Plant Gardens 101

The botanical name for morning glory.

One thing that is often overlooked when planning and creating a beautiful summer garden for homeowners to enjoy is the fact that the garden exists throughout the year. Unfortunately in the vast majority of summer gardens there is a huge hole in the garden for the vast majority of the year. Carefully planning in order to avoid this process and planting flowering plants that bloom during various seasons of the year as well as plants that provide beautiful foliage and greenery even when the flowers may not be blooming can prevent this absence of life within your summer garden from occurring.Plant continuously and groom your garden consistently throughout the year. Obviously the winter months are not great months for planting in the earth but this doesn’t mean that you cannot use flowerpots filled with seasonal offerings to fill the gaps of green within your garden. There are all kinds of flowers that thrive in winter weather that would make a beautiful addition to your winter garden without taking anything away from the beauty of your summer garden. In fact, the ability to incorporate these flowers and plants into your garden without necessarily planting may be an excellent incentive to keep your garden up to date even in seasons that aren’t traditionally thought of as gardening seasons. (more…)

Technically, a herbaceous plant, one that does not form a woody stem. More popularly, herbs are “useful” plants, grown for their fragrance, medicinal properties, or culinary attributes. Under this definition, an herb may be herbaceous, like parsley, or woody, like rosemary.

My last quarter-acre block had a bore to provide plenty of water. I planted some garden beds with vegetable seeds in the conventional way. Then I scratched little trenches (about 2 inches deep and wide) and buried my potato peeling in the trenches. Then I took a kilo (2.2 lbs) of broad beans (fava beans) and broadcast them over the same ground, then I went over the same ground placing sweet-corn seed carefully under the weed stubble.

That still left about half my garden unplanted. So I mowed the ground, mixed up all the left-over seed from my seed packets and broadcast them over the remaining soil.

Each seed finds the micro-climate conditions best suited to it – or dies. (more…)

The botanical name for honey locust.

A broad-leaved herbaceous plant that grows alongside grasses in a field, prairie, or meadow.

Belonging to the heath family (Ericaceae), most of whose members prefer acid soil. Examples are azaleas, rhododendrons, blueberries, and heathers.

Make gardening something the whole family can enjoy!

Let’s face it, if you are reading this article, you already know that gardening is fun and rewarding. Chances are, sometime in your life, someone who loved gardening showed you the ropes. Why not continue the tradition and help your family experience the joys of gardening? In addition to being fun and rewarding, gardening is a great way to spend “quality time” with your family, and it is a wholesome activity that children of all ages can enjoy.

Three Generations of Gardening Tips From Our Family to Yours:

Show them how much you enjoy gardening. Spend time in your garden. It is especially easy to stimulate a child’s interests when they see you having fun. (more…)

The splitting or other mode of opening of a seedpod for the release of seeds; the opening of an anther to discharge pollen. Fruits or anthers that never split are called indehiscent.
 
Dehiscence of the follicular fruit of
Asclepias syriaca revealing seeds within.

You may ask ‘what are water garden kits?’ Let’s just say that this is like Batman’s utility belt for every gardener who has a water pond. With water garden kit, the water gardener has everything he needs.

So the next question is ‘what’s inside a water garden kit?’ Read on so you could take a peek at the water gardener’s utility belt.

To enhance the attractiveness and beauty of their water garden, the kit is necessary for every gardener. Not only will human beings appreciate the view, even wildlife such as birds will come flocking your garden.   (more…)

The botanical name for sedge.

Vegetable and flower gardeners love to get a jump on the spring planting season by starting their own plants from seed. There are several benefits that come from doing so, including a much wider variety of plants that are available only through seed, as well as a cost effectiveness that will not be found from purchasing started plants. One of the biggest reasons that gardeners fail with starting their own seeds is not that the seeds do not germinate, but that they are grown under poor light and do not thrive. These baby plants do well when grown under artificial grow lights.

Some plants take a long time to reach a plantable size outdoors from seed, while others need only a short time. You can find out how many weeks to start your seeds before your area’s last average frost date by looking at the information on the back of the seed packet. (more…)

A “two-name name,” the two words in Latin that make up the botanical or scientific names of plants. The first word identifies the genus, the second the species.

Soil with a pH higher than 7. Commonly found in low-rainfall regions.

You may have heard of hydroponics gardening before and got either interested or turned off by its gibberish sounding moniker. What exactly is hydroponics may ask.

Hydroponics was derived from the Greek word hydro, which means “water” and ponos, which means “labor or water-working”. Hydroponics gardening involves growing plants with their roots in other nutrient solutions and without soil.

Hydroponics gardening is as simple as ordinary gardening. Both of them necessitate sufficient light, water, temperature, light, and humidity. However, with regular gardening, several plants could not survive being indoors. On the other hand, when gardening indoors using hydroponics, growing plants indoors can be a cinch. (more…)

Any of several garden beetle pests that feed on all parts of plants, typically most active at night.

A plant that grows from self-sown seed.

We love our children and we want to teach them to value the things that are important to us. These things include morals, integrity, ingenuity, and an appreciation for the things in life that we consider beautiful and worth expending our energy, time, and effort in order to create. One of those things that many of us love sharing with our children is our love of gardening. Whether you are creating a spectacular garden worthy of acclaim, fame, and blue ribbons everywhere or a simple garden that will hold pretty flowers and a few favorite vegetables there are many lessons that your children can learn from working the earth by your side.The first, and perhaps best, lesson that most children learn when working in the garden is that life works in cycles. This is an important lesson for children, as it is a lesson that will be repeated often throughout the course of their lives. Of course this is only one of the many lessons that gardening will teach but gardening is one of the kindest ways I’ve ever seen this particular lesson learned and it helps ease children into those times when lessons about the cycle of life are not so kindly or gently presented. (more…)

The botanical name for leopard’s bane.

You have probably realized that ponds are not exactly cheap to build. However, there are some ways to cut down on the costs and still have a pond that looks great.

How to build a pond without spending too much:

1.Find the right location in your backyard. Avoid areas under trees where leaves will fall into the pond. You want to be able to see your pond from your house so put it near a window or deck with a view.

2.Buy a small kid pool in the shape and size you want your pond to be. You can get these for less than 10 dollars, and it’s a great cheat for how to build a pool easily. You can also usually find these in great shapes that will make your pond very pretty. Some of them are fish, stars, or seashells. (more…)