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Category : Gardening

Garden Landscaping

February 6th 2012 Posted at Gardening
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Gardening advice is abundant. You can find it in your neighbor’s yard, in a book or on the internet. These are all wells of information. There are some things you may want to consider before carving the information you receive into stone or sticking your garden spade into the ground. What works for one may not work for you. Consulting with a professional landscaper can help you to avoid many costly mistakes.

You may be planning a vegetable garden or a holiday display. You can be doing spring plantings to give your property a look that will be admired by everyone, all summer. You can be doing a fall planting that will keep greenery or brilliant autumn colors in your yard through the season. Whatever the reason for your endeavor, a lot of planning needs to be done.

I beg your pardon, did you say you were planning an elaborate rose garden. That can be quite a thorny situation if it is new to you. Roses need a special handling. Do you want knock-off roses, old favorites, nursery grown or cuttings from others in your yard? A rose garden can be a masterpiece or a disaster. It all will depend on how much you know and whether you are ready to ask a professional for advice and help. That help can come from a professional landscaping company in your area.

Professional landscapers are familiar with the quality of the soil and the way to do it properly. You need to know how much sun those roses will need. What about food? Will you need a root stimulator when you plant them? When should you plant and when should you prune? If you have the knowledge, you are in a good place. If you have questions, you are probably in a good place as well. You can always ask for help. Your neighbor may have a beautiful rose garden with soil that has been properly cared for. You may not have that in your yard.

Don’t be discouraged by your dream. Bring that dream to reality by consulting with a local landscaper to give you the advice. It does not mean that they will have to do the work, but they can lead you to the proper plants to put on your property. The advice is free. The experience is priceless. It can help you to avoid mistakes and have the garden of your dreams.

A professional can also give you advice on how to handle pests in your yard. Slugs, can be quite a problem at some times in the year. As your garden comes to life, so do the pests that survive on the beautiful things in your garden. If you are planning an organic garden for the first time, there is no better resource than the one that has been at your neighborhood nursery for years. You can be advised on what to use for fertilizer and insecticides.

Bringing new things to life in your own yard is a rewarding experience. Learning all of the little things that your victory garden needs to thrive throughout the spring season is fun. Having an herb garden outside your kitchen door will allow you to make the gourmet dishes you see on television. Having a flower garden will give you a beautiful place to enjoy the warm afternoons and evening.

Sensory Gardens

February 5th 2012 Posted at Gardening
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Sensory gardens and sensory rooms 
 
If you are looking to change and brighten up your garden then you might like to consider the option of using sensory gardens and equipment. Sensory gardens can help to and a very unique and individual approach to your new garden. This article is aimed at exploring the world of sensory gardens; the article will then conclude by informing you on where you can find more information on sensory gardens.
 
As mentioned previously sensory gardens can really help to add a special and unique feel to your garden and can help you get that special garden and space that you have always craving. Before you go exploring the world of sensory gardens it helps to work through a checklist of some of the factors that you should consider.
 
It is only after you have made a checklist that you can be sure that you are on the right track to choosing the best sensory gardens. Some of the factors that you need to consider include:
 
Budget – this is the overall amount that you want and are prepared to spend on your sensory garden. Be sure to take your time on this point as it is only after taking your time that you can be sure that you have made the right decisions.
 
Themes and types of products that you like – it is good to work through this as thoroughly as possible as that is how you can ensure that you have found the best sensory gardens.
 
Do you already have knowledge – on the types of sensory gardens and equipment that you would like to go for, it doesn’t matter if you don’t but if you do it can help you being in the know when you move to the next step.
 
As you can see there are many factors that need to be considered when choosing the best sensory garden. If you would still like some more information then this can be found by entering the keywords ‘sensory gardens’ into an internet search engine. This search will allow you to look through a vast array of products that are currently out there on the market. 

Hydroponics Garden

February 3rd 2012 Posted at Gardening
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Hydroponics is the process of growing plants and flowers without soil in water using some specific techniques. This type of gardening has become very common now a day and people are growing hydroponics garden of Herbs, vegetables and flowers quite successfully. The required minerals and other necessary ingredients are obtained from the water as these necessary ingredients are already absorbed by water.

Hydroponics garden growing has many advantages over traditional soil based gardening. Firstly, it doesnt require any soil and so, no matter in what kind of soil conditions you live; you can grow vegetables, herbs and flowers of your choice in your hydroponics garden. Another benefit of hydroponics gardening is the low cost in terms of water usage as water used once can be again reused. Another benefit of this type of gardening is high yield. You can produce more herbs and vegetables in hydroponic garden as compared to traditional gardens. Different types of diseases which usually spread very fast in herbs and vegetables from soil dont spread fast and can be easily tackled in case of hydroponics gardening by replacing the water.

There are many techniques that you can use to grow hydroponics garden. The two most popular of these types are solution culture and medium culture. In case of solution culture, no hard medium is required for roots of the plants being grown while in case of medium culture, a hard medium like sand or rockwool is used for roots of the plants. In both techniques, selection of container for the plants plays an important role in the growth of the plants. There are various types of container available but glass, plastic and concrete containers are considered to be most suitable for hydroponics garden growing.

Survival Garden

February 2nd 2012 Posted at Gardening
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Everyone has to buy food but you can benefit both monetarily and health wise from growing your own either in a garden or in containers indoors. For just a few dollars, you’ll be able to save hundreds or perhaps thousands. Don’t be dissuaded if you’ve never done it. Nature can take care of most of it for you. After all, things have been growing without our help for a long time. Some sites are daunting with all of the information out there but basically you need to dig a hole, plant a seed and water. (Seed packs display instructions also.)

You may have heard of heritage or heirloom seeds, which are simply seeds from plants that are passed down from back around 50 years ago or more when food didn’t taste like the container that they come in, not to mention the greater health benefits. They will not be genetically modified as some that you may buy in stores or online today.

If you search online, you’ll locate many companies offering these types of seeds.

Note: It may be necessary to “hide” your plants to avoid thievery when it all hits the fan. Look for this to be a problem very soon. Try spreading your plots out in indiscrete areas around your house or even in public areas. Most people don’t know what a potato or carrot plant looks like and won’t mess with them.

Four seasons gardening is another option and will give you a year round food supply. You will probably need fluorescent or special grow lights for this but they will pay for themselves many times over. Just keep them on movable ropes or possibly a pulley system to keep them a few inches above the plants. A south facing window might just do the trick though as this will give them extended periods of sunshine.

You should try to water your plants at least every few days or more depending on the weather.

One easy way to do this is to set up a sprinkler system or soaker hoses. Just buy some connectors where you can hook three or more hoses up as needed. If done right, all you’ll have to do is turn on the faucet in the morning for about 20 minutes and everything is done for you. If you want to get fancy, you can even buy a timer for a few bucks from the garden section and hook that up, which is easier than you might think. Of course, to save on the o’le water bill, you can use collected rain and what they call gray water from doing laundry, dishes or baths as long as it doesn’t contain bleach or other harsh chemicals. Dish soap, shampoo, conditioner, detergent and bar soap is okay.

Depending on the spare time available, you may want to maintain a compost pile of leftovers (no meats or dairy and some say to stay away from putting cooked food in to avoid vermin). Mix this with leaves, grass (unless it has been treated with weed killer, etc.), paper and cardboard strips (not glossy) and add water periodically to keep it moist. When it becomes the consistency of a crumbly soil, after about 3 months usually, it’s ready to mix in your soil or spread on top. Peat moss is also good for that and comes in big bags for a reasonable price from a lot of places. Other things such as sawdust, cow and horse manure (not from pets), and sand (if your soil is more clay like) may also be added.

Garden Seeders

February 1st 2012 Posted at Gardening
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Garden seeders are mechanical tools that do the planting of seeds for the vegetable farmer.  Whether vegetable farming is a hobby or a livelihood, planting large tracts of land is hard even for the veteran farmers. There are people who love vegetable gardening and will cultivate any available land to plant anything they desire. These are the hobbyists who are not really interested in the produce or the profit derived from the planting. In contrast to this are the hardcore farmers whose livelihood has always been farming, and have loved farming as their way of this life.  Whether hard core or hobbyists, when the area to be planted is big enough to entail laborious efforts, these farmers will need garden seeders to plant seeds.

Seeders are not expensive tools and are priced within the means of gardening enthusiasts. A good brand like the Earthway 1001-B Precision Garden Seeder costs less than a hundred dollars.

The benefit that the seeders can give to the farmer is big compared to the small price he pays for the machine. The seeder can plant seeds at an incredibly faster speed than manual planting. The depth of planting is maintained at a uniform level and distance between planted seeds is made constant by the seeder.

Some seeders like the Earthway 1001-B has a measuring device that presets the distance of planting for the next furrow.  The working mechanism of a garden seeder is actually quite simple. The seeder has a holding disc that dispenses the seeds into the soil through a rotating wheel which rolls as the farmer pushes the machine over the furrow. The circumference of the wheel controls the distance while its weight adjusts the planting depth. The machine drags a chain over the plunged hole to cover the planted seed top soil.  This sequence of action is repeated over and over as the seeder is pushed over the over making the planting quick and almost effortless. The dispensing disc is replaceable and a corresponding disc is used according to the size and type of seeds to be planted. In the case of the Earthway 1001-B, it comes with six interchangeable discs to choose from.  It is advisable to use the appropriate disc when planting different kind of seeds. Obviously, these seeders are only used for seeds directly planted into the soil like in the case of corn and beans. It can be not be used for transplanting germinated seedlings. 

The vegetable gardeners are glad that inventions like the seeder have been designed to help them in their farming practices.  They know the difficulty of planting seeds manually along a furrow of soil using a plunging stick to plunge the soil, dropping the seed into the open hole and finally kicking the soil back in after the seed is dropped.  One can just imagine the amount of energy saved by the planter by using garden seeders.

For the garden enthusiasts whose area is not so big, where the planters also need the exercise, it might be advisable to manually plant the seeds. Most garden seeders were not designed for small plot gardeners.

Wildlife Gardening

January 31st 2012 Posted at Gardening
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Wildlife Gardening

Encouraging wildlife into your garden

It’s lovely when you see a hedgehog crawl out from beneath a pile of logs, or a bat emerge from your self built bat house just after dark.

By encouraging wildlife into your garden it not creates a feeling of happiness but also continues to provide important habitants for animals. Below are some tips and ideas to keep up the wild side of your garden.

Planting trees is the most apparent means of creating habitants for mammals and birds; by planting native tree species this will provide food all year round for insects and birds. The tree will offer shelter depending on its size all types of creatures will benefit, and quite often create their home beneath or within the tree.

Planting shrubs that produce flower, berries and seeds at different times over the year will not only make your garden colourful and fruitful but also provide a tasty treat for insects.

Build a pond, ok so not necessary build one, but make one, if your garden is relatively small like mine you can always use an old sink or bath if your lucky enough to have one lying around, place the makeshift pond into the ground with one side sloped down to make it accessible for creatures to climb in and out off, the damp bogginess will beckon frogs, toads, newts and dragonflies.

Add some small rocks around the pond for cover.

Bird and bat boxes are great for supplying shelter and safety, out of harms reach from ground crawling predators.  Place your box at least 2m off the ground on a tree or wall and enjoy watching them.

Bats will go where there is food so by building a pond, planting a hedgerow or planting night-scented flowers will all contribute to attracting bats to your garden.

Bird tables become very popular to birds during winter when they find it harder to find local foods, place sunflower seeds, unsalted peanuts, or chopped fruit onto a feeding station in your garden, it may take a few days for the birds to take to the food, but when they know its there the feed will be eagerly taken.

If you have the space then try and leave a section of your garden over grown and undisturbed, place a few logs in there, and leave them to rot, hedgehogs are likely to see this kind of environment as a perfect home for hibernation. 

 

 

Vertical Gardens

January 28th 2012 Posted at Gardening
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What are vertical gardens?

Vertical gardens are an ingenious way of providing beautiful floral displays in areas where there is not very much space.  For example, walls can be turned into beautiful vertical gardens with a stunning display of flowers or foliage. Vertical gardens are created using the VertiGarden system which consist of several separate modules which can be placed together.

Where is the best place to create vertical gardens?

Vertical gardens can be created anywhere but they are particularly effective in a property where there is a lack of outside space such as an apartment with a balcony or a house with a very small back yard. If you live in a place like this but love being surrounded by greenery then vertical gardens are absolutely ideal for you. If you decide to install vertical gardens in the space you have you can totally transform your outside space into a calm, beautiful and relaxing oasis.

Where can I find vertical gardens?

As vertical gardens are becoming very popular since more and more people are living without a lot of outside space, they are relatively easy to find.

However, if you want to look at a really good range of vertical gardens then one company stands out from the rest. www.keepos.co.uk has an excellent selection and they will guide you through the VertiGarden system that they use to show you that you can transform a plain wall into a thing of beauty. Visit them online today to see how they can help you create this beautiful look. As their modules are incredibly easy to install, it will be no time at all before you are looking at a stunning display.

 

Where can I find vertical gardens?

As vertical gardens are becoming very popular since more and more people are living without a lot of outside space, they are relatively easy to find.

However, if you want to look at a really good range of vertical gardens then one company stands out from the rest. www.keepos.co.uk has an excellent selection and they will guide you through the VertiGarden system that they use to show you that you can transform a plain wall into a thing of beauty. Visit them online today to see how they can help you create this beautiful look. As their modules are incredibly easy to install, it will be no time at all before you are looking at a stunning display.

Garden Pools

January 27th 2012 Posted at Gardening
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One of the most beautiful surroundings for a pool is the garden with tall trees, shrubs and beautiful flowers. Many garden owners choose to have an above ground pool installed in order to save money. A garden pool takes careful thought, and consideration and there will be a number of factors to look at.

If your garden is already exists, you will want to determine the best suited pool to enhance the beauty of your garden. Consider where you’d like the pool situated. Determine how much room you have to work with. Also, consider the shape of your pool and poolside garden. Other influential factors to consider will be the materials you use for your garden pool and the furniture which will go around the pool. It will also be necessary to purchase insurance. Also, by law you are required to have a safety fence and safety gates around the pool.

If you will be planning the garden round your pool, then you will want to determine what look you are hoping to achieve.

There are many different looks that you can choose from such as a cottage garden, tropical, modern and formal. It will be necessary to consider where the pool will be situated in relation to your home and other features that you plan on having in your garden. Typically, a garden pool is placed in open, sunny area. Trees and shrubs are planted around the pool for shade when you are not in the pool itself. Umbrellas will also produce shade which can be placed in tables or in the ground. A Gazebo might also be an addition to the garden that would be quite attractive.

Budget will also be a key determinant when choosing a garden pool.

Obviously, working within your budget will be necessary. Will you be landscaping the garden yourself or having the garden professionally landscaped? This too will need to be considered.

There are many different types of plants that may be planted around the garden pool. For instance, you might choose to plant palm trees, which will give a tropical look to the garden. The palm is a bit more expensive that other types of trees, but they are the ideal type of tree for planting near a pool. There are different types of palm trees such as the Mediterranean and the Queen.

Prairie Zinnias is another beautiful flower which can be planted in the garden which is bright yellow and orange. Considered ideal forpoolside gardens, as they survive in climates that are drenched with sunlight and heat.

Acacia is a poolside plant that is ideal that flowers in the spring with a small, yellowish or white puffy balls. The branches hang down, giving the tree the appearance that it is weeping, which give a remarkably soothing and calming effect to the poolside garden.

With a poolside garden, you will have many options in design and landscape. The key element is planning. Without proper planning, you will not have the magnificent appearance that you are hoping for.

Victory Gardener

January 25th 2012 Posted at Gardening
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In the northern hemisphere this is the perfect time to get going. Spring is the time to be sowing peas, beans,leeks, onions, broccoli, cabbages, spinach, potatoes, sweetcorn, carrots, beets, chard and more. So choose your favorites and enjoy free food in your very own Victory Garden.

Spring has sprung and we see the first lady planting a Victory Garden. Anybody can have a Victory Garden anywhere. In an apartment just set aside one square foot of counter space for a sprouting box. Within days you will be enjoying some of the most nutritious food on the planet. Alfalfa sprouts, been sprouts and many others growing in your very own one square foot Victory Garden any time of the year.

Having a little out side space blessed by the sun expands choices based on size. Even one window box or one clay pot makes it easy to have free food. Just a few seconds of attention every day and your Victory Garden will produce lots of produce which will reduce expenditures at the market.

Everyone is a beginner at some point with fears getting started but you don’t have to be. My hands were my first garden tools. If you don’t want to get dirty just wear gloves. You can be sure the children will have fun, if you have any.

This time of year watering isn’t a worry in most areas. Mother nature takes care of it so it’s easy to forget. Nevertheless don’t take your eye off it. If you notice it’s been dry for a few days it’s time to get that hose out. In a short time your victory garden will provide you with free food.

Naomi@best-victory-garden.com

Garden Makeovers

January 23rd 2012 Posted at Gardening
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The rising popularity of garden makeovers has given birth to many present day commercial gardening ventures. There are some really professional commercial gardening service providers who are at your service and can transform your garden into a blissful space in no time. Nevertheless, there are many aspects such as budget & finance that is required for getting the garden makeovers done which needs to be taken into consideration by the owners before they decide on the kind of commercial gardening service they would like to opt for. If you browse the internet, you would be able to grab hold of some really good commercial gardeners whose services are available for a cost-effective price & in the regions you desire. Commercial gardeners are available for performing garden makeovers for commercial facilities like sports complexes, schools, banks, companies, financial institutions etc.

Some of the unique ideas that have been adopted by many garden owners who aspire to render a refurbished look to their garden were the ones with some rare species of plants and lighting the arenas with stylish lights. One can gain a lot of info about a garden makeover by watching gardening shows or conducting a research on the internet. Yet another source of information that can be sought by garden owners to grab ideas is the various gardening and landscape magazines.

It is important to maintain the beauty of your garden goes after a makeover and therefore it would be better if you seek the advice of experienced professionals who have the required expertise in this domain for many long years. They can even guide you on owning the right set of equipments that are required to regularly maintaining your garden for a longer period of time. The most common gardening tools that are used by most of the garden owners are flat-bladed hoe, garden rake and shovels. The most important part of any gardening procedure is to replenish the lost nutrients of soil with essential elements from time to time because you wont want the plants to wither off at any time soon when they are placed close to a commercial place of interest.

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