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.

From all this action of rubbing, which action we call mechanical, it is easy enough to understand how sand was formed. This represents one of the great divisions of soil sandy soil. The sea shores are great masses of pure sand. If soil were nothing but broken rock masses then indeed it would be very poor and unproductive. But the early forms of animal and vegetable life decaying became a part of the rock mass and a better soil resulted. So the soils we speak of as sandy soils have mixed with the sand other matter, sometimes clay, sometimes vegetable matter or humus, and often animal waste.

Clay brings us right to another class of soils clayey soils. It happens that certain portions of rock masses became dissolved when water trickled over them and heat was plenty and abundant. This dissolution took place largely because there is in the air a certain gas called carbon dioxide or carbonic acid gas. This gas attacks and changes certain substances in rocks. Sometimes you see great rocks with portions sticking up looking as if they had been eaten away. Carbonic acid did this. It changed this eaten part into something else which we call clay. A change like this is not mechanical but chemical. The difference in the two kinds of change is just this: in the one case of sand, where a mechanical change went on, you still have just what you started with, save that the size of the mass is smaller. You started with a big rock, and ended with little particles of sand. But you had no different kind of rock in the end. Mechanical action might be illustrated with a piece of lump sugar. Let the sugar represent a big mass of rock. Break up the sugar, and even the smallest bit is sugar. It is just so with the rock mass; but in the case of a chemical change you start with one thing and end with another. You started with a big mass of rock which had in it a portion that became changed by the acid acting on it. It ended in being an entirely different thing which we call clay. So in the case of chemical change a certain something is started with and in the end we have an entirely different thing. The clay soils are often called mud soils because of the amount of water used in their formation.

The third sort of soil which we farm people have to deal with is lime soil. Remember we are thinking of soils from the farm point of view. This soil of course ordinarily was formed from limestone. Just as soon as one thing is mentioned about which we know nothing, another comes up of which we are just as ignorant. And so a whole chain of questions follows. Now you are probably saying within yourselves, how was limestone first formed?

At one time ages ago the lower animal and plant forms picked from the water particles of lime. With the lime they formed skeletons or houses about themselves as protection from larger animals. Coral is representative of this class of skeleton-forming animal.

As the animal died the skeleton remained. Great masses of this living matter pressed all together, after ages, formed limestone. Some limestones are still in such shape that the shelly formation is still visible. Marble, another limestone, is somewhat crystalline in character. Another well-known limestone is chalk. Perhaps you’d like to know a way of always being able to tell limestone. Drop a little of this acid on some lime. See how it bubbles and fizzles. Then drop some on this chalk and on the marble, too. The same bubbling takes place. So lime must be in these three structures. One does not have to buy a special acid for this work, for even the household acids like vinegar will cause the same result.

Then these are the three types of soil with which the farmer has to deal, and which we wish to understand. For one may learn to know his garden soil by studying it, just as one learns a lesson by study.

About The Author;.
Frank Okorodudu is the author of the popular gardening Ebook “SEASONAL GARDENING A-Z And also a regular contributor at most gardening forums.If you want to design a garden, worthy of the envy of your neighbors. Then do yourself a favor by getting yourself a copy of my book. Click here to download your copy now! http://www.seasonalgardeningsecrets.com

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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…)

Even though there are a wide variety of plants to choose from when creating your garden or enhancing your landscape, you should know which type of soil you have before buying plants because many can only survive in certain soil conditions.

TYPES OF SOIL

Most soil falls under three categories: clay, loam, and sand. If you have loamy soil, then you can choose practically any plant you want and it will thrive because this is the best type of soil to have. Because most people do not have loamy soil, they must understand how to work with the soil they have. This includes buying fertilizer, lime for clay based soil, and not watering the soil as often so nutrients will always be present for plants to grow. (more…)

Consumers across the world have started gardens only to find growing anything vibrant and healthy seems impossible. The plants may grow for a brief period then wither away. Some consumers can’t even get plants to take root. The answer may not in better equipment or even a better gardener. The solution to your gardening problems may be found with a simple soil test.

Landscapers and professional gardeners know the importance of proper balances in the ground. Greenery requires effective chemical balance in order for plants to function properly. This is not something only for professional farmers or certified organic growers. It can be a cost effective method of ensuring your future plants will thrive.

Plants require nutrients in their soil. The proper test can make your life much easier. Your gardens will produce healthy crops. You can greatly reduce your costs for fertilizers and pesticides. If you can adequately nourish your plants they can fend of pests more effectively. Testing your grounds will give you the information you need to feed your soil before you plant. The tests can tell you if your ground is fertile or if there are harmful contaminates. (more…)

Growing with hydroponics is easier than growing in the field

If you have decided grow your own plants, then you have a decision to make right now. Do you want to grow your plants indoors with hydroponics, or do you want to grow your plants outdoors in nature. There are many advantages and disadvantages to growing outdoors versus indoors with hydroponics. This article will discuss the differences between growing indoors with hydroponics and growing outdoors with soil, and the many advantages of growing indoors with hydroponics versus growing with soil.

Let’s begin by talking about gardening outdoors. Gardening outdoors has a lot to the advantages and disadvantages versus growing indoors with hydroponics. First we’ll talk about some of the advantages of growing outdoors. That’s the sun. This sun is the most powerful light bulb you will ever find. The amount of lumens of the sun puts out is not matched by any light bulb that man can manufacture. Meaning that plants grown in nature with direct sunlight will be able to grow like monsters. The sun doesn’t cost you anything. Light bulbs can get a little pricey versus this sun which is in a huge source of free energy, if you own a good piece of land that is. (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…)

The advantages of growing in soil indoors

The difference here is similar to the difference between indoor and outdoor cultivation. Soil growing requires less equipment, investment and, generally, less work to control the various factors influencing growth.

The only specialist equipment required for the simplest indoor soil set-up would be seeds, organic nutrients, a light and a timer. The remaining equipment - soil, pots, fans, reflective materials and such should be easily available in most countries.

As an organic compound, soil is less sensitive to changes and small variations than a synthetic medium like rockwool. It could be called a self-regulating environment. Thus, pH testing equipment is usually not required. (more…)

The practice of Bonsai began in China and Japan hundreds of years ago, and is simple the miniaturization of naturally occurring plants and trees. Bonsai trees are not “special small” trees, but rather trees that ave been slowly miniaturized from their full size.

The main areas of tree care are the following:

Watering your Tree

Bonsai Trees require more watering than most plants, as they are grown in less soil and the soil itself is free draining (meaning it doesn’t retain the water and lets it pass through). The type of tree, the sunlight it is exposed to all factor in to how much watering should be done. You can tell if your Bonsai Tree needs water by looking at it, feeling the soil and if you prefer; by using a moisture meter to be certain. (more…)

The pH of your lawn soil is an important factor that affects how your lawn grasses will grow. The pH value is an indicator that tells you whether your soil is acidic or alkaline. A balanced soil pH will ensure that your grasses are growing optimally.

First of all, you need to do a soil test to find out the pH value. You can do this in two ways. The first is to buy a do-it-yourself soil pH test kit at any nursery near you and follow the instructions provided by the kit. The result is not highly reliable but it is enough to give you an approximate pH value.

The other way is to let a soil test lab do the test for you. Obviously this is more expensive than the first option but the result is much more complete and reliable. Moreover, the lab result often contains much more information about your soil and not just the pH value. A good lab report will also advise you the remedial action to take if the test reveal any potential problems with your lawn. (more…)

For the best house plants you should have the best possible soil for them. This may sound like a big order, but actually it isn’t. Today most home owners buy bagged soil and assume it is good. A potting mixture suitable for most house plants is a combination of loam, sand, peatmoss and/or leafmold. Loam is the name given to a soil which contains clay, sand, silt and humus. It varies from a sand loam to a clay loam, depending on the relative amounts of these two ingredients present. A medium loam is preferred, which may be obtained from arable land such as a cornfield or vegetable garden.

To do a really bang-up job in preparing soil for house plants the loam should consist of turfs cut from a rich pasture. But because the turfs should be cut in the spring and stacked for about six months prior to using the mixture and because many readers will have difficulty in obtaining it, we will forget the ideal loam for the time being. Leaf-mold, too, might present some difficulties because it takes about a year for tree leaves to decay.

The remaining ingredients are not ordinarily difficult to obtain. Horticultural peatmoss can be bought from almost any garden center or garden center. The sand should be coarse with particles ranging from 1/8 to 1/16 inch. Get it from a firm dealing in builders’ materials. If the loam is deficient in humus (ask your county agricultural agent or state experiment station), buy packaged humus to mix with it. (more…)

Long before you put a seed in the ground you may have already been set up for a less than bountiful harvest, or even worse no harvest at all. That is because the condition of your soil determines whether or not your vegetable plant will grow and produce.

There are ways to test your soil and of course the means to fix your soil if it need be. Let’s first talk about how you can test your soil.

There four methods you can use. The first is getting your local municipality or state EPA to test your soil conditions. You simply call them up, ask for a soil test kit, follow their instructions and for a fee they will analyze the soil you send them. Some may even send you recommendations on what steps you need to take in order to fix any problems that you may have. These test, depending on where you are in the country can be pricey and you can wait quite awhile as commercial farmers take precedence over the home vegetable gardener. (more…)

Nebari are the surface roots of your tree.

When they are thick and spreading in an even radial fashion [Typical for an upright tree.] they really do help to give your bonsai that ‘Aged Big Tree’ look.

As John Y. Naka said: “Don’t make your tree look like a bonsai, Make your bonsai look like a tree.”

Here is a Ficus b. cutting that I recently pruned back hard.

A better shot of a soil ingredient to show the particle size, This is a handful of {mostly} pine bark, [The organic component of my soil. Yes, It is wet.] (more…)

The advantages of growing with hydroponics versus soil growing

To understand what the advantages are growing with hydroponics, first you must understand what hydroponics is. Hydroponics is simple. Hydroponics is growing with water instead of soil. Typically a user add concentrated nutrients into the water, simulating the fertilizers found in soil.

With hydroponics you much more control over your grow then you do with soil, because simply adding the right amount of nutrients in the water guarantees that you will have the right amount of food for your plants. In soil it can be much more difficult to diagnose when you are short mineral trace elements, because you really don’t know what was missing to begin with.

However when using hydroponics nutrients are pre-mixed with exactly the right amount of trace elements. So by simply adding the proper amount of hydroponic nutrients to your water in the hydroponic system, you know that the nutrients have been mixed correctly and the plants have all the elements they need to survive. If your plants should never begin to get sick such as yellowing leaves due to some sort of nutrient deficiency all you have to do is dump your hydroponic systems water, and fill it with fresh water and fresh nutrients. (more…)

Proper soil preparation is the single most important step in making sure your new sod takes root and produces beautiful grass. Sodding is like painting; the hard part is in the prep and the finished product is only as good as the preparation. By taking the time to make sure your soil is properly tilled, fertilized and prepared, you are creating a firm foundation for a lawn that will last a lifetime. You’ll have a lawn that is dense and full, recovers quickly from wear, uses less water and fertilizer and needs less maintenance. When you add up the time and money you save in the long run, proper soil preparation is well worth the time and effort before you lay your new sod.

Professional sod farms follow this adage: The beauty is in the blades, but the action is in the roots. Soil preparation lets the roots grow deep and even so the sod can accept nutrients and moisture properly for excellent growth and beauty. (more…)

When you are planting tulips for next leap’s tulip patch, don’t make the same error that I did last year. Making a confound at planting time in the plunge is costly. If you make this oversight, you may as well as buy tulips next pounce instead of hurtful clean ones for your own tulip bouquet.

Are you indeed that you are putting tulip bulbs in the best soil to grow? If you have doubts about rising tulips as you diagram your skip backyard, consider these gardening tips.

Let me enlighten. I like tulips, even while the flower playhouse is only two to three weeks long from mid March to tardy May. Last fall, I planted about 60 purple tulip bulbs in my backyard. I eagerly waited at Spring to come so I could bouquet those gorgeous plants. The frost was long and cold with more snow cascade than in preceding years. So, I was timely for Spring to come. Nevertheless I was astounded. Of the 60 flower bulbs I planted, only one tulip flower grew and blossomed. I couldn’t total it out. Later in the Spring, I planted my impatiens. When I went to dig up my tulip bulbs, I discovered that they were smooth and syrupy - like pickled onions. (more…)