Plant Gardens 101

Gardens are becoming more popular as the economy continues tracking downward and people look for ways to trim their expenses. Composting is a major component to successfully increasing crop yields and minimizing material that ends up on landfills. If you have never built a compost bin, there are several designs to choose from, but essentially this article will focus on the basic concepts and designs that can be serve as a fundamental approach for the basic gardener.

Compost bins are essentially a place to recycle plant vegetation to create a robust material rich in nutrients like nitrogen that when added to the soil will help new crops grow more vigorously. Composting is a process that occurs naturally when older material like leaves, grass clippings and old rotting vegetation begins to breakdown and decompose into a rich fertile soil material. This provides minerals and other nutrients for plants, animals and other micro-organisms and along with moisture and external temperatures, the decomposition process becomes very efficient. (more…)

Growing your own food is becoming more popular as food prices rise and families look at cutting back expenses. Another reason the home garden is gaining in popularity is the number of food recalls due to poorly regulated food manufacturers and distributors. Salmonella, botulism and E-coli contamination is becoming very commonplace in the news.

People who have taken notice are looking at developing their own food supplies to become more independent and to minimize exposure to food supply issues.

So, as part of this new wave of do it yourself farmers we will look at some interesting varieties of vegetables that can adorn your landscape and bring a myriad of tastes to the table. Growing tomatoes, bell peppers, peas and green beans are common some of the common green veggies that you can find in the local home improvement store. However, if you are looking for more choices and want to step out of the box to seek more interesting foods to place in your bucket garden, these vegetables my be for you. (more…)