Plant Gardens 101

For your garden to work, it needs a degree of planning. Some people do seem to have an instinct for setting out a garden but for the rest of us (the majority) some thought is necessary or it can take a long time of trial and error to get it right.

The minimum is to at least consider the purpose, for some it is an outdoor room where they will entertain friends, work colleagues and family. Others will need a family friendly garden in which their toddlers can play safely. To some, the garden will be a peaceful refuge or a source of organic vegetables.

Clearly your garden will not need to stand the high levels of traffic that a public garden where the lawned areas need to be resistant to thousands of feet each day. Nor will your garden need to incorporate unusual plants and complex or intriguing water features and sculptures because you are not looking to attract visitors. Public gardens also have a team of gardeners to look after them, not just because they are large, but because keeping complex gardens looking good takes a lot of effort. (more…)

Snapdragon family
Scrophulariaceae
Kol-lin’si-a. 25 species of attractive herbs, most natives of w. North America.

Description
Leaves opposite or in whorls of 3-5. Flowers solitary or in small clusters in leaf axils, the corolla irregular and 2-lipped, the calyx bell-shaped.

How to Grow    (more…)

Cattleya orchids are one of the most common species grown. They are often referred to as corsage orchids thanks to their big flowers. The flowers can measure up to eight inches and are also fragrant. If you want to grow one of your own, there are a few things you should know beforehand. This article will give you a few tips for growing cattleya orchids.

Humidity
Maintaining proper humidity levels is extremely important when caring for one of these plants. The relative humidity in your home should fall between 50 and 80 percent. This can easily be done by using a humidity tray. Simply sit the orchid atop a tray of gravel filled with a little water. (more…)

Cinnamon is actually more than a delicious addition to food. One of the oldest spices known and long used in traditional medicine, cinnamon is currently being studied for its beneficial effects on a variety of ailments. Indeed, recent findings on the power of cinnamon to promote health, in particular its benefits for people with type II diabetes, have elevated it to the status of a Super Spice.

Perhaps the most exciting discovery concerning cinnamon is its effect on blood glucose levels as well as on triglyceride and cholesterol levels, all of which could benefit people suffering from type II diabetes. In one study of 60 patients with type II diabetes, it was found that after only forty days of taking about half a teaspoon of cinnamon daily, fasting serum glucose levels were lowered by 18 to 29 percent, triglycerides by 23 to 30 percent, low-density lipoproteins (LDL) by 7 to 27 percent, and total cholesterol by 12 to 26 percent. (more…)

Gradually exposing a plant that has been growing under sheltered conditions to cold, heat, sun, and wind. Seedlings started indoors must be hardened off before they are planted in the open ground.

Getting out into the garden is increasingly popular once more, many people find that it helps them to relax and there is a sense of satisfaction as you see your plants grow and your garden develop into something special. In this series of articles I will introduce new gardeners to the art of gardening. It is not something that can be learnt overnight, but that is part of the appeal. There is always something new to learn, no matter how old, young or experienced you are!

Clearly, you are going to need some tools to get started. When you go to the Garden Centre or the hardware shop to buy your first set of garden tools, you will be faced with a bewildering array. So what do you really need? The first question to ask is “am I a vegetable gardener, an ornamental gardener or both?” For most people, the answer will probably be both, a lot depends on the size of your garden and why you want to garden. So this set of tools should cover both needs and assumes that you are starting a garden from scratch – just a bare patch of ground, no hedges, shrubs, lawn etc. (more…)

Seed selection can make or break your garden. If you choose the wrong seeds you can end up with a very pitiful looking garden. What goes into choosing the right seeds?

If you are saving your seeds from you own plants you have a little more control over what plants the seeds come from. You will want to choose plants that are hardy and contain a good number of blooms. Choosing seeds from a plant that is a little puny looking but with one or two very lovely blooms is not likely going to give you a plant that is hardy with more lovely blooms. Seeds usually produce plants like their parent plant. A good trick to know which plants to use for seeds is to look at your plants: size, hardiness, and blooms (or yields for vegetables). When you find the ones that exhibit the qualities you would like in your new plants tie a string on the plant, when it is harvest time you will know which ones to get the seeds from for your next year’s garden. (more…)

Arugula is a very popular green to add to any salad or as a stand alone side to your dinner or lunch. And who can resist, it is enriched with plenty of Vitamins A, C, K and Folate as well as the nutritional minerals Calcium and Potassium. Its rich peppery taste also makes arugula a good choice to use in pasta dishes. Here is how you can grow some great tasting arugula in your home vegetable garden.

Arugula is a colder weather crop and germinates best in a soil temperature in the range of forty to fifty-five degrees Fahrenheit. As soon as you work the soil (after the freeze is over) you can begin planting arugula.

Arugula is typical to many other vegetables in that it likes a pH level in the soil to be as neutral as possible. Test your soil to make sure the level sits above six and as close to seven as possible. You can get a pH soil tester at any home or garden center for a few bucks. (more…)

A loose term generally referring to a front yard filled with informally planted flowers. A typical cottage garden has a front gate, a straight path leading to the door, and a romantic jumble of colorful old-fashioned flowers.

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As in any business there are good hydroponic stores as well as bad ones. And what constitutes ‘good’ or ‘bad’? It’s mostly a personal matter – are your needs being met?

Over the years I have ordered from several online stores and have mostly had a good experience although there are one or two I will never deal with again.

Consider this: you personally call a store to request a catalog. The store employee is curt and gives forth an attitude that you are a bother. During the short conversation you mention you know nothing about hydroponics but find it interesting and you hear a sarcastic laugh over the phone…

Is this a store you wish to deal with? It’s not for me – and this situation really happened to me. (more…)

As the winter months progress I tend to feel less connected to the wonderful outdoor spaces that reach out to me like an old friend during the spring and summer months. Trapped inside all day as the cold wind blows, I yearn for the feel of fresh dirt in my hands and find myself counting the days until I once again have the pleasure of planting new flowers in my garden and tending to the perennials and bulbs that start peeking out in the spring.

Other gardeners have told me that they’ve been able to find enjoyment tending indoor plants during the winter months. I’ll admit that I do keep African Violets and Orchids indoors year-round, but growing indoors is a lot more challenging! Indoor plants, like all plants require the correct amount of light and proper watering and finding this balance indoors has been tricky for me. (more…)

Pea family
Leguminosae
My-mo’sa. An immense genus of 400-500 species of mostly tropical American herbs, shrubs, and trees, only 2 much cultivated in the U.S.

Description
Leaves alternate, twice-compound, the leaflets numerous, usually very small, arranged feather-fashion. Flowers small, more or less tubular, in dense, ball-like clusters. Stamens protruding.

How to Grow    (more…)

If you are contemplating the construction of a butterfly garden, take a few moments to assess your resources. How much time are you willing (and able) to invest in planting and maintaining your garden? How much money do you want to spend? Is the garden intended to be a formal or informal one? Are you going to provide butterfly nectar plants, caterpillar food plants, or both? How are you going to deal with pest problems without pesticides? Are you willing to discourage insect-feeding birds (no nest boxes or berry bushes)?The answers to these questions will help you determine the size and scope of your butterfly garden.

Another step should be to find out which butterflies are in your area. You can do this by spending some time outdoors with your field guide and a pair of binoculars to see which species are around you. Plan to spend around 4-5 hours between mid-morning and early afternoon trying to spot butterflies over a three day period. If you’re serious abou` t this, it’ll be well worth it! (more…)

How your roses thrive depends on many factors, the most important of all is having the right kind of soil. For those who are new to growing and taking care of roses you are probably unsure of what kind of soil to use and how often you need to maintain it. Even those who have been growing roses for while find it hard to find just the right soil mixture for their rose garden.

There are four elements that need to be used in rose soil. The first element is inorganic material, inorganic material consist of clay, sand and silt. Inorganic material should make up about 45% of the soil mixture. Next is organic material which is also known as humus. Organic is made up of mostly decomposed material. You also need plenty of air and water. In a good mix of soil there are pores and about half those pores are for water and half the pores are for air.

In order for them to thrive roses need a lot of nutrients. You should use a good combination of compost or manure with your soil mixture. You can substitute store bought manure and peat moss if you need to. The pH balance of your soil should be between 6.5 and 6.8. The soil should feel light and crumble when squeezed. If you find that the soil is too sticky or that it feels too sandy you will need to change the mixture of it. (more…)

An approach to vegetable gardening that produces maximum harvests from a small plot. It was introduced to the United States by Alan Chadwick, who established a teaching and demonstration center in Santa Cruz, California, and was further popularized by one of Chadwick’s students, John Jeavons, who wrote the book How to Grow More Vegetables Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine.

If you wish to know how to build a compost heap, you may have become a little overwhelmed. So many instructions can be a little overwhelming. It seems like some people go out of their way to make it as confusing and difficult as possible.

It is actually a very simple thing to do if you can get hold of some basic materials. All you will really need is four pallets and some nails and a hammer. That’s it!

It is a relatively straightforward matter of nailing all of them together. You want to do this so that you have created a square that you can then shuffle in to place. Simple and very effective. The base is left open so that earthworms can have easy access to the contents, this means they can get to work helping the composting process as soon as possible. This simple design is very effective. The slatted sides mean that the contents are well aerated and this helps to increase the composting rate and helps in the heating process. (more…)

Have you noticed lately that the price of food is going up. The price of produce on the store shelves has gotten unreal. A single watermelon is over five dollars in some places. You also cannot know for certain just how fresh the produce is, and how long it has sat in a warehouse or refrigerated truck. You do not know what kind of chemicals that the produce was sprayed with, or who has handled it. (more…)

An old-fashioned term used to denote soil that is limy or alkaline. See also sour soil.

Border garden beds are wonderful additions to your landscape when you want to highlight an edge, such as a driveway, fence, walkway, front porch, or patio. They can be used to delineate visual boundaries or create physical compartments in your landscape. When it comes to highlighting permanent features, such as a trellis or gazebo, or dividing spaces in your yard or vegetable garden, border gardens are just the thing. As they often follow an edge, they are usually rectangular in shape, but can also be designed to include gentle curves for less formal gardens.

Most gardeners plant taller annuals and perennials to the back of these beds, placing shorter items towards the front. Border beds can be created to spotlight long seasons of bloom on a continuum or focused around a one-season spectacular show. If you opt for the one-season showcase, be sure to plan the rest of your landscaping to balance out the seasons during which your border bed lies fallow. (more…)