Plant Gardens 101

Hydroponics is a technology for growing plants in nutrient solutions which is a combination of water and fertilizers. Hydroponic gardening is done with or without the use of artificial medium such as sand, gravel, vermiculite, rockwool, peat, coir, sawdust to provide mechanical support for the plants. Liquid hydroponic systems have no other supporting medium for the plant roots while aggregate systems have a solid medium of support. Hydroponic systems that aradvantages of using hydroponic system in hydroponic gardening include high-density maximum crop yield, crop production where no suitable soil exists, a virtual indifference to ambient temperature and seasonality, more efficient use of water and fertilizers, minimal use of land area, suitability for mechanization, and disease or pest control. The major advantage of hydroponic gardening compared to field grown produce is the isolation of the crop from the soil, which often has problems of diseases, pests, salinity, poor structure and/or drainage. (more…)

Bellflower family
Campanulaceae
Kam-pan’you-la. The bellflowers comprise 300 known species, over 2 dozen of which are cultivated for their handsome bloom.

Description
Basal leaves often unlike the stem leaves, the latter alternate. Flowers typically bell-shaped, showy, mostly blue or white, the calyx persistent on the egg-shaped pod that opens by a terminal pore in some, by valves in others.

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Flowers are the Natural beauties sent as a Gift by Nature to the World. They add fragrance, briiliance and beauty to the surroundings. The History of the Flowers in this Earth must go to the day when the Plants emerged in the World. Scientific research have shown that the Plants are in this World for the past more than 425 Million years and they have developed from their primituve form of Spores. The seeds for the Plants came in the primitve form as spores the small copies of themselves that can grow in other places. The Plants began to develop protection for the spores and thus came the seeds and there came into being the assured way of propagation and systematic reproduction by following regular Life cycles. The Flowers must have appeared during this stage and the earliest fossil proof of actual Flowers appears only 130 million years ago. But we do not have clear proof of how and when the Flowers developed for the first time as the fossil desposits do not give enough proof in this direction. The father of the theory of Evolution Charles Darwin himself is persplexed over this issue and calls this an abominal Mystery. It is generally assumed that the function of Flowers, from the start, was to involve other Animals in the reproduction process. Pollen should be taken to other places and for this the assistance of other living beings are necessary and it may not be possible without giving any other benefit. (more…)

Daisy family
Compositae
Kreep’is. About 200 species of annual to perennial herbs, with milky juice, many rosette-forming, native in the northern hemisphere. Related to Hieracium , the hawkweeds.

Description
Flowerheads without ray flowers, pink, yellow, or white.

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Gardening in and of itself is an art form. And the art of fine gardening is just that, an art. Fine gardening may mean many things to many people, but to me fine gardening means more than just a garden. It encompasses all that’s good and graceful in gardening and combines them to make one garden that is the epitome of all your dreams.

My enjoyment of fine gardening comes not only from the finished garden but from the endless hours that I spend designing and planning the actual garden, from the moment I first have the germ of an idea, to the moment I place the last sapling, and plant the last flower. All I want, all that I can be, should show through when first a person steps into this land of fine gardening, a place of peace and calm where a person can meditate on the finer things in life.

Therefore, a water feature, ideally one that will make a continuously soothing gurgle, with a small stepping-type of waterfall-cum-pond, placed on lovely slabs of flat rock with a hint of moss growing on it. A nice water lily or lotus to give off a contrasting color, and perhaps a fish or two. A few ferns and leafy rain-forest type plants placed around the pond, and I’m finished with this stage of my fine gardening. (more…)

The second word in the Latin binomial name for a plant, designating the species. Often called species name.