Plant Gardens 101

Adult Chinch Bugs usually appear in your lawn in March, but their life cycle in the turf begins long before that as larvae. They have black bodies and legs, white wings with a black triangular spot on each wing. Also known as Blissus leucopterus leucopterus, and B. insularis, Lygaeidae, a Chinch Bug is a beetle that the size of a grain of rice, and the larvae can be as small as the head of a pin. But don’t let their small size fool you, the power of a Chinch Bug infestation to destroy your lawn should not be underestimated, especially if your grass is currently experiencing a drought or consistently dry conditions year round. These pests live deep in the thatch throughout the fall and winter and steadily eat away the root system of your grass and other plants.

But it gets worse. Much worse.

Chinch Bugs don’t just eat your grass, they actually inject poison into the plant as they eat, causing your grass to turn yellow and die in large patches. These patches are usually circular, with the center looking much worse than the outer perimeter. (more…)

The cap of a mushroom or toadstool.

I am a middle-aged man who has recently discovered a fantastic new hobby that I would love to share with the rest of the world. My new hobby is indoor hydroponics gardening. Let’s just say I always had a brown thumb, and I kind of ran into hydroponics by accident. Let’s just say I have come into a position where I no longer want to grow my plants outdoors, I decided I would much rather grow my plants indoors with hydroponics. The problem is I never really had much talent as a gardener. As a kid I never took care of plants or animals, and had little experience taking care of anything living. However I put all that behind me and now I now grow my own organic medicinal herbs and have chosen to do that with hydroponics for several reasons. (more…)

Asparagus is a tasty vegetable which also has a lot of vitamin value. However, it is a seasonal crop, meaning it is available only for a few months of the year. It takes quite some time to grow and therefore requires a lot of patience. If you are not willing to be around for some time to tend asparagus, then it is not the right vegetable for you to grow in your home garden. Your home garden needs to be relatively large to grow asparagus, and therefore it is not suitable for growing on a window sill garden. It does not do well in pots. It needs lot of sunlight to grow. Do not grow them too close together or they will not grow to a decent size. An asparagus plant can remain productive for quite some time and so it is a worthwhile investment. (more…)

An indoor herb garden grown by an aerologic system is a rewarding experience for those looking to not only begin a wonderful new hobby but also craving fresh herbs to serve friends and family. You may not realize it but growing plants and herbs through aerologic hydroponics offer a great deal of benefits. Aerologic kits produce great tasting herbs that bring out mouth watering flavors of your cooking and also produce herbs with medicinal value, as well.

Aerologic gardening is still relatively new and not many people are aware of it and its many benefits. One thing people do agree on is that once they learn more about it, for more details visit to www.insomnia-battle.com they all agree it is an interesting process for growing plants without soil. An aerologic system uses the environment to grow its plants.

Aerologic kits used to grow herb gardens implement air and mist to grow its plants. It is a natural system for growing herbs from the comfort of your very own home which is great for people who don’t have the luxury of an outside garden. All you would need is the proper room, an aerologic fogger, aerologic pump, some seeds, and a little patience.

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Undoubtedly, the type of plants one would enjoy growing in his garden are the most expensive ones. That’s why some plant lovers remain with some unsatisfied desires their entire lives. But here there’s a way to salve frustrations like these with little if any expensive sacrifices. Instead of visiting a gardening shop, pay a neighbour who has the plants you cry for a visit and offer a cleaning up service of the garden in exchange for tubes or bulbs you will plant in your own back yard.

The technique you need to use is called vegetative propagation. It consists in putting stem, leaf cutting or root into the ground and caring them until they start growing into new plants, like clones taken from the original plant. This way you can make the plants you stare at yours (in time).

This original technique requires lesser material and space. The plastic containers ordinary used to nurse plants aren’t necessary. Simply plant the fragments into your existing soil and than sprinkle them and deal with them like with every flower you would like to grow. Some plant growers possess an entire collection of enchanting specimens which originated from this type of cloning. They include beautiful, famed blossoms like the fuchsia-coloured geranium, the purple sweet violet, or the copper-like rose blooms of the Autumn-joy stonecrop. (more…)

Things were going great in the early stages. I had just recently started growing vegetables in my back yard and things were moving along very well. Certain vegetables were growing somewhat slowly, and I didn’t expect things to be so smooth forever, but I had faith things would turn out well no matter what obstacles I would have to face. It wasn’t long before I faced one of the first setbacks in cultivating a vegetable garden and discovered that I would have to put in garden fencing.

I had grown vegetables in the past but it was a communal garden and it was ages ago so when the rabbits started to ruin my garden, I was totally caught off guard. Luckily, because of my experience, I not only knew the answer was garden fencing but I also knew exactly what kind of garden fencing was required. (more…)

An area of ground planted with grass that is kept low by mowing.

Review of the Homegrown Hydroponics Economy Grow Box

I lived in Alaska where we have a very harsh climates. We have irregular day and night patterns as well as extreme temperatures, which makes it almost impossible to grow outdoors. Since I do not live in Anchorage or any other major city, I am forced to grow my own food. Of course there has traditionally been really no way to do that until I found out about the Homegrown Hydroponics Economy Grow Box.

For those that don’t know what a grow box is, essentially it is a self-contained enclosure for growing plants with hydroponics. I purchased and received an Economy Grow Box that I got from Homegrown Hydroponics recently. It came with a 400 W high pressure sodium lighting systems, which really put out huge amounts of red light which really helps your plants when they flower. Also included was a deep water culture hydroponic system along with all the necessary air pumps and air stones to make that work. The Economy Grow Box came with the nutrients that I needed to get my first round of plants going along with the starter cups and clay pellets and the Rockwell cubes, it came with bottles of pH adjustment solution and the manuals. Even though videos are also available online. (more…)

With the hottest days of August behind us, this is a great time to plan for cooler times ahead. Particularly at the juncture of two seasons, your greenhouse provides a growing environment sheltered from increasingly unpredicatable weather. Chilly nights? Just close the vents and let the thermostat bring on a little heat. Indian Summer? Re-open the vents and doors.

While outdoor crops are likely to be affected by these seasonal fluctuations—weathering increasingly cool fall temperatures, and eventually, frost—with a little well-timed intervention, your greenhouse plants can continue to flourish. Of course, even inside the greenhouse, summer temperatures won’t necessarily remain for long. And don’t forget to take into account the shortening day length at this time of year. Some crops are better candidates to grow under these conditions than others.

The vegetables best suited to fall and winter greenhouses are those which thrive in relatively cool temperatures– so that you don’t have to crank the heat way up to keep them happy– and that also don’t require maximum light levels. In other words, it’s the perfect time of year for growing greens and herbs. (more…)

Primrose family
Primulaceae
An-dros’a-see. Rock Jasmine . A large genus of herbs, many grown in rock gardens.

Description
They are low, often tufted, plants, nearly all with small basal leaves, often in rosettes. Flowers resemble a miniature primrose, but the corolla constricted at the throat.

How to Grow   (more…)

Long-handled pruners designed to cut branches too thick for hand pruners and too small to require a pruning saw, and to cut out roots. Also called loppers.

HOW would you like to plant a vegetable that would supply you and your family with some food for up to 20 years? What if it did this without any replanting or much cultivation? Would it not also be appealing if the plant had the habit of yielding when other vegetables are in short supply? Well, that versatile vegetable is asparagus! And for that lengthy supply, a family of five would need only about 12 crowns of it.

Do you wonder about nutritional value? Well, asparagus contains varying amounts of calcium, phosphorus, sodium, potassium and iron, as well as vitamins A, B1, B2, C and niacin all necessary for a healthful diet. That in itself is good reason to include asparagus in the home garden bed!

This tasty relative of the regal lily has been lending interest to menus ever since it was cultivated by the ancient Egyptians. By 200 B.C.E. information on its cultivation was being recorded by the Romans.

While many consider asparagus a common vegetable, others classify it as a delicious luxury. Although usually retailed in canned form, the fresh spears also are of delectable flavor. Both white and green asparagus is cultivated, green possibly being best for the home gardener because it combines higher food value with better flavor.

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LED refers to light emitting diodes, and they are the latest type of light bulb to make an impact on all types of lighting today. With regard to using LED lamps and LED grow lights with plants, there are many reasons why they are beneficial. They are small and lightweight, yet produce an amazing amount of light that is specifically usable by plants for photosynthesis. They run cool, eliminating the need for expensive cooling equipment, and they run on much less electricity than traditional HID, HPS or MH grow lights. This is why many gardeners are selecting LED grow lights, but knowing a bit about how the lights work will help you in selecting the correct LED bulbs for your indoor garden.

Plants need light from different parts of the light spectrum in terms of color temperature in order to grow well and thrive. Young seedlings need light that will help them to grow into sturdy, mature plants, and that type of light is blue spectrum. Once mature, plants can be induced to produce flowers and fruits by growing them under red and orange spectrum lights.

Knowing this, you can be quite selective in terms of the LED lamps that you choose. Many traditional bulbs offer only one part of the light spectrum, and if it is the wrong part of the spectrum for what your plants require, the plants will not thrive in an indoor setting. This can be alleviated with the use of LED bulbs.

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Container gardening is the answer would love to grow some vegetables but I have no room to grow anything”.

By utilizing containers, both large and small, it is possible to grow almost anything that you can grow directly in the ground. Patios, balconies, steps, and window sills are good locations as long as there is sufficient sunlight (about 6 to 8 hours worth), the only limit being the size and the weight of your containers.

Containers come in a variety of shapes, sizes and materials and in fact, can be just about any thing that will hold soil, even old shoes and sneakers can be pressed into service as flower pots with admirable results. Materials can be wood, plastic, terra cotta, clay or metal. All containers do need drainage, so it is good advice to add one inch of coarse gravel on the bottom and have drain holes ideally one half inch from the bottom. Drainage can be severely hampered by placing the pot directly on a hard surface such as concrete so elevate the container an inch or two to insure proper water flow. (more…)

The botanical name for plantain lily.

Snapdragon family
Scrophulariaceae
Tor-ren’i-a. African and Asiatic perennial or annual herbs comprising over 40 species and related to Mimulus .

Description
Stems much-branched, prostrate or erect, 4-angled. Leaves opposite, ovalish, toothed, and stalked. Flowers in stout, stalked clusters in leaf axils, or few-flowered terminal racemes. Corolla 2-lipped, the upper lip faintly 2-lobed, the lower lip 3-lobed, the central lobe blotched yellow at base.

How to Grow  (more…)

Whatever type of garden you have – from a tiny city yard to sprawling landscaped acres – there’s a greenhouse for you, and finding the right greenhouse will add abundant benefits to your gardening experience. But how can you adapt your greenhouse plans to make sure that you create the right look – with the most practical outlook – for your garden?

When you draw up your greenhouse plans there are several things you need to consider. What are you hoping to grow in your greenhouse, and how much light will it need? If you need a lot of light, your greenhouse plans should take this into account – prioritize free standing structures and avoid heavy timber frames. Your greenhouse plans should also take account of the weather – does your greenhouse need to be sheltered from the wind? (more…)

The pH level is a scale that displays how acidic or alkaline something is. A pH level less than 7 means, whatever it is you are testing is dominantly acidic and a level over 7 means it is more alkaline. If you get a reading of 7 that means it is neutral which is normally water.

Simply just getting the pH reading is not enough. Once you have that reading you need to know how to make adjustments in your soil for optimum growth of the vegetables that you are planting.

Here is how you can raise and lower your soil’s pH level in your home vegetable garden.

Before you can do anything to your soil you have to know what the pH level is. The best way to obtain this reading is with a pH soil testing kit from your local home or garden center. They are as inexpensive as five bucks or as complicated and expensive as a hundred dollars. The choice of which one you get is up to you. (more…)

If you’re not the type of person that wants to spend their time managing an elaborate fruit or vegetable garden, you might consider planting and maintaining an herb garden. While the product might not seem as significant, you’ll still enjoy the constant availability of fresh, delicious herbs to flavor your meals with.

First you’ll want to choose the herbs that you’ll plant. You might have a hard time doing this because of the huge scope of herbs available. But the best way to choose is to do what I did; just look at what you have in your kitchen. By planting your own collection of these herbs, you can save money on buying them from the grocery store while having the added benefit of freshness. Some of the herbs you might start with include rosemary, sage, basil, dill, mint, chives, and parsley among others.

When choosing an area to put your herb garden, you should remember that the soil should have extremely good drainage. If the dirt gets watered and stays completely saturated, you have no chance of ever growing a healthy plant. One of the best ways to fix the drainage problem is to dig a foot deep in the soil, and put a layer of crushed rocks down before replacing all the soil. This will allow all that water to escape, thus saving your plants. (more…)