Plant Gardens 101

The botanical name for dead nettle.

The botanical name for moth orchid.

The botanical name for sea lavender.

Each year in the spring people venture outdoors to begin planting their gardens and flower beds. The allure of warm, gentle days seems to call out the winter hermits in an act of reseeding the world with beauty and divine scents.

One thing that does not make sense is the amount of money spent on commercial fertilizers and compost. Composting yourself is free and makes some of the best fertilizer in the world. Sure, it does take some time but if you start work on it early you can have rich, dark soil by the time planting season comes around.

Composting is environmentally friendly and once you know what can be composted and what cannot, you will be on your way to being eco-friendly. In this article the basics of composting will be covered such as what it actually is technically and how you can begin your own compost heap in your own backyard. (more…)

A term usually used to describe soils lacking in nutrients.

The tendency of shoots and leaves to grow toward the light.

The botanical name for wintergreen.

A nonfunctional but decorative and usually romantic garden structure, such as an artificial ruin, a popular feature of grand 18th-century estate gardens.

Organic systems recognize that our health is directly connected to the health of the food we eat and, ultimately, the health of the soil. Here are some of the main features of organic growing:

• Organic growing severely restricts the use of artificial chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

• Instead, organic growers rely on developing a healthy, fertile soil and growing a mixture of crops.

• Genetically modified (GM) crops and ingredients are not allowed under organic standards.

Going organic may mean that you have to make a trade-off between glossy, same same supermarket looks with better tasting crops that aren’t perfect in shape or size, but many gardeners think this is a price worth paying. You’ll be able to grow different crops that are always relatively expensive to buy in supermarkets and at farmers markets and, growing your own vegetables is both fun and rewarding. Among the many things an organic vegetable garden may offer toward a satisfying experience are fresh air, exercise, sunshine, knowledge, supplemental income, mental therapy, and fresh food, rich in vitamins and minerals, harvested at the best stage of maturity. (more…)

A night-feeding insect that feeds primarily on decaying matter and other insects, including aphids. Unfortunately, earwigs also eat flowers.

A bacterial substance added to a compost pile to speed the decomposition of organic materials.

Lying on the ground but with growing tips turned upward.

As a species name, means “native to Canada” but was used by early botanists for plants that range down into the eastern United States. For example, columbine, Aquilegia canadensis, grows wild from Canada to as far south as Florida and Texas.

A large forest, nature center, and garden in Clermont, Kentucky. The arboretum contains almost 2,000 labeled specimens of trees and shrubs.

A huge arboretum in Mentor, Ohio, with more than 7,000 kinds of plants on almost 3,000 acres. It specializes in ornamental fruit trees, rhododendrons, and other trees and shrubs but has wildflower and perennial displays, too.

Growing a home vegetable garden has many benefits. For gardening enthusiasts, growing your own vegetables is a fun and rewarding hobby. For others, it’s a way to ensure you are eating safe produce because you know where it comes from. Controlling the application of chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides is easy; if you don’t want these things on the food you eat, then you can simply choose not to use them. For this reason, home vegetable gardening is the organic food lover’s dream.

But in addition to these benefits, did you also know that home vegetable gardening is a good way to save money? For as little as a $40 investment at your local garden center, you can grow over $600 worth of fruits and vegetables in your own yard. During tough economic times, those numbers can really help out your pocketbook!

It is estimated that the number of U.S. families growing their own produce will increase by approximately 40% this summer. So what kinds of fruits and vegetables are these families growing? What are the best plants to put in your vegetable garden? We’ll evaluate some of the more commonly home grown produce items and review the basics of how to get started growing them yourself.    (more…)

1. According to Emerson, “a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.” A less generous but more useful definition from the American Heritage Dictionary calls a weed “a plant considered undesirable, unattractive, or troublesome, especially one growing where it is not wanted, as in a garden.”
2. The stems and leaves of a plant, as opposed to its seeds, as in “dill weed.”

he botanical name for grape.