Plant Gardens 101

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Spring flower bulb planting in the fall is fast, easy and a nearly foolproof way to add color to your garden. By following a few simple steps you should enjoy your spring and summer bulb garden for years to come. Here are a few basic guidelines. Spring flowering bulbs need to be planted in the fall before the first hard freeze. Subsequent cold weather will sustain the bulbs’ dormancy period required to stimulate root growth and spring flowering. If you have purchased your bulbs early in the fall it is ok to store them unpackaged in a cool dry place between 50 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit for a few days. For extended periods store them in your refrigerator, but keep them away from ripening fruit as the ethylene released by the fruit can damage your bulbs. When planning a new bulb garden site keep in mind the following: (more…)

Spurge family
Euphorbiaceae
You-for’bi-a. Probably over 1600 species of great variety, ranging from weeds and tropical, cactuslike succulents to popular garden annuals. The species below are grown for their foliage.

Description
Leaves alternate, opposite, or whorled, sometimes toothed. Flowers have no petals or sepals but often have showy, highly colored bracts.

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For those of us who enjoy gardening, mosquitoes are a frequent pest. As they aim to feed on the nectar of flowers, gardens, to mosquitoes, are like all-you-can-eat buffets: we are open, come on in. This not only hurts your landscaping and ruins your garden, but it can also be detrimental to your health: mosquitoes are well known for spreading disease.

You could ignore these facts, of course, and go on with your gardening and with your life in some kind of West Nile denial. But, when ignoring mosquitoes and the problems they cause proves futile, you may find yourself in need of a solution. Luckily, there are natural ways to get rid of your problem.

Fill your Water with Fish and Frogs:
Water, particularly stagnant water, is highly attractive to mosquitoes; it’s where most mosquitoes lay their eggs. For this reason, having water in your backyard, such as a stream or a fountain, can leave you wasting away in mosquito-ville. (more…)

Stems or branches produced during the current growing season. See also old wood.

It is something that I talk about in great abundance and that is vermicompost. Vermicompost is the end result of varieties of earth worms breaking down organic material. Their castings are what is called vermicompost.

Extensive studies have shown that adding vermicompost to your soil (more on that in a moment) helps improve it’s physical structure, enriches the soil with micro-organisms, increased of microbial activity by more than 20 times than other forms of compost, and improves your soil’s water holding capacity which leads to savings on water since you do not have to do it as often.

When vermicompost has been mixed in with soil, studies have shown that germination is a bit faster, plant growth is stronger and crops yield more. The root structures of plants are shown to be stronger than plants not grown in a vermicompost mix and the growth of roots are more defined. (more…)

A 105-acre botanic garden and arboretum in Niles, Michigan, featuring more than 3,000 species of native and exotic plants that grow well in the Great Lakes region.

I think you know very well about the rules and regulations to keep your plants to grow healthy in your garden. For getting sustainable growth of your garden plants you do require good soil quality, sunlight and sufficient water. Although these items have been gifted by nature, you ought to require modern gardening tools to upkeep your garden in a good state. Gardening tools help a lot in taking care of your plants as well as the good growing conditions and positive effect on your plant’s health.

Defective gardening tools might have cause injury on your plants or cut your plants or totally plug your plants from the soil. In order to prevent the occurrence of such untoward incident, it is a must to look for the best gardening tools, which will provide your plants loving tender care. Once you called a tool as ‘Best gardening tools”, it refers to a tool, which will permit labor saving methods and that allows energy efficiency.

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There is a general conviction that winter gardens are (because of the price and their nature) for snobs. Of course, this is not true – setting up the winter garden, is slightly different in it’s price from putting a few pots with flowers in the living room, but if we schedule it’s look well and take care of this garden it will surely gives the best is has – wonderful climate and unique nature.

Usually every house has it’s so called garden space – the most grass is growing there, we have probably a set of benches, sometimes grill. Of course, if one of members of the family has a time – the house can have truly colorful garden. But despite the effort, during the winter all those colors will fade away and sitting on one of the garden benches covered by snow won’t be recognize as a pleasure.

That’s why we should think about selecting the space for winter garden. It don’t has to be a large space – only a few metres of grass, for an outhouse. So, when it’s summer time we can use our regular garden but when the weather is bad or if it’s a winter time we can choose our winter garden. Not only you and your family would be happy of such solution. If you invite your friends for a cup of tea to your winter garden they will be totally pleased.

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The best part about building a garden or storage shed is that it is a very much interesting and exiting work to do. There are various things to keep in mind before starting to build a DIY shed. Among all these things, a suitable and proper storage shed plan is the key factor involved in the development of shed. With some confidence to build a garden shed and a shed plan, you will be able to build a shed by yourself very easily.

Things to consider while building a garden shed

It can be a real fun and adventurous DIY project to build a garden shed. But, if you will not be careful about certain things, then instead of fun this process can turn out to be a real headache. There are various factors which should be considers in order to build a proper and suitable garden shed. These factors include – (more…)

When working at a nursery, you are supposed to be an expert on everything. Well, I work at a nursery and I sure don’t know everything. However, I am considered an expert on certain plants, fertilizers, and habitats. Things happen fast this time of year and for the next few months. Flowers, trees and shrubs come and go as if there is a revolving door. Here today, gone tomorrow. Blooms fade in a matter of days. Plants get beat up by customers. ID tags are lost. Often I am asked to ID a certain plant and its growth habits. If you don’t trust your local nurseryman or garden center workers, here are a few tips when buying annuals and perennials. When buying perennials, look for ID tags. What is the name of the plant, what growing conditions are required and what are the plants habits? But it has a pretty flower and I like it! Will you like the same plant next year when it has invaded your prized lilies? The plant you bought was only 2 feet tall and in bloom, why is it 4 feet tall this year? ID tags will assist you in this. A nurseryman may not always know or be as helpful. You may have thought it was something else. Growers pinch or cut back plants to make them bushier and to produce more blooms. Ask questions and read tags. Look for plants that are budding, not in bloom. (more…)

Once you have your greenhouse in place you will need to start thinking about greenhouse heating, correct? Actually the best time to consider your greenhouse heating needs is before you even buy your greenhouse.

You will have to know where your greenhouse will be built. One thing the greenhouse heating requirements will be based on is the location of the greenhouse. A lean-to greenhouse built next to a home or another inculated wall will need less greenhouse heat then a stand alone greenhouse. A greenhouse that is shaded by many tall trees will have other heating issues as will a greenhouse that has no shade at all.

Another thing to consider is whether your greenhouse will be used all year long. greenhouse heating requirements will be much less if you are not planning to use the greenhouse during the winter.

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A breathing pore in the young bark of a woody stem. Cherry trees, for example, have conspicuous lenticels.

Potato family
Solanaceae
Dah-toor’ra. A genus of 12-15 species, ranging from annual weeds to tropical trees, all with foliage that is malodorous when crushed.

Description
Leaves alternate, often coarsely but remotely toothed. Flowers usually trumpet-shaped, solitary, mostly from the leaf axils. Calyx with a long tube splitting lengthwise or across. Corolla with a spreading limb.

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Using an Ultrasonic Fogger to Enhance Hydroponics Growth

By using a ultrasonic fogger you can speed up the rates that your plants grow at used in conjunction with hydroponics. Works especially well with small hydroponics systems.

Ultrasonic fogger setup instructions

For best operation the fogger must be run at a depth of 22 to 36 mm. Do not run the fogger unless it is submerged in water. If the fogger is run for prolonged amounts of time outside of water, this will cause damage to your fogger device. The fogger will generate some heat and cause your water temperature to rise. For best performance run your fogger on a 15 minutes on 15 minute off time cycle. You can purchase a 15 minute incremental timer inexpensively at Wal-Mart, Home Depot, or any electronics store. Please note that this timer is optional equipment, and not included with your purchase. Any common incremental wall timer will work. Please note that your fogger will not operate unless the submerged water switch is covered. The fogger must be sitting in several inches of water to operate

It is advisable to periodically clean the ceramic disc using water, and the Q-tip. Do not touch or scratch the ceramic disc or water level sensor switch. Do not use washing powder or detergent to clean your fogger. Do not run in unfiltered water; this will decrease the life of your fogger. After about 3000 hours of run time, a new ceramic disc may be necessarfor best performance. A ceramic disc and tool replacement kit can be purchased for this device inexpensively through homegrown hydroponics. Contact us for more information on replacement parts (more…)

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Thoroughly pulverized surface soil, created by cultivating around plants, which is dried almost at once by sun and wind. Capillary water beneath this mulch cannot penetrate the dust layer and escape into the air. Thus a dust mulch conserves water at the plant roots, just as any other mulch does.

If you’re thinking about taking your gardening seriously and getting out there every day to increase the attractiveness of your garden, then you will want to get the right tools to help you in this. You might be tempted to go out to the store and just buy the nearest things you see, but you’ll be much happier if you put lots of thought into the styles and types of tools you’re buying. There are styles designed just for gardening, and you’ll be better off buying those.

You can find most of the tools you will need at your local gardening or home improvement shop. Usually the employees will be thrilled to assist you in finding the ideal tools. If you go to a shop that specializes in gardening, you can usually get some advice in addition to service. Gardening store employees are usually an untapped wealth of wisdom, and they are how I learned almost all that I know about gardening today.

If you are having a hard time finding the right tool or if you want to save some money, you might try looking online for the supplies you need. You may have to pay the shipping costs and wait an extra week or two, but often the total savings will be worth it. My favorite online site is Bargain Outdoor Tools at http://www.bargainoutdoortools.com. The site specializes on power tools and is also a good resource for information. The site also includes product reviews.

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The cedar potting shed from Gabriel Ash is an attractive and useful addition to any greenhouse. It has enough space to store all of your gardening tools, and it can be easily abutted to any greenhouse.

Gabriel Ash will build your potting shed exactly to your specifications, to fit any size of greenhouse. It can be built as a free standing structure or it can be added on to your greenhouse. You can choose whether or not to have a door separating the shed from the greenhouse or just an opening. It also has a rear door so that you can enter the shed without having to walk through the greenhouse. You can also lock the door of the shed to prevent theft of expensive gardening equipment. (more…)

Ferns evoke a sense of rich mystery in the landscape, like that of a lush woodland. Their fragile appearance belies their toughness. Rather than being difficult to grow, ferns are solution plants for many of the difficult landscape problems that gardeners face. They thrive in shady, moist areas and love acid soil. Plant them around the base of trees, in dark and moist areas around the foundation of your home, behind walls or utility buildings, at the edge of wooded areas. They may grow where ever they find a foothold between cobblestones and bricks. They are great for those transitional zones between lawn and wooded areas.

Ferns prefer acid soil; ideally, the pH should test between 5.5 and 6.5. Take a soil sample to your local Cooperative Extension Office for analysis. Adjust the pH according to their expert recommendations.

If you are planting a container-grown fern, thoroughly water it before planting. Gently slip it from the pot, retaining as much of the soil as possible. Spread the roots out into the hole. Plant at the same depth as it grew in the nursery container. Water deeply with a fine spray. Too strong a stream of water can damage the foliage. (more…)