our gardens, usually provide a return to nature, a sense of spirituality, and a return to earth as we journey on our quest for significant meaning. Our garden accessories will become symbolic of our life's blessings as we encourage each other to enrich our surroundings. By letting our individualities shine as we select our decorative accents that transform our gardens into the most meaningful experiences.
If you want to bring new life into a stale-looking apartment, some trendy new pieces of art or new furniture will spruce things up, or even better for your indoor living space, a truly wonderful solution would be to breathe life into it...plants.
If you are not a gardener, no worries, with the right guidance, you can probably develop a green thumb. It will take a commitment to watering and feeding but you will be rewarded with cleaner air and reduced dust.
Today's ornamental kitchen garden generally is smaller and less formal than the traditional potager (puh'-tuh-zhay) that originated in 16th Century Europe. With the typical French chateau potager, a tasty tapestry of herbs, fruits, flowers and vegetables was planted a few feet from the kitchen door and delivered dew-fresh to the table.
Record high food costs have made vegetable growing more popular, but that doesn't mean gardeners must work from miniature farm production plots -- rectangular in shape with plants aligned in parallel rows we can do it all in the kitchen. That's a proven arrangement, to be sure, but it's also uninteresting.
The right garden footwear and apparel ... the clothes, head coverings, gloves, shoes and boots you wear while gardening are important to comfort and sometimes even safety while tending the flowers and plants in your garden areas.
From head to toe ... let's take a look at some of the garden apparel you'll be wearing and just what to look for. Overall, you want gardening gear to be comfortable and form-fitting yet not restrictive. This goes for gloves, shirts and pants especially.
The roots of Aromatherapy can be traced back more than 3,500 years before the birth of Christ, to a time when the use of aromatics was first recorded in human history. In reality, the history of aromatherapy is inexorably linked to the development of aromatic medicine, which in the early days was itself combined with religion, mysticism and magic.
This was a time when the ancient Egyptians first burned incense made from aromatic woods, herbs and spices in honour of their gods. They believed that as the smoke rose up to the heavens, it would carry their prayers and wishes directly to the deities. Eventually, the development of aromatics as medicines would create the foundations that aromatherapy was built upon.
Starting to build a new garden isn't difficult. Most people begin by going out into their yards with a shovel or garden tiller, digging up the dirt and putting in a few plants. Following the organic and natural methods, add a little mulch or compost, and you're well on your way to make good soil for your homegrown vegetables. But in the long run, the success of your garden depends on making healthy garden soil. The more you can do to keep your soil healthy, the more productive your garden will be and the higher the quality of your crops.
When it comes to gardening, it is easy to get carried away with deciding which plants, trees, and shrubs to plant. But in meditation is better than playing in the dirt. We tend to get focused on how guided meditations, when the easiest method exists in our own garden and how those brilliant blooms will brighten our yards. But in order to achieve the lushest look possible, it is vitally important to do the dirty work, prepare your soil.
Garden planters, outdoor planters, flower pots and window boxes come in a large variety of materials, styles and sizes--wood, ceramic, terracotta, fiberglass or resin, clay, concrete and metal--there are so many choices! But did you know that the characteristics of each type will make some better-suited than others.
Making the right choices in both planters and plants for the growing conditions, location and size of your container garden will make a big difference in your results.
Indoor planters allow us to not only enjoy the beauty of plants and flowers inside our home, but they also add to the existing décor and with the many different types to choose from, you're bound to find the perfect piece for any style of room.
Depending on the size you are interested in, you can choose from smaller indoor planters that fit neatly on a side table or those that are large enough to become the whole focal point of the room. Whether you have a small or modestly sized apartment or a spacious home, indoor planters and plant stands give you the ability to use plants as a part of your interior design. Also, if you're like most people, your home's windows and layout aren't always the most conducive to growing plants or flowers indoors, but with planters, you can easily move them around, even taking them outside for some direct sunlight.
Men pushing barrows or yard tools and carts moved the stuff that built civilization, and aside from the addition of a little power and rubber tires, not much has changed. From trash to topsoil to building materials, everything travels more quickly when you stick a wheel underneath it.
Carts and wheelbarrows help you move heavy loads by distributing the weight over the wheels. A wheelbarrow has a sloped tray and one or two wheels in the front. You have to push it, but it maneuvers easily and can go anywhere. A cart, on the other hand, has straight sides and two or more large wheels. It works best when pulled ideally over a smooth surface, though its big wheels can bridge holes. Carts are also more stable and carry more volume than wheelbarrows.
There is nothing as reminiscent of fall in the air as the honking of a vee-formation of Canadian geese flying overhead on a late fall afternoon. Their beauty and grace and haunting honks are a near spiritual experience.
But ask some park management people, homeowners with ponds, lakes or cornfields how they feel about visiting Canadian geese and you'll the truth. In the northeastern part of our country these strong birds are becoming a public and private nuisance. In one area a few residents town began feeding the few geese on the park pond.Apparently these geese told other geese and over the years the population on the banks of the pond has boomeranged.
Your yard and garden decor is your paradise - long hours of hard work weeding, potting and planting turn into a place where peace reigns supreme. Garden decor doesn't only set off your garden; it also gives your house great curb appeal, and can add value to your home. Your garden is the first thing that potential visitors see - let them into the magical world you've created.
The sun is the source of all energy on earth. Therefore, using solar garden lights, lights powered by solar energy, to decorate our garden would be a wonderful idea. The advantages of solar garden lights are that they can be freely distributed in gardens without having to worry about cabling, or children and pets being electrocuted.
The problem with solar garden lights is that they tend to have only a small area of solar cells and a relatively modest battery capacity. The consequences of these shortcomings are that solar garden lights have a reputation for emitting a small amount of light for a short period of time. The technology of solar cells and batteries has improved over time and the current generation of solar garden lights is superior to the first generation of solar garden lights.
Water Gardening. In the summer implify algae control and enjoy your outdoor space. Keep in mind that increases sunlight and rising water temperature create ideal conditions for aggressive algae growth.
Your pond maintenance minimizes by keeping your pond cool and well oxygenated, consider adding a waterfall or a fountain. Higher oxygen levels mean fewer algae. Consider adding aquatic plants such as lilies and water hyacinths as a natural algae control, they also help provide shade and to keep the water cool.
Are you In need of landscaping ideas? Are you looking to add to the beauty of your home, increase the value of your estate, or update your overgrown landscape? If you've had enough of looking outside your window day after day and seeing the same boring, tired yard, a new landscape design is the answer you've been looking for.
Prepare to get your hands dirty, because there are great landscaping ideas for every section of your home. From the simplest front yard landscaping ideas meant to showcase your home to complex pool or garden landscaping, to themed landscapes like dessert or Oriental, you can get help to tackle the problems you may be facing.
One good reason for backyard birding is that birds are pretty and it is fascinating to see the variety of sizes and shapes they come in. They do interesting things and make cheerful sounds. In a world that sometimes can be dreary, birds are a delight.
Another good reason, is that birds around our homes are in fact a part of nature. Birds are free to roam wherever they wish and to do what is natural for them. Among the birds we see in our own backyard show us how they deal with seasonal changes, how they raise their families, how they interact with one another and their environment, how they handle humankind's disruptions and how their appearances and behaviors reflect the general laws of nature.
Once your garden has been planted, nothing is more important to its ability to thrive than water. When provided with too little water, plants are unable to develop properly and become more susceptible to damage from pests. Too much water can of course be equally bad. In soil that is kept too moist plants become prone to rots and other diseases.
For Want of a Little Water
People wonder why their garden isn't working, nine times out ten is because of lack of water. It never ceases to amaze me how people can spend hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars on a landscape and then watch it gradually die for want of an occasional watering. Proper watering would probably save most of the plants that are lost in gardens each year. Even those plants that succumb to pests were usually first weakened by inconsistent watering.
Vegetables are easy to grow and are very rewarding at harvest time. The most important requirements are sunshine and watering. Other requirements are a loosened soil, some fertilizer, and a little bit of weeding. If you have an area in your yard that gets sunshine most of the day (6-8 hours in summer) then you can start your vegetable gardening. The first time you start a new garden requires the most amount of work, but don't get discouraged, the work you do in the beginning does not have to be done again each year.
The ground that the plants will grow in needs to be loosened up so that the roots of the tender vegetable plants can grow into your soil and make strong, healthy plants. The roots are the only way the plant takes up water and nutrients so you want to make their job easy. The best time to dig your garden is early spring when it is moist enough to dig easily but not so wet that the soil is muddy and heavy. The first step is to mark out your spot making sure there are no trees or large shrubs around it with roots that will spread into your garden. Then, remove the grass and create some type of border around the garden to keep it neat and weed free.
Seedstarting often has an overlooked aspect of plant propagation is the art of record keeping. Whether you are producing a few plants for your home flower and vegetable gardens or working at a larger-scale nursery, developing a propagation journal will prove indispensable. It is also a good idea to keep track of where you purchase your seeds, as their quality and reliability may vary by source.
2. Store seed properly to maintain viability
Seeds are a fragile commodity and their viability will sharply decline. While some seeds may survive for thousands of years under the proper conditions, others will not, even when properly stored. To maintain dormancy, keep seeds in a cool, dark location with low humidity, like a refrigerator. It is recommended that you label them (seed name, source, and year) and store them in a small reclosable bag or used film canister that is, in turn, kept in a larger plastic container. Once you are ready to sow, you can test the viability of many of the seeds, but not all of them, by soaking them in water for a few hours. The seeds that sink to the bottom are generally still alive, while the dead ones will float on top. This test generally works better for larger seeds.
If you're occasionally at a loss about how to keep your houseplants as beautiful as they were the day you bought them, you're not alone. Most gardeners find that growing tomatoes or a beautiful bed of flowers is much easier than keeping houseplants alive. It seems that one day they're fine and the next they're dropping leaves and are infested with something.
It's actually not that difficult to keep houseplants happy, but you do need to pay attention to their basic needs, and take care of any pest problems right away. Here are some helpful hints to help you with your houseplant solutions and have a green thumb indoors.
The benefits of growing under lights are hard to ignore. There is simply no better way to grow an abundance of stocky green seedlings. If you grow flowering plants indoors, such as orchids, African violets, citrus and hibiscus, lights will keep them blooming mostly year-round. If you want a wintertime harvest of vine-ripened tomatoes, herbs and salad greens, that also can be accomplished with lights.
By learning how plants use light and the many bulb and fixture options on the market, you can select an indoor lighting system that is perfectly suited to the types of plants you want to grow. Not all plants require the same color, intensity and duration of light.
Most gardeners would love to own a greenhouse. This appeal may be strongest in cold climates, but to be able to grow a large supply of sturdy seedlings is a pretty appealing no matter where you live. And what gardener doesn't relish the idea of having an environment filled with orchids, citrus and jasmine or have the opportunity to pick fresh salad greens and tomatoes on a cold winter day. There are now dozens of affordable, well-constructed greenhouses on the market, as well as a full range of accessories that make greenhouse gardening easier than ever.
This may seem like a simplistic question, but function is really the most important factor in determining the type and size of greenhouse you choose.
Select a spading fork as your first tool. Before you plant anything, you will need to improve the soil. A spading fork looks like a pitchfork but has a shorter handle and wider tines. It is used to dig down into hard soil and break up the ground.
Step 2
Next, choose a hoe. A hoe is useful for weeding and cultivating the surface of the soil to allow for penetration of nutrients and water.
Pick a pest and you can usually find a natural control for it. Natural garden pest controls are less expensive and are safer for your garden, family, natural wildlife and the environment.
Prevention is the easiest way to discourage pests from coming in the first place. A healthy garden is the best defense and here are some tips:
Healthy organic soil. Natural composting, mulching and top-dressing your soil with compost are the best way to develop strong plants.
Pull out weak plants. The weak plants may already be infected. Pull and dispose of them away from the garden.
Seaweed mulch or spray. Seaweed fertilizer in mulch or spray will enhance growth and give plants strength. Seaweed mulco also repels slugs.
Interplant and rotate crops. When plantings are mixed, pests are less likely to spread throughout. Rotating crops each year is a common method to avoid re-infestation of pests.
Keep foliage dry. Water early in the day so foliage will be dry for most of the day. Wet foliage encourages insect and fungal damage.
Disinfect. To reduce the spread of invading insects, clean your tools after working with infested plants before moving on to other areas of your garden.
Minimuze habitat. Be sure to clear your garden area of debris and weeds as this is a breeding place for insects.
Shovel: If you'll be digging a hole or moving compost from a cart in your garden at any time, you'll need a shovel. The business end is thin, rounded and pointed and the top portion is flat with a flattened lip or step so you can use pressure to reach the tough spots.
Make sure to look at how the top portion or head of the shovel is connected to the handle. If and when a shovel breaks that is usually the place where it is going to happen. For a connection that is sturdy, the top of the head should wrap around the handle. The handle on some shovels can be waist-high or they can be long and stright and are usually made of wood. The newer synthetic handles are strong and lightweight.
A home flower garden is a great place to be creative and dream. It can also be a place to play, work and rest. Some of us have pools and have created a beautiful flower garden nearby. Our flower gardens can even bring many varieties of birds and butterflies and what a glorious way to bring us back to nature.
It doesn't matter the size of your garden plot, your time and budget or personality, you can design a flower garden that depicts your personality and creativity but it will get you closer to nature.
Your flower gardening plans and set up may seem like a large task but a few basics will get you going on the right path.
Composting is the breaking down of plant remains and other once-living remains such as leaves, kitchen scraps and so forth. Most of these materials will make a dark, earthy, crumbly substance that is wonderful for enriching your garden soil. It is the best way to recycle your yard and kitchen wastes, and is a critical step in reducing the garbage that we needlessly send to landfills for disposal. It's fairly easy to learn the process.
There are a tremendous number of options for containing your compost. Some people choose to, simply build a compost pile in a convenient spot on the ground. If you are the creative type you can build bin from materials such as pallets, or two-by-fours and plywood. And, of course, there are many commercial bins on the market to choose from.
Composting is the breaking down of plant remains and other once-living remains such as leaves, kitchen scraps and so forth. Most of these materials will make a dark, earthy, crumbly substance that is wonderful for enriching your garden soil. It is the best way to recycle your yard and kitchen wastes, and is a critical step in reducing the garbage that we needlessly send to landfills for disposal. It's fairly easy to learn the process.
There are a tremendous number of options for containing your compost. Some people choose to simply build a compost pile in a convenient spot on the ground. If you are the creative type you can build bin from materials such as pallets, or two-by-fours and plywood. And, of course, there are many commercial bins on the market to choose from.
A home flower garden is a great place to be creative and dream. It can also be a place to play, work and rest. Some of us have pools and have created a beautiful flower garden nearby. Our flower gardening can even bring many varieties of birds and butterflies and what a glorious way to bring us back to nature.
It doesn't matter the size of your garden plot, your time and budget or personality, you can design a flower garden that depicts your personality and creativity but it will get you closer to nature.
