Plant Gardens 101

The botanical name for linden.

The rewards of gardening are plentiful. But sometimes it is nice to receive a gift to make the work of gardening a bit more comfortable or easier. Even though for most, gardening is a chore of love, having the right tool for the specific task is not only a time saver but gets the job done correctly and more efficiently.

A lot of time in the garden is spent on your knees close to the earth. A gift of cushioned kneepads is a thoughtful one. They are good for working in the soil, and also can be useful when working on harder surfaces such as wood, asphalt, and even concrete. Surprisingly, they can be so comfortable that a gardener can forget he or she is even wearing them.

Hauling mulch around an area can be time consuming. Give a large garden cart to your gardening friend you know has a lot of this heavy hauling to do. This cart will take fewer trips holding about five times the amount the common wheelbarrow can hold. It will also come in handy when planting larger shrubs being much sturdier and stable than a wheelbarrow.     (more…)

Any bulk material incorporated into the soil. Such materials are usually intended to improve structure, drainage or aeration, but they may also contain nutrients.

 Could your home do with a little more garden landscaping? Probably so, and that is a good thing. In fact you should be very excited about it because there is nothing more fun than garden landscaping, it will get your imagination working overtime and you will have a ball planting and rearranging your plants and flowers.By layering your garden landscaping beds you will be able to add a whole other level of beauty to your landscaping design. Your yard is the first thing that people will see when they come to your house and giving a grand tour that includes a fabulous garden is always fun and exciting. You will be the talk of the neighborhood, and for all the right reasons this time, when you do some really good garden landscaping. (more…)

A horizontal underground stem, often swollen into a storage organ. Both roots and shoots emerge from rhizomes. Rhizomes generally branch as they creep along and can be divided to make new plants.

Without proper nutrition, all living things eventually will die. This is certainly true of plants grown indoors, that rely on fertilizers for food. If you practice hydroponics or aeroponics as a form of indoor gardening, then you know that the plant food appropriate for this type of gardening system is called nutrient. There are a wide variety of hydroponic nutrients available, and they are suited to the type of plants you are growing as well as the plant’s stage in their life cycle. Advanced Nutrients and Bcuzz offer several good varieties of hydroponics nutrients.

Advanced Nutrients offers a range of hydroponic nutrients suitable for different plant performance needs. They make base fertilizers which are suitable for use as plant nutrition. The Advanced Nutrients called Sensi Bloom encourage your plants to produce a wealth of flowers, which is important if you are growing plants for their flowers, or if you are growing plants that require many flowers to produce a better yield of produce, such as tomatoes. Advanced Nutrients also offers an organic product called Iguana Juice hydroponic nutrients. This plant fertilizer helps to produce plants with strong branches and a large root system.     (more…)

Mallow family
Malvaceae
La-va-tee’ra. Tree Mallow . A genus of 25 species of herbs mostly from the warmer regions of the Old World, a few grown in the flower garden.

Description
Stems hairy. Leaves alternate, somewhat maple-like, angled or lobed. Flowers rather showy, pink or purplish, below them a cluster of 3-9 bracts, united to form an involucre. Petals 5, notched or cut off at the tip, the base with a claw.

How to Grow   (more…)

The largest tropical botanical garden in the United States, located in Coral Gables, Florida. Although it was in the direct destructive path of Hurricane Andrew in 1992, the 83-acre garden has survived and still has one of the world’s greatest collections of palms and cycads.

Summertime and watering

Too much of a good thing can lead to fungus.

During the summer months, we notice that the number of gardeners who call us concerned that their plants have fungus increases significantly. One of the first things we ask is, “What time are you watering your plants and how frequently are you watering?” We also ask if it has been unusually rainy or humid.

Fungi need water to grow. It is a big problem during the summer months because people tend to overcompensate for the heat by over watering their plants. The longer your plants stay wet, the more inviting they become to fungus.   (more…)

A term used to describe a leaf or pair of leaves that encircle a stem, as, for example, the juvenile foliage of silver-dollar eucalyptus, Eucalyptus cinerea.

The call for sustainable development not only in the economy but also for food production has been growing globally and yet many contests that this cannot be answered by a single effort but a collaborative support of many which can start simply at home. Hydroponics, the method of isolation of soil to produce and harvest crops has partially answered this call. Though some may think that this technology can be highly sophisticated and complicated to be understood and used by an average person, this is then a misconception. An average person can apply hydroponics at home and learning how to do hydroponics can be as simple as ordinary planting procedure.

Since hydroponics does not require the use of soil and only a nutrient solution is used to feed the plant, it is not difficult on how to do hydroponics. The usual and the simplest method is the use of a plastic trough or tube as the medium or the container which is used as the canal to carry the film of the nutrient solution. After being able to secure the container, you have to suspend the plants through holes on the top of the trough. The trough should be inclined to give a slope that the gravity may be able to pull the nutrient solution to the reservoir or the container. This method of how to do hydroponics is usually done on a garden set-up. (more…)

If we could garden without any interference from the pests which attack plants, then indeed gardening would be a simple matter. But all the time we must watch out for these little foes little in size, but tremendous in the havoc they make. As human illness may often be prevented by healthful conditions, so pests may be kept away by strict garden cleanliness. Heaps of waste are lodging places for the breeding of insects. I do not think a compost pile will do the harm, but unkempt, uncared-for spots seem to invite trouble.

There are certain helps to keeping pests down. The constant stirring up of the soil by earthworms is an aid in keeping the soil open to air and water. Many of our common birds feed upon insects. The sparrows, robins, chickadees, meadow larks and orioles are all examples of birds who help in this way. Some insects feed on other and harmful insects. Some kinds of ladybugs do this good deed. The ichneumon-fly helps too. And toads are wonders in the number of insects they can consume at one meal. The toad deserves very kind treatment from all of us.    (more…)

Hydroponics systems offer a way for everyone, regardless of their location, to garden effectively. If you live on the top of a skyscraper, then hydroponics is for you, because it allows you to grow fruits, flowers and vegetables without any soil at all. If you live on the tundra, or in the desert, you are in luck as well, because hydroponics systems offer a way to grow all sorts of plants indoors, where you can control the climate. Although there are several different types of hydroponics systems available, one of the most popular ones is deep water culture, and a related method of indoor gardening called aeroponics.

Deep water culture is one of several types of hydroponics systems where the roots of the plants actually stay in the in the growing medium that is a solution, which is made up of water and plant food called nutrient. In deep water culture the plants receive needed oxygen even when the roots are submerged in water through the use of a aerator pump and air stones, which both help to oxygenate the water. Deep water culture requires equipment such as a container like a bucket, which holds the solution and plant roots. The top of the plant, called the crown, has to be held above the water or it will rot. This is accomplished usually by using a net suspended over the lid of the bucket with a hole cut out of the center of the lid.    (more…)

A very old, and newly popular, concept in the proper management of the land. It involves growing plants without using synthetic fertilizers or pesticides, and the addition and preservation of humus, primarily by making and using a compost pile.

Soil that is neither acid nor alkaline, having a pH of 7. See also pH.

Having male and female flowers on separate plants. Most hollies, junipers, and yews are dioecious.

Particularly in orchid nomenclature, a term used to refer to the progeny of a specific cross.

When your plant’s roots fill its container and begin growing out the bottom – it’s time to repot it, says the American Association of Nurserymen.

If you’re wondering what size the new pot should be, a good rule of thumb is one size larger than your current pot. For example, if you have a five-inch pot, pick up one that’s six inches. A pot that is too large can also cause problems. The extra space will of course accommodate excess soil, which will hold more water than the roots can absorb and cause root rot.

Pots are made of clay, ceramic, or plastic. To keep your plant as healthy as possible, be aware of the particular benefits and drawbacks of each kind.   (more…)

The secret to making your flowering trees, shrubs, annuals, and perennials bloom more is in the numbers. All fertilizers have analysis numbers on the package. These numbers represent the percentage of each chemical the fertilizer contains. For example, 12-12-12 is a typical garden fertilizer that would contain 12% nitrogen, 12% phosphorous, and 12% potassium. The quick explanation is; nitrogen produces vegetative, or top growth, phosphorous produces flower buds, fruit, and root development, while potassium builds strong healthy plants.

Most lawn grasses are vigorous growers and therefore require significantly more nitrogen than the other plants in your yard. A lawn fertilizer would have an analysis of 26-3-3, indicating a fertilizer high in nitrogen. You would not want to use a fertilizer containing such a high percentage of nitrogen on landscape plants because it would be very easy to burn them. You must also keep in mind that many lawn fertilizers contain broadleaf weed killers, and most ornamental plants have broad leaves. The fertilizer doesn’t know the difference, and it will damage or kill ornamental trees and shrubs.   (more…)

Pretty, practical, homemade or shop bought. Beehive, tumbler or basic plastic compost bin? Choosing what kind of garden composter to use can be a minefield. The size of the bin is very important when garden composting.

First of all, do not stress too much about what kind of garden composter to use. Remember that nature wants all your garden waste to break down into lovely garden compost, and she’ll do her utmost to help no matter what kind of compost bin you use. (more…)