Plant Gardens 101

Do you enjoy cooking or gardening? If so, an indoor herb garden may be a perfect choice for you. They are fun, useful, and easy to maintain.

If you live in a colder climate, you know how hard it can be to grow things. With an indoor herb garden, you can have all the fun of gardening year round. They also add a special something to a kitchen windowsill. The different shapes and colors of the herbs make a fantastic decoration as they fill your kitchen with a wonderful aroma.

But enough of those reasons! The real benefit of an herb garden is having delicious, fresh herbs at your fingertips. No more running to the supermarket to pick up an overpriced bundle of herbs that you’ll have to throw out in a week! Instead you can simply clip off what you need and toss it right into your recipe. All the while knowing that it wasn’t grown with nasty pesticides and fertilizers. (more…)

Herbs are a great way to add flavor to your food. Fresh herbs will add even more taste, and the best way to have the freshest, most delicious herbs possible is to grow them yourself. You can grow herbs indoors or outdoors. I prefer growing them indoors because I can put them right in my kitchen and have them fresh and ready whenever I need them all year round. If you have a window in your kitchen, you have a perfect place to have herbs get lots of sun and grow right in front of your cooking.

When it’s time to start planting and you begin your garden, you fall upon an important question. What kind of herbs should you grow? Should you grow a large variety of many different kinds or just one or two kinds? Which herbs will grow the best? This depends on several factors that need to be taken into account.

How much space do you have and what kinds of pots and planters are you using? If you only have space for a couple of plants, you should only grow the herbs you will use the most. If you have pots, you can put one type of herb in each. If you have boxes, you will need to be careful to space different herb plants far enough apart. (more…)

Birds, birds, birds. They come in all shapes and sizes. They range in type from carnivores to herbivores. Birds have been the stars of their own movies. Birds have taught children the importance of personality over looks. Some are even the leaders of nations. Is it any wonder that bird watching is one of the world’s most practiced hobbies.

People from all walks of life enjoy bird watching. Anyone can do it. All it requires is patience, a pair of binoculars and most importantly, a bird feeder. And there are many types. Depending what birds you want to attract will determine what kind of feeder to get.

Hummingbird feeders are the most popular and come in two styles; inverted and basin style. The feeder usually has a small receptacle in which a sugar solution is placed. It has an opening just big enough for the hummingbird to put its long beak. But the solution is really just an energy boost for the hummingbird. A hummingbird’s main diet is gnats and other small bugs. Here’s a hint when choosing a hummingbird feeder. Choose one that can be taken apart easily. Your feeder needs to be cleaned every three-to-four days due to the unfortunate clotting habit of the sugar and water solution. (more…)

Introduction

Thyme (pronounced /taim/) is a well known herb and is a Mediterranean native of the mint family, which is one of the most widely used herbs. Thyme is considered by many herbalists as the very nearly perfect useful herb. The name may refer to any or all members of the plant genus Thymus, common thyme, Lemon Thyme, Thymus vulgaris, and some other species that are used as culinary herbs or for medicinal purposes. It was thought that the spread of thyme throughout Europe was thanks to the Romans, as they used it to purify their rooms and to “give an aromatic flavour to cheese and liqueurs”.

Interestingly Thyme was also used as incense and placed on coffins during funerals as it was supposed to assure passage into the next life. It was also a favourite fairy plant which could make them invisible to humans!

Growing

Thyme is a perennial herb requiring full sun and well drained alkaline conditions. It is widely cultivated for its strong flavour, which is due to its content of thymol. The plant is essential in scented gardens as it has an agreeable aromatic smell and a warm pungent taste. (more…)

Herb gardening Is one of the most rewarding pastimes you will begin. I say will begin because by the time you finish reading this you WILL begin! You will need some basic information and knowledge about the herbs you choose to use and grow, but after that the actual process is easy and fast. The best thing is that after you work out what you need to do, it becomes a passion that lasts forever and, even better, it’s a real money saving hobby.

What you Need to Know About Herb Gardening
Basically you need to work out your seasonal needs. Choose the herbs you like or use most often in your cooking. The easiest way is to go to your kitchen shelf and look at what you have accumulated over the past and decide which ones you really use. Then, look up the growing requirements. You can do this on the Internet or go to your local nursery for free tips. Most plants are easy to grow, but will need a little attention and need replanting in spring.

Next you need to learn how to dry your herbs for storage and use during those times when fresh plants are unavailable. Here are my tips for drying herbs successfully:

• Cut off tops of the leafy varieties in midsummer.

• Hang them up just long enough so that the drops of water can evaporate.

• Wash them off with cold water.

• Tie them with string, binding them quite tightly at the end of the stalk.

• Place them in a paper bag with the stem ends at the opening, and then close the bag with a rubber band.

• Then you need to use a paper clip as a sort of hook through the band and then place the other hooked end over your line where you are going to hang the herbs to actually dry.

• Wait for a couple of weeks, to ensure they have dried out completely.

• Remove them from the paper bags, and then crumble the leaves and place them on a shallow pan and dry them out in the oven – just make sure that the oven is not set to be too hot, because you can burn them, and you certainly do not want to do this.

A lot of herb gardening enthusiasts prefer to use the open air as their preferred way to dry herbs. This method however can be messy as insects can interfere with the drying plans and get caught up and become part of your larder! If you are careful and pick them out it may be OK. My view is that open air drying is unnecessary and does not yield better results at all. Michael is the owner of Herb Magic, the BEST site for all herb lovers. You will also find great herb gardening tips and healthy herb recipes and information at www.HerbWorldBlog.com

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A herb or vegetable garden can make a very attractive addition to any landscape. Herb and vegetable gardens, be they stand alone or, incorporated into the overall landscape, can be just as attractive as many of the common annual and perennials found in most gardens. An added bonus, is the fact that you can eat most of them as well. This is called an “edible landscape”.

Stand alone herb and vegetable gardens, are just that. An area is set aside purely for the cultivation of these plants. In this article, we are talking about the landscaping aspects, where these plants have a specific role, mainly as an attractive feature - with the bonus of being edible. Stand alone herb and vegetable gardens can be made into any shape and or size. The important thing is to keep in mind how it fits in with the rest of the landscape. Generally speaking, if this is to be a show-piece, then nice lines and an overall neatness is to be desired. Certainly this can be achieved by bordering the garden with largish rocks, however, this can be a problem if the garden is laid in the middle of a lawn. The encroachment of the lawn (especially if it is couch, twitch or kikuyu), will grow under the rocks and you will have a constant battle to keep the lawn out of the vegetable garden. A better solution would be to border the garden with landscape logs, such as railway sleepers, or heavy treated planks. This way, at least you can trim or spray the edges periodically to address the encroachment problem. Yet another way would be to make the lawn of chammomile. Non-invasive and although a lot of work to get established, once it’s up and running, it’s just glorious. Smells wonderful and has a calming effect on most people. (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.

Many indoor gardeners like the fact they are growing natural herbs without worrying about harmful fertilizers and insecticides. If you think about it, growing food you are the only real way to be sure it isn’t full of harmful toxins. An aerologic system is the perfect way to do this. There are plenty of tools, for more details visit to www.divorce-rebuild-your-life.com such as aerologic pumps and aerologic foggers, to get you started. These systems help people grow their herbs without the worry about what the weather is like.

Aerologic Gardening Produces Flavorful Herbs
there is a notable difference in basil grown fresh at home compared to basil sold in a jar at the local grocery store. You’ll quickly pick up on the flavor being much better in the fresh basil. The great news is that this is true with all of the herbs you can grow in your aerologic system. Fresh herbs make a huge difference in the taste of cooking.

They are much easier to grow in an indoor aerologic kit herb garden. It has made life much easier for dedicated cooks who desire to only use fresh herbs for their cooking. Indoor geoponics systems can be purchased nearly everywhere and they are quite easy to set up and use.

Aerologic kits also produce fresh medicinal herbs like chamomile and Echinacea, for example. These homegrown herbs mean we no longer need to rely on engineers, pharmacists, and botanists to grow fresh herbs for our medicinal cabinet. They are built so all of the important nutrients, temperature and light are easy to control for the optimum growth of the herbs.

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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…)

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…)

Some gardeners hate it – other gardeners, like me, cannot get enough of it. What am I talking about? Moss. Moss is a simple little plant that does not have conventional roots, stems, or leaves. Moss is any species of the class ‘Bryopsida’ and is part of the division ‘Bryophyta’. ‘Bryophyta’ means the first green land plants to develop during the evolutionary process. Moss is thought to have evolved from very primitive vascular plants. Dinosaurs may have munched their way through tons of it and it has been used by gardeners in ancient cities to supply the backdrop to many beautiful gardens, perhaps even in the ‘Hanging Gardens of Babylon’.

It is interesting that moss has not given rise to any other kind of plant.

Because moss does not have the traditional vascular structures of true leaves, stems, and roots, its growth is limited to moist locations. Moss is very hardy and grows almost anywhere, all over the world except under the sea and in the desert sands. Moss normally grows vertically and of little use to humans’ apart from the use in gardening. (more…)

What do the terms grafting and budding mean?
Budding is a form of grafting. Grafting is the art of attaching a piece of one plant to another plant, creating a new plant. Grafting is usually done because the desired plant is extremely difficult if not impossible to propagate through other means. Dogwoods, for example, are easily grown from seed, however, it is next to impossible to grow a Pink Dogwood from seed. The seeds from a Pink Dogwood will produce seedlings that are likely to flower white.

The most common method for producing Pink Dogwood trees is to remove a single bud from a Pink Dogwood tree and slip it under the bark of a White Dogwood seedling. This process is known as budding, and the seedling is known as the rootstock. This is usually done during the late summer months when the bark of the White Dogwood seedling can be easily separated from the tree, and the seedling is about 1/4” in diameter. (more…)

Many years ago I bought a house in Wisconsin with a huge backyard. Large areas were devoted to fruit trees, vegetables, flowers and my special favorites like strawberries and raspberries. Growing raspberries has now become a must for any garden of mine. They taste great fresh or in desserts and are relatively easy to grow. My first experience really sold me. Got lucky I guess and after a few years had to invite friends over to pick them, just to keep up. Fresh raspberries in the grocery stores today cost an arm and a leg; so why not give them a try. Raspberries are a type of bramble, like blackberries and are also known as “Cane berries” Raspberries are different from blackberries in that the fruit has a hollow core that remains on the plant when you pick the raspberry. The most common way of growing raspberries is in rows spaced 6 to 12 feet apart. Raspberries are wonderful for jam, to eat fresh, or to use in a variety of desserts. Raspberries are a very healthy food; they are high in Vitamin C and naturally have no fat, cholesterol or sodium. (more…)

When you become a gardener, you have a seemingly unlimited number of options for what you can grow. There are fruits, vegetables, plants, and flowers, and within each category there is a wide variety of selections to choose from. One additional choice you have is herbs, which includes such plants as basil, caraway, and clove. Most herbs have amazing uses, and can be grown quite easily.

Some people find that growing herbs directly in one’s home is easy, as they can pull the herbs directly from the plants and put them on food. There are some pre-made systems that enable one to easily grow herbs in a small area of their kitchen. These are very innovative, and many homeowners have found them to be easier than purchasing all the materials individually and using them in the proper method. (more…)

This article is dedicated to planning a successful herb garden. If you have planted herb gardens in previous years this will help to revamp and refresh one already have.

Go to your Garden Center and see what herbs are available and suitable for your area. This is important if you are planning an outside herb garden. If you are planning an inside herb garden, since you control the atmosphere, you can choose whatever you like.

My suggestion here would be to select a theme for your herb garden. You can plant them for cooking herbs, cosmetic herbs, medicinal herbs or fragrance herbs use. Be realistic about your plants. Check your whole property to find the right spot. Look for sun or shade, type of soil, and how well the spot drains. These are all very import for picking the best place for your herb garden. (more…)

Nothing beats the flavor of fresh herbs added to your cooking. But if you’ve been to the supermarket lately, you’ve seen the prices – as much $5 for a small pack of herbs! – way out of the question if you’re a poor secretary trying to cut down on the food budget. For the same price, you can purchase a small plant that will provide you with the same fresh herbs year round.

Don’t worry – you don’t need a green thumb to grown your own herbs. All you need is a sunny spot, some water and a little tender, loving care. If you have garden space, you can grow herbs outdoors seasonally and dry the leftovers to keep throughout the winter. Or, if you have a small windowsill or sunny place in your home, you can grow herbs indoors in containers.

The first step is to pick the herbs you’d like to grow. I like to grow basil and oregano for Italian recipes and cilantro for Mexican dishes. And while I do have a garden outdoors during the summer, I grow a small container of each of these herbs inside so that I have fresh herbs available any time. Once you’ve identified your herbs, search online for their growth habits. A plant that grows three feet tall probably isn’t suited to an indoor container, and a plant that requires full sun to grow will likely do better outdoors (unless you have an extremely sunny window). (more…)