Plant Gardens 101

For anyone interested in gardening, the thrill of getting your hands dirty, smelling the fresh dirt and watching your carefully nurtured plants grow from seeds into proper bushes that produce flowers or veggies is the most important draw.

Very few people who hate gardening actually make much progress with it, it seems to be one of those things that you’ll do if you love it.

When gardening, it’s a good idea to have good quality tools on hand. These will make the entire process faster and easier and leave you more time to enjoy the fruits of your labor. There’s nothing so sweet as strawberries plucked fresh from the patch that you planted and nurtured yourself and the right tools will help you grow more than just one small patch. (more…)

Before going ahead with any plans on your water garden be sure to double check on all the safety measures. We all know the dangers that lurk where ponds and children are concerned but if all the standards of safety are adhered to then there should be no problem. Whatever precautions have been taken just remember that young children should not be left unattended or unsupervised around water at any time.

Ponds make a beautiful water garden feature just like the flowing fountain. Water gardens are a pleasurable experience to become involved with and also beautiful as eye candy to a lot of nature`s creatures. If tastefully designed – these garden ornamentations can create an atmosphere where a deep sense of tranquillity fills the air just by sound alone. Depending on the individuals own personal preference you can have water features that are specially designed to give you a tropical world or an imitation of a mini Niagara Falls display. The options are endless as to what can go into your garden. Before putting into force any plans make sure to measure the space to be used – a cluttered water garden can spoil the beauty of it all. (more…)

The Japanese art of pruning and shaping trees and shrubs that produces long-lived miniature container plants.

When you are thinking about getting a greenhouse or if you already own one, one of the most important things you need to learn about is greenhouse heating. How do you decide what greenhouse heating will required for your greenhouse? Here is some information that should help you get started.

A good place to start is to calculate how many BTU’s it will take to heat your greenhouse. First figure out what type of plants you want in the greenhouse and research the temperature needed for growing them. Other questions you will need to answer to calculate your greenhouse heating requirements are: What is the surface area of the greenhouse? What is the heat loss factor in your greenhouse? What about the outside temperature at night and the highest temperature inside the greenhouse? The list goes on from here. You have to answer all these things in order to be able to calculate the right greenhouse heating settings.

Once you know your BTU requirements, you can select a heater for your greenhouse. Heaters either run on electricity or gas, and each have their own benefits. Electric heaters are generally less expensive to purchase and work well if you have electricity wired to your greenhouse site. Gas heaters run with either natural or propane gas. They are usually less costly to operate and require no electricity. So gas heaters are a great choice if you have no way to get electricity to your greenhouse.

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Which is cheaper, buying a hydroponics grow box or constructing your own hydroponics grow box?

If you have spent any time on forums lately, you will notice that quite a few people recommend that beginners should build their own hydroponics grow box machine for their first grow. However what does the beginner or amateur really know about building a hydroponics grow box? When you are about to take on an endeavor of building your own grow box, there are many safety concerns that you really have to think about. Really think about how much you really know about electricity and how to wire it properly. You will be dealing with a very high wattages and a dangerous amount of electricity in close proximity to water. Do you safely know how to work with electricity and high voltages around water? Do you have experience wiring for hydroponics applications. Do you know the difference between live wires and ground wires? Essentially at some point you will actually need a certified electrician to oversee your work in order to make sure that it is safe to run. Not doing so can lead to disastrous consequences that has happened for many poor growers.

Besides being a qualified electrician you really do have to know your stuff about ventilation in keeping your hydroponic grow box running super cool. You will be using very powerful lighting systems to light your hydroponics grow box machine. You can be using 600 Watts or even 1000 W lamps in order to light up your grow box machine. These types of lamps are known to generate an immense amount of heat. Many people talking on the forums will recommend building your hydroponics grow box out of some sort of particleboard or cheap painted wood. This is a really bad idea! Danger! Danger! (more…)