Gardening content

So what is all the talk about having a lot of “content” on my website? And what is “content” exactly? And how will it help my business grow and prosper? I get these questions from my internet students all of the time. Let me say this…Having a lot of great content is one of the [...]

{ 0 comments }

When the communists ruled the USSR, we saw a classic example of how an autocratic government becomes top-heavy. If those in control micro-manage every decision, every meal, job, and shoe the people wear, the government needs to grow very large to handle all the ‘decision overhead’. At the same time, decisions themselves become scarce and [...]

{ 0 comments }

Often referred to as the power of Hydrogen. It is the measure of Alkalinity or acidity of solutions based on hydrogen ion content. pH is measured from a scale of 0-14, acids are in the 0-7 bracket (0 the most acidic), and bases at the 7-14 range (14 the strongest). Introduction of nutrients affect the [...]

{ 0 comments }

Efficiency in comparison to traditional soil growing systems would be one of the major advantages. Commercial production and just plain hobbyists would find that moving from regular soil growing methods to the modern Indoor Hydroponic systems to be more beneficial. Freedom from uncontrollable variables such as the weather, climate and time of day would be [...]

{ 0 comments }

Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Systems Carbon Dioxide (CO2) as described in the previous paragraphs is one of the most important elements needed for plant growth. CO2 is combined with nutrients, water and energy from light (grow lights/ sunlight) is utilized during photosynthesis producing essential sugars that provide energy for the plant. Any factor missing needed for [...]

{ 0 comments }

Grow a beautiful garden the water wise way Saving water and enjoying the beauty and environmental benefits of plants are not only possible, but easy says the American Association of Nurserymen (AAN). “Water Wise” gardening is built on some basic, commonsense principles: Planning Planning a water wise garden or landscape is as easy and fun-as [...]

{ 0 comments }

These are the materials that mimic the soil in everyday gardens. It serves as a support system for your hydroponic indoor garden. They function mainly for anchoring the roots and a reservoir for water and nutrient solutions. Special attention is also placed on aeration or proper plant respiration and drainage. A balance must be kept [...]

{ 0 comments }

During the summer, people tend to keep more of their personal possessions in their garages or garden sheds. According to the Fair Investment Company, this means that people need to understand the importance of home insurance. The company believe that the lines between home contents and outbuilding and garden contents are becoming blurred as [...]

{ 0 comments }

For many households forced to follow a restricted routine of gas bills and heating, the end of winter is worthy of jubilation. But as many welcome the incoming spring some people’s joy may be short-lived as the risk of having unwanted, uninvited guests in their homes or gardens, or even in both, is realised. Lighter [...]

{ 0 comments }

Many of us see our garden as our pride and joy. We lavish it with hours of time and attention. We fill it with everything we can imagine and then we sit back and enjoy our little paradise. We see it as an extension to our home, especially in summer as garden and house seem [...]

{ 0 comments }

You’ve insured your car, your home, your health and your life but do you have contents insurance? Believe it or not, contents insurance is an important type of insurance with a very broad scope. Most home insurance policies include some form of contents insurance but contents insurance is a specific type of insurance with a [...]

{ 0 comments }

When the warm weather returns, more often than not your attention will be focused on the use of your garden, especially when summer approaches. Most will appear a little unkempt after the winter season, but once the first cut is complete and the plants and shrubs are tidied up, your garden can once again be [...]

{ 0 comments }

Home insurance is mostly regarded by people as an insurance that covers the items they stays inside the house. Coverage’s for properties outside the house are regarded as unimportant. With seasons like summer, most yards, patios and gardens are stuffed with furniture’s, barbecue machines and tools. This items needs to be protected and what you [...]

{ 0 comments }

Vegetables may also be grown entirely without any form of heat and without the use of a frame though a row of cloches will ensure earlier crops and they may be kept in use the whole year round. Cloches are like small portable greenhouses and are of many types and sizes. The Chase large barn-type [...]

{ 0 comments }

Trees accentuate beauty in a landscape more than most other greeneries. They create an environment of serenity which gives you a chance to let go of any tension that you may be housing within. But these giant beauties don’t start out that huge. They start out as tree seeds and fight the forces until they [...]

{ 0 comments }

Of prime consideration when selecting plants is the soil type in your garden, particularly whether it is acid – below pH 6.5 or alkaline or limy/chalky – above pH 7.0.   At around pH 7.0, usually known as neutral, certain shrubs or trees which are usually associated with acid soil will perform reason­ably well, although [...]

{ 0 comments }

The cauliflower has been in cultivation for a very long time indeed. It is mentioned in John Parkinson’s ‘Paradisi in sole Paradisus terrestris’, the first English dictionary of gardening. The title, incidentally, is a pun on Parkinson’s name, meaning `The earthly Park of Park-in-sun’. The cauliflower has been improved out of all recognition, the plants [...]

{ 0 comments }

As important in the long term as selection of plants that suit your soil is the careful consideration of their likely ultimate size, particularly of trees and the larger shrubs -everything always grows bigger than you expect. There may be a tendency today to treat a small garden as you might a room, ‘redecorating’ or [...]

{ 0 comments }

The following suggestions are intended for situations where the grass areas are for family play or to set off the surrounding planting, rather than where a perfect lawn is intended. Many books give detailed prescriptions for making and maintaining perfect lawns – if that is your desire. Grass maintenance activities will include mowing, feeding, aerating [...]

{ 0 comments }

Many methods of controlling herbs and weeds. About 420 of them are good but we will cover only the mechanical ones. Mechanical methods include digging, hoeing, rotovating, cutting and pulling the weeds. In digging the soil is turned over and the weeds growing on the surface are buried, where, deprived of sunlight, they should rot [...]

{ 0 comments }

Groundcover plants make a close and dense layer of vegetation over the soil surface, preventing weeds from becoming estab­lished. Initially, weed-free ground is essen­tial, as the plants will take a couple of seasons to cover the ground fully and will not suppress established perennial weeds, such as couch.   Groundcover plants include shrubby species, such [...]

{ 0 comments }

The next point is to find out whether there are sufficient nutrients available for the plants in the soil. There are two practical ways of doing this, by having the soil tested and by observing plants already growing on the site.  It is possible to have the soil tested commercially by a number of firms, [...]

{ 0 comments }

This involves the removal of weak, damaged, dead or over-crowded shoots. In this way potentially damaging decay fungi which gain entry to weak shoots, etc, can be prevented from growing back into the healthy ones, and the number of places where damaging insects can hide can be reduced. This aspect of pruning would include prompt [...]

{ 0 comments }

Deciduous trees have best been described as the trees that shed seasonally so that they can adapt to the climatic changes. They are very ornamental plants, adding so much color to a landscape, especially when they appear in clusters. Deciduous trees have a variety of uses in today’s world, with the most obvious being their [...]

{ 0 comments }

Evergreen trees are usually a natural choice when it comes to landscaping. These trees have the ‘it’ factor that one usually looks for when it comes to bringing aesthetic appeal to a landscape. There are several varieties of evergreens to choose from, and the only limitation is the kind of tree in precision you are [...]

{ 0 comments }

The forest ecosystems is the combination of forest organisms, from trees, shrubs, fungi, and generally all green and non-green plants, animals and insects together with the environmental components of air, water and soil, organic and inorganic matter including stones and rocks. These components are all within the forest boundary and interact to fully sustain life [...]

{ 0 comments }

Tropical trees are commonly known trees, the kinds that are associated with the beach. They help one reminisce or fantasize about afternoon or evening walks on the beach as one watches the sun sink into the distant horizon of the sea. Only their aesthetic appeal is understood and all other characteristics about the tropical trees [...]

{ 0 comments }

Most of the conservation efforts that go into the environment are usually centered on trees. These gifts from nature help keep the environment together and keep a balance between the levels of carbon dioxide in the environment. But that is not the only function that trees are limited too. In fact, it’s a long list, [...]

{ 0 comments }

Trees are woody perennials that are grown for a variety of purposes. Though there are over 20,000 species of identified tree kinds, most of them different, they do share a common anatomy, much like the mammals do. That means that there is one basic layout of a tree, despite the species, and it’s highlighted below. [...]

{ 0 comments }

Trees are living organisms which means that they are predisposed to diseases much like every other living thing. The diseases are mainly caused by bacteria and fungi, and the damages caused to the trees are usually very devastating and in severe cases, cause the death of the tree. In fact trees never die of old [...]

{ 0 comments }

Among the biotic effects that fungi infections cause, tree insects too are responsible for downgrading the health of trees, and in some severe cases causing their death. Insect species that thrive on trees are far too many to list in precision, but there are common ones which have been identified over time.   Aphids are [...]

{ 0 comments }

Trees are very much living organisms which means that they need food to survive. But trees are heterotrophic, which means that they depend on themselves for food. To manufacture this food, the trees depend on a complex process of photosynthesis. Usually, the key components in this case are carbon dioxide, sunlight and water. If either [...]

{ 0 comments }

There are two basic ways of tree propagation- the asexual and sexual way. Sexual propagation is almost a natural process where male pollen fertilizes the ovules of another plant, encouraging fruit development. This kind of propagation is undesired as there is mixture of genetic traits and the type of tree produced is usually not of [...]

{ 0 comments }

Trees are woody plants that are considered perennial. Any woody plant that grows to about 3 meters of height and has a diameter of at least ten centimeters is considered a tree. If it falls below those measurements, it is considered to be a shrub. They are what dominated the earth long before man, and [...]

{ 0 comments }

Silviculture can be described as the art of manipulating the growth of trees, their composition, their needs and their quality so that they can match the desires of landowners and silviculturists. Before excelling in the field of silviculture, it would help if one understood silvics a little better. In a nutshell, knowing your trees would [...]

{ 0 comments }

Growing trees in this period in time is highly recommended, not only as a way of going green, but also to add a little color to the landscape and aesthetic appeal as well. Most homeowners wouldn’t mind a couple of trees in the backyard, or if space permits it, around the home area and in [...]

{ 0 comments }

The Catalpa tree is known by many names, including Catawba, Indian bear or the Cigar tree. It’s a deciduous tree that is able to tolerate most environmental temperatures, including the hot summers where the conditions are hot and dry, or in other words unforgiving. A typical Catalpa tree would grow to an average of 15 [...]

{ 0 comments }

Good tools are essential to growing good crops of vegetables, they make the work easier and enable cultivations to be done more efficiently. Of first importance is a spade, for it will be used for turning over the soil and for trenching, also for earthing up and lifting the crops. It will be in constant [...]

{ 0 comments }

The Japanese art of Suiseki, unlike its well-known companion Bonsai, remains determinedly dwarfed and yet once beheld, naturally and delightfully embraced and appreciated.   Everyone, at some time or another, has picked up from the beach or river bed a curiously shaped or colored pebble. It may end up on the desk doing duty as [...]

{ 0 comments }

Plant breeders from Bangkok and Thailand have given the once-ordinary looking Aglaonemas a new look with their new and exciting crosses of the said plants. Cross-breeding different species from all over Asia for over ten years, Thai scientists have come up with varieties that have thicker, broader leaves with glossy, waxy surface.   Some varieties [...]

{ 0 comments }

Tree seeds are the natural way of a tree to reproduce itself and generate further generations of trees and the survival of its tree species. But what are tree seeds and how are they produced ? There is various elements to consider when analysing tree seeds.   Tree seeds are usually the fruit of the [...]

{ 0 comments }

No amount of care in the selection and use of fertilizers and manures will be of much value unless the soil is deeply worked and cleared of all perennial weeds which would compete with the vegetables for their food and moisture.   When first bringing the ground into condition, a start should he made in [...]

{ 0 comments }

Organic and inorganic manures It is not possible to grow good vegetables without the use of organic manures for these are able to supply the plants with humus in addition to nutrients, whilst valuable trace elements are also present. Those vegetables requiring a long period to mature. possibly a year or more, will need a [...]

{ 0 comments }

Paths are important for, if well made, this will enable a barrow to he easily moved about the plot, in addition to mechanical cultivators, whilst the lady of the house will be able to pull a few radishes or spring onions or cut a cabbage or lettuce without the need to change her shoes in [...]

{ 0 comments }

Climate will also play a part in determining the cropping programme. Those gardening in the favourable areas of the south west, from a line drawn from Bristol to Southampton will be able to take several more crops during a season than those gardening in the north. In the south west, where winter temperatures rarely cause [...]

{ 0 comments }

The most important of winter vegetables for it begins to crop in October and continues until March, spanning the six coldest months of the year. It is extremely hardy and will continue to hear sprouts no matter how severe the weather. To have tine sprouts which retain their shape after cooking, the plants must he [...]

{ 0 comments }

Green’ manuring, is best done in August. After clearing the ground of perennial weeds, it is thickly sown with rape seed. This will germinate quickly and be ready to dig into the soil during October. By then, a thick mat of fibrous roots and green top growth will have l’ormed and should the rape have [...]

{ 0 comments }

Though native of the British Isles, it was not until the arrival of the Hugenot refugees who taught us how it should be grown and cooked, that the carrot became an important part of our diet. The most delicious carrots are those grown over a gentle hot bed early in spring, the seed being sown [...]

{ 0 comments }

Two sowings should be made, one of the self- blanching to use from the latter weeks of summer until the late autumn; another of the ordinary white or pink variety to use through winter. This will be crisp and tender only after hard frost. It requires more labor in its culture than the self- blanching [...]

{ 0 comments }

No vegetable is more easily managed nor so little grown. It is a native British plant which the countryman knows as Succory and at one time was grown in most cottage gardens for its ‘greens’ yet it is f’ar more appetizing when forced and blanched. It requires a rich, well manured soil containing plenty of [...]

{ 0 comments }

Where a cold frame or barn-type cloches are available, the frame cucumbers may be grown; where there is no glass then one may still enjoy summer cucumbers by growing those known as ridge cucumbers. These are the hardiest of all the forms, those for frames being also suitable for growing in a heated greenhouse. For [...]

{ 0 comments }

This has nothing to do with the Holy Land nor is it in any way related to the globe artichoke. Its nearest cultivated relative is, in fact, the sun flower, though its yellow, sun flower-like blossoms are only produced after a long, hot summer. It is native of North America and we first obtained them [...]

{ 0 comments }

To obtain those large globular bulbs, imported in quantity from Brittany each year, it is necessary to give the onion a long season of growth and iii the colder parts of Britain this is possible only if sets are planted rather than seed. North of a line drawn from Chester to the Wash, it will [...]

{ 0 comments }

This is one of the most widely used of herbs and is grown in large quantities for garnishing fish and for making sauce to accompany fish. The plant first reached England early in her history but Parkinson tells of having first seen it in 1600, growing in the garden of the Venetian Ambassador in London [...]

{ 0 comments }

Peppers are of two groups, the sweet and the hot, the former being Capsicum, the latter C. baccatum, also known as the chillie or Bird Pepper. Both are suffciently hardy to grow in the open in the milder parts of Britain. In the colder parts, they are best grown in the greenhouse or frames. The [...]

{ 0 comments }

A native of South America, the tubers are believed to have first reached Europe from Peru. Today, the potato is the staple diet in many countries round the world but nowhere does it grow better than in the cool, moist climate of Britain where more than ten million tons are produced each year. Apart from [...]

{ 0 comments }

This is the most handsome of vegetables, worthy of a place in the herbaceous border for its foliage alone. Since the earliest times the flower heads, with their broad thickened scales, have been regarded as an epicurian’s food. It is perennial, native of S. Europe and North Africa, and was prized by the Romans who [...]

{ 0 comments }

These terms are all fairly much interchangeable, for the marrows, pumpkins and summer squashes are all varieties of Cucurbita pepo. The winter squashes, however, are varieties of Cucurbita maxima, while the Cushaw pumpkin is Cucurbita mixia. The last, while popular in the United States is not a success in Britain, taking too long to mature. [...]

{ 0 comments }

Tomatoes, or Love Apples, as they were once called, were introduced into Europe shortly after the journeys of Columbus to the new world, but did not reach England until a later date. To begin with they were grown merely for their ornamental and curiosity value, and were thought to be poisonous. To grow them outdoors, [...]

{ 0 comments }

For the home grower, there is no more valuable plant for both the white and purple-sprouting varieties possess extreme hardiness and may lie grown anywhere in the British Isles to provide a succession of shoots for boiling or braising from early spring until the end of summer. It conies into full cropping when the equally [...]

{ 0 comments }

Runner or kidney beans follow the early summer French beans, being at their best during late summer and autumn. The runners are more demanding as to their culture for they will reach a height of 8—to feet in a single season and are in every way heavier than other climbing beans. They require a rich [...]

{ 0 comments }

This plant is not a universal favorite, nor is it very successful in the garden, for summer spinach readily runs to seed, whilst plants of winter spinach may decay in excessively damp weather, but the plant has health giving qualities and many appreciate its unique ‘earthy’ flavor. Summer spinach is best grown from a succession [...]

{ 0 comments }