Wild-Flower Garden

A wild flower garden has a most attractive sound. One thinks of long tramps in the woods, collecting material, and then the fun in fixing a real sure wild garden. Many people say they have no luck at all with such a garden. It's not a question of luck, but a question of understanding, for wild flowers are like people and each has its personality. What kind of plant is used in nature they will always have been. In fact, when he removed his own kind of living conditions, ill and died there. That is enough to tell us that we are copying nature. Suppose you are hunting wild flowers. How to make sure flowers from the forest, select the floor they are noted in the location and conditions, the environment, and the neighbors. Suppose you find dog-tooth violets and wind-flowers growing near together. Then put them into their own new garden. Suppose you find a certain violet enjoying an open situation, then it should always be the same. You see the point, right? If you want wild flowers in a garden grow tame feel at home. Cheat them into almost believing that they are still persecuted in their native language. Wild flowers should be passed is transplanted after flowering. Take a trowel and a basket into the woods with you. How do you take a few, a columbine, or a hepatica, you should know the roots of some of the plant's own soil, which are packed on them must take if replanted. should go to the bed in which these plants carefully before this trip will be prepared by you. Surely you will not want to bring the plant back to service during the day or night before planting. You should go to new quarters at once. The bed needs soil from the forest, deep and rich and full of leaf mold. Which was awarded under drainage system. Then plants are not logged in ground water to go. Some people think that all wood plants should have a soil saturated with water. But the forest itself are not logged waterproof. It may be that you have to dig your garden up very deeply and put some stones into the ground. should go in this upper floor. And above, where the top soil once was, put a new layer of rich soil you brought from the forest. Before planting water the soil well. Then, as you make room for the plants in each hole put some of the earth, the plant, which will be placed there too. I think it would be a pretty nice plan, a wild-flower garden giving a series of flower from spring to late autumn, so let's start with March, hepatica, spring beauty and saxifrage. Then comes April bearing in his arms the beautiful columbine, the tiny flowers and wild geraniums. For May, the dog-tooth violet and the wood anemone, false Solomon's seal, Jack-in-the-pulpit, wake robin, bloodroot and violets. June will give the bellflower, mullein, bee balm and foxglove. I would choose the gay butterfly weed for July. Let the turtle head, aster, Joe Pye weed, and Queen Anne's lace make the rest of the season brilliant until frost. Let us a little about the likes and dislikes of these plants. Once you started once you are adding to keep this wild flower list. There is no one who does not love the hepatica. Before the spring has really decided to come, comes this little flower of his head and puts everything in the shade. Tucked under a covering of dry leaves the blossoms wait for a jet of warm sunshine to bring them out. These embryo flowers are protected by a fuzzy covering. This is reminiscent of a similar sleeve, the new fern leaves have. In the spring had a hepatica plant wastes no time getting on a new suit of leaves. It makes its old do until the blossom has had its day. Then the new leaves, started before this, have a chance. These delays are willing to help next season. Related liverworts grow in clusters, sort of family groups. You will probably be found in rather open places in forests. The ground is found to be rich and loose. They were to go only in partly shaded places and under good soil conditions. If planted with other woods, copies them the advantage of a rather exposed position, that they can catch the early spring sunshine. I should be starting over with a liverwort small drop in autumn leaves. In the last days of February when the weather is extreme take this leaf for themselves. You can find the hepatica blossoms all ready to dump their heads. The spring beauty hardly allows the hepatica in advance to her. With a white flower, the graceful curves of pink, a thin, wiry stems and narrow, grass-like leaves can bloom this spring not to be confused. You will find spring beauties growing in great patches in rather open places. Planning a number of the roots and allow the sun good opportunity to reach her. For this plant loves the sun. The other March flower mentioned is the saxifrage. That belongs in a completely different type of environment. It is a plant that grows in dry and rocky places. It is often found in crevices of rocks. There is an old story to the effect that the saxifrage roots twine about rocks and work in them, so that the rock itself splits. Anyway, it's a rock garden plant. I have it in dry, sandy places right on the border of a large stone. It has white flower clusters borne on hairy stems. The columbine is another plant that is very likely to be found in rocky places. Standing below a ledge and looks, one sees here and there, nestled in crevices of a plant or more of columbine. The nodding red heads bob on wiry, slender stems. The roots are not deep into the ground, yes, often barely cover the ground it. Well, just because the columbine has little soil, it is not to say that it is indifferent to soil conditions. For it has always lived, and should continue to live, under good drainage conditions. I wonder if it has come to you, how really hygienic plants are? Lots of fresh air, proper drainage, and good food are fundamentals with plants. It is clear from the study of these plants how easy it is to find out what plants like. After studying their feelings, then do not make the mistake of them all huddled together under poor drainage conditions. I always have a sense of personal affection for the flowers. If they come to me always feel that now things are starting to calm down outside. You start with a rich, beautiful, delicate little blue flowers. In June gets hotter and hotter their color faded a bit, until sometimes they look quite worn and white. Some people call them Quaker ladies, others innocence. Under any name they are charming. They grow in colonies, sometimes in sunny fields, sometimes by the road side. From this we learn that they are more particular about the open sunlight than about the earth. If you pick a flower and using bind request, then the wild geranium is not your flower. It pitched roof very quickly after harvest and almost immediately drops its petals. But the purple flowers are conspicuous, and the leaves, while rather coarse, are deeply cut. This effect gives a certain boldness to the plant, which is quite attractive. The plant is rather damp, shady sections partially found in the woods. I like this plant in the garden. It adds good color and permanent color lasts so long flowering period, as there is no object in picking it. There are numbers and numbers of wild flowers I might have suggested. Those I have mentioned were not given for the purpose of a flower guide, but only with one end in view your understanding of how the soil conditions to study the work of the beginning of a wild flower garden. If you fear results, but take one or two flowers and study what you choose. Having mastered, or better know a few, add more another year to your garden. I think you will love your wild garden best of all, before you are through with him. It is a real study, you see.

Other Factors in Garden Creation

So now you've out what type of garden you have, what will be the situation, and what type of fertilizer you need, now is the time to really pick up when choosing your garden environment get started. First, you want to decide what will make your garden barriers. What will separate your garden from the rest of the world? Next you want to choose the decorations and support for your plants. Often a kind of metal mesh is necessary to keep your plant standing. You want to decide how much soil and fertilizer to buy, and how all the plants is in your garden. Select a border is actually a pretty important step to start your garden. It is perhaps not really affect the well being of the plants, but a garden with a fairly aesthetic ordeal for many people anyway. do so usually you will choose between metal and wood. You can set up boards around the perimeter of your garden and give it a rather nice cabin look. If you are looking for a more modern look, you can get some metal lining at your local hardware store for pretty cheap, and the installation is medium difficulty. Find something nice to support your plants can be a little difficult. Sometimes a short metal rod can work well, but often for plants such as tomatoes, you need a wire to pull himself up. You can at any time nursery, pre-formed usually find ideal in a kind of cone shape for plants. The plant grows only through them, and normally it will take until the plant is enough to support growth. Then you can wire a pair of scissors and just snip it's free. The decision as to how much land to buy a little easier. Check out information about your assets and where the ideal soil depth. Then dig out that much of your garden, the measurements and find out the exact amount of cubic feet of earth that you need. Go to the store and buy, preferably by a few bags just so you can complete the offer if it is compressed or has expired. If you live in an area where the ground is rough, dry and barren of nutrients, then you might even want to add a few inches of depth to the original recommendation. The arrangement of plants is more important to the success of your garden. I'm not talking about some kind of feng shui thing, but depending on watering, some plants might hog all the water and let the other plants high and dry. Some plants have more roots than others, and are more aggressive in the collection of water. If one of these plants with a plant next to lighter, shorter roots site, it will quickly carry off the water supply and suffocate the other plant parts. I hope I have done, that you realize that the placement is not the only important thing about a garden. There are many other factors, which may not seem very significant, but could consider spending an appropriate amount of time considering the result to change your garden. So if you are working on the construction of a garden, use and reference, you can (the library, the Internet and magazines) look into some of the factors I have mentioned.

Using Vines to Decorate your Garden

A great way to decorate your garden is the use of vines. They are very low maintenance and look good on almost everything. If you got Äôve a fence or separator that really stands out in the growing field of green, your garden, then a vine on a quick and aesthetically pleasing solution can be. However, there are many types of vines for different situations, whether you try to grow on the side of a house on the floor or on a tree. Many different ground vines are available. These types grow fast and strong, and only their way inch above the ground. They are very easy to carry, so they put a frame around your garden, or just weave in and out of the plant. I suggest using these as a hardy ground cover if you just want some green on your dirt or mulch. You can usually find a diversity that has come to be resistant. To AOS as a green, beautiful alternative to grass. Even if you have kids and a dog, it should be no trouble in life. Another type of vine that is available, one Äútwining, Äú vine. This refers to their method of climbing. Twining vines require a lattice or equally porous surface to rise, as they are not at all sticky. Simply wrap around by sending little tendrils, which is close to climb. I propose that with this variety for climbing trees, or any type of tissue. Usually you have to lead them far more in the early phase, and then they will go where they want it. Vines not only look good on the ground or on lattices, you can mix it into the architecture of your home. This is usually achieved by the use of vines with small tendrils that adhesive tips. They range from the vine and attach themselves to almost any surface. If your garden is adjacent to your house and you want something to camouflage the big unsightly wall, it, AOS is a good idea to start a few vines near the base. If you grow a wine like the Virginia Creeper, then your entire wall will be covered in a few months. However, I have situations where the vine got out of control to see. Then you have no choice but to observe as vines take over your entire house. One of the vines that you would probably recognize is Ivy. You see it a lot, usually because it is so adaptable. From the types I mentioned (soil, wind, and sticky notes), Ivy can fill in for pretty much everything. It makes a great ground cover, grow up any surface you put it on. Although it is fast and strong, I would not suggest growing it grows AOT your home. This is because the building had recently established ivy for many years that it has deteriorated have the building. So no matter what you want to do with a vine, you should have no problem to grow. You should always do your research beforehand and all the negative qualities the vine has (such as his ability to destroy buildings, in Ivy, AOS case.)

Requisites of The Home Vegetable Garden

In deciding the location for the home vegetable garden it is good, once and for all of the old idea that the garden "patch" must be an ugly spot in the area being home to dispose of. If thoughtfully planned, carefully planted and thoroughly cared for, it can be made a beautiful and harmonious function of the general scheme, lending an air of comfort comfortable that can produce no shrubs, borders and beds each. With this, we will not feel restricted to any part of the premises, just because it is out of sight behind the barn or garage. On average, middle-sized city, there is not much choice as on land. It will be necessary to take what is to have and then the best thing that happened to her. But it's probably a good deal will be the choice to, first, exposure, and second, convenience. Ceteris paribus, choose close to a place easily accessible. It seems that a difference of only a few hundred meters will mean nothing, but if you are largely dependent on spare moments for working in and for the reputation of the garden and growing vegetables in many of the latter is almost as important as the former this matter of convenient access will be of far greater importance than it probably realized at first. Only one had a dozen time-consuming trips for forgotten seeds or tools or you get your feet are getting wet by the dew-soaked grass by, yo u fully realize what that can mean. Exposure. --------- But the thing of paramount importance to the picking, for the body to consider the yield you happiness and delicious vegetables all summer or even for many years, is the exposure. Look for the "earliest" spot you can find a plot sloping a little to the south or east to catch too early sunshine, and keep it seems late, and this seems to be in the direct path from the cooling of the north and northeast winds. When a building or even an old fence, protects it from this direction, your garden along its wonderful, helpful for an early start, a big factor to success. If it is not already protected, a board fence or a hedge of some low-growing shrubs or young evergreens, added greatly to its usefulness. The importance of such protection is provided with a shelter and a whole underestimated by the amateur. The ground. --------- The chances are that you will not find a place of ideal garden soil ready for use anywhere in your place. But all but the worst of soils can require up to a very high productivity, especially such small areas as home vegetable gardens are placed. Large areas of land, the undeveloped almost pure sand, and others so heavy and dirty, which were for centuries they have been often associated in the course of a few years ago, where they yield annually tremendous crops on a commercial basis. So do not be discouraged about your soil. Proper treatment of it is much more important, and a garden-patch of average run-down, or "never brought up" production floor much more for the energetic and careful gardener than the richest spot will grow under average methods of cultivation. The ideal garden soil is a "rich, sandy loam." And the fact can not be overemphasized that such soils are usually made not found. Let us analyze that description a bit, because this is where we have the first of four all important factors of gardening food. The others are cultivation, moisture and temperature. "Rich" in the gardener's house vocabulary means full of plant food, more than that and this is a point of vital importance it means ready full plant food, can be used at once, all ready and set out to spread on the garden table, or rather in itself it where growing conditions make use of them things at once, or what we term, in a word, "available" plant food. Practically no soils in the long term inhabited communities remain naturally rich enough to produce large crops. They have become rich, or held to be rich, in two respects: first, by cultivation, which helps to change the raw plant food stored in the soil into existing forms, and second, by manuring or adding plant food to the ground from external sources. "Sandy" in the sense used here, a floor means with enough particles of sand so the water through it without it pasty and pass sticky a few days after a rain, "light" enough as it is called, so that a handful that will crumble and fall apart easily under normal conditions, after they pressed into his hand. It is not necessary that the soil sandy in appearance, but it should be crumbly. "Clay: a rich, friable soil," says Webster. That covers it, but it does describe. It is the soil in which the sand and clay are in the right proportions so that neither greatly predominate, and usually dark in color, from cultivation and enrichment. Such a soil, even to the untrained eye, just naturally looks as if they grow things. It is remarkable how quickly the whole look of a piece of well cultivated ground will change. An instance came under my notice last fall stands in one of my fields, where he had a strip of one hectare for two years in onions, and a small piece from the middle of this had prepared them for only one season. The rest had not received extra fertilization or cultivation. If the field to plow in the autumn, all three sections have been noticeable as though separated by a fence. And I know that next spring, the crop of rye, before it is plowed under, will show the demarcation lines as clear.

The Genesis of Soil

Soil protection in the first place its beginning from rock together with animal and vegetable decay, if one is crumbling long distances or periods when there were large masses of rock and can not imagine breaking up. Heat, water and friction acting largely responsible. By friction here the grating and grinding against the rock mountain is meant. Keep in touch the huge rock, a perfect chaos of them, scraping, settling against one another. What would be the consequence? Well, I'm sure you have all the work. This is what happened: rocks were worn, much heat was produced, rocks were together, pressed to form new rock masses, some parts may be dissolved in water. Why I almost feel the stress and strain of the whole. Can you do that? Even then, there were large changes in temperature. First of all heated to a high temperature, then cool gradually. Just think of the cracks, which is crumbling, the upheavals, that such changes must have caused! You know some of the effects of freezes in the winter and thaws abruptly. But the little examples of bursting water pipes and broken pitchers are as nothing that happens in the world in those days. The water and the gases in the atmosphere helped along this crumbling work. For all these measures the friction, which action we call mechanical, it is easy enough to understand how sand was formed. This is one of the major departments of the soil sandy soil. The sea shores are great masses of pure sand. If soil were nothing broken rock masses then indeed it would be very bad and unproductive. But the early forms of animal and vegetable life decaying part of the mountain and a better soil was conducted. So the soils we speak of as sandy soils have mixed with the sand other matter, sometimes clay, sometimes vegetable matter or humus, and often animal waste. Clay brings us directly to another class of soils clayey soils. It may happen that certain parts of the rock mass was dissolved when water trickled over them and heat was plenty and abundant. This resolution was largely because it called in the air a certain gas carbon dioxide or carbon dioxide. This gas attacks and changes certain substances in the rock. Sometimes you see large rocks sticking with parts looked as if they were eaten. Carbon dioxide did. It changed this eaten part into something else, which we call sound. A change is not as mechanically, but chemically. The difference in the two kinds of change is this: in the one case of sand, where a mechanical change went, you still have exactly what you started, except that the size of the mass is smaller. It began with a large rock, and ended with little particles of sand. But you had no other kind of rock at the end. Mechanical action might be represented with a cube of sugar. Let the sugar is b ig rock mass. Break up the sugar, and even the smallest bit is sugar. It's just the rock mass, but in the case of a chemical change, start with one thing and end up with another. It began with a large mass of rock that had a part in it, which was amended by the acid acting on it. It ended in being an entirely different matter, which we call sound. So in the case of a chemical change a certain something with and in the end we have launched a totally different thing. The clay soils are often mud soils because of the amount of water used in its formation called. The third type of soil we farm people have to do is lime soil. Remember, we are thinking of soils from the farm point of view. This soil was of course usually made of limestone. Only when a thing is mentioned about which we know nothing, comes another of which we are just as ignorant. It follows as a whole chain of questions. Now you are probably saying to you, how was limestone first formed? At a time long ago the lower animal and plant species collected from the forms of water particles of lime. With the lime they formed skeletons or houses about themselves as protection from larger animals. Coral is representative of this class of skeleton-forming animal. As the animal died the skeleton remained. Great masses of this living matter down all together, by age group, formed from limestone. Some limestones are still formed in such a way that the formation Shelly is still visible. Marble, limestone another, is crystalline character. Another well-known limestone chalk. You might want to know a way to always be able to tell limestone. Drop a little of this acid on some lime. See how it hisses and bubbles. Then some of the chalk and fall on the marble, too. The same bubbling takes place. So lime must be in these three structures. You do not have to buy a special acid for this work, even for the household acids like vinegar will cause the same result. Then the three types of soils, faced by the farmers has, and understand that we want. Firstly, learn his garden soil by studying it to know how to learn a lesson by study.

Preparing Healthy Soil

If you're willing to venture into a new garden on the move, you need to prepare your soil, ideal house your plants. The best thing you can do in the floor manufacturing process, is the perfect mix of sand, silt and clay to achieve. Preference would be 40 percent sand, silt 40 percent and 20 percent clay are. There are several tests used by experienced gardeners to tell whether the soil has a good composition. First you can compress it in your hand. If it does not hold its shape and crumbles without outside force, your sand ratio is probably a little high. If you insert the compressed ball with your finger and they do not fall apart easily, your soil contains too much clay.

If you are not sure about the content of your soil, you can separate the individual ingredients by using this simple method. Place a cup or two of dirt into a jar of water. Shake the water is hung to the floor, then let it set until you see it separate into 3 separate layers. The top layer is clay, the next is silt and sand on the floor. You should be able to assess the presence of each component in your dirt, and act accordingly.

After you analyze the content of your soil, if you decide that it is low on a particular ingredient, you should definitely do something to fix it. If with too much mud or sand, it is advisable to add some peat moss or compost. If you have too much clay, add a mixture of peat and sand. The peat moss, when moistened help for the new ingredient to infiltrate the mixture better. If you do not seem to manage to achieve a good mix, store only head down to your local nursery. It should be possible, a kind of product, click Help.

The water content of soil is another important thing in preparing for your garden. If your garden is at the bottom of the bias it is very likely to absorb too much water and drown the plants. If this is the case, perhaps you should raise your garden a few inches (4 or 5) over the rest of the world. This will allow for more drainage and less saturation.

Addition of nutrients to your soil is also an important part of the process, as most urban soils have little to no nutrients already in them naturally. One to two weeks prior to planting, you should have a good amount of fertilizer to your garden. Mix it in really well and let it sit for a while. Once you have done this, your soil is completely ready for whatever seeds can in their work.

Once your seeds are planted, do you have to pay attention to the ground. The first few weeks, the seeds germinate desperately to get all the nutrients to them in a real plant. If they are to lead from food, how they grow anyway? About a week after planting, you should use the same amount of fertilizer that you have before. You should then continue the use of fertilizers, but not as often. If you're a little bit every few weeks, that many should be to make your garden bloom.

Basically, the whole process of soil management can only be compressed in several steps ... is safe in the composition of the soil satisfactory, make sure that drainage in your garden, before you add and fertilizer after planting, then add fertilizer regularly after that. Follow these simple steps and you will find an abundance of healthy plants in no time. And if you need more information on a single step, just to your local nursery and ask to go there. Most of the staff will be more than happy to help you.

The Cultivation of Vegetables

Before the garden vegetables individually, I will make a statement of the general practice of cultivation, which applies to all. The purpose of cultivation are three to get rid of weeds, and growth by (1) letting air into the ground to stimulate and release of plant food available, and (2) to preserve moisture. Weeds, the gardener of an experience not to be told the importance of keeping his crops clean. He has learned from bitter and costly experience the price of letting them get anything resembling a start. He knows that one or two days' growth, after they are good, probably followed by a day or so the rain can easily double or the work of cleaning a patch of onions or carrots highs, and that where weeds have attained any size they can not be taken out of sowed crops without doing much damage. He also realizes, or should every day the growth as many plant foods available stolen from under the roots of his legitimate crops means. Instead of the weeds to get away with any plant food, he must design more than clean and frequent cultivation will not only break the soil up mechanically, but let in air, moisture and heat in the performance of all essential those chemical changes necessary to convert non-available in the available plant food. Long before science in the case was detected, the soil cultivators had learned by observation the necessity of keeping the soil nicely loose their crops. Even the lanky and uneducated aborigine saw to it that his squaw not only put a bad fish under the hill of maize but multiplied her shell hoe over it. Plants need to breathe. Their roots need air. You might as well expect the pink glow of happiness on the WAN cheeks of a cotton-mill child slave as to expect the lush dark green of healthy plant life to see choke on a garden. Important as the question of air is that of water ranks beside it. You may not see the first issue of what the frequent cultivation has to do with water. But let us stop a moment and look into it. Take a strip of blotting paper, a swim, and watch the moisture run up hill, enjoyed by the blotter. Scientists have "capillary action" the water crawls up little invisible tubes formed by labeled the texture of the blotter. Now take a similar piece, cut it in, hold the two cut edges firmly together, and try again. The moisture refuses the line: the connection is broken. Similarly, the water storage in the soil after a rain begins once again to escape to atmosphere. On the surface evaporates first, and soaked in begins to soak into the soil through to the surface. It is leaving your garden, by the millions of soil tubes, just as surely as a two-inch pipe and a gasoline had poured into the pump the day and night! Save your garden by stopping the waste. It's the easiest thing in the world to reduce the pipe in two. By frequent cultivation of the soil surface no more than one or two inches deep for most small vegetables the soil tubes are kept broken, and a mulch of dust is maintained. Try to get over every part of your garden, especially where it is not gray, once every ten days or two weeks. If that seems too much work? You push your wheel hoe through, and so the dust mulch as a constant protection, as fast as you can walk. If you wait until the weeds, you will almost by crawling does more or less harm by disturbing your growing plants, losing all the plant food (and they are the cream to be) that they have consumed, and can effectively infinitely more disagreeable work more hours. If the beginner in gardening is not convinced by the facts given, there's one thing to convince him experience. After so much space to the reason for constant care in this matter, the question of methods naturally follows. Get a wheel hoe. The easiest species will not only save you an infinite amount of time and work, but work better, much better than it can be done manually. You can grow vegetables well, especially if your garden is very small, without one of these labor-savers, but I can assure you that you never the small investment required is a pity to buy it. With a wheel hoe, the work of preserving the soil mulch is very simple. If you are not a wheel hoe, for small areas very rapid work can be done with the scuffle hoe. The issue of keeping weeds cleaned up the rows and between plants in rows is not reached quickly. Where hand work it is needed, let it happen immediately. Here are some practical suggestions that this work to a minimum, (1) to receive this work, while the soil is soft when the soil begins to dry after rain is the best time. Under such conditions the weeds will pull out by the roots, without breaking off. (2) Immediately before weeding, go over the rows with a wheel hoe, cutting shallow, but as close as possible, creating a narrow, highly visible strip which must be hand-weeding. The best tool for that purpose is the double wheel hoe with disc attachment, or hoes for large plants. (3) See to it that not only the weeds are pulled, but that every inch of ground surface is broken. It is fully as important that the weeds just sprouting be destroyed, if the greater be drawn up. One stroke of the weeder or the fingers will destroy one hundred marijuana plants in less time than one weed can be pulled after a good start given. (4) Use of a small hand-weeders until you skilled with her. Not only is more work to be done but the fingers will be saved unnecessary wear. The clever use of the wheel hoe can be acquired through practice only. The first thing to learn is the need to only look at the wheels: the blades, disc or rakes will take care of themselves. The operation of "hilling" consists in drawing up the soil about the stems of growing plants, usually at the time of the second or third hoeing. It is used to practice all that hill could be hilled "up to the eyebrows," but it has gradually been discarded for what is called "the level of culture, and you will easily see the reason, from what was said the escape of moisture from the surface of the soil, because of course the top two sides of the hill, which can be represented by an equilateral triangle with one side horizontal, give more than the exposed surface smooth surface represented by the foundation. In wet soils or seasons hilling may be advisable, but very seldom otherwise. It has the additional disadvantage of making it hard to maintain soil mulch which is so desirable. Rotation of crops. ------------------ There is a different thing for them to be considered in making each vegetable do its best, and that is the rotation or vegetable to follow each a different kind on the following plants. Some vegetables such as cabbage, this is almost necessary, and almost all by him helped. Even onions, which are popularly thought to evidence an exception to the rule, is healthier and just as well after a number of other crops, provided the soil is as finely pulverized and rich as a previous crop of onions would leave. Here are the basic rules of rotation: (1) of the same fruit or vegetable crops of the same family (such as turnips and cabbage) should not follow each other. (2) Vegetables that feed near the surface, like corn, should follow deep-rooting plants. (3) Vines or leaf crops should follow root crops. (4) Quick-growing crops should follow the country occupying the entire season. These are the principles that should determine the rotations to be followed in individual cases. The proper way to attend to this matter is when making the planting plan. You will then have the time to do well, and will have to give no further thought for one year. With the above tips in mind, and uses, will not be hard for the crops those special attentions which are needed to let them do their best.

Creating a Raised Bed

If your current planting goals involve plants that require good drainage, I'm sure you know how frustrating it is to a site that just does not work. Some plants can handle the excess water arising from in an area that does not drain well. In fact, just to make them more lush blooms. However, other plants are not as good, and it will make them into a gruesome, bloated death to die. You should always learn about the drainage required for every plant you buy, and make sure that it does not conflict with one of the areas you are considering plants in the outlet To test the amount of water your designated patch of soil will maintain a hole dug about ten inches deep. Fill it with water, and come back in one day, when the water disappeared. Fill it up again. If the second hole full of water is not gone in 10 hours, your soil has a low saturation point. That means that when water moves in him, he will stick around for a long time before removal. This is unacceptable for almost all plants, and you're going to have anything to stave off if you want your plants to survive do. The usual method for improving drainage in your garden is to create a raised bed. This involves creating a border for a small bed, and adding enough soil and compost in order to rise above the rest of the yard by at least 5 cm. You'll be amazed how much your water drainage will be improved by this small change. If you are planning a raised bed to build your future field, both on grass or dirt. For each of these situations, you build something else. Do you have a raised garden not start in a lawn, you will not have much trouble. Just find some sort of border to the dirt, you keep adding. I've found that there is nothing just work as well as some two by fours. Once you've created the wall, you need the proper amount of soil and manure to send. Depending on how long you plan to wait before planting, you will adjust the ratio to allow for any deterioration that may occur. If you try to a raised bed where sod already exists to install, you have a little more difficult time. You need the sod around the perimeter of the garden to cut and fold it over. This may sound simple, but you will need something with a sharp edge cutting the edges of the sod and get under. Once you turned it all upside down, it is best to use a layer of straw to add to the growing grass from a backup to discourage. After the layer of straw, simply add all the soil and manure to send a normal garden would need. Planting your plants in your new field should not be too many problems. It is essentially the same process as your usual planting session. Make sure that the roots do not extent too far into the original ground level. The whole point of creating the raised bed on the roots from the soil readily saturated. Having long roots that extend as far as the point completely destroyed. Once you plant in your new bed, you will notice almost immediate improvement. The added soil facilitates better root development. At the same time preventing evaporation and decomposition is discouraged. All these things added together creates an ideal environment for almost any plant grow in. So do not be intimidated by the thought of adjusting the very topography of your garden. It is a simple process as I'm sure you've realized, and the long term results are worth every bit of work.

Planting Seeds

Any reliable seed house can be depended upon for good seeds, but even then there is a great risk in seeds. A seed may to all appearances be all right and yet not within the vitality enough, or power, to produce a hardy plant. If you save seeds from your plants you are able to choose carefully. Suppose you are saving seed of Aster plants. What should you decide to blossom? Now it's not just the blossom, you should consider, but the entire plant. Why? Because a weak, wild plant can produce a very narrow. Looking at that one blossom so really beautiful you think of the many beautiful plants you have here is from the seeds. But just as often as not the seeds will produce plants like the parent plant. Thus in seed selection the entire plant should be considered. Is it tough, strong, well shaped and symmetrical and has a large number of beautiful flowers? These are questions in the bud selection. If you happen to be in the seed's an opportunity to visit the garden, you will see a flower here and there with a rope around. These are blossoms chosen for seed. If you look at the whole plant with care you will be able points which the gardener held in mind when he saw his work of selection. In seed selection size is another point to keep in mind. Now we know no way to tell something about the plants from which this special collection of seeds came. So we should all think about the seeds themselves. It is clear that some choices, some are much larger than the others, some much fuller, too. By all means choosing the largest and most complete seed. The reason is this: If you break open a bean and this is very clear, even in the peanut you see what looks like a small plant. So it is. Under the right conditions for the development of the 'little guy' grows into the bean plant you know so well. This little plant must depend for its early growth on food stored in the two halves of the bean seed. For this purpose, the food is stored. Beans are not full of food and goodness for you and me to eat, but for the little baby bean plant to feed. And so if we choose a large seed, we opted for a larger quantity of food for the plant. This small plant that feeds on stored food until its roots are prepared to do their work. So if the seed is small and thin, the first food supply insufficient, there is a possibility of losing the plant. You may care to the name of this pantry of food to discover. It is called a cotyledon when only a portion, if two cotyledons. So we helped the classification of plants. A few plants that bear cones like the pines have several cotyledons. But most plants have one or two cotyledons. From large seeds come the strongest plantlets. That is why it is better and safer to choose the large seed. It is exactly the case as that of weak children. Often there is another problem in seeds that we buy. The problem is impurity. Seeds are sometimes mixed with other seeds so like them suggest that it is impossible to detect the fraud. Pretty bad state of affairs is not it? The seeds may be unclean. Bits of foreign matter in with large seeds are easy to detect. It can only get on the seed and clean it. By clean is meant free from foreign particles. But if small seed are unclean, it is very difficult, almost impossible, to clean them. The third point to look in seed viability. We know from our tests that seeds which look for the eye to all law can not be developed at all. There are reasons. Seeds can be picked before they were ripe or mature they may have been frozen, and they may be too old. Seeds retain their viability or germ to develop strength, a number of years and are useless. There is a limit of viability in the years which differs for different seeds. The test of seeds we find the germination rate of seeds. Now, if this percentage is low, do not waste time planting such seed unless the small seed. Immediately you question that statement. Why has the size of the seed make a difference? This is the reason. When small seed is planted it is usually sown in drills. Most amateurs sprinkle the seed very thick. So a large quantity of seed is planted. And enough seed germinates and comes from such close planting. So the quantity is quality. But take the case of large seeds, like corn. Corn is as far apart and planted a few seeds in one place. With such a method of planting the case of percentage of germination is most important. Small seeds that germinate at fifty percent. can be used, but this is a low percentage. for the large seed. Suppose we test beans. The percentage is seventy. If a low-vitality seeds were planted, we could not completely sure of the seventy percent come. But if the seeds are lettuce to go with the planting.

Using Gardening to Get in Shape

While gardening is usually seen as a productive way to grow beautiful plants and obtain tasty fruit and vegetables, few gardeners have ever considered the huge amounts of exercise one can get in the process of gardening. While you can almost as much muscle (if not more) to move when you work, it is very productive at the same time. You may wonder how gardening could be as much exercise as working out of it. Think of all the different facets of the preparation of a garden. There are holes to be dug so that the bags and pots are made, and weeds to be pulled. Doing all these things help to work almost every muscle group in your body. My brother is a fanatic about working out. Almost every time I call his house, I end up interrupting some muscle toning activity. I never really enjoyed working out, but, because it seems that the constant lifting of heavy things simply a load on my body with no immediate positive results. But while in labor, I am almost as enthusiastic about gardening. I work outside improving my garden almost every day. Me think I'm definitely surprised my brother when he realized that I am almost as muscular as he is, but I've never lifted a dumbbell! Before you go out in your garden, you should always stretch. Even if your goal is not to work and activity, is still a good idea. Often gardeners spend long hunched over or bent. This can be bad for your back. So not only should you stretch before hand, but you should always take frequent breaks if you're spending amounts for a long time in these positions. Weeding and pruning are some of the best workouts a gardener can get. With the constant crouching and standing, the legs get a great workout. If your weeds are particularly resistant, your arms will be particularly weakened only by the effort required to remove them from the ground. If you plan to take the whole workout think very seriously, always weapons and positions are switching to spread the work between the different areas of your body. One of the most obvious ways to get exercise in the transportation and removal of bags and pots. Between the nursery and your home, you will have to move the bags several times (to the checkout, your car, your garden, then spread them out accordingly). As long as you're lifting with your legs and not your back, transport bags and pots can be a fairly big workout, although you probably do not meet those purchases often. Mowing your grass can also be a good exercise. When you have an older mower that is not self propelled only by the act of pressing, the grass will get more than a workout at the gym for a few hours. During mowing, use your chest, arms, back and shoulder to keep the mower for your. Your thighs and butt get much work on the push mower. Not only do you get a whole muscle to work, but it can improve heart health. It is good for you as a cardiovascular activity, like a good way to weight due to the increased heart rate and heavy breathing to lose. If you plan on using gardening as a way to get in shape or lose some weight, you can hardly go wrong. Just make sure to stretch, drink plenty of water, and apply sunscreen. As long as your steps every few adverse effects such as pulled muscles to avoid dehydration and sunburn, I think you have a great time and ultimately a healthier person because of it.

Fighting Plant Enemies

The devices and implements used for fighting plant enemies are of two types: (1) used for mechanical protection for the plants, (2) used for insecticides and fungicides to apply. From the first the most useful is the covered frame. It usually consists of a wooden box, some eighteen inches to two feet square and about eight high, covered with glass, protecting cloth, mosquito netting or mosquito wire. The first two plates are, of course, the additional advantage of retaining heat and protection from cold, making it possible through its use earlier than usual is a safe plant. They are widely used in obtaining an extra fast and safe start with cucumber, melons and other vegetables vines. Simpler devices for protecting newly-set plants, such as tomatoes or cabbage, from the cut-worm, are stiff, tin, cardboard or tar paper collars, which are made several inches high and large enough to be placed around the stem and penetrate of an inch or so into the soil. For applying poison powders, the gardener supply himself with a gun powder. If one must be limited to a few to perform but will be best to hand the power to get compressed air nozzles. These are used for applying wet sprays, and should come with one of the various types of fog nozzles to be non-automatic type cloggable the best. For more extensive work-barrel pump, mounted on wheels, is desirable, but one of the above, a large part of work to do in little time. Extension rods for use in spraying trees and vines may be obtained for either. For very small scale operations on a good hand-syringe may be used, but as a general thing it will be best for a few dollars more to invest and get a small tank gun, because this raises a continuous stream or spray and has a lot larger amount of the solution. What type purchased, get a brass machine wear-out or four three that of cheaper metal, which succumbs very quickly to, co rroding action of the strong poisons and chemicals used in them. Of implements for harvesting, beside the spade, hoe and dig his teeth-fork, is very little use in the small garden, as most of them have not only long rows to be economically used, but horse power. The onion harvester attachment for the double wheel hoe, may be used with advantage in loosening onions, beets, turnips, etc., from the soil or for cutting spinach. Running the hand-plow close on either side of carrots, parsnips and other deep-growing vegetables will aid materially in getting them out. For fruit picking, with tall trees, the wire-fingered fruit-picker, secured to the end of a long handle, will be of great help, but with the modern method of using low-headed trees it will not be needed. Another class of garden tools used in pruning but where it is well attended from the beginning, a good sharp knife jacket and a pair of pruning shears will easily handle all the work of the kind needed. Another sort of garden device that is used to support the plants, such as poles, fences, wires, etc. All too little attention has been met deze usually given, as with proper care bij storage during the winter they will not Only last year, but add significantly to the ease of cultivation and the neat appearance of the garden. As a final word to the next purchaser of garden tools, I would say: first thoroughly investigate the different types available, and when buying, remember that a good tool or a well-made machine will be giving you satisfactory use long, long after price is forgotten, while a poor man is a constant source of discomfort. Get good tools, and takes good care of them. And I repeat that a couple of dollars a year judiciously, released, tool then well cared for, will soon give you a complete set, and add to your garden profit and pleasure.

Dealing with Garden Pests

Although the tendency to make my own garden, I noticed that one of the most frustrating things that can happen to a gardener is to walk outside to check on your plants. It's just a routine run to ensure that your garden is good, but you end up finding holes in your plants fine but a few hours before watching. The explanations for some of these
plants destroying holes are garden pests. Some of the major pests garden snails, worms, caterpillars, birds, snails, and the occasional gopher. Although you never delete these pests entirely, after all your hard work in the garden you have to do something.

Insects are one of the worst things to have in your garden, they live underground, in old weeds or piles of leaves, or some other places. To help keep insects away, always try to eliminate places in your garden and near your garden that these insects and other plant diseases could attend. Remove old leaves, weeds, or any other decaying matter that insects and diseases can be the life of your garden. Also regularly turn over your garden soil and break down any lumps of dirt, so you eliminate all the insects living spaces that could be hidden underground.

Another way to rid your garden of pests is the use of dormant spray, which is used to destructive insects and diseases under control. It is best that you dormant spray when your plants are dormant, usually around February or early March. I've used dormant spray many times on my garden and it has worked wonders on keeping insects out. But as I experience, dormant spray is only effective if the correct instructions. When I first decided to do a number on my garden, I dumped it everywhere in the hopes of killing everything harmful. Unfortunately, I ended up killing my entire garden with my neighbors. Some insects can be beneficial to your garden, so be sure to find out which insects help your garden.

Another problem I have had bugs is insects besides birds. If I see birds in my garden I run outside a chase, but once I step inside they come back. The solution I've come away with the birds to keep my garden is a bird feeder in my garden. Instead of costing me time and money by eating my garden, the birds eating at the bird feeder. In the long run it will save you money. Not only can a bird feeder to help keep birds away from your garden, but may be a new part of you garden decoration. While not completely eliminating my bird problem, my bird feeder has the problem smaller. Getting a dog has also helped.

If you see the mounds of dirt around your garden and your plants keep unexplained death, you assume that you have a Gopher problem.Thankfully, this is one of the few gardens past that I have not had. But my friend is facing an enormous gopher infestation, so I decided to research. Gophers are rodents that five to fourteen inches long. Their fur can be black, light brown or white, and they have small tails. A method for eliminating these root pests is to fall. The key to successfully capturing a gopher with a fall with success to find the Gopher tunnels and properly trapped. Another way to get rid of them is the use of smoke bombs that you place in the tunnel and the smoke spreads out and hopefully, the Gopher.

If you suspect that your gardens be plundered by one of the pests I mentioned, I encourage that you try your hardest to correct the problem as soon as possible. The longer you let the species stay, the more will be established.

Vegetable Culture

In general, we choose to grow bush beans rather than pole beans. I can not do in my opinion, if this out of pure laziness. In a backyard of the city, the high grades may be a problem as it would be difficult to get poles. But these beans run along old fences and with little urging will run up the stalks of the highest trained sunflowers. In order to set the pole question. There is a page on ornamental bean question. Suppose you plant these beans at the extreme high rear end of each vegetable row. Make arches with supple branches, it binds to the arch form. Train the beans about them. If you stand to make a view of the garden, what a beautiful beans this term sheet. Beans such as in full, warm, sandy soils. In support of the floor is not safe to dig deep and work thoroughly on bean culture. It's never about beans before the world has warmed by its source chills plant. There is dig another advantage in the early Earth. It brings to the surface of eggs and larvae of insects. The birds eager for food will even follow the plow from the ground to get this choice morsel. A little lime worked with the soil is helpful in the cultivation of beans. Bush beans are planted in drills eighteen inches apart, while the pole-bean lines three feet should be apart. The drills for the Bush Limas should further apart than for the other bush beans are about three meters. This amount of space gives opportunity for cultivation with the hoe. When the beans climb too high just pinch off to run the growing extreme end, and that will hold back the upward growth. Under Bush beans are the dwarf, snap or beans, wax beans, the Bush Limas, a large number of which is known as brittle beans. Among the pole beans, pole Limas, wax and scarlet fever are runners. The scarlet runner is a beauty of decorative effects. The flowers are scarlet and are against an old fence in order. These are very beautiful in the flower garden. Where you would like a vine, this is good for you get both a vegetable, bright flowers and a picture of a plant. When planting beans put the bean in the soil edgewise with the eye for the bottom. Beets, how rich, sandy loam, also. incorporate fresh manure into the soil is fatal for beets, as with many other arts. But let us suppose that nothing exists, but fresh manure. Some gardeners say it in the ground with great care and thoroughness of the work. But even so, there is a danger of a particle of it is always a delicate addition to beets. The following can be done to dig a trench about a foot deep, spread a thin layer of manure in this cover, it with soil, plants and more than this. At the time the main root strikes to the manure layer, will just hurt a little. Beets should not be transplanted. If the rows are one foot apart there is ample space for cultivation. Whenever the weather is really settled, then these seeds are planted. Young beet tops make fine greens. Greater caution are shown in handling beets than usually. When beets are cooked when the tip of the root and the tips are cut off, the beet bleeds. This means a loss of good material. Pinch these parts with th e fingers and does not closely linked to the beet itself is the proper method of treatment. There are large rough members of the beet and cabbage families called the lack of roots and Ruta Baga. collected about them here to feed the cattle. They are a great addition to a cow's dinner. The cabbage family is a big one. It is the right herb, then cauliflower, broccoli or cauliflower hardy one, kale, Brussels sprouts and kohlrabi, a cabbage-turnip combination. Cauliflower is a kind of refined, high-sounding relative Kohl. It needs a little richer soil than cabbage and can not stand the frost. There is frequent watering with manure water it the extra richness and water it really needs. The outer leaves have folded, as in the case of young cabbage, in order to get the white head. The dwarf varieties are more likely to plant the best. Kale is not quite as particular a cousin. It can stand frost. Rich soil is necessary, and in early spring planting, because of the slow maturation. It can be planted in September for spring work. Brussels sprouts are a very popular member of this family. Because of their size many people who are not like the poor old common cabbage will serve these. Brussels sprouts are interesting in their growth. The system runs skyward stem. At the head is like sun, a close head of leaves, but that's not what we eat. In the shade of umbrellas and packed all along the stalk are delicious little cabbages or sprouts. Like the rest of the family a rich soil and plenty of water is needed during the growing season. The seed should be planted in May, and planted the small plants in fertile soil in late July. The rows should be eighteen inches apart and the plants one foot apart in the rows. Kohlrabi is a go-between in the families of cabbage and turnips. It is sometimes called the turnip-root cabbage. Just above the bottom of the stem of this plant swells into a turnip like vegetable. In the true turnip the swelling is below ground, but like the cabbage, kohlrabi forms its edible part above ground. It is easy to breed. Only it should develop rapidly, otherwise the swelling, woody, and so loses its good quality. Sowing as early as possible, or sow inside in March and to open the transplant. Plant in drills about two feet apart. Set the plants about a foot apart, thin out, or at this distance. To plant one hundred feet of drill buy half an ounce of seed. Seed goes a long way, you see. Kohlrabi is served and prepared like turnip. It is a very satisfactory early crop. Before leaving the cabbage family I like to say that the herb should be called Savoy is an excellent variety to try. It should always tell an early planting under cover, we are in February and then transplanted into open beds in March or April. If the country is poor, where you can grow cabbage, then by all means choose Savoy. Carrots are of two general types: those with long roots, and those with short roots. If long-rooted varieties are chosen, then the soil must be worked to a depth of eighteen inches, surely. The shorter is well to do a good job in eight inch sandy bottom. Do not put carrot seed into freshly manured soil. Another point in carrot is a culture, about the thinning process. As the little seedlings you come will determine without doubt that they are much, much too close together. Wait a bit, a little thin at a time, so that the young may be small carrots on the national table to be used. These are the points to jot out about the culture of carrots. The cucumber is the next vegetable in the line. This is a plant from foreign lands. Some think that the cucumber is really an Indian. A light sandy soils and good, I needed my wealth is rich in terms of organic matter. When cucumbers are grown outdoors, as we grow it is likely, it is planted in the hills. Today they are grown in greenhouses, they hang from the ceiling, and are a wonderful sight. In the greenhouse, a swarm of bees so that a cross-fertilization can be kept up to speed. But if one follows these instructions raise cucumbers: Sowing the seeds inside want to cover with one inch of fertile soil. In a small space of six inches diameter, plant six seeds. Place like a bean seed with the germinating end in the ground. When all danger of frost is over, each set of six little plants, soil and all should be planted in the open. Later, when the danger of insect pests is over, thin out to three plants in a hill. The hills are about four meters away from each other on all sides. Before the time of Christ, was grown and lettuce served. It is a wild lettuce from which the well was grown. There are a number of crops, the wild ancestors of vegetables, carrots, turnips and lettuce have covered most to them. Lettuce can be stored almost anywhere in the garden. It is certainly one of the decorative vegetable. The compact head, the green of the leaves and the beauty of symmetry all these are charming characteristics of lettuces. As the summer advances and the first sowings of lettuce old they tend to go to seed. Do not let them. Drag it to. None of us are likely to go into the seed-producing side of lettuce. What we are interested in is to increase the supply of lettuce all the season. To such lettuce in mid and late summer is possible only by frequent plantings of seed. If seed is planted every ten days or two weeks throughout the summer you can all offers seasonal salad. In old lettuce is bitter and it is hard. Melons are most interesting to experiment. We suppose that melons originally came from Asia and parts of Africa. Melons are a summer fruits. More than in England, we find muskmelons often grown under glass in greenhouses. The vines are trained upward rather than allowed to prone position. As the melons in the hot, dry environment very big, just the kind that is right for their growth, they are too heavy to hold for the vines. They are held by little bags of netting, just like a tennis net in the size of the mesh. The bags are supported on nails or pegs. It can be a very pretty sight that I assure you. Over here usually we raise melons outdoors. They are planted in the hills. Eight seeds are placed two inches apart and an inch deep. The hills should have a four foot sweep on all sides, the watermelon hills feet to an allowance of eight to ten. Make the soil for these hills very rich. As the little plants get considerable say about four inches in height, the number of plants reduced to two in a hill. Always su ch choose work very robust plants comply. Cut the other on or something close to the surface of the earth. Pulling of plants is a shocking way to get rid of. I say shocking because the train is likely to disturb the roots of the two remaining plants. When the melon plant reached a length of a walk, pinch the end. This pinch means this to the plant: just stop growing long, take the time now to grow branches. Sand or lime sprinkled about the hills tends to keep out error. The word pumpkin stands for good, old-fashioned pies, for Thanksgiving, for grandmother's house. It really brings more to mind than the word squash. I suppose the squash a bit more useful, when we speak of the fine Hubbard to think, and the nice little crooked neck summer squash, but still, I would like to have more pumpkins. And as for Jack-o'-lanterns, why they demand positive pumpkins. In this planting, keep the same general directions well which were given for melons. And use this same for squash-planting, too. But do not plant the two cousins together, for they have a tendency to run together. Plant the pumpkins in the hills of corn and pumpkins can go in a different part of the garden.

Making a Garden

The first thing to do in the garden of the selection in one place. Without a choice, do it simply means the best you can with conditions. With space limited it resolves itself into no garden, or a box garden. Surely a box garden is better than nothing. But let us now assume that it is possible to actually choose just the right site for the garden. What is to be elected? The biggest factor is the sun. No one would have a north corner, unless it was absolutely forced upon him, because, while north corners do for ferns, certain wild flowers, and begonias, are of limited value, as spots for a general garden. If possible, choose the ideal spot a southern exposure. Here the sun all day long is warm. If the garden is thus the rows of vegetables and flowers should run north and south, are located. Placed where the plants, the sun the whole morning to get the eastern side, and the whole afternoon on the west side. You should not have to unbalanced systems with such an arrangement. Take the garden faces southeast. In this case the western sun is out of the problem. To the best distribution of sunlight run the rows northwest and southeast. The idea to get the most sunlight as evenly distributed as possible for the longest time. From the lopsided growth of window plants it is light enough to see the effects on plants poorly distributed light. So, if you remember a little diagram that the sun will shine one part of the day use on the one side, and part of the plants on the other side, you can juggle out any situation. The southern exposure offers the ideal case because the sun gives half on almost every page. A Northern Exposure may mean an almost complete cut-off from sunlight, while northeastern and southwestern places always unequal distribution of solar radiation, no matter how carefully is planned. The garden, if possible, should be planned on paper. The plan is a big help when the real planting period comes. It saves time and unnecessary buying of seed. New garden spots are likely to be found in two conditions: they are either covered with turf or with rubbish. In large garden areas the ground and plowed up the sod below, but in small gardens remove the sod. How do you take the pitch in the best way is the next question. Stake and line off the garden spot. The line has to follow a precise and straight course. Trim the edges with the spade all along the line. If the area is a small, approximately four feet by eighteen or twenty, this is an easy matter. Such a narrow strip can be marked like a chess board, cut the grass easily removed by using a spade, and. This could be done in two long strips cut lengthwise of the strip. If the lawn is cut through, roll it up like a carpet right role. But suppose the garden plot is large. Then they divide into strips a foot wide and take the grass as before. What should be done with the sod? Do not throw it away because it is filled with riches, if not quite in the form available. So the turf grass side down grabs a box on another. Leave it to rot and weather. When rotted it makes a fine fertilizer. Such a pile of rotting vegetable matter is called a compost pile. Throughout the summer at no old green vegetable matter to it. In autumn the leaves in autumn. A fine lot of the good is fixed for another season. Even though the garden big enough to plow, I would like to pick the largest pieces of SOD, rather than in the frame. Go over the plowed area, take the pieces of SOD, shake it well and pack them into a compost heap. Mere spading of the ground is not sufficient. The soil is still left in lumps. Always be a spade a break to the big lumps. But even so the ground is in no shape for planting. Soil must be planted in very fine indeed in, because seeds can very well in the vicinity of fine particles of soil. But the large lumps leave large spaces that can penetrate no tiny root hair. A seed is left stranded in a perfect, when planted in chunks of waste ground. A baby with great pieces of beefsteak would starve surrounded. A seed among large lumps of earth is in a similar situation. The spade never can do, this work of pulverizing soil. But the rake can. This is the value of the rake. It is a great lump breaker, but not to do for large lumps. If the ground is still in large chunks, he shall take the hoe. Many people handle the hoe awkwardly. The main work of this implement is to rid the soil of weeds and stir up the top. It will be used in summer to the mulch of dust so valuable to keep moisture in the soil to form. I often see people as if they had gone to chop into atoms everything around. Heels should never as vigorously through how they will. Digging machine is powerful, hard work, but not hoes and rakes. After making use of the rake lump on the bed, broken fine, and smooth. Now the great piece of work is done.

Using Xeriscaping to Save Time and Water

While a full-fledged garden is rewarding and fun, many people simply do not have the time necessary to maintain it. Whether you care too much going on at work or too many children, you should never try to operate a garden if you do not feel you can handle it.

For those that are easy to busy for a normal garden, I would suggest a somewhat recent method of gardening known as Xeriscaping. This minimal yet stylish theory first emerged in Colorado were at low water on an all-time low. It is a great way to look with a large yard or garden without getting it or water it at all very often.

Here in Colorado, many places are offering free Xeriscaping lessons in order to promote the conservation of water resources. If your area is in a drought, you should check with the water suppliers and see if they come with instruction. When you visit them, you can consult in order specifically for your region (ie, to grow species of plants, how much to water, etc.).

For some, the name Xeriscaping conjures the image of a yard that consists of a giant rock bed. However, this is a "zero-scaping" known, and there is a much different concept. It focuses on reducing your garden nothing that requires any maintenance whatsoever. Unfortunately, this is usually just rocks. But this should not be your goal. While the maintenance costs to a minimum, it is still possible to keep a nice looking yard that attract not be the negative attention of everyone who passes by.

This could, as it would be difficult to implement without any sound that your garden in a terrible mess, but this is not the only one. The theory essentially includes the choice of plants to begin the low maintenance, they put each in environments that are ideal. It is usually out of, find out which side of the house to get it best on the amount of shade used, and how to do it with plants group with similar needs water.

To begin your Xeriscaping renovation, you must first pick out all the plants you will use. They should work for most need a small amount of water. This does not mean you can only grow cactuses in your yard. Just cut back on the really thirsty plants that keep you alive to water every day. You want to stick with native plants for the most part, not with anything too exotic as these generally require larger amounts of water to go.

The second important principle of xeriscaping is placing the plants in ideal areas. If you place them all together with plants that require essentially the same amount of water, then you will end up saving you a lot of water. Also place the plants in areas where they are protected from wind or excessive sun, depending on the needs of the plants. Xeriscaping is almost the same as microclimating, only with more focus on the adaptation to the harsh conditions, instead of avoiding them. So if it sounds good to you and you are looking to save time and water by renovating your garden, you should look for xeriscaping lessons.

Using Rain Barrels to Survive Droughts

If you're a gardener, an unlimited supply of water, be happy. There are many of us who live in drought zones where the garden and lawn watering rules are very constrictive to the healthy growth of the gardens and plants. Many people simply give up when they learn how some of gallons of water, which they may be used, but some of us are just ways to make do with less water available. There are many ways to optimize those garden to save water while it remains juicy. Some possibilities are drip irrigation (the use of a pipe or hose with small holes that penetrate to fade into the roots of the plant), the placement of plants pour into groups of similar needs (to avoid wasting water on crops that do not need), and with compost or mulch to insulate the water and prevent drainage. But one of the best ways to make your garden alive during a drought to take preventive measures. Occasionally, a severe drought will be predicted in advanced stage, or already experienced a severe drought will be given a few weeks of heavy rain are. If this happens, you should have the opportunity to set up several rain barrels. Many people think this would be a time-consuming to do stupid. But it can give you many gallons of water and requires little work. Finding the barrels will probably be the hardest part. You can get your own garbage cans, or the head to your hardware store for a couple of 55 gallons plastic drums. This may, however, expensive and difficult to transport, so keep that in mind before you go into the store. You'll probably could filter to the top of the barrel with a screen resolution of one type lid fall unwanted leaves or debris, that the roof of your house. Once you have your drums, you are familiar with the decision, where they confronted the place. Usually when it rains, there is one corner or segment of the house, rain tends to pour off. If you are under the simple approach to barrel placement, but is simply the running of all the places where large quantities of it drips. But while this is the easiest way to get them might be space, you can not see high amounts of rain in the barrels. When you want to follow a more complicated approach, placing the barrels should consider, you, you optimize your gutter system a bit. If you remove each segment, and it a very slight angle, so that all the water is diverted to the nearest corner of the house, you can move a barrel at each corner square. So essentially the whole house looks like a catcher for the rain, instead of just a few feet worth of shingles. This is just the amount of water stimulate your run is to maximize catches. After a heavy rain, each barrel will probably not see much rain. If it looks like it is not raining, in the foreseeable future, it is a good idea to empty each barrel into one main central barrel. Seal and store it out of the way, because whenever you can do it. Then begins the next time to move, you will be able to quickly capture all of your barrels into place without that carry around all the water you have collected so far. The use of water barrels might sound like an antiquated idea. However, if you're in the middle of a drought and you're in the situation which will spare an extra couple of gallons for your garden just outside the town allotments, you grateful for every bit of time and money that you have to collect all used that move. It only takes a few trips to the backyard every time it starts to sprinkle, and you will be a very happy gardener, if not water be as abundant.

Mulching for Free

I am sure that if you read this, you have used some form of mulch during your gardening career. However, you probably will not know that there are many other options for organic mulching that you can explore. These days, many gardeners are discovering new sources of free mulch that the whole time, an untapped resource. These are excerpts from a lawn, or woody prunings from other plants in your garden. You will be surprised at how all these things can be useful, and how often the opportunity arises to use them.

Many gardeners have taken over spreading out their excess grass on the rest of their yard. You may think this will look tacky, with big piles of grass just sitting in your garden, as if you are too lazy to have to rake them. However, if you spread them enough, you will not be able to say that there is a surplus. Leaving the extra grass on the farm acts as a mulch to prevent evaporation and weeds. With this extra water, you will not have nearly as much to keep your grass green to the water. When I started leaving my grass, I had to adjust the frequency of my sprinkler system because I was worried my yard was too much water!

If your garden is more than necessary mulching your garden, it is not unheard of to rake up all the grass and move them to your garden. Through a small layer around the vicinity of the installation, you will leave all the same benefits apply it in your garden. My garden has more green in his own, but I often have problems with my plants stay green and healthy. So leave, instead of the grass clipping in my garden, I move my plants around them all. It's just a question of choice, what is your highest priority mulching.

Sometimes our section lead us in an amazing amount of branches and twigs are. If this is the case, you should rent a wood chipper to use all these branches. After a day of intense pruning, you'd be surprised how many branches you end up with. Rather than discard these, you can turn a huge amount of mulch for your plants. However, if your cut has not thyself with this large amount, you should left bundle everything together and save it to the next game to add. This is because the chipping machines can be expensive to rent something, and you want it absolutely worth it!

In the course of time, must be replenished any organic mulch. That's because they decompose naturally in the conditions of your yard. Normally you can only for themselves, by learning, but sometimes it can look quite regularly, but still have problems. If you have a bad start plant growth even notice, you should replace your mulch. Keep in mind that during the process of decomposition, your mulch to use the valuable nitrogen in the soil. Without this, the plants will lack an essential nutrient. There are several types of fertilizers available on the market that deal specifically with this problem.

The use of mulch in the yard and garden is something everyone should try. It can not only save a lot of time by reducing the amount of garbage to transport you out, but it increases the health and integrity of your plants by the so-called junk for a good cause. If you so you would be able to think a good amount of branches and twigs for chipping, or that you are ready to stop all your clippings are thinking swaths save, then I think that mulching is for you .

Picking a Healthy Plant

When it comes to your garden started, you have two options; planting seeds or whole plants to buy. Both have their own advantages. If you plant seeds and care for them every day, you will find it is a much more rewarding experience if you have a full, healthy plant growth. However, this method is much riskier. I can tell you aot how many seeds I planted Äôve never seen and no trace of any. If you buy the plant from a nursery and install it in your garden to choose, it reduces a lot of work involved in it healthy. However, I noticed in the past that many incompetent nursery workers absolutely ruin the future of the work by certain chemicals or fertilizers in. I've adapted to this incompetence by learning to choose the healthiest plants in the group. Here, I will discuss some of the techniques I use in my screening process for the plants. It may sound superficial, but the only thing you need is to check on your prospective plants, they look like beautiful. As far as plants go, you can really judge a book by its binding. If a plant was treated well and has no diseases or pests, you can almost always tell how good it looks. If a plant has grown in improper ground or has harmful bugs living in it, you can tell the holey leaves and wilted stems. If you surf the kindergarten Aore shelves in search of your dream system, you want everything that is currently excluded on flowers. Plants are less traumatized by the transplant if they do not have to do just any flowers. He, AOS best those who only found out buds. However, if all you have the choice of flowering plants, then you should do the unthinkable and all of them separated. It will be worthwhile for future health of the plant. I found that Äôve transplanting flowers of a plant, while in the result with a dead plant parts ninety percent of the time. Always check the roots before you plop down the money to purchase the facility. Of course, if the roots are in absolutely terrible shape, you can tell by looking at the rest of the plant. But if the roots are just slightly out of shape, then you have probably won, AOT be able to say, only to look through him. Check the roots very closely for signs of scald, rot or softness. The roots should always be a solid, well formed infrastructure that holds together all the ground. One can easily see if the roots are before or past their prime, depending on the root to soil ratio. If it's a ridiculous amount of roots with little soil, or a pile of soil with few roots, you should buy not the plant. If you have any abnormalities with the plant, whether it be the shape of the roots or irregular features with the leaves, you should ask the nursery employees. While these things usually can be the sign of an unhealthy plant, occasionally there will be a logical explanation for it. Always the nursery a chance before writing them off as horrendous. Finally, they are (usually) professionals who have dealt with plants for years. So if you take the easy way and choose a plant from a nursery, you need only point out that the health of plants was up to someone you don know AOT left. They usually have a good job, but you should always check yourself. Also, all precautions can be taken to avoid transplant shock in the system (if it has trouble adjusting to the new location and, therefore, has health problems in the future). Normally, the process goes smoothly, but you can never be too safe.

The Psychology Behind Gardening

I do not know what it is about a garden that has always attracted people to them. But she was always very popular, and an integral part of peoples' lifestyles. Most religions have gardens, the settings for some of the biggest events to Christianity, humanity was started in a garden and the son of God was in a garden again rise again. The Buddhist build gardens to allow the nature to permeate their surroundings. Almost every major palace and government building has a garden. But what is so great about them? They are only a few plants, after all. Of course, the argument pretty obvious why people grow behind food in the gardens. It is to eat, if you live the fat of the land and survive actually on order from your garden, it is easy to understand why. But I am pleased these people that think plant flower gardens just for the beautiful view. There is no immediate benefit that can I see you only have a bunch of flowers in your garden! But after thinking extensively about the motivation behind planting decorative gardens, I have several possible theories designed. I think one of the reasons people love gardens so much that while we have a natural desire for progress and industrialization is deep within us all a primal love for nature. While this desire might not be as strong as the desire for modernity, it is still strong enough to force us to create gardens, small outlets of nature, in the midst of all our hustle and bustle. There is in nature, such as regression to an earlier stage of humanity, we too can at a time of regress comfort and happiness. Therefore gardens so relaxing and soothing to meditate on in. So gardens a good place and will be Tai Chi exercises. A garden is a way to quickly escape from the hectic world. I have sometimes thought that perhaps we feel as human beings a kind of guilt that drives us to nature and the concern to restore to them. This debt can from the knowledge that we do not personally but as a race to get destroyed so much of nature, where we are today Stem Cells. It's the least we do to build a small garden in remembrance of all the trees we kill every day. It is my theory, that this is to take the real reason for most people to gardening as a hobby. Gardening definitely a healthy habit, but do not make me wrong. Any hobby that provides exercise, helps the environment and improves your diet is not a negative matter. So no matter what the underlying psychological cause for gardening, I think that everyone should continue to do so. In the U.S. especially, is to do with obesity and pollution as its two major problems, I think gardening can only serve to improve the state of the world. Of course I am not a psychologist, I am just a curious gardener. I often stay for hours to ask what makes me garden. What is it that I go outside for a few hours every day with my gardening tools, and facilitate the small-time growth of plants that would grow naturally on their own? I can never know, but in this case, ignorance really is bliss.

Installing a Drip Irrigation System

If you are looking for ways to keep your garden watered without wasting too much time and money looking for, you are probably gone through a lot of options in your head. Perhaps you have you as a sprinkler, a hose or a good old-fashioned watering can. All these methods can be convenient, but most of the time you end up wasting water on plants that no more. If you live in a drought affected area, as I do, you know that every bit of water counts. I ended up getting a drip irrigation system. I have not regretted that decision at all.

If you install a drip irrigation system, you can one of two varieties: above ground and underground. The above-ground version drips small amounts of water continuously on the ground, and it allowed in. It is all controlled by a pressure controller, so that the water is only guaranteed to soak in a drip instead of a spray or stream. These regulators are very inexpensive. Visit the drip system can be a pressure regulator and a garden hose poked set with holes in it (although it get to you, a pipe is designed for this type of use is ideal, I have found that the hose method works acceptable).

The subway system is a bit more pain to install and maintain. But if you are really in the aesthetic aspect of your garden and do not want a visible irrigation system, then you might consider it worth. It is essentially the same as the above ground version, only a small trench dug for the hose or pipe before each planting. This allows direct access to water the roots for the irrigation efficiency. Plus, you know your neighbors by a beautiful garden without ever going outside in order to impress it waterproof! You will be amazed.

To choose between the two systems, you must consider some things. Do you have the same plant layout year round? If it ever changed, you probably do not want to bury your hose. It can be a pain to dig up and re-align it with all new equipment every year or so. Even if your plant layout never changes, you must consider how much you really mind seeing a hose in your garden. If it really bothers you to the extent that you are willing to work for a few hours to get rid of it, then bury it with all means. But otherwise I would suggest, remain above ground, if for nothing else than the convenience of repair and reorganization.

One of the major advantages of drip irrigation system is its efficiency. Instead of spraying large amounts of water is doing better or worse, like a hose, it makes the most of your precious water by exactly where it is needed. It can also go to your garden with constant watering, instead of only when you are not thirsty around so that you do water.

So if you are looking for a simple, cheap, comfortable and efficient alternative watering method, you should go to the gardening store today and install the purchase of the necessary elements to a drip irrigation system. I think you'll be surprised how much easier it is to keep a garden after you have it.