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Landscaping Ideas

2018-10-28T13:45:00.000-07:00

Landscaping Ideas For Garden

Coming up with your own landscaping idea

It is not all that easy to always come up with your own landscaping idea. In fact, most people are going to need a little help with their landscaping, it is a good thing that it is easy to find a landscaping idea to use.

There are a few places that you can get some fantastic landscaping ideas and probably the best place is the internet. You will find hundreds of sites on the internet that will all have a great landscaping idea or two for you to take and make your own. It is important that you put a lot of though and consideration into the landscaping of your yard in the front and in the back so finding the perfect landscaping idea is essential to your success.

You should start by taking a walk around your property in order to get a good sense of what can be done. See how the drainage is and check out the slopes and levels of your property. This way you will be able to tell which landscaping idea is right for you right off the bat. The more you notice the easier things will be. It would be terrible to choose a landscaping idea and then start work only to find that it cannot be completed halfway through due to some aspect of your property. This is why you need to find out all that you can about each landscaping idea that you are contemplating using.

And before you choose the final landscaping idea that you are going to use take a little extra time to learn the basics of landscaping. This is imperative if you have never done any work like this before. If you re new to the whole world of landscaping then you might want to take out a book or two from the library. This way you do not have to pay for them and you will still get all that they have to offer. There is a lot of be gained from reading some good landscaping books, you might even find a landscaping idea in them.

If you know that you want to change the landscaping in your front yard and your back yard then you need to use a landscaping idea that will incorporate both of these. Your front and back yards should flow together, this will give you the best possible design so look at a landscaping idea that will give you this kind of harmony and you will have a better yard for it.

The product offers step by step blueprints and pictures of over 7250 different landscaping designs. The creator, Helen Whitfield offers a simple, efficient and user-friendly online gallery for landscaping inspiration to design your dream landcsape. Inside this massive database, you'll find 1'000s of landscaping pictures in 60+ categories consisting of:

Backyards
Front Yards
Gardens
Patios
Decks
Walkways
Lawns
And Many More...

This massive collection of photos, ideas, and simple step-by-step details is designed to help home owners make some progress with their plan to liven up their home with the perfect landscaping.

Enhance the Growth of Agro Product With Bio Control Agent

2014-04-21T03:24:00.001-07:00

Agriculture is one of the most important parts of every country and most important concept behind agriculture is food. It defines the political and social stability of any nation. Agro-Products have become one of the important things for human beings and animals, these products are essential to survive. Agriculture industry is also forming several raw materials for numerous plants. A variety of crops are grown including food crops like chillies, ground nuts, maize, onions, sugar, tea, rice, sesame seeds and more. Bacteria play a major role in enhancing the efficiency of soil for the food crops. These are the smallest microbes present in the soil.

Some of the bacteria are fragile that can be killed by slight changes in the soil environment. There are some bacteria which can lie dormant for few decades and keeps on waiting for some favourable conditions. Some of the bacteria release antibiotic substances and gain advantage in the process of extracting toxic substances. Different types of bacteria include decomposers, nitrogen fixers, disease suppressers, Aerobes and anaerobes and Actinobacteria. Bacteria are the kind of decomposers which play an important role in the decomposition of organic materials.

Decomposition takes place in the early stages when moisture level is high. In the later stages, fungi tend to dominate. Pseudomonas fluorescence is one of the popular examples of the decomposers bacteria. Addition of these bacteria to soil has not proved to speed up formation of compost and humus in soil. While we talk about pseudomonas then one would tend to panic as they can cause some infections in human beings. When this bacterium is applied to soil then it can aid plants resistance to other harmful bacteria. These bacteria generate an antibiotic which is helpful in the growth of plants. They can act as the bio-control agents. They also play another environmental role which is bioremediation. This is a kind of treatment of organic contaminants in the soil and surface.

These bacteria have the ability to digest some organic compounds which may create pollution including petroleum, crude oil compounds, coal solvents and others. Like human beings, soil also requires some nutrients and minerals for the growth. Bacteria management involves the addressing of several health problems in soil like acidity, they ensure about the good ground cover and build organic matter. There are several manufacturers which are offering several bio-control agents for the crops which are helpful in enhancing the food crops or the agro products.

Bacteria are the group of micro-organisms which can be proved as the antibiotics to crops. These bacteria are helpful in addressing various kinds of health problem in soil including acidity and they generate the organic matter to enhance the agro products.Mr. Murughasan, in 1974 at the tender age of 24, setting out from nagapattinam, a small town in tamil nadu, india, with a paltry sum of rs. 750 in his pocket and a dream in his heart, started his ambitious business journey. He tirelessly went after his passion, led from the front, ignited the same passion, commitment and sense of pride in achieving the goals amongst his colleagues and team members, and turned a small agro based company into a huge, successful business venture in the international market. Read more : Isnare

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Constructing and Maintaining Organic Vegetable Garden

2012-12-21T21:28:00.001-08:00

To grow your organic vegetable garden is not a difficult thing and in fact many people who enjoy gardening are now turning to organic gardening methods. This doesn't mean that you need to grow only organic herbs and vegetables in your garden. Organic gardening can encompass all aspects of gardening, including a flower garden or an ornamental garden as well. ( Learn How To Grow Organic Food With Less Than 8 Hours Work A Year.)

Just because you want to have an organic vegetable garden that doesn't mean that you only need to stick with the organic vegetable garden. You can expand to include such things as herbs as well if you like, not mention flowering plants and others. (How to grow herbs and veggies in small space)

The one thing that you do want to look out for when you're growing your organic vegetable garden alongside your flower garden, is that your flower garden is also grown organically. After all, it kind of defeats the purpose of growing an organic vegetable garden if right next to it you use all sorts of chemical pesticides and fertilizers in your flower bed. (How to create white house garden)

Other than that you should be fine when constructing and maintaining your own organic vegetable garden, but if you feel that you neighbor's pesticide filled garden is too close to your own garden and that all your good efforts are going to waste you might want to look at either moving your own organic vegetable garden further away, or using pots, tubs and troughs to grow your vegetable garden.

The first thing that you need to decide when planting your organic vegetable garden is what types of vegetables you want to have. The next thing is to finding the right place to have your garden, along with how large you want, or can have, your garden. It is entirely possible to grown your organic vegetable garden in a small closed off patio on the 44th floor of your high rise apartment as long as you are willing to accept your limitations and work with them.

This means being aware that although you might want to plant an acre's worth of organic vegetable crops, you will instead have to make do with a small 4x4 or even smaller sized enclosure in which to grow your organic vegetable garden.

(A Complete Hydroponic Gardening Guide)

Once all of these things have been factored in and you have a rough idea of what you want in your organic vegetable garden, and how big you want your garden to be, you can then move on to the serious subject of just where to get your organic vegetable seed or plant stock from.

Here, you might have to make a decision as to whether you want your organic vegetable garden to be planted from completely organic seed or plant stock, or whether, if you have difficulty in obtaining these, you want to resort to using plant stock from a nursery which is not organic, but which you will grow from scratch utilizing organic methods. Once all these are done, you can then get started on your organic vegetable garden. Read more many more - articlebase,

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Make your own liquid fertilizer

2012-10-14T11:06:00.002-07:00

Liquid Fertilizers Make You Plant Grow Healthier. Read the benefit of using it .

Making your own liquid fertilizer is a simple task that can be done in just a few minutes. Then it's just a matter of waiting for it to mature, which can take up to a month.

The basic equipment you need is a large plastic container with a tightly fitting lid. The container must never have been used for toxic chemicals.

Make different brews, depending on what you're wanting to accomplish. When it has matured, dilute to a pale yellow colour, otherwise it may be too strong. Then use as you need it.

Weeds
Often if you have a particular weed problem in your garden, it is there to help restore the balance of nutrients in the soil. If you make a liquid manure from that particular weed and use it as a foliar spray, it will often reduce the recurrence of that weed.

Also, deep-rooted weeds such as dandelion, dock, yarrow, burnet and wire-weed bring nutrients to the surface that have leached down into the sub-soil Nettle ‘Tea'

A brew made from stinging nettles (Urtica) will encourage growth in spring. Use gloves when pulling up the nettles. You need to fill your container with nettles and completely cover with water. Allow the mix to ferment until the nettles have completely broken down.

Fish
Place fish scraps in your container and just cover with water. Make sure you have a tight fitting lid to prevent flies getting to it (and the smell from getting to you). Let it ferment for about a month. It should be mostly decomposed by then. This brew is a rich source of trace elements, so you need to use it very diluted.

Comfrey
If you want to give your fruiting plants, such as pumpkins and tomatoes a boost, try a liquid manure made from comfrey as it is very high in potash. It will break down quickly and with very little solid residue as its leaves contain a high amount of water.

Compost
If you need a fungal preventative, make a tea from compost. The compost must have some animal manure included for this to work. Put some compost in a hessian bag and soak in water for a few days. You'll need to dilute it to the colour of weak tea, then spray on plant leaves every 10 – 14 days. Source : Julie Villani, ArticleBase

See Video How To Make A FREE liquid Fertilizer

Read Other Method to make own liquid fertilizers
Method 2

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How To Double Your Tomato Harvest,

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How To Grow Tomatoes from Seed

2012-08-27T16:47:00.001-07:00

Read the history of Tomatoes

First, lets cover what is logically the first step. Germinating the tomato from seeds to seedlings.

The "freshness" of seeds is very important . The shelf life of a tomato seed is generally about 4 years, anything older you will not have much luck germinating unless it has been stored properly. Proper storage of seeds would be in cool, dry conditions. (Read How To Double Your Tomato Harvest)

The soil choice for starting your seedlings is important as well. Soil from your garden is not recommended as it may contain organisms that could be detrimental to your new seedlings. A safe logical choice would be a commercially available seed-starting mix from your local nursery. These mixes are prepared specifically with the seedlings best interest at heart. It is not necessary to choose one boosted with fertilizer, as they may do more harm than good.

Prepare your mix by taking enough to fill your pots and putting it in a clean vessel. It would be wise to let your mix sit overnight so it can settle & soak up all of the moisture before using it!

Your container selection for germinating your tomato seeds can be a varied as you like. You can use anything you like from plastic drinking cups to professional style "flats". Make sure that whatever you use, there are holes on the bottom for drainage of excess water & you have cleaned them with a weak bleach solution, then rinse well. (Read tomato definition)

Since seedlings can be ready to transplant in as little to 6-8 weeks, we want to be ready.

To start planting seeds, first take some of your prepared potting mix and fill your clean flat or cups. We then want to take a seed and place it in the center of the container. We place it in the center, because we do not want the roots to hit the sides of the container while growing. Press the seed gently down into the soil about 1/8 of an inch & cover with a pinch of potting mix. Pack the soil firmly enough to ensure the newly planted seed is secure & in contact with the soil. We need this contact to help transfer moisture from the soil to the tomato seed.
At this time you may want to consider some kind of cover for the germinating seeds. Remember to keep the soil moist as no seed will germinate in dry soil!

So.. now we have tomato seeds planted in the proper soil, in the proper containers, at the proper time. Now what?

well... Place your future tomato plants in a warm area this can be anywhere, just make sure it's warm (70 - 80 degrees F) . Light is not needed at this stage as the seeds are below ground and no photosynthesis is taking place. Under the right conditions, the new tomato plants will start poking out of the soil in about 6-10 days. Once the seedlings pop out of the soil, they will need light, and tons of it.

The new seedlings will need to have lots of light to get a fighting chance at growing properly. To little light an the tomato seedlings stems will grow long and stringy, we definitely do not want this!
If you find your seedlings shooting up right after germination, growing long, looking stringy and weak, they have not received enough light. You should consider discarding these plants and trying again because the likely hood of these plants producing is virtually nil.
I use a grow light purchased from my local hardware store. It's basically a florescent shop light with grow bulbs in them. Using a light is really the best way to get your seedlings going because the need 16 to 18 hours of light per day! So i would recommend purchasing grow lights, if not, try to buy lights that mimic natural light.(Read How To Double Your Tomato Harvest)

When you set up your light, set it up just above the tops of your seedlings and turn it on. Make sure your set-up allows for the lights to be raised as the tomato plants grow. so we have our little seedlings growing along, good soil, nice moisture, lots of light...

You will notice the first two leaves that develop are elliptical in shape, these leaves are called "cotyledons".

The wikipedia.org description for cotyledons: " is a significant part of the embryo within the seed of a plant. Upon germination, the cotyledon becomes the embryonic first leaves of a seedling...The cotyledons contain the stored food reserves of the seed. As these reserves are used up, the cotyledons may turn green and begin photosynthesis, or may wither as the first true leaves take over food production for the seedling."

So those first two leaves are extremely important as they contain & produce the plants food until the first true leaves can emerge. Take care not to disturb the plants during this stage, if you lose a cotyledon, you may lose your plant!

When you notice new leaves emerging from the stem, in between the cotyledons, rejoice! These are your tomato plant's first true leaves, a sign that you plants are on their way! Now when you tomato seedlings' has a few true leaves growing, it's time to transplant to a larger container. Remember not to count the cotyledons in this! Check out the graphic which outlines 3 stages of the tomato germinating stages. The middle plant is ready to go to a bigger container so the roots can develop properly and grow strong.

Then gently take your seedling, ease them out of their old container and place them in the middle of their new, larger container. Take more potting soil and fill in around the tomato seedling, building the soil up the stem of the tomato plant, just below where the cotyledons are. You may think that you have planted the tomato seedling too deep, but no worries, you haven't!

Transplanting you tomato seedlings in this manner is beneficial for the plant, as it will develop new roots out of the tiny hairs on the side of the stem. So in essence, you helping the tomato become stronger & more resilient by providing more surface area for the root system. Keep on keeping on with you watering & lighting schedule. And keep an eye on the weather outside as well.

After a while if you want to fertilize your plants, this is an acceptable stage to do so. Fertilize sparingly though! A weak fertilizer is the best for plants in this stage of development

Depending on what containers you started with, and what you transplanted to, you may need to transplant a second or third time to make sure your tomato plants do not become root-bound. Root-bound is a condition where the plants roots have covered every possible area inside the container and is now growing into itself , in a tangled mass, like a bowl full of spaghetti. A root-bound plant which is transplanted into the garden without having its roots untangled will not overcome the problem themselves. This is one reason why we want to transplant the tomato seedlings to bigger & bigger containers as they grow inside. If your intention is to grow them on the patio, keep transplanting them until you eventually finally transplant them into the final container.

Be sure to check out more tips on growing tomatoes at www.tomato-blog.com, Articlebase,

Planting A Beautiful Vegetable Garden At Home

2012-08-06T01:02:00.004-07:00

Are you looking to plant your very own vegetable garden but you're not sure how to get started? Planting a healthy vegetable garden provides so many benefits including an abundance of healthy organic food and saving thousands on your grocery bills. I don't know about you but I still remember the days when a tomato from the supermarket tasted like a tomato, not anymore unfortunately.

Vegetable Gardening For Beginners - Tips
Preparation is the key to growing a beautiful and healthy vegetable garden. Planning is critical for setting up a vegetable garden that you can harvest every daily. Vegetable gardening for beginners does not have to be difficult with the correct planning.

First you must decide on your plot, the area for your garden. The ideal spot is somewhere that receives plenty of morning sun and protection from the elements such as wind. Although you maybe limited with the space you have available don't be discouraged as you will be shocked at how much you can grow by maximizing the space you have. Ensure there is sufficient drainage for water run off.

Importance Of Soil Quality
One of the most common vegetable gardening for beginners tips you will hear is never underestimate soil quality. Soil is the life line of a garden do not underestimate it's importance. You must ensure that your soil preparations include checking the soil and preparing it by testing its pH levels. The ideal pH level for your soil is 6.5, if you do not have a test kit you can go to your local garden outlet and let them test it for you.

Don't stress if your levels are out of whack for the moment, you can purchase garden lime that will improve the pH levels of your soil. In a nutshell your pH levels will determine how much nutrients your vegetables will be able to receive.

Preparing Your Plot
Dig your plot and turn your soil over, ensure you dig into a depth of about 12" (30cm) and remove any weeds you find by hand. Avoid using weed killers and they can effect your soil structure and levels. Once your pH levels are in healthy range, wait 4-5 weeks before you begin planting.

The vegetables that you grow will dependent on where you live. Speak to your gardening outlet that will buy seedlings from for the most suitable vegetables.

Ask about purchasing some organic fertilizer which will be the life blood of your garden. Organic fertilizers such as animal manure, blood and bones as well as compost are terrific choices for providing essential nutrients and moisture.

Growing Vegetables Year Round
The key to planting a successful garden is to have vegetables that you can harvest year round. By doing this you can rotate different vegetables to help ensure the health of your gardening by limiting pests and diseases. One of the most common vegetable gardening for beginners mistakes is insufficient planning and set up process.

If you set up your garden correctly you will have vegetables that you can harvest every single day. With the right planning your garden should require very maintenance and upkeep as it continues to provide fresh, organic food for you and your family for years to come. Source : , Peter T. Gregory ,

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Establish Garden Herbs

2012-07-20T12:30:00.001-07:00

Hydroponics Gardening And How To Do It Indoors

2012-07-10T17:26:00.003-07:00


Click Here How To Setup Home Gardening.

You may have heard of hydroponics gardening before and got either interested or turned off by its gibberish sounding moniker. What exactly is hydroponics may ask.

Hydroponics was derived from the Greek word hydro, which means "water" and ponos, which means "labor or water-working". Hydroponics gardening involves growing plants with their roots in other nutrient solutions and without soil.

Hydroponics gardening is as simple as ordinary gardening. Both of them necessitate sufficient light, water, temperature, light, and humidity. However, with regular gardening, several plants could not survive being indoors. On the other hand, when gardening indoors using hydroponics, growing plants indoors can be a cinch.

In setting up and planning for hydroponics gardening, one may consider these simple guidelines on how to do hydroponics gardening:

1. Hydroponics gardening means that no soil is used but fertilization is required.

Be aware that even if hydroponics gardening does not require the use of soil, your plants need their supplement which they get from water or their food. This is one of the major considerations in hydroponics gardening since it sustains the plants. One has to make sure that this nutrient solution maintains a pH level of 5 to 6 after dilution. In hydroponics gardening, the plants should be watered more than three times a day by using a pump and a timer.

2. Untampered temperature required.

If your hydroponics garden is located indoors, the most suitable temperature is between 71 to 76 degrees Fahrenheit. Of course, this temperature may change depending on the different types of plant you are working on, e.g. tropical plants.

3. Don't be light on lighting.

Place your plants somewhere they can receive ample amount of light. If you will place your hydroponics garden where there is not enough light, you could use a High pressure Sodium lights or bulbs, which emit artificial illumination.

4. Humidity is a necessity.

In hydroponics gardening, a little amount of air will do. When the room’s temperature rises, the air will be able to hold the sufficient amount of moisture your plants will need.

Another convenience the hydroponics gardener can enjoy is being able to fully automate this kind of gardening system. Since it is water-based, the gardener don't have to attend to his plants that much. This is because water can be reused.

With hydroponics, an excellent yield of quality plants can be easily achieved. Hydroponics systems are also very easy to make from common materials that are readily available in most hardware stores. Source:FreeArticles

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Ten Ways To Cut Your Gardening Costs!

2012-06-16T18:10:00.001-07:00

How to bid on food cost with gardening ?

1. Sow your own

The garden centre is an expensive source of plants. Tomato plants were 89p at my local store this year -- yet a packet of seed costs well under two pounds! Growing plants from seed is straightforward, and you'll get lots of advice on The Fool's Gardening discussion board. When it comes to plants like chillies, tomatoes, courgettes and squash, I don't even buy the seeds: each year's crop is grown from seed kept back from some of the previous year's crop.

2. Know what you're planting

Of course, vegetable plants are only part of the picture -- a lot of the plants that are so expensively going through the tills and checkouts at garden centres this time of year are flowers, shrubs and bedding plants. But how many of these are actually destined to be planted in locations where they will flourish? How many will wilt and die?

So no matter how pretty the picture on the plastic label, do some basic research. Is it suitable for your garden? Where will it grow best? And how do I care for it? The plantforlife website, for example, offers a freely downloadable Plant Advice Guide, produced in conjunction with Blue Peter gardener Chris Collins -- so you may even be able to rope the kids in to help, too!

3. Don't overlook discount retailers

Perhaps surprisingly, discount retailers Aldi and Lidl (and also Woolworth's and Wilkinson's) often come in for praise on our Living Below Your Means board for fruit trees and other perennials, such as raspberry canes -- check out this series of posts, for example, where shoppers compare notes on fruit trees at Lidl and Aldi.

4. Take cuttings

If a friend or neighbour has a plant you like the look of, ask if you can take a cutting. The success rate is reasonable (and gets better with practice), and the cost -- free! You can't get cheaper than that! Here's some excellent advice from sandersj89, a stalwart on the Fool's gardening board, offering excellent advice on taking cuttings.

Seeds

5. Don't over-buy

Not every plant can come from last year's seed: we all like to try something different, and some plants don't readily lend themselves to seed-saving. Avoid having loads of unsown seed by not buying more than you need! (Be honest: how many unopened packets of seed have you got?) Another option: go 'halves' with friends or neighbours, a policy that can be carried forward to sowing and potting on, too, with ready-for-planting plants simply swapped at the end.

6. Search out cheap seed

Still another option is cheap or end-of-season seed. eBay, for example, has quite a range on offer as this search highlights. Don't forget your local supermarket, either: seeds from Tesco are reasonably priced, while Lidl's range is superb and its prices stunning. Watch out too, for the end-of-season sale at Woolworth's -- spotted and posted about most years, usually, by some kind Fool on the Living Below Your Means or Gardening boards.

Here's last year's post, for example. Look at the date (early June), and make a note in the diary to watch out for next season's sell-off! (Hint: Our local Woolies has now taken the discounted seeds off the shelves, and put them in the stockroom at the back. You have to ask staff to bring out the boxes they are in -- but they still go through the till at 60p. I bought some more myself, today, saving several pounds.)

7. A pinch will do!

Every year, I see people who've sowed an entire packet of seed when all they needed was a few plants. Often, just a pinch or two of seed will do -- so save the rest for next year! With the foil sachet sealed shut, and kept in a dry place indoors (not the garden shed!), the germination rate will hardly differ. We've a packet of Lidl basil seeds, purchased for a ludicrously cheap 35 pence or so, that's now in its third year! For other LBYM tips on vegetables and herbs, see this post from popular Fool poster Freda42.

Avoid, too, sowing things for which your garden isn't suited, or sowing when it's too wet/ too cold/too dry. There's nothing more frustrating than sowing seeds and nurturing young plants that subsequently die. The Plant Advice Guide mentioned above can help, also take a look at this post by sandersj89

Finally, if you're a fan of home-grown beans and peas, don't buy packeted seed. Old-fashioned pet and garden shops, as well as farm supply shops and some garden centres, sell seed loose, by the scoopful from tubs. It's much cheaper, and you can get the exact quantity you want, rather than having to buy in multiples of a packet.

Garden furniture

8. Impulse-buying is expensive

Garden furniture is a major expense. Don't just pop into the nearest garden centre or buy on impulse at the local out-of-town DIY shed: buying online can save a lot of money.

And buying new isn't the only game in town. Check your local newspaper's small ads for second-hand items. Many Fools have reported favourable experiences with Freecycle -- register with your local branch, and watch out for people giving away unwanted items rather than dumping them. Recycling centres are worth a quick scout, too.

As ever, give yourself ample time to seek out the best bargain -- the queues at garden centres are driven by people who have to have that special garden item NOW. Instead, why not wait until the end of the season, when many items are marked down in price?

And if you're handy with tools, why not build your own garden furniture as a winter project? Very satisfying, very cheap, and very likely to outlast mass-produced products. You'll find plans here and here. Amazon sell books of plans, too.

9. Look after what you've got

Speaking of 'outlasting', ask yourself why new garden furniture is needed in the first place. Could it be -- cough -- that you haven't looked after the last lot?

The garden is a harsh environment, and a little basic maintenance goes a long way. Plastic furniture lasts longer when protected from ultraviolet light by covers, while hardwood responds well to teak oil. Buy a couple of litres (bought from a builder's merchant or other low-cost source, naturally), and brush on liberally, ideally after over-wintering somewhere dry. Another tip: replace ordinary steel screws and bolts -- which are liable to rust -- with brass or stainless steel ones, first squeezing a drop of oil into the screw hole.

Garden tools and machinery

10. Quality counts

What about garden tools -- forks, spades, hoes, rakes, shears and the like? My retailer of choice here isn't our local garden centre, but our local recycling centre, where unwanted tools are sold at either £1 or £2.

What's more, the tools you'll get this way are often much sturdier, and of higher quality, than their flimsy modern equivalents. And don't overlook items with a broken handle, which my local site lets you have for free. A new handle costs £4 or less, so even a broken tool can be a bargain, given a few minutes with a vice and a hammer. (Hint: while hardware stores sell the correct soft iron rivets for attaching new handles, 6mm or 8mm bolts work just as well, and are easier to remove!) Source : Lovemoney

Free Urea Based Fertilizer for Gardening

2012-05-16T17:24:00.000-07:00

Urea is among popular fertilizer use in agriculture. Commercial urea is paddy field.

Studies indicate that each person's waste fluids can provide enough nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium to grow a year's supply of wheat and maize for that person. According to some studies, human waste can be an even more effective fertilizer than animal manure. (What is urea?)

Urine, which comprises 90 percent of human waste, contains about 80 percent of our waste's fertilizer value. It can be applied to field crops without treatment because it is generally sterile. By the way "fresh urine" does not contain any bacteria, unless the person has a urinary tract infection, so you could even use it to wash out wounds without causing any infections,

Human urine can be used as an alternative to chemical fertilizer to reduce pollution in air, water and soil and help avoid or control other environmental hazards which surface due to the use of chemical fertilizer, Human urine contains nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium at a much higher ratio than in commercial fertilizers and is environmentally safe to use.

If you want to use urine to fertilize your gardens, keep in mind that when urea becomes ammonia, it also becomes volatile and part of it strips into the air. Both ammonia and nitrates are also very soluble and if not picked up by plant's root systems can enter groundwater with the irrigation water. So it would be best to keep gardens moist but not over watered, but these are similar problems faced by people who use other forms of fertilizers.

Problems urine causes

Most toilets use between 50 and 100 litres of water daily to flush away one to 1.5 litres of human excrement.

Urine is the largest contributor of nutrients to waste water, estimated as 50% of phosphorus and 80% of nitrogen.

The high level of nutrients in sewerage runoff leads to the consequent growth of algae, resulting in the lack of oxygen and the death of plants and animals on river, estuarine and sea beds.

Problems Chemical Fertilizers cause

Serious environmental hazards are often associated with the use of chemical fertilizers. In industrialized countries, for example, indiscriminate use of these substances has polluted water supplies. Dangerously high levels of chemicals have been reported in nearly one-fourth of Europe's groundwater supplies.

Advantages of Urine Fertilizer

One advantage in using urine, as a fertilizer is that much of the urine is available in ideal chemical forms: nitrogen is in the form of urea (ammonia/ammonium which is present at concentrations of approximately 3.5 g/l), phosphorus as superphosphate and potassium as an ion. Urine is almost free from heavy metals - for example, cadmium - because even if we ingest them, they will tend to bind to the liver and kidneys, making the urine much lower in such contaminants than commercial fertilizers.

Urea outside the body quickly becomes ammonia and will be oxidized by special bacteria (called nitrifiers) into nitrates. All these 'reactive' nitrogen sources can be used to form amino groups for new amino acids, thus then being made into proteins. So make other steps to encourage the soil life in your garden, eg things lie mulching etc.

It helps conserve pure or town drinking water

Reduces the rate and amount of chemical fertilizer runoff into the groundwater and surrounding waterways

Reduces the amount of sewerage runoff

Reduces nutrient build-up in waterways and estuaries and oceans

Reduces your gardening costs, because of less reliance on buying chemical fertilizers.

Uses

Probably best used for non-edible plants, green manure crops and fruit orchards, though there is some usage being noted for edible crops. Apply in under fruiting plants, not onto foliage and fruits.

In a Hydroponics set-up, use it diluted, probably at a ratio of either 10- 20 to 1(water- urine), but keep a close eye on both the ph level and the level of individual salts of the mix in the nutrient storage container.

Dilute urine is also a good additive to a compost pile. Urea also helps break down lignin, accelerating the decomposition of woody materials. On the other hand, urine from somebody with a urinary tract infection or from unknown sources should probably be pasteurised or put in a long-term compost pile (of a year or longer)
before it is used on food crops.

When using a urine fertilizer in container plants, a 10:1 (water: urine) ratio can quickly burn plants in medium to small containers because of the salt and urea build-up, even at a 15:1 dilution rate is very strong for the medium to small containers. While at 20:1 you can use it more frequently (once or twice a week) with good benefits and little danger.

Unfermented urine can supposedly be sprayed as a fungicide. Indigenous people in southeastern Mexico claim that the use of urine as a fungicide was a traditional Mayan practice. However there needs to be a lot more research as to the validity or not of their claims.

While in Korea, they spray the undiluted urine as an insecticide, but again I do not know of any research to prove or disprove their claims.

So why not get out there, and help the environment by assisting in reducing the nutrient flow into the natural ground water and water ways, while saving yourself a bundle in fertilizer costs. Source

Related topic

1. Urea function in plant development 1 & 2

2. Another sources for urea 1 & 2

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Liquid Fertilizer

2012-05-02T17:38:00.000-07:00

A transplanting solution aka Liquid fertilizer feeding solutions have long been popular. Home gardeners use them because they are safe and can be used in many more ways than dry fertilizers and produce results faster. For this reason many homeowners believe liquid plant foods are better than fertilizers made as granulars, like those used in lawn fertilizer.

Liquid feeding is not a fad. As early as the 16th Century it was found that water coming from muddy streams stimulated the growth of plants while rain water had no such effect. Water in which animal manures had soaked was found to contain plant nutrients by the Chinese in the 17th Century. However, the procurement of water is a laborious process and retarded their use.

Fertilizer solutions may be made at home, bought in bottles or in a form of soluble dry salts. There are a large number of concerning applications of liquid fertilizer for garden use. Dry fertilizers sold for mixing in water are numerous from Scotts, Miracle Gro, Dyna Gro and Schultz. Which is the best liquid form or solution to grow a plant is difficult to say.

A number of years ago large number liquid foods were compared for use as transplanting solutions and the largest yield was obtained with a 1-2-1 ratio (nitrogen-phosphoric acid-potash). This mixture is comparable to a 5-10-5 dry fertilizer which is commonly used for growing commercial crops.

In deciding which one to use, the only thing I can say is to figure out where you get the most units of plant food for a dollar. These dry mixtures are a little more expensive than dry fertilizer applications because water soluble salts are more difficult to get.

Fertilizer solutions sold in bottles, jugs or barrels are a different story. A gallon of these liquids is now made up to contain 10 pounds of fertilizer. They are highly concentrated and must be diluted before they are used.

Here again, I can only say that the 1-2-1 ratio has given excellent results. Whether this ratio will stand up under close scrutiny is still some-what of a question. One important factor to keep in mind, however, is that any fertilizer applied dry or in solution will not do much good if the soil is already fertile enough.

“NO fertilizer Should Be Used Unless There Is A Need For It”

Liquid applications have given a good account of themselves when used as transplanting solutions or as starter solutions when applied directly on the seed when sown.

Transplanting solutions contain the equivalent of 6 to 8 pounds of 5-10-5 in 100 gallons of water or a table-spoon to a gallon. About 1/4 to pint of the solution is applied to the roots before they are covered.

Two precautions to observe, however, are:

Don’t have any dry fertilizer in the soil surrounding the roots
Don’t press the soil around the roots when they are set with the solution

I have gotten yield increases of 2 to 3 pounds per plant with transplanting solutions over using plain water. On sweet potatoes I have harvested 35 bushels more with the transplanting solution. Shrubs, trees and flowering plants may be fertilized with trans-planting or starter solutions.

Liquid fertilizer applications may, likewise, be used for side dressing or any other purposes where dry fertilizer is used. The crop usually dictates the concentration.

They may be used as they come or diluted with one or two parts of water. In most cases 10 pounds in 50 gallons are sufficient. These solutions may also be placed in a deep furrow and the plants set over it with 2 or 3 inches of soil between the solution and the roots. This method has given exceptionally good results on unproductive sandy soils.

Advantages Over Dry Fertilizer

Liquid fertilizing solutions have other advantages over dry fertilizers. When superphosphate is applied to the average soil we can expect to obtain between 20 to 25 percent back in our plants. When the same amount of superphosphate is applied in solution, we can recover practically all of it.

For this reason I have obtained as good yields with 500 pounds of 5-10-5 in solution as I got with a ton of dry fertilizer where phosphorus was deficient and nitrogen and potash were not limiting factors.

I had some misgivings about applying liquid fertilizer on acid soils, because I expected to see the phosphorus become unavailable. This did not happen. If anything, the response was better than on a limestone soil. Also when using liquid applications we must keep in mind that magnesium and calcium are not present in the liquid forms and, if needed, we must supply them in the form of limestone.

The newest development in the use of liquid feeding applications, of course, is the spraying of the solution on the foliage and produce great results. Such, methods offer possibilities of growing more crops with the same amount of fertilizer. Source : Plant Care.com

Vegetable Gardening - Natural Pest Control

2012-03-31T21:03:00.000-07:00

The Tasteful Garden promotes natural pest control methods such as keeping your garden clean and weeded, using mulches and good compost in the soil, and organically made pesticides only when absolutely necessary.We believe that healthy, happy, plants will have a naturally immunity to pests and diseases and in the long run can protect our environment from overuse of pesticides.

In many cases, when you see damage to the leaves of a vegetable plant, the plant is not in danger of dying, only being nibbled on by an occasional insect. Other times, your plants can be literally eaten away overnight by some hungry snails, cut off at the base by a cutworm, or dug out of the ground by a squirrel. This can be heartbreaking when it happens but keep in mind that we share the earth with these creatures and your garden looks like a really great place to hang out! Most of the time, simple methods which have been used for many years by gardeners are the best way to combat the situation.

Below we have listed some of the more common pests for gardeners and the easiest technique to get rid of one or two, as well as a more thorough way to eliminate a full-on assault by these creatures.If you do use any type of commercially bought pesticides, always make sure to read the directions carefully and never use more than is recommended.

Even organic pesticides can be dangerous and can kill honeybees and birds if overused. Killing every insect in your garden is not a good idea because many beneficial insects which eat other pests can be killed and this can create a worse problem. There are also many living creatures in the soil which help to break it down and provide nutritious soil for your plants which can be killed such as earthworms and bacteria.

Many diseases are spread by splashing water so water sprinklers and heavy rains can create molds, fungus', and bacterial diseases which can make your plants very unhappy and sometimes can kill them. Mulching with dried leaves, pine straw, hay straw, grass clippings, newspaper, and even cardboard can make all the difference in keeping diseases under control. They can also help hold in moisture and protect from overheating the soil in the hot summer months. This keeps plants happier and healthier and can prevent stressful conditions which invite infestations of insects.

Organic gardening is done in the backyard by understanding that a healthy, happy plant, in good, nutritious, soil helps prevent most diseases and harmful insect damage. It is not necessary to kill every insect in the garden, as many pesticides do, but it is important to keep your garden mulched, watered, weeded and clean of debris to prevent problems.

What Your Know About Compact Gardening

2012-03-16T20:14:00.000-07:00

Compact gardening does not mean second rate gardening, in fact, creative gardeners can have amazing compact gardens, even container gardens for those with no land to cultivate. Compact gardening is especially proper in big cities. So if you live in a big city or urban area, don't worry, you can still have a nice beautiful garden.

Living in a city does not mean you have to give up having a great garden, including a flower garden, vegetable garden, herb garden or any combination of them. People who live in large cities have learned to enjoy compact gardening and container gardening.

Maximizing the space you have available is the key to success for this type of gardening. Knowing how large things grow, how big their root structure is and things of that nature will help you plan your garden.

Compact gardening requires advance planning. Knowing as much as you can about what you plan to grow, how fast it grows, how it grows, what kind of light it needs, etc., will help you choose the right things to plant in your garden. The last thing you want to do is go into it without planning and have to restart your whole project!

Many people have maximized space by using vine gardening, water gardens, container gardens and herb gardening in order to keep their green thumb in use while having only a limited space available to garden in.

The only limits compact gardening has are the limitations of your imagination. With the right level of creativity and advanced planning you can have an incredible compact garden no matter where you live.

Many stores carry items specifically for compact gardening in order to help you maximize your available space. The use of the right equipment will go a long way towards helping you maximize your garden. Smaller equipment makes your work more efficient when you have a limited space to work in.

There are many resources, books and discussion groups about compact gardening, water gardens, vine gardening, container gardening and related subjects that are all geared towards the person looking to have a great, yet compact garden.

Rather than lamenting over the lack of space, start thinking about all the great things you can do in the space that you do have and you will be well on your way to having a great compact garden. So stop wasting your time worrying about it and go out there and start it!

A Beginners Guide to 3 Popular Hydroponic Kits

2012-02-14T10:46:00.000-08:00

As hydroponic gardening is becoming more popular, the sell of hydroponic kits has become a booming business. You can purchase a kit to make a small garden or one to build an entire hydroponic room. The items that are included in these hydroponic kits will depend on the type of system that you wish to use.

The Aggregate Hydroponic Kit
Hydroponic kits for an aggregate system will usually begin with a container that is not transparent in which to place your plants. The company will also include a separate nutrient tank with the nutrient solution included in the kit. There will be some type of hookup system that will allow you to run the solution from the nutrient tank to the plant reservoir in order to perform the flooding process that is necessary to keep the plants fed. A built in drainage system is also a necessity with these hydroponic kits.

Aggregate hydroponic kits will naturally include a type of aggregate (the substance that you will place your plants in to give them the support that they will need). A pH tester might also be included to ensure that your nutrient solution is at the proper pH level.

The Water Culture Hydroponic Kit
Hydroponic kits for a water culture system can be simple or complex, depending upon the amount of money that you wish to spend. A simple water culture hydroponic kit can include a small plant container, a simple lighting system, and a nutrient solution. The more complex models can contain an air system, a water heater, and various testing materials for your nutrient solution.

The Aeroponic Hydroponic Kit
Hydroponic kits that use the aeroponics system are the most advanced and often the most expensive. One brand of these kits comes with pots that have plants already in them as well as a plant holder. It also includes a submersible pump and tubing as well as three separate spray nozzles. Also included are enough liquid nutrients to make one hundred gallons of nutrient solution and a pH test kit.

Additional Items that You May Need for Your Hydroponic Garden
There are a number of other items that you will need for your hydroponic garden that may not be included in the hydroponic kits. You will need to purchase a lighting system (if one has not been included). You should purchase lights are large enough and have enough wattage for the size of the area in which you are using them. You may want to install blue lighting if you are dealing with less mature plants. The more light that your plants have, the healthier they will be.

Other items that are not included in most hydroponic kits are measuring devices, such as a thermometer and a humidity gage. The latter is especially vital when using an aeroponic system. A thermometer can be used to make sure that the area where you have your hydroponic garden is warm enough to sustain your plants. You need to make sure that your plants are kept warm, especially if your garden is located in a basement during the winter months.

Hydroponic Kits-Great for Beginners
Hydroponic kits are a great way to build a hydroponic garden if you are a beginner and are not sure about how to get started. Their clear, simple instructions and basic supplies can help you on your way to becoming a successful hydroponic gardener. Source : ArticleBase

More information :

1. What is hydroponic ?

2. Hydroponic kit

3. Hydroponic for dummies

Grow Your Own Apple From Seed

2012-01-22T20:34:00.000-08:00

Have you ever tried to grow apple trees from seeds collected from an apple? It certainly makes good sense that they would germinate. They are seeds and seeds are supposed to grow, right?

I've heard people say apples seeds collected from apples are hybridized and therefore can't grow because hybrids are sterile.

They are correct in that most commercially grown apples hold hybridized seeds inside. They are probably incorrect that this is the reason why your apple seeds don't germinate.

Bees bring pollen from one tree to the next. If the bee recently visited a delicious apple tree then visits a granny smith apple tree the resulting apples would produce delicious x granny smith seeds.

You might come up with the next award winning apple variety but don't count on it.

These seeds are not going to produce a granny smith or a delicious apple tree. They would produce a tree with mixed genetics.

Granny smith and delicious are hybrids themselves, this means the new seeds would be ploy-hybrid. This doesn't have much to do with viability; the seeds can still be fertile. The myth that seeds collected from hybridized apples are sterile might be caused by the fact that apple seeds need to be stratified before they will germinate. Stratification means the seeds have to be treated with cool temperatures for a certain length of time before they will germinate. Most people probably don't think to stratify their apple seeds. The seeds never germinate hence the idea that they are sterile or infertile.

If you collect seeds from an apple and put them in soil or a terrarium, your apple seeds likely won't germinate for 2 reasons. The seeds need a dry out period followed by a stratification period. If you skip these 2 steps you probably won't have success germinating your apple seeds.

If you want to germinate apple seeds collected from an apple first let the seeds dry out for 3-4 weeks. Set the seeds on a piece of wax paper etc and roll them over every day or 2. After a month or so the seeds lose that dark shine and get a lighter dryer look. This is a good indication the seeds have dried well.

Once the seeds are dry put them in a container or zip lock bag. You can also add soil if you wish. Place the container or bag in your refrigerator for about 3 months.

If you chose to add soil you can moisten the soil after about 10 or 11 weeks. Keep a good watch on the bag and let fresh air in often. You should start to see leaves popping out of the soil in a few weeks if everything went right.

If you didn't choose to add soil you can try to plant the seeds directly into pots or in the ground. If you time it out you can let the seeds dry over the winter and put them into the refrigerator 3 months before the frost usually leaves. Cool weather seems to help apple seeds sprout as well. Commercially grown apple varieties are usually grafted to a wild variety rootstock. The wild variety will be hearty and adapted to the local climate. This method not only produces more apples, without grafting, certain varieties wouldn't be able to grow in certain climates. Grafting allows commercial farmers to produce more varieties in limited opportunity type climates.

This brings another complication into the whole idea of growing cross pollinated apple seeds. You don't know it the new variety you get will be tolerant to you local climate. The tree might simply die off after a winter or 2.

If you do manage to succeed in starting apple trees from seed don't forget to protect them from critters. Rabbits and deer like to eat fruit trees, especially young tender ones. Put up some kind of fence for rabbits and use other defenses against deer etc.

Deer, rabbits and other herbivores have also very likely been the culprits of that mystical apple tree that appeared in your field or at your cabin and in those areas that don't usually get mowed. Animals eat apples and the seeds that pass through these animals can still be viable. I've seen many apple trees spring up in my aunt's horse pasture when I was growing up. We would collect apples from wild trees growing in the woods and feed the scabby ones to her horses in the autumn. The following summer new apple trees would sprout up around the pasture.

A Good time to collect apple seeds is when mom is making an apple pie. Sometimes I eat an apple I think is exceptional and save the seeds. Who knows I might get lucky or I might just have a little fun.

Growing apple trees from commercially grown seeds isn't really a bad thing. It would make a great project if you are interested in seeing what kind of apples you will get. I suggest starting this project at a young age if you want to see the results though.

Another reason to start apples from seed would be for a science fair project. You could try germinating apple seeds that have been stratified for different periods of time, some that were frozen, some that were never stratified and see which method produced the best results.

Good luck with your apple seeds! Steve Snyder ArticleBase

Tips To Keep Gardening Tools

2012-01-12T16:03:00.000-08:00

What is gardening Tools ?

A garden tool is any one of many tools made for gardens and gardening and overlaps with the range of tools made for agriculture and horticulture. Garden tools can also be hand tools power tools. and

The hand tools still used by gardeners originated with the earliest agricultural implements used by man:the spade, the garden hoe, the pitchfork, the garden fork, the garden rake and the plough. The earliest tools were made of wood, flint and bone.

The development of metal working, first in copper and later in iron and steel, enabled the manufacture of more durable tools. Industrial metalworking enabled the manufacture of cutting tools, including pruning shears (secateurs) and grass shears.

The first power tool to become popular with gardeners was the lawn mower. This has been followed by a very wide range of power tools, including cultivators, string trimmer, Irrigation sprinklers, hedge trimmers, lawn aerators, leaf sweepers, leaf blowers, chainsaws, and mini-tractors.

Here is a guide for the proper care of your garden tools:

1. Remove all the dirt and any rust that might be on the tool. You can use a wire brush for the surface cleaning. If there are stubborn rust spots, use a rust remover available at most garden centers.

2. Sharpen all cutting tools. Use a file or a whetstone for the job.

3. Check the handles to see if they are tight. Should the handle be loose, it’s necessary to repair it at once. If the handle comes off, use adhesive and set it back on small hand tools.

4. While checking the handle, if it is made of wood, examine it for signs of splits. If there is a split, apply adhesive and clamps, replace the handle (if possible).

5. If the wood is rough, use sandpaper to get it smooth again.

6. Apply a coat of varnish to the wood handles, or rub with an oily rag. They will last longer if you do.

7. Coat all metal parts with oil (I use WD-40), grease or varnish so that the tools remain rust-free during the winter.

8. Store all tools safely in a dry place where they will be out of the way for the winter months – I use a plastic trash can. Protect all cutting edges by covering with cardboard taped to the metal or several layers of masking tape over the sharp edge.

9. Check your lawn mower. Clean it and sharpen it before you put it away for the season.

10. If you have a power mower, it is necessary to put the motor to “bed” for the winter.

Source : Plant-Care

Wikipedia

Homeandgardenideas

Gardening Book

2011-12-23T21:23:00.000-08:00

Gardening books come in all different shapes and sizes and offer more information on gardening than can be found anywhere else. Anything anyone ever wanted to know about gardening can be found in a gardening book. Gardening books are not expensive, and will end up being worth much more than you will pay for one. Not only can gardening books be used for personal use, they are also an excellent gift for a gardening friend.

For the beginner, gardening books are almost a necessity in starting a garden. Books will give step-by-step instructions and easy to understand directions on how to plant a garden, from breaking up the dirt to how much water your plants need. They will give all of the necessary details about every type of plant, such as how much light they need to survive, how often they need to be watered, how much nutrients must be added to the soil, and any other little quirks that plants have.

Gardening books are very informational and range anywhere from just a pamphlet size book with a few pages to a novel size book with hundreds of pages. The information provided is top notch and a lot of it cannot be found anywhere else. Books provide hints and tips on how to make your plants healthier, how to keep your garden free of weeds, and how to prevent against and fight diseases.

Often times gardening books will give readers ideas they had never thought of before. For example, there are hundreds of vegetables and herbs out there that many people would never think of growing in their backyard, but would be very good to grow in your own personal garden. There are also millions of flowers many people don’t think about but that are very beautiful. There are hundreds of people that would probably trade their rose bush for an exotic flower, and with a gardening book they could read about what types of flowers are available and will grow in their area.

Whether you enjoy gardening or not, gardening books are wonderful gifts if you have a gardening friend. It is personalized and you can give a great gift that isn’t that expensive. You could even give it to someone who doesn’t garden. Who knows, maybe they will be interested and decide to plant a garden. (see home vegetable gardening, Vegetable Bible, more 700 gardening tips)

Gardening books are excellent for any type of gardener at any level. No matter how much gardening knowledge and experience you have, I guarantee you there is a gardening book somewhere that has something in it you don’t know. Gardening books can be used no matter what you grow: shrubs, flowers, vegetables, fruits, and trees, even those of you who grow weeds!. Source : ArticleFactory, Nicholas Tan

Grow Your Own Grapes.

2011-12-04T10:23:00.000-08:00

Almost everyone loves grapes. Although these fruit are small in size, they are one of the sweetest and are packed with lots of health benefits at the same time. The question is: what is the possibility to grow them in your own home garden?

Surely you will get to love these fruit more, won’t you? Today, growing grapes at home, is not such an intimidating job anymore, due to the wide range of information available these days. Therefore, the possibility of a sound harvest of your own is now in your grasp and that's what you should not fail to try. The next step is knowing the right considerations first. Though grapes look the same, they are generally still unique to each other in terms of characteristics. So be guided by these fail-safe grape growing at home considerations first:

The Climate
Before you get ahead of yourself, due to the excitement of grape growing, consider your local climate first. You should understand that every grape growing success, depends greatly on climate. Yes, grapes can generally grow in areas with either cold or warm climates, but none of them will survive in areas where climate is too hot or too cold.

The Soil
It is through the soil where these vines get all the nutrients needed in the growing process. That is why you should always make it one of your top priorities. The type of soil you will need for your vines, should be those that are not too moist and not too dry and likewise those that can retain a good amount of water.

The Planting Process
Since grapevines are moisture-loving plants, never forget that when planting, you should at least plant the rootstock as soon as you purchase it from your local nursery, so that it does not dry out. Young grapes should not dry out. When they are young, they always want their feet wet.

The Watering Process
Like any other plants, grapevines will end in nothing if you do not give them regular water. Grapevines, particularly those that are young and newly planted, are in dire need of plenty water. So make it a habit to water them not less than twice a day. Just make sure to let them drain, especially when they are mature enough, because too much water and moisture will make them sick.

The Fertilization Secret
When it comes to fertilizing the vines, you can know whether they are healthy or not by checking the leaves. Once you notice that their leaves appear light and not dark green in color, the immediate response should be adding fertilizer. Add about five to six inches of compost to each plant. Doing this will likely envelope the vines with the complete nutrients they need as they grow.

Growing grapes at home is all about considering all of these facts given above. So what else are you waiting for? Run to the nearest grape nursery and do the planting. One day, you will taste the sweetness of your labor. And once that day arrives, you will surely be proud of yourself for being able to grow your own grapes from scratch. Leon123

See video below,

How to Plant Grapes -- powered by ehow

How To Shred Your Leaves to Create Leaf Mulch

2011-11-14T08:48:00.000-08:00

Have you ever wondered why some people gather as many leaves as they can, even pick up their neighbors’ leaves and create leaf mulch out of them?

Well there’s a good reason for wanting this leaf mulch (also known as leaf mold) in their gardens. While compost is excellent for improving soil texture and adding nutrients to the soil, the broken down leaf mulch (often referred to as leaf mold) is the best soil amendment you can use:

1) Leaf mulch helps the soil hold onto water even during times of extreme drought.

2) It improves the structure of the soil by adding humus; that is, decayed vegetable matter.

3) It provides carbon, a much-needed ingredient in all good soil types, and

4) It is a fantastic home for earth worms and other beneficial bacteria.

It is important to shred the leaves first before adding them to your soil. The more you break them down the faster the resulting leaf mulch will decompose and turn to soil.

If leaves are dug into a garden without first being shredded, there is a chance that they will not decompose thoroughly. The bad side of that situation is that decomposition requires nitrogen. If you are not planting anything in that area where you have dug in your leaves, there’s no problem.

However, if you want to plant vegetables in the same plot where there are leaves not fully decomposed, the leaves will use up the nitrogen in your soil and the veggies, who also need nitrogen to grow, will suffer.

So if you want to use your leaves as leaf mulch, here are seven shredding methods you can choose from. The first three methods require less work, but the decomposition takes longer (6 to 12 months). The last few methods will drastically speed up decomposition but does require more work (well worth it, I might add .. . and easy to do)

1. You can make leaf mulch by piling all the leaves in a corner of your yard and letting the worms gradually drag them under. Better still, if you have a set up where your garden is bounded on three sides by a fence, you can spread your leaves all over the garden, wet them down and turn them over occasionally by shuffling your feet as you walk through them. Unless you have a super pileup of leaves, most of them should have disappeared by spring. This method is all right if you don’t have that many leaves

2. A second way to create leaf mulch is to pile your leaves into a wire or wooden bin at least three feet square by three feet tall. Then wet down the leaves with a hose, and when the pile is thoroughly moistened let it sit for the winter. The leaves will gradually break down.

3. A third method is to use large plastic garbage bags in which you can store the gathered leaves. At this point you have a choice:

a) with a hose, moisten the leaves thoroughly before you close the top of the bag. Then, to allow air to circulate freely through the leaves in the bag, puncture holes with a sharp object or even a garden fork. Then stock pile the bags somewhere out of the way.

b) A second choice is to leave the bag tops open so that the leaves will dry. Once dry, use the “brown material” for your compost. Mix one part of “greens” (kitchen scraps etc.) to 5 parts dry leaves. You can add an accelerator to your compost to help it heat up.

4. A great way to create leaf mulch is by using a grass trimmer and a big garbage can to shred your leaves. Simply dump an armful of leaves into the garbage can, then shred by running the grass trimmer through the bunch of leaves. Keep repeating the procedure.

When you feel you have a sufficient amount of broken down leaves in your garbage can, transfer the leaf mulch to a plastic bag and choose method a or b in Number 3 to store your shredded leaves. Keep repeating the procedure until all the leaves have been shredded. See the video which explains the procedure of shredding with a grass trimmer and a large garbage can.

5. A variation of the number 4 method is to shred your leaves with a mulching lawn mower. First spread your leaves over the ground about 3 to 4 inches thick and pass over these leaves four or five times with your lawn mower. If your leaves are spread too thick, your mower might choke.

If your lawn mower can be equipped with a bag, you can collect your shredded leaves more quickly and more easily. The only hard part is to empty the bag every so often. To finish, gather the shredded leaves with a rake and put them into a bin or leave them on the ground to decompose. An alternative is to follow instructions in Number 3 above.

6. My favorite method when creating leaf mulch was to gather up the fallen leaves with a handheld electric blower/vacuum. I would set up the blower in such a way that the leaves would be swept up and blown into a bag. As the leaves would go through the system, they would be shredded many times over; thus, the overall bulk of leaves would be reduced tremendously and the decomposition would not take as long.

I would then empty the bag of shredded leaves into big garbage bags.
A few of these bags of leaves would be stored near my compost bins so that I could add some brown matter to my compost bin in the winter time while the rest would be put through the leaf eater to create finer mulch.

7. To further break down the leaves into extremely fine pieces, use a leaf eater through which you would run the already shredded leaves. This seventh method requires more work, but the resulting tiny, tiny pieces of broken down leaf was well worth the extra work. This leaf mulch could be used to top mulch overwintering plants to protect them against extreme cold in the winter. (When I put this mulch around my roses in the fall, I never lost a rose to frost or bitter cold.) In the spring, this mulch will break down more easily into a brown humus which can then be worked into the soil.

If you notice, when leaves fall in a wooded area, the leaf mulch will turn to a dark brown to black soil which has a beautiful earthy smell and a crumbly texture. People who understand cold composting and recognize the value of the leaf mulch will either go to wooded areas and gather up this black soil and mix it with their garden soil as soil amendment and/or shred fallen leaves and make their own leaf mulch which can then be used to supercharge their soil. Isnare, Marcelle Snyder

Improve Your Health by Gardening

2011-10-28T18:50:00.000-07:00

Planting a garden of any kind can be a rewarding and healthy hobby for just about anyone. While your enjoying time outdoors you are also getting fresh air and a good dose of vitamin D. While gardening isn’t strenuous it does also provide some minimal amounts of exercise which we can all use. It also gives us something to care for and watch develop into beautiful flowers or tasty fruits and vegetables we can eat.

Don’t worry if you forget to water them, if your plants do end up wilting and dying you can always just plant more. This works especially well for teaching kids responsibility as they can see how their own actions or neglect will directly effect each and every plant. It’s a lot easier to teach them these life lessons this way then with a living breathing animal for a pet.

After you have put in all that hard work and time you get to see the fruits of your labor by having a luscious busy with bees buzzing and blooms showing their beauty to the world. Then, when the time comes you also get to pick the fruits and vegetables you cared for to be used in delicious home cooked meals. You can even give some of your crop away to neighbors as a gift.

The great part about growing your own produce is that once you learn what can be planted during each time of the year you will have fresh and healthy foods right at your finger tips anytime you want them. This is not only better for your health but also cuts down on your grocery bill too!

While these benefits may have already been obvious to you there are also some less obvious ones that many people never think of. Most of already know that fruits and vegetables are healthy for us, especially fresh ones. What you probably didn’t think of is how you will be able to control what chemicals are used on the plants. Produce we buy in the store is great but we still don’t know what was used on the plants during growth because we weren’t there. With our own garden we get to pick and choose if we use any. It’s the cheapest way there is to go organic!

The use of commercial fertilizer and other chemical treatments for mass production usually results in the plants not being able to get all the essential vitamins and nutrients they would normally hold. This means the produce we buy at the local super market doesn’t have near the amount of health benefits that those from our very own garden will have. While your plants may not yield as much as the big business crops you can rest easier knowing that yours is much better for you in the end.

Having your own garden is also a way to practice good environmental habits. For free fertilizer minus the chemicals you can start your own compost pile right in your back yard to give your plants that extra boost they need.

As you can see, the health benefits in planting your own garden are almost endless. You can sit down at each meal knowing what you are putting in your body will have no harmful effects because you grew it yourself. Source : Submit The Article

How To Growing Herbs In Pots

2011-10-13T07:31:00.000-07:00

Growing herbs in pots is a perfect solution to having a garden if you are limited by space or don t have a backyard Although they are specially interesting for people who lives in apartment and have limited space, they are also an interesting alternative even when you have a large dwelling and backyard. Proper pruning practices cause your plant to raise more. Caring for the plants inside is just as easy as herb gardening outdoors.

Considering the small space they take, potted herbs can be grown properly on a patio or balcony. Growing herbs in pots is favored since they can be kept at hand and be more accessible when cooking. Lemon balm, mint and lemon verbena are good examples of invading herbs that can be contained in pots. But to sum it up, growing herbs is a marvelous activity. They will fill up the room with a sweet smelling aroma and your grocery bill will drop considerably as you enjoy the heightened flavor of freshness to your meals.

Place your interior herb garden in window boxes, hanging baskets, and pots. A deck, the patio or near the back door often in the kitchen are places of choice. You can organize the pots in a lovely way that will add appeal to the room. Groups them by type, put the accent on one focal piece and work the other pots around it or formulate a composition using different sized containers and a varieties of hosts.

Use a quality potting soil as recommended on the seeds envelope with a proper mix of sand and gravel to assure good drainage. Plants grown in containers do best in good quality potting medium. The mix should be sterile, should hold moisture, and should permit aeration.

Herb gardens have the advantage of being year round, giving a continuous provision of fresh herbs. Containers of aromatic organic herbs comes in all sizes from a few small pots to a interior windowed deck. When growing indoors your first location choice should be any room, like the kitchen, with a south or west facing window when growing herbs in a container. All herbs need a sunny emplacement although some herbs expect different light requirements than others. Outside garden will be appropriate for perennials while indoor pots are well suited for annual herbs.

Plants need 4 6 hours of sunlight per day, so be sure to place your herbs in a place where they can get this light. When weather is either to hot or cold, its a good plus to be able to take the potted plants inside. Be aware that plants in containers will dry out much more rapidly than plants growing in outside ground. The moisture level must be checked regularly in order to maintain suitable moisture so that they do not wilt or get stressed from lack of water. Indoor plants savor to be delicately misted down with water on the leaves.

All herbs thrive in a very sunny location, keep in mind that some plants do not need the same amount. One idea if you cannot get your herbs near the sun inside your home is to apply an alternative light source such as a fluorescent or “grow lamp”.

Growing herbs in pots is a wide subject. This article might have inspired you and would like to find out more on herb gardening in containers. My website contains a lot of supplementary information for you to enjoy, just follow the link below.

Author Resource:- Eustache Davenport is a gardening enthusiast and author. visit http://www.HerbGardeningOnlineGuide.com

The “Ice Cube Method” of Watering Orchids

2011-09-25T01:00:00.000-07:00

This is a fascinating new development in the orchid world – watering orchids with ice cubes! There is much discussion about the topic on all the orchid forums. For instance, an expert orchid grower for decades will say that she has never before heard of this method and can’t think of a reason to do it when traditional watering methods work well enough. Then a orchid beginner will post that she recently purchased her first orchid from Walmart with instructions to water only with ice cubes, and it’s stunningly beautiful 3 months later!

So what in the world is going on here? This article explains why this method works, and why I think whoever came up with it should be awarded for the Orchid Idea of the Decade!

The orchid that comes with this simple instruction is a popular and easy to grow variety known as the Phalaenopsis orchid or “phal” for short. It is also known as the moth orchid. Most orchids thrive with a particular kind of watering regimen that does not come naturally for an orchid beginner. Orchids should be drenched once a week or so, but in such a way that the water is allowed to pass completely over the roots and right out the bottom of the pot. Veteran orchid growers are accostomed to achieving this by making sure the orchid is potted in such a way that there is proper drainage and air circulation around the roots.

We often bring our orchid pots to a sink and drench them. But it’s a rare beginner who doesn’t find this complicated. And this is completely different from the vast majority of houseplants that like a saucer full of water at the base of the pot. Do this to an orchid and it dies! Thus the trickle of water once a week from melting ice cubes may just be the perfect way to make orchid watering simple and fail-safe for a beginner.

There is a second aspect of the orchid that makes the ice cube method so interesting. Phal blooms are stunning and last a long time. When the blooming is over, this particular kind of orchid needs a cool period to trigger the growth of a new spike of blooms. This cool period includes a shift in temperature from approximately 80 to 55 degrees which is difficult to achieve in most homes. The cool water of the melted ice absorbed by the orchid roots is just enough cold to stimulate the growth of a new stem of flowers, or as we say in the orchid world, a "spike". Once again the ice cube is a brilliant solution.

How many ice cubes and when? I’ve heard of great results with anywhere from 3 to 6 ice cubes once per week. Place them on top of the orchid medium whether it is bark or sphagnum. I would avoid placing the ice right on top of an exposed root, but some claim that this is no problem. And as you can gather from this discussion, this method is only recommended for orchids. Isnare -Jan Gilbert

Earthworm Function In Gardening

2011-08-14T17:05:00.000-07:00

Notice the lowly earthworm, squirming away, going about its everyday business. Simple creatures you may think but they have quite a important use in the garden. Did you know the earthworms are nature's first gardeners? They don't exist just for kids to eat and fishermen to use as bait :)

Some Basic Earthworm Facts

Earthworms are present in almost every type of soil but the healthier the soil the greater the numbers. A healthy soil permits lots of air and moisture, both of which are needed by the earthworm for a continued existence. Earthworms have no lungs like you or me but instead breathe through their skin. Their whole skin absorbs oxygen and releases carbon dioxide. They also need moisture to assist them in respiration but too much moisture is not good for them.

There are four types of earthworm that you may run into:
Nightcrawlers: 8 to 10 inches long and the fisherman's favourite.
Garden Worms: 5 to 7 inches long and found commonly in damp soils.
Manure Worms: 4 to 5 inches long and found in manure rich soils.
Red Worms: 3 to 4 inches long and the most commercially available.

Why Earthworms in the Garden?

A garden without earthworms would miss out on all of the great benefits that they bring to it. Their first job is to till the soil by tunneling through it. Tunnels created allow air and moisture to pass easily through the soil, creating a healthy environment for plants. Tunnels retain water that the plants can take up and also hold air to help bacteria break down organic matter within the soil.

After digestion earthworms produce excrement about the size of a pin head. This excrement is called "castings" or "vermicompost" and is an excellent soil conditioning material. It improves properties of the soil such as porosity and moisture retention, aids plant growth and helps in the fight against pests and diseases.

Increasing Earthworm Population in the Garden

How does one go about increasing the number of earthworms in their garden soil? Well the best way to do so is to add more organic matter to the soil. Earthworms cannot get enough of the stuff.and will seek it out wherever they can find it.

Finally...

The earthworm is just as important to the garden as the gardener that maintains it because they till the soil and add a soil conditioner in the form of castings. They are as much a gardener as you are. The next time you see one wiggling on the ground in front of you bend down and say "got any good gardening tips?" You never know it may answer :)

Fact about earthworm,

These critters are underground farmers who turn over the soil like a plough.
In just one acre there can be a million or more of them, eating 10 tons of leaves, stems, and dead roots a year and turning over 40 tons of soil in the process.
There are 4,400 different species of worms.
There are 2,700 different kinds of earthworms.
The tunnels created by the worms help plant growth by aerating the soil allowing for better water penetration.

The earthworm lives on average one year.
Worms fertilize the soil with their castings, which contain the recycled nutrients from the debris they eat.
Many earthworms are not native to the United States, most were introduced from Europe.
Earthworms do not have eyes, but are light sensitive.
Sunlight will kill earthworms.

Source : GardenStew
Skywalker

Why You Should Plant Your Vegetables

2011-07-24T02:07:00.000-07:00

The thinking behind living off the land as well as being totally self sufficient may be beyond the reach of many of us but it is relatively easy to grow some fruit and vegetables for ourselves. The extent to how you can do this will probably depend on the dimensions of your garden and with a little imagination, you can soon begin to reap the benefits of your efforts. Years ago, the majority of people simply had to grow their own produce. We presently live in a world of superstores and online shopping and thus it is not essential anymore. Yet the wave of growing your own fruit and vegetables is rising again so we will take a look at the benefits.

The main advantage of planting your own produce is money savings particularly because the world economy is in flux. When our economy is in its unstable state, our food costs will increase or we experience a shortage of one thing or another. However, if you decide to grow your own produce, you will find that it can be easy and can have a positive effect on your wallet. There is certainly a great delight in recognizing that the food on your table has been mainly home produced and that the cost to you has been almost nothing.

Recently we have seen a developing market for organic food and you will often see many different types of organically produced items in the shops. You can find many studies done that illustrate the benefits of organic food in terms of our health and general well being. One disadvantage, however, is the expense and if you are on a tight budget it could be that you need to keep your outgoings down. Also, we are not sure if the conditions that make a product certified organic are strict enough. These problems can be easily overcome by simply growing your own fruits, herbs and vegetables.

As we begin to search for natural health options, we are also looking at the foods that we eat everyday to see how fresh and how safe they are. We have to be confident that the food we eat has all the essential vitamins and minerals we need to lead healthy lives. We are unable to depend upon the use by dates since it does not fully explain how fresh or how nutritious the product is. We really have no idea how much time it took from the time it was packaged to the time it reached our store shelves. Additionally, you have to question if fruits and vegetables are harvested to satisfy transportation needs rather than when it is right from a nutritional point of view. When you grow your own, you can pick these fresh from your garden at the ideal time to supply you with the nutrients in their most natural state.

In addition to all of these benefits is the sheer satisfaction you can get from this, so go ahead and start growing your own fruit and vegetables today. BaseArticles

How To Control Insects Naturally

2011-07-08T10:05:00.000-07:00

Most gardeners are anxious to get out into their gardens as soon as the weather warms up and the first green sprout appears. Unfortunately, plant-eating insects are just as anxious as we are to get into the garden. They seem to think that our beautiful shrubs and tasty vegetables were planted for their benefit!

There are many fine products available in catalogs and garden centers to control insects. But for health or environmental reasons, some gardeners are hesitant to use chemicals in their garden, especially in a vegetable garden.

So what can you do to avoid sharing your beautiful flowers, shrubs and vegetables with every insect that passes through the neighborhood without using potentially harmful chemicals?

Practicing good garden housekeeping should be your first defense in the battle of gardener versus insects. In other words, keep a clean garden and don’t give the insects a place to hide and reproduce. Rake up any dead leaves from the ground and discard them, or better yet, add them to your compost. Harvest vegetables as soon as they ripen, and don’t leave over-ripe vegetables in the garden. Clear out all dead foliage from your gardens in the fall. Prune out any dead or damaged branches from your trees and shrubs, making clean cuts without ragged edges where insects can hide.

If you find insect damage on your plants, there are a large number of organic products that work in a variety of ways to kill insects or discourage them from eating your garden plants. Because many organic insect controls are used for specific types of insects, it is very important to know what insects you are dealing with before choosing the correct organic insecticide. Carefully examine the damaged plant to find the culprits, looking under the leaves and along the stems where they may be hiding.

Your county’s Ag Extension Agent can help identify specific insects, or you can also do an online search for insect identification sites.

Butterflies often lay their eggs on plants, and when those eggs hatch the little caterpillars will stay and feed on the plant as they grow. Caterpillars can be controlled using a common organic insecticide known as Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt. Bt is a naturally occurring bacteria that causes caterpillars to stop eating and die. There are several varieties of Bt that can be used, depending on the type of caterpillar you’re after, including one specific to Colorado potato beetle larvae and another for corn earworms. Bt is also effective against tomato hornworms, the little green worms that like broccoli and cabbage, and bagworms. Bt should be applied at 1-2 week intervals to kill succeeding generations of insects. Gardeners with butterfly gardens should avoid using Bt on their plants because it is harmful to butterfly caterpillars. However, Bt is completely harmless to pets and people.

Diatomaceous earth is another natural insecticide that may be used on a variety of insects. Diatomaceous earth is a fine powder that feels like talc, but it is actually the fossilized skeletal remains of small aquatic critters called diatoms. It is completely harmless to people and pets, but when soft-bodied insects come in contact with it, the tiny sharp edges of the diatoms lacerate the insects, making them dehydrate and perish. Apply diatomaceous earth in the early morning or evening when the plants are wet with dew, which will make the powder stick to the surface of the leaves and doom the insects that walk through it. Diatomaceous earth can be used to control ants, aphids, beetle grubs, box-elder bugs, flea beetles, those nasty little earwigs and many more insects. It’s also safe to use on houseplants, and can even be sprinkled on the ground to control slugs. Insecticidal soap is another favorite organic insect control.

Safe to use around bees, birds, and animals, insecticidal soap is made of fatty acid salts. It can be used in the garden and on houseplants to control aphids, spider mites, whiteflies and some leafhoppers and caterpillars. The drawback to insecticidal soap is that it must be sprayed directly onto the offending insects to be effective. Insects breathe through their shells, and insecticidal soap suffocates insects by coating their shells so they cannot breathe. Insecticidal soap must be applied thoroughly and repeatedly for the best results.

There are also plant-based insecticides available. The seeds of the Neem tree produce an oil that disrupts insects’ reproductive cycle, preventing them from multiplying. The Neem tree is native to Southeast Asia and is also grown now in Australia for its insecticidal properties. Neem works quickly and is effective against a variety of caterpillars, beetles, aphids and borers.

Many insects are actually fussy eaters and they won’t eat plants that are distasteful to them. If you’ve grown garlic you may have noticed that insects leave it alone. You can find insect repellants made with garlic that can be sprayed onto plants to prevent insects from eating them. These garlic-based insect repellents become odorless within five minutes after they’re applied and leave no aftertaste on food crops. The plants actually absorb the garlic and stay distasteful to insects for up to a month. There are also garden insect repellants available that are made with hot peppers. Like the garlic-based repellants, the hot pepper repellants are sprayed on the plants to make them distasteful to insects.

Organic insecticides and insect repellants are becoming available at more garden centers and gardening catalogs every year. It is not difficult to control insects with organic insecticides, but the organic gardener must be diligent with frequent plant inspections and take prompt action to avoid infestations when insect damage is found in the garden. Source : Kathy Anderson