Plant Gardens 101

THE GENESIS OF SOIL.
Soil primarily had its beginning from rock together with animal and vegetable decay, if you can imagine long stretches or periods of time when great rock masses were crumbling and breaking up. Heat, water action, and friction were largely responsible for this. By friction here is meant the rubbing and grinding of rock mass against rock mass. Think of the huge rocks, a perfect chaos of them, bumping, scraping, settling against one another. What would be the result? Well, I am sure you all could work that out. This is what happened: bits of rock were worn off, a great deal of heat was produced, pieces of rock were pressed together to form new rock masses, some portions becoming dissolved in water. Why, I myself, almost feel the stress and strain of it all. Can you?

Then, too, there were great changes in temperature. First everything was heated to a high temperature, then gradually became cool. Just think of the cracking, the crumbling, the upheavals, that such changes must have caused! You know some of the effects in winter of sudden freezes and thaws. But the little examples of bursting water pipes and broken pitchers are as nothing to what was happening in the world during those days. The water and the gases in the atmosphere helped along this crumbling work.

(more…)

Bonsai Japanese White Pine How to care for Pinus Parviflora and Pentaphylla

The Japanese White Pine requires careful attention to maintain its health and train it as a bonsai. When you consider White Pine, you must learn cleaning techniques, growth, re-potting, soil, pruning, wiring, water, spray, feeding, etc. In addition, you want to consider peat, pests, disease, and more. Now, we cannot go into extensive details, however I can provide you a few helpful tips to get you started in growing Japanese White Pines as bonsai.

How to clean: Cleaning the plants is easy. Use your “thumb and index finger” to pluck the aged pine needles. The pine needles often turn yellowish during the fall. Next, prune the internal undergrowth or foliage and get rid of any decaying and/or injured sections. As well, get rid of any debris or decaying elements from the soil. Finally, you have cleaned your Japanese White Pine; however, you will need to move ahead. Remember the growth of the Japanese Whites is a slow process.

You want to clean the plants as needed, water, and provide nourishment for your White Pines as recommended. Wait five years before you re-pot the plants. You can re-pot the plants in a larger pot, which has a deep bottom. You want to treat the plants for a few weeks once you re-pot the plants. Early spring around March, you want to prune the roots. Prune around 1/3 length and get rid of the aged roots. You can leave aged soil about the roots so that the plant can re-establish its growth. Avoid cleaning at this stage. After you re-pot the plant, you want to, carefully watch its growth. (more…)

Ah, to this day I still remember my first gardening experience. It was such a disaster that I didn’t think I would ever want to garden again. I almost decided to turn my casual hobby into the most rage-inducing topic you could possibly bring up to me.

It all started a few weeks after I moved in to my first house. I was excited just to have my own grass to mow, since I had been in apartments and condos for quite a while. In between plans to paint walls and renovate the inside to exactly how I like, I thought it would be a good idea to start a fruit garden so that I could have some fresh produce and put my yard to use. At that point I didn’t really know anything at all about gardening. But still in my spunky youthful years, I decided I didn’t need help. How hard could it be to start a garden and grow stuff? After all, it happens in nature all the time and nobody even has to do anything. (more…)

GARDEN PESTS.
If we could garden without any interference from the pests which attack plants, then indeed gardening would be a simple matter. But all the time we must watch out for these little foes little in size, but tremendous in the havoc they make.

As human illness may often be prevented by healthful conditions, so pests may be kept away by strict garden cleanliness. Heaps of waste are lodging places for the breeding of insects. I do not think a compost pile will do the harm, but unkempt, uncared-for spots seem to invite trouble.

There are certain helps to keeping pests down. The constant stirring up of the soil by earthworms is an aid in keeping the soil open to air and water. Many of our common birds feed upon insects. The sparrows, robins, chickadees, meadow larks and orioles are all examples of birds who help in this way. Some insects feed on other and harmful insects. Some kinds of ladybugs do this good deed. The ichneumon-fly helps too. And toads are wonders in the number of insects they can consume at one meal. The toad deserves very kind treatment from all of us. (more…)