All posts in Gardening

Easy Steps To Gardening With Confidence

By blogger on

Thank you, good foods from Mother Earth, our life sustainers, for making us happy when we are hungry”. Chief Jake Swamp

Good food from the earth is organic foods. To keep your garden simple and healthy, you must insure that it has a healthy support system. Good soil and plant fertility go hand in hand.

Here are 5 tips to help accomplish your organic gardening goals.

1) Seeds, plants or shrubs must be planted at a particular time. Fruits and vegetables have a specific number of days from planting to maturity. Make a calendar, begin collection planting times, and include instructions for growing by each month of the year. In America there are many different growing zones. There are also frost zones. If you are familiar with these zones, growing and harvesting will be a snap.

2) A garden journal is of immense help. Take pictures of where each plant that produced well is located in the garden. Make note of planting times, where you received the plants or seeds from or any changes that may need to be made. There are many helpful computer programs available that will keep this type of information organized.

3) Using an organic method to grow and harvest foods definitely make a taste difference. Used directly from the garden, these foods can be served raw or with very little cooking, but always must be throughly washed and cleaned before serving. An added plus is no taste of being harvested and shipped green.

4) Growing a pollinator garden includes furnishing flowers, vegetables or both, that humming birds, bees and other insects will frequent. Up to 90% of plants, even the self-pollinated, benefit from cross-pollination and many different insects. The wind also plays a vital role in plant pollination. Honey bees, wild bees and bumble bees are beneficial. Be sure to leave a wild area in a corner for bees needs. Some are ground living, some will nest almost anywhere. Bees are drawn to many different blossoms and herbs. When bees and birds are present, the garden will produce more seed and fruit because the pollen is more live.

5) If there is no time or space, to make an organic garden then seek out an organic farmer. Maybe he comes to the local farmer’s market bringing fresh food daily or twice a week. Many times farmers feature pick your own areas when harvest is plentiful.

Ask friends and neighbors, or your neighborhood health food store for suggestions to find organic produce.

Herb Garden Kits – A ”out Of The Box Simple Gardening Experience

By blogger on

I can remember at being very excited about a new project I was starting. At first I had already foreseen a long stimulating future at enjoying this hobby. I bought all what deemed to me as necessary to start digging in this new adventure. Unfortunately after a while I slowly varied my activities, the latter ending up occupying more and more of my time than my beloved pastime until I went on to new points of interest . A lot of the material is still in the garage, certain items still in their unopened packaging.

The same can be applied to gardening, especially if it is a new found interest or a lack of experience. It could be wise to begin this hobby with a miniature version and give you the opportunity to test how much you enjoy this activity and how well it may blend in your day-to-day routine.

Happily herb garden kits are a simple solution to get you up and running in a very short time and let you set the limits to how much time and efforts you are willing to devote yourself to this past time. Here are some instances when these ”kits” comes in handy.

Time
People are busy rushing from home to their jobs and everything in between. It is a great idea to cultivate herbs for whatever reason it is appealing to you and it is also fairly simple. How much time do you have to keep you herbs happy and healthy. Any herb that you plant has to be tended to, from beginning to end including harvesting. Does your time frame permit outdoor gardening or will it be more convenient and time saving if you choose the indoors gardening option?

Space
Another factor that can greatly influence your choice is space. City dwellers might not have a large space for gardening and are often limited to the confines of a small apartment, or perhaps outside temperatures would not be very friendly to the young plants. A small kit can be composed of a set of 3-4 plants of different herbs that can set on that sunny windowsill in the kitchen. You will find one plant of an herb is enough to fulfill the need. Know your herbs and how to tend to them because some plants can start spreading from a single sprout when out of control.

Commodity
Herb garden kits comes complete with everything you need except for the water and sunshine. Some kits might even contain grow lights that control photosynthesis. You can even get a kit with plants that grows submerged in water, this solution even eliminate the possibility of dirt spilling and creating a mess in your home.
All kits include step-by-step instructions on how to set-up everything, how to plant and care of the herbs, harvesting, characteristics of each individual plants and tips for best results.

Choice
Another pleasant aspect of buying a kit is that there is a tremendous amount of variation offered. You need to choose which category of herbs you plan on growing. Will the harvested leaves be used for culinary reason or, perhaps, you tend more towards medicinal herbs?

The quantity that you will need depends largely on the usage you are aiming for. Remember that with herbs 1 plant will go a long way.

Prices is also a factor but it should not be exclusive. Seed-based kits are less expensive than the sprout version but can be a bit more time consuming and even fragile. Also some herbs can be quite a challenge to a beginner when started from seeds.

Overall, available space and the time you can devote to its care are deciding factor for a kit that is best for you. A small kit containing 4-5 herbs that can grow on your windowsill and may require only simple occasional watering. A large kit offers all that you need to cultivate a 10×10 feet garden.

Take the time you need to plan your garden whatever the size, you will be happy that you did later. List the herbs that you wish to grow and visit a few places to compare prices and options that may suit you best. There is a herb garden kit waiting for you that thoroughly meet your need.

Automatic Seeds(semillas Autoflorecientes) – An Effective Gardening Invention

By blogger on

Agriculture as an industry has seen massive transformation & radical changes in the past two decades. It has not just changed face in the past two decades, but has also devised various plans, innovative products & services, together with several supplementary developments to improve quality and enhance quantity. From various traditional procedures like step farming, distant and rotational cultivation, science has helped us with other techniques like auto-cropping, seed germination, farming techniques & procedures etc. Various scientific developments have led to excellent crop quality, brilliant seed texture and promising production per crop. One can pick the quantity and texture of seeds according to their requirement.

The increase in demand and want for more revenues have led to discoveries and innovations for example automatic seeds (semillas autoflorecientes) & growing tents(Armarios de cultivo). These growing tents work on the scientific practice of utilizing optimum water and elements of sunlight to make a specific quality of plant inside a specific time. It is among the important discoveries of botanical culture. The newest of these growing tents(Armarios de cultivo) offer all sort of services starting with mother plant dissection, cutting, and growth, seeding, and flowering. Growing tents(Armarios de cultivo) work on the simple mechanism of judiciously utilizing sun rays and taking advantage of these to maximize plants growth and upbringing. This works beneficially for the saplings texture, requirement, colour etc.

The concept of automatic seeds(semillas autoflorecientes) really comes from the cultivation of marijuana, which is a drug of severe nature. These seeds result in a increase in quantity of plantations that are fertilized by the use of automatic seeds(semillas autoflorecientes). These automatic seeds are common as a trend only because they automatic seeds are highly psychoactive and therefore are in a position to fully restore the aroma of the seed in the plant. Automatic Seeds usually lead to germination of automatic plants which will skyrocket in no time to be a planters delight! Unlike the standard seeds that take usually 10-13 weeks to blossom into a sapling, these automatic seeds germinate and burst into a bud between the 3rd and also the 5th week. It goes beyond saying that an automatic seed is super advantageous for that yield. If these high-quality automatic seeds(semillas autoflorecientes) are given the chance to breed in outdoor conditions the resultant yield is further promising in quality and type!

You could also couple the fertilization of automatic seeds using the conducive environment of growing tents(Armarios de cultivo). If you invest intelligently, you can pick up growing tents that allows you various adjustable plantation settings. Aside from enhancing the concentration of light and improving its distribution, these growing tents(Armarios de cultivo) also allow top-spread panting, bottom spread setting, and mutually independent setting. This permits improvement in the weave from the plant culture. Thus for these dope plants, automatic seeds are the most useful bets, since they retain the plants strong aroma, and its exotic touch and tempting flavour. Combine it with growing tents ambience providing you with full comfort, light-tight, water-proof and pre-equipped ventilation facility and its carbon filters, and thermal insulation, they are perfect for your the development and growth and development of plants and germination of automatic seeds.

Sun Gloves & Sun Sleeves For The Most Neglected Part Of The Body

By blogger on

When I moved to Colorado from the Northeast several years back, I noticed a disturbing thing starting to happen – brown sun spots appearing on my hands and arms. I had always worn a hat to protect my face, but tended to neglect my hands and arms. Then I noticed in particular that the sun spots were appearing a lot more on my left arm than my right. I didn’t know what to make of it until, one day when I was driving, it all became clear. The sun beating down on my hand and arm through the driver’s side window was the culprit. I spent several hours a week driving and never even considered the implications of having my left hand at the mercy of the sun while holding the steering wheel. I have heard (but not yet substantiated) that in countries where the steering wheel is on the left side of car, skin cancer is more prevalent on the left side of the body, particularly the arm. Where the steering wheel is on the right side of the car, skin cancer is more prevalent on the right side of the body.

I had never liked the idea or, frankly, the feeling slathering my skin with chemical sun screens. And I always suspected that they were not quite as effective as advertised. Indeed, several articles in recent years point out that the SPF ratings are exaggerated and that in order to be effective, chemical sun screens have to be applied very liberally and very often. For years, dermatologists have told us sunscreen protects skin. Now, many people are questioning that advice after an environmental group challenged the sunscreen safety of many popular brands.

Patients are confused, said Dr. Darrell S. Rigel, a clinical professor of dermatology at New York University who is a skin cancer researcher. Ive had patients come in and ask, Am I harming myself by using it? Ive spent a lot of time talking to people about it.

The latest report comes from the Environmental Working Group, which claims that in an investigation of nearly 1,000 sunscreen products, four out of five offer inadequate protection from the sun or contain ingredients that may pose a health risk.

What they are doing is developing their own system for evaluating things, said Dr. Warwick L. Morison, professor of dermatology at Johns Hopkins and chairman of the Skin Cancer Foundation’s photo biology committee, which tests sunscreens for safety and effectiveness. Using this scale to say a sunscreen offers good protection or bad protection is junk science.

What I preferred was something to wear to protect my hands and arms and my choice is sun gloves and a sun sleeve or sun sleeves. I have found that sun gloves are useful for pretty much any outdoor activity: fishing, hiking, cycling, gardening or golf. Easy to slip on and off, versatile UPF/SPF sun protection.

Take a look at an old angler’s hands and you’ll get a pretty good idea of why sun gloves and sun sleeves are a good idea. Of course, there’s always chemical sunscreen, but we already discussed the questionable effectiveness of it and it tends to make slippery work of casting and line control, and who wants coconut-scented flies, anyway? The solution is a light, comfortable, fingerless sun glove made from quick-drying, UPF 50+ nylon/spandex fabric. Sun Gloves are easy to wear and easy to slip on and off. Your hands will thank you.

Echinacea purpurea cultivars Part I

By blogger on

The best Echinacea cultivars for sale today are the E. purpurea cultivars. There are too many to list in a single article so this article series breaks them up alphabetically. E. purpurea are the hardiest and most adaptable of all of the Echinacea, and they are great-as long as you like purple.

Echinacea purpurea ‘Alba’: White flowered form of the purple coneflower (Sun to light shade, Zone 3-8)

Echinacea purpurea ‘Avalanche’ PP 18,597: The best compact, single white-flowered coneflower in our trials. This Arie Bloom hybrid makes a tight clump, adorned in summer with 20″ spikes of large, white, horizontally-held petals…quite nice! (Zone 4-9)

Echinacea purpurea ‘Bright Star’ (syn: Echinacea purpurea ‘Leuchstern’): This superb seed strain of our native coneflower is a bit taller than most (to 3-4′) and has a slightly larger and more horizontally held rosy purple petals. The small winter rosettes give rise in mid summer to see thru spikes of large pinkish daisies…great for naturalizing! (Zone 3-8)

Echinacea purpurea ‘Cotton Candy’ PPAF: Large, pink, pompon flowers.

Echinacea purpurea ‘Crimson Star’: Crimson-lavender petals.

Echinacea purpurea ‘Cygnet White’: This is a new and outstanding dwarf, white flowered selection of the 1998 Perennial Plant of the Year. In midsummer, the small rosettes of foliage send up flowering stems that are topped with stunning white coneflowers… best when used in a mass planting or blended into a perennial border. (Sun to light shade, Zone 3-8)

Echinacea purpurea ‘Fatal Attraction’ PP 18,429: This new selection of our US native Echinacea purpurea is from Piet Oudolf’s famed garden in Holland. Echinacea ‘Fatal Attraction’ is unique because of the 26″ tall sturdy wine black stems that hold the intense pink flowers…a favorite of garden visitors. Flowering begins in late June…be patient. (Zone 3-9)

Echinacea purpurea ‘Fragrant Angel’ PP 16,054, PVR: This sturdy new coneflower from Terra Nova Nurseries is the white counterpart of Echinacea ‘Ruby Giant’ and the best white coneflower we have ever grown. The giant 4-5″ heads of pure white petals, around a contrasting orange cone, are also deliciously fragrant. Since these are clonally reproduced, each plant is identical for a more uniform planting. (Zone 3-9)

Echinacea purpurea ‘Green Envy’: When Mark Veeder first showed me a photo of his new Echinacea purpurea seedling, I thought for sure this was an April Fool’s Photoshop TM creation. Only after growing and photographing the plant myself, can I say for sure, it is truly this unique. The 20″ tall stems are topped, starting in mid-June, with large 4.5″ wide flowers composed of a dark cone with a green center. Surrounding the cone, are long petals that are pink toward the cone changing to lime-green toward the downward recurving tips. Echinacea ‘Green Envy’ is so weird, gardeners will either love or hate it…we love it! (Zone 4-9)

Echinacea purpurea ‘Kim’s Knee High’ PP 12,242: From Tony’s college classmate Kim Hawks, former owner of Niche Gardens, comes a new dwarf selection of the wonderful native purple coneflower. This compact selection is the first coneflower to be vegetatively propagated, ensuring that every plant is identical…no seed-grown variation as long as you remove the old seed heads. Starting in mid-June (NC), each flower head has rigidly reflexed, rosy-pink petals that give a truly unique look to this selection. Purple coneflower is extremely drought-tolerant, although it does favor improved garden conditions. Plant a drift, sit back with drink in hand, and wait for the butterflies! (Zone 3-9)

Echinacea purpurea ‘Kim’s Mop Head’ PP 13,560: We are delighted to be able to offer the wonderful white flowered companion to Echinacea ‘Kim’s Knee High’. This mutation of Echinacea ‘Kim’s Knee High’, discovered at Sunny Border Nursery in Connecticut, has the same wonderful compact habit with perfectly symmetrical downward arching heads of fringed-white petals…what a great garden plant. Echinacea ‘Kim’s Mop Head’ looks great when planted in a mass in a flower bed or border. (Zone 3-9)

Echinacea purpurea ‘Kim’s Red Knee High’ PP 20,411: A mutation of Echinacea ‘Kim’s Knee High’, discovered at Connecticut’s Sunny Border Nursery in 2005. Echinacea ‘Kim’s Red Knee High’ has the same vigorous growth, short habit and attractively reflexed petals of its parent. The name red, however, is problematic…another example of male color-blindness and why you never ask men to describe a color. The color is actually a richer, darker pink than the parent, but nothing close to red. (Zone 4-9)

Although they are not the latest and greatest cultivars, Echinacea purpurea cultivars are still the best.