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Archive for the ‘Gardening’ Category

Ten basic rules for gardening 

Rule #1 – Buy plants from a very reputable source–I prefer nurseries over discount stores and warehouse stores. 

Rule #2 – Select plants that will grow in your climate–consider your high and low temperatures. 

Rule #3 – Plant your plants in the right place in your yard–sun-loving plants in the sun, shade-loving plants in the shade. 

Rule #4 – Provide your plants with complete nutrition. Most fertilizers and plant foods don’t. Spray-N-Grow and Bill’s Perfect Fertilizer provide major and minor elements identified by botanists as necessary for plant growth and production. 

Rule #5 – Water your plants properly. 

Rule #6 – Keep your plants bug free. Look for bugs on your plants as often as possible. Apply an organic and environmentally friendly bug killer if necessary. 

Rule #7 – Watch for plant disease. Spray your plants with Physan 20 or Serenade if you see any wilting, black spots, etc. 

Rule #8 – Weed around your plants or use All Down Organic Weed and Grass Kill or Burnout Weed and Grass Killer. 

Rule #9 – Deer, rabbits, squirrels and other animals may try to feast on your plants. If you see evidence of munching, use a humane animal repellants. It may take a little detective work to figure out what type of hungry animal is invading your garden. 

Rule #10 – Gardening is a physical activity–take care of yourself. Wear a hat and gloves. Use sunscreen and watch for stinging insects. Use safe products–many common gardening products are not organic or all natural. To buy garden products mentioned in this article, visit Spray-N-Grow’s website ( http://www.spray-n-growgardening.com ). Their garden products are safe for people, plants and pets.

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 planning any type of garden. Talk to the professionals at your local center/landscape firm to see which plants will do well in your area. You may be surprised to find that some very beautiful, colorful plants are low on water consumption-and they may fit into your landscape perfectly.

Group together plants that require the same amount of water. Plant trees and shrubs to provide shade to cool buildings, air conditioning units, patios, decks, and other landscape features.  Shelter container plants by moving them to shady areas. Spike or aerate lawns to insure maximum water penetration. Control weeds which compete with useful plants for water.

Soil Improvement

Soil improvement is another easy and beneficial step in building a water wise garden. Soil that is well prepared at the time of planting influences the plant’s initial development and yields the best results. And plants placed in the proper soil will be healthier, often needing less water.

Soil characteristics include texture, structure, depth, and nutrients. To find out more about your soil content, test your soil with the following garden products: Accugrow Soil Test Kit or the Sunleaves Three-Way Meter.  

Wise Irrigation

Efficient irrigation is a critical part of water wise gardening. Your irrigation system can be simple, such as a hand-held hose, or elaborate, such as an in-ground sprinkler system. Consider a drip water conservation system, which can save up to 60% of water used by sprinkler irrigation. Whatever you choose, make sure you plan your watering to get best results.

Deep, infrequent watering, promotes root growth and is the wisest use of water and encourages strong rooting. This provides greater tolerance to dry spells.  Water early in the day, and on less windy days, to reduce evaporation loss. The ideal time is from dawn to 9:00 a.m.   Turn off sprinklers before water is wasted as runoff into gutters and streets.

Mulching

Mulching is always a benefit to your garden and can help prevent soil erosion and evaporation, conserving the water that is available and keeping your plants healthy and strong.

Maintenance

Maintaining your water wise garden means learning how to water all over again. You may find that watering less means having more time to sit back and enjoy your garden. Generally, plants should be watered less often and for a long period of time. Drip, soaker, or deep root watering promotes healthy plants and less water use.

Water Wise Gardening Tips

Follow these handy watering tips from AAN, and you’ll soon be started on your own environmentally sound garden or landscape.  For garden products mentioned in this article, please visit http://www.spray-n-growgardening.com

If you are looking for ways for you or your children to provide cheap presents for the extended family, or just like to give gifts that have a personal element to them, then here is a suggestion or two for you.

If you are looking to make a present for the gardener in the family or someone who has recently moved into their own home, someone in a flat or unit, or a person who can’t manage a full sized yard, or a family member who loves to cook with fresh ingredients, etc. Then why not consider giving them something from your own garden? Here I am talking about plants that you have divided off from your own garden plants.

There are many plants growing in the average garden that can be divided, or that have naturally self layered themselves. Where you could go along and take a rooted section, pot them up and with a bit of dressing up of the planting container, you could produce a really nice gift for someone you care about.

These plants include many herbs as well as perennials or shrubs and even some trees which manage to send out self-layering branches or suckers from the root system. Some perennials or bulbs will increase their size or number of bulbs over time. Chance seedlings coming up in the wrong place for you, can easily also be used. All of these provide you with an opportunity to cheaply create a wonderful present for someone else.

First things first you will need to obtain a number of pots either plastic ones left over from additions to the garden population, or from someone you know, or you can go out and purchase a pot plastic/ceramic/terracotta etc., to suit your needs. If the person you are giving the plant to is not a real gardener, then you might consider getting a pot with a waterwell in the base to increase the plants’ chances of surviving.

Next, you need to begin looking for your plant material, so take a careful look around your garden at the soil level. Check out which plants are showing multiple stalks growing out of the ground. Or those sprawling plants where a branch has leaned over on to the ground and taken root along the branch, maybe one where a branch has become buried under the mulch.

Or one where there is a sucker growing from the soil a short distance from the parent plant. Another possibility is seedlings growing in the garden a distance from the parent plant material. Maybe there is a clump of plants or a big patch of bulbs where you can do some dividing.

Many of these plants benefit from being divided up or being allowed some more growing room in the particular area where you have taken away some material.

Different parts of Australia will have a differing range of plant species, which lend themselves to this form of self-propagation. If you can’t find any plants that are doing this in your own garden, why not look at a friends or neighbours garden. Or you could maybe join forces and give a joint present using plants from another family member’s garden. Or another possibility is to buy a plant in a pot that has several plants already established in it.

Divide that up before you use half in your own garden, and still have half to repot and give away. Even if you are not confident about your gardening skills you can still pick up cheap plants at the local market, school/church fair, garage sale etc. Repot them into a bigger or nicer pot for a fairly cheap present.

Another possibility is to multiplant a few different plants into a long or large round tub. This will create an instant garden on the move. Some themes you might consider here is herbs, indoor foliage, bulbs, annuals, alpine/rock, cacti/succulent or even patio gardens mixing annuals and perennials.

It is best to moisten the ground around the plant that you are going to work on well before you do the dividing, as this allows you to remove the maximum amount of root mass during the dividing process.

The first step is to divide the clump or cut away the joining branch to make the separate plant available. Then using a spade, fork or gardening trowel, dig as far out from the potential plant as practicable, because this will give you the biggest root mass possible.

Go down as far you believe you need to, (this will depend on such circumstances as size of new plant, species of original plant material, type of soil, other plant or landscaping material around the area, etc.). As gently as you can dig out the new plant. Shake off any excess soil and refill the resulting hole in the ground if necessary.

Prune back the foliage of the new plant to roughly equal size of the root mass, trying to protect some of the new foliage growth. Repot as soon as practicable, so that the roots do not dry out and die.

Another thing to consider is what sort of pot you are gong to plant into; if it is only a plastic pot then you do not need to prepare it beforehand. However if you are looking at painting it, then do this before you get digging.

When painting up pots, you will need to do some preparation work for the paint to stick properly. Plastic pots should have their surface roughened up with a bit of sandpaper. While some terracotta pots should have a primer applied to the outer surface before you paint them. Try not to get primer or paint onto the inside of the planter, because while most wont, there are still some paints which contain chemicals that may affect or contaminate the soil and plant over time.

Other possibilities for decorating up pots include simply gluing on bits and pieces including stones, tiles, buttons, sticks, shells, ornaments, ribbon, stickers and decals, etc. Other ways of decorating up a pot for the initial presentation is to wrap up just the pot (not the actual plant), using either wrapping paper, cellophane, material, a cheap teatowel or even hessian. Hold these wrappers in place with string, ribbon, bandana, scarf, etc.

Other possibilities for adding value to the potplant is to provide some growing information and name tags for the plant/s included. Other little quirks you might add include a personalised name tag, (Hi, my name is David the Diffenbachia . . . ), or a little watering indicator, miniature hand tools, small amounts of fertiliser, pot ornaments, watering can etc.

So as you can see, creating a very personal gift for just about anyone can easily be within the grasp of anyone. Why not go out into your garden and start thinking about what presents you can be preparing for Christmas this weekend.

Moss is either loved or hated in the garden. People very often passionately rake it away. Why not to look at it as blessing to your garden? Its kinds are very difficult to recognize – you need proper book for that and magnifying glass. I don’t remember since when I love moss. I think since always. Soft, fragile and moist. In my garden moss is welcomed everywhere. I try to grow it on my stones as well. Few months ago I covered them with yoghurt dilluted with water 1:1. No great effect yet, just little greenish something appeared.

You can appreciate moss beauty especially in the winter – when it is lush green and so soft to walk on. Grows in the lawn in the shadow? Great! I don’t need to move it. Grass is weaker and weaker in these spots, and moss patches are larger and larger… and more and more green. Moss reminds me my second big and earliest garden fascination of Japanese Gardens.

I look for tranquility and harmony in the garden. In the smaller gardens it is even more important to not overload it with too many different plants.
I like them for meditative and tranquill character. I remember that in communist time in Poland there was not so many books about landscaping and Far East – that was of my special interest at that time. I made friends with the owner of the shop selling used/old books. Whenever something about Japan appeared on the shelf I was getting a phone call and I immediatelly run to the shop to see it.

There is six features as a synonym for an excellent not only Japanese but landscape garden.

According to the ancient book of gardens, there should be six different qualities to which a garden can aspire.

They are grouped in their traditional complementary pairs, they are:

spaciousness & seclusion

artifice & antiquity

water-courses & panoramas.

As the specialists say “it is difficult enough to find a garden that is blessed with any three or four of these desirable attributes, let along five, or even more rarely, all six.”
Yet there is such case in Japan.

Its name is “Kenroku-en” which means “garden that combines six characteristics”, which is named by Sadanobu Matsudaira, a feudal load in the present Tohoku district (northern part of mainland Japan).

Plants recommended for Japanese gardens:

Trees and shrubs

Acer plamatum, Acer japonicum, Acer ginnala, Amelanchier canadensis, Cercis chinensis, Chamaecyparis obtusa, Cornus kousa, Cryptomeria japonica, Gingko biloba, Pinus nigra, Pinus thunbergiana, Pinus densiflora, Magnolia kobus, Magnolia stellata, Prunus cerasifera, Prunus mume, Prunus serrulata, Prunus armeniaca, Sciadopitys verticillata, Tsuga canadensis,
Trees and shrubs of medium size

Acer palmatum ‘Dissectum’, Spirea japonica, Chaenomeles japonica, Chaenomeles lagenaria, Euonymus alatus, Enkianthus campanulatus, Forsytia x intermedia, Forsytia suspensa, Juniperus chinensis ‘Armstrongii’, Kerria japonica, Mahonia aquifolium, Pieris japonica, Rhododendrons, Azaleas, Syringa vulgaris
Small shrubs

Buxus microphylla, Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Nana’, Daphne cneorum, Ilex crenata, Juniperus chinensis ‘Blue Vase’, Pinus mugo ‘Compacta’, Rhododendron obtusum, Rhododendron kaempferi, Spirea japonica, Spirea bumalda, Thuja occidentalis ‘Globosa’, Viburnum carlesii

All these plants are accompanied by different kind of grass, moss, perennials, bamboo, ivy that might be chosen according to the climate zone.

Garden offices are specially designed offices set up in a personâ??s garden. It provides a very convenient work atmosphere for people who want to work from home. With your home just a stoneâ??s throw away you get to experience the same comfort as working from home without the usual distractions. New mothers, a person suffering from disability, a person whose main office is very far away or even a person who just wants to work from home would be benefited from having a garden studio at home. A Garden office or lodge blends in beautifully with the garden and actually makes it more attractive. Even the materials used are eco-friendly. Not only can you use the garden office for work, but can also convert it into a guest room or an extra bedroom as and when required.

The dazzling range of garden offices offered by gardenlodges.co.uk is one of the most comprehensive available in the market. The flexible modular design of the structures allows you to customize the office according to your needs and also get it attuned to your beautifully manicured garden; thus solving adequately all your garden designing needs. The garden offices of gardenlodges.co.uk are built is such a way that you can stay and work in them throughout the year without any problems. A very negligible amount of heating is required and the same goes with air conditioning. Consumption of electricity is also minimal. Eco-friendliness is highlighted during the construction of the garden offices. The materials used and the technique, both put stress on that fact. Provisions to add a bathroom or even a kitchen allow you to use your garden office as a mini-home.

The garden offices available at gardenlodges.co.uk are constructed keeping with the standards of the British Building Regulations. Each garden office built by gardenlodges.co.uk is done following a careful study of the site conditions, and after taking into consideration other aspects like garden fencing. They are also carefully insulated and double-gazed. Environmental factors are also considered during construction and eco-friendly larch cladding is used to finish the construction. Cedar roofing shingles are used not only for protection but they also mellow as the years pass. Excellent soundproofing is provided that allows you to not worry about sound escaping out and extra care is taken to provide unrestricted passage of natural light.

Garden studios and garden offices are lifestyle buildings or offices that are set up in the garden. This is generally targeted towards those who wish to work out of their home but not in their home, at their own convenience.

There are multiple benefits of Garden Studios or Garden lodges. Besides the fact that it allows you to work from the comfort of your home, you also get to work in a very beautiful place as the office is built after a careful site survey. The garden surrounding your office offers you a spectacular view, as the company building your garden office will also help you design your garden as well. The garden studios can be personalized according to your needs. You can set it up in such a manner that you enter your garden office by walking through a winding walkway. The serene, peaceful and relaxing atmosphere at your garden studio will be absolutely amazing. A little bit of customization can turn your studio into a guest room or even an extra bedroom. You won’t feel the need to return to your home.

Women who need to work and also look after their family would greatly benefit from these garden lodges that can serve as a home office for them. Besides, those with disabilities would love to work in an environment where everything has been personalized according to their needs, in addition to the fact that the surroundings of the office are so spectacular. The horror of daily commuting to the head office, thanks to traffic congestion or unreliable train services is the chief concern, apart from other issues. Not only are modern parents keen to spend more time with their kids, but most of us are looking for a better work/life balance. There’s more to life than making money, especially if you’re doing it for other people – and much more to working than being a cog in someone else’s machine.

Gardenlodges.co.uk offers the best services to construct garden studios in the UK. Each studio is built to meet the exact requirements of the individual. The customer’s tastes, preferences and needs are all kept in mind while constructing garden studios. Gardenlodges.co.uk doesn’t compromise on the quality of their products and offer a 10 year insurance backed guarantee. They also provide excellent after sales service. Maintaining good customer relations is another plus point of theirs. Constant interactions between the customer and the representatives of Gardenlodges result in the final quality product and service. Another special feature offered by gardenlodges.co.uk is that they conduct the Site Survey, free of charge. This helps the client to understand and then determine the exact nature of the product that he/she would like to purchase.