TOOLS

On any level or type of gardening you can only succeed if you use the right tools. Experts suggest that spade, hand trowel, digging fork, rake, hoe, bypass pruners, dandelion digger, hand cultivator, loppers and a long hose with a rain wand must be owned by any individual who aims to pursue gardening either as a pastime or as a profession. These basic things will come in handy on every stage but you must use them carefully to avoid damaging your plant’s roots.

ORGANIC GARDENING

Organic gardening is becoming increasingly popular due to the natural ingredients and techniques it utilizes. It is given significance over synthetic gardening because it poses the least amount of danger otherwise caused by employing artificial or synthetic means. If you want to adopt organic gardening here is what you will require, garlic for pest control, milk for fungal control, beer as a slug trap, floating row covers for preventing all kinds of insects, newspapers to smother weeds and also add more organic value to your soil.

VEGETABLE GARDENS

On a residential scale, growing basic vegetables can prove vey handy. You can not only save time an money from utilizing home grown vegetables but the fact that you get to eat them fresh from the garden makes the experience all the more exciting. Your home garden must have tomatoes, basils, bell peppers, lettuces, cilantros and eggplants. To add to that herbs like hives, thyme, oregano, parsley, sage, rosemary and sweet marjoram will make take the culinary experience to a whole new level.

With these things not only will your home gardening become more convenient and exciting but you will also experience a new lease of life in your home cooking experience.

I am sure He won’t pollute the soil with artificial fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides, herbicides and fungicides. In other words, God would grow an organic garden. If you want to start a vegetable garden God’s way, start an organic one.

Organic vegetable gardening starts with preparing your soil. If your plot of land has never been hoed before, you need to flatten the ground, get rid of the weeds, cut the grass and fill up the holes with soil and compost. You can either buy compost or make some yourself. If you wish to make it yourself, start by collecting green waste and brown waste. Green waste comprises things like grass cuttings, parts of plant, fruit skins, vegetable pieces from the kitchen etc. Brown waste would include things like dry leaves, straw, twigs, sawdust etc. You should not include meat, bones, fish, animal waste, dairy products, oils, diseased plants, pesticide-laced and pest-infested plants or weeds that have gone to seed. Instead, throw them away.

Make your compost have a ratio of about two parts brown waste to one part green waste for fastest decomposition. Put a layer of the green and brown mix at the bottom, followed by a layer of soil and pour some water on the mix. Repeat this step a few times. Then leave it alone and nature will take its course. Once a week, turn the compost around with a gardening fork to aerate it. Keep your compost slightly wet at all times. Do not expose it to direct sunlight. If it rains, cover it with plywood or some other covering.

After a few weeks, the compost pile turns dark in color and you won’t be able to recognize the original materials. Now when you turn it over, it crumbles easily. That’s when your compost is ‘mature’ and ready for use. Spread out the compost over your garden soil in a layer two to three inches thick. This is how you fertilize your soil the organic way.
The next thing to do is plant the seeds. It would be a good idea to plant a variety of seeds in your garden. This is called mixed cultivation. For example, grow cabbages and dwarf (French) beans together or carrots, tomatoes and celery together. In this way, each type of vegetable helps the others grow better by warding off pests, providing shade etc.

As the seeds germinate and grow, you need to watch out for pests. In organic vegetable gardening, controlling pests and diseases is done naturally such as using biological control. For example, you can grow flowers or have a weed patch nearby your vegetable garden to attract friendly insects (such as parasite wasps, ladybirds etc) that would destroy insect pests (such as aphids, squash bugs, mealy bugs etc). Another form of biological pest control is to plant herbs such as peppermint, basil or sage etc. These herbs will repel insect pests.

Mixed cultivation of different varieties of vegetables as explained above is in itself a means of preventing plant diseases. Another organic method to prevent disease is to always ensure yours soil is healthy and clean.
Organic planting is most certainly ‘God’s Way’ of planting a vegetable garden. Try it and you find that your vegetables are healthier, more nutritious and safe-to-consume.

The programs and activities run by the National Gardening Association are the Adopt a School Garden, the GROW Program, Vermont Garden Park, Teacher Professional Development, National Youth Garden Grants and many, many more. Aside from the programs listed here, the National Gardening Association also offers a variety of other grants and awards.

The National Gardening Association feels that children should be taught on a daily basis about plant life and how to run a garden properly. The NGA believes that gardening can strengthen a child emotionally, mentally and even physically. Teaching gardening helps students understand the natural way of life for plants and better understand where their food comes from. Not only do students learn where their food comes from but it also provides a look into healthy living; such as how to eat a proper meal to live a healthy life.

The National Gardening Association began their Adopt a School Garden program to aid in the instruction of students across the country when it comes to a healthy life and learning about the natural plant like around the world today. When someone adopts a garden for a school a representative from the NGA will complete a list of items for the adoption to get off the ground running. The list includes finding some to become the garden team leader, what area of plant education the school will focus on, send the school educational materials and literature for the teachers, finding a way to get the surrounding community involved and ways to encourage long term sustainability of the garden.

For the awards and grants that the National Gardening Association gives out, there are requirements that need to be met. They are pretty simple too. The requirements are that the school interested in receiving a grant must be teaching and gardening with students between the ages of 3 to 18 and the group can consist of no less than 15 students at anytime. Any school that wins a grant or scholarship from the National Gardening Association must fill out a survey at the end of every year that explains the impact of the program on the students. Each individual grant has a different type of impact report to file with the association at the end of each year.

Finally, the GROW Program is an ongoing project run by the National Gardening Association advocating the importance of gardening at schools, home and in communities. The GROW Program also provides year round gardening tips to beginners and experts as well as national gardening events and conferences. The National Gardening Association: “When you garden, you grow.”

Growing herbs is not hard and people are turning their love for gardening into successful businesses by growing and selling or bartering fresh herbs, plants and other related items.  You can find many resources on the Internet about where to find seeds, plants and the supplies to start.  Herb gardening can become a life long hobby which provides spiritual renewal and a stress relief.  

There are many kinds of herbs but if you want something to break of the humdrum of green, there are two herbs that will provide color to your herb garden all summer long.  Both are annuals and are eager re-seeders and you will see them every year once they are in your garden.

Borage is good as a companion for tomato plants.  It adds to their flavor if grown nearby and it is not poisonous.  You can actually use it in salads and for making herb butter and dips.  Borage has a cucumber like taste and is very good when cooked with cabbage, but does not offer a very good taste on its own. 

Calendula is another herb you can use to add some color to the garden.  It is referred to as a pot of marigold.  It is suspected to offer many medicinal benefits such as healing, aiding with digestion, helping to fight fungal infections and a cure for diaper rash.  The last one alone would be enough to justify its existence.  The petals from this herb can be used to make a skin cream or a cleanser and if used as an infusion it can actually lighten hair.  

To add some fragrance to your herb garden, try adding some lavender hyssop and some bergamot.  Both of these will attract hummingbirds, butterflies and bees.  Both of these herbs are used in some teas as well as potpourris.   Lavender leaves when crushed can be used to repel those pesky mosquitoes of the summer, by rubbing the leaves on your skin.  

Again, herbs have many uses beyond cooking including potential medicinal purposes. They are very easy to grow.  You can even buy an appliance that sits on your kitchen counter called an AeroGarden.  It is automatic and even if you don’t have a green thumb, you cannot mess this up.

Had Kelly been a vegetable gardener she might have gone off on a tangent as to the wonderful benefits manure has for your home vegetable garden. I guess the “show about nothing” did not want to take that route.

Manure from the proper sources (I’ll get to that in a moment) presents you with a great opportunity to add much needed nutrients back into the soil and with seasoned manure from these same sources, you can brew a wonderful elixir called manure tea. We’ll cover manure tea sometime in the future.

Here is how manure works to benefit your home vegetable garden. Manure is nothing more than organic matter that contains tremendous amounts of nutrients your vegetable plants can use, such as nitrogen. However, in order for your plants to use those nutrients they must be released from the manure. The only way this can occur is to have a higher life form feed on the manure (yeah I know it sounds gross) such as worms that then release their own castings that plants then use. This is just a basic overview of course.

There are both good and bad manures that you need to know about. Your dog, cat and human manure is bad. It can be toxic to your plants as well as the underlying ecosystem. Do not use these manures. Good manure comes from sources such as cows, horses, chickens and other types of grain or grass fed live stock.

Now that you know how manure works and what the good types of manure are, the next obvious step is to know how to add it to your home vegetable garden. Simply add the manure to your garden and mix it in with your soil. The important part, which I will get into in a moment, is knowing exactly at what time of the year you should be adding it. Make sure you mix it in thoroughly with a pitchfork, broad fork or tiller.

This step is crucial in the adding stage and that is what time of the year should it go in. If you have fresh manure, meaning it is less than 6 months old (yeah I know who keeps the dates on this stuff), then it is recommended that you mix the manure into your soil at the end of your growing season, which for most of us is in the autumn months. If you have seasoned manure then you should add it no later than 4 weeks before planting. This gives it plenty of time to start releasing all of those wonderful nutrients.

So where do you get manure? You could buy it at a local home or garden center, but why do that if you can get it for free from a local horse or cow farm. Just check on websites such as Craigslist in the farm and garden section. Also, if you do find someone that is willing to give you some manure, make sure the livestock are not fed with any types of grain or feed that contain chemicals. Those chemicals could be passed to the manure.

There is no question that adding manure to your home vegetable garden has tremendous benefits. Knowing where to get it, what kind to use and how to add it is just as important to know.

Whichever plant you intend to have in your garden, ensure that you have thorough knowledge of how it should be taken care of. It is good to go for plants which are not easily destroyed by termites and common weeds.

Vegetables as garden plants are excellent in that they not only make your garden look good; they also provide you with the greens to put on your table. The best vegetables include parsley, pepper and coriander among others. Herbs are increasingly becoming a popular choice of garden plant as more and more people embrace the use of herbs for food and medicinal value. They are easy to take care of in the garden. The best herbs to plant in your garden are mint, chives, lavender and tarragon among others.

Flowers are the other popular option for most home gardeners. There are flowers for all seasons to ensure that your home garden remains colorful throughout the year. There is the holly berry, tulip and amaryllis for winter; snowdrop and snowflake for spring; sunflower and marigold for summer and the sweet gum for fall.

Yet again another great week although you can really tell the temperature is dipping over night now, as we have to clear our windscreens and it is just about time for the old sweatshirt to go on over the polo I am wearing.

Rusty our dog made me laugh the other morning. It was probably the coldest day we have had recently, and usually when it is time for me to go to work rusty comes outside with me so I can throw his ball for him a couple of times before I leave. This morning when I opened the door and the cold wind hit him he just stood there and looked up at me as to say ‘if you think I am going out there today you have another thing coming’, that is certainly the character we love about him. When I picked his ball up the temptation was just too much and out he shot like a speeding bullet.

Work wise we are just about on top of things now with the entire amount of grass cutting we have been doing. We have just completed a grass- seeding job for a landfill site – only 11 acres, just a bit larger than normal size garden. Basically it is the same process as we do for new lawns in a home garden but we are using much larger mechanical machinery.

If you are preparing your lawn at home you would first loosen up the ground with a rotovator and you would end up with fine tilth – meaning fine small granules of topsoil without large lumps. You must also remove large and small stones from the surface, rake over to get the surface as level as possible. A good tip here is to get a piece of board about 4 foot long, place on the surface and pull back towards yourself. This will help you get the ground level by taking out the humps and filling in the holes- easy hey! When you are happy with the result, step back and repeat until you have completed the whole area to be seeded.

You should now have a nice level base to sow the grass seed. Place the seed into a bucket and hold in the middle against your stomach. Now stand at the edge of the new lawn area, using your free hand grab a handful of seed, you then broadcast the seed by moving your hand forwards, outwards and across your body at the same time opening your hand up as you go. This sequence should spread the seed nice and quite evenly across the whole area. Take a step forward and repeat the process until the whole area is completed.

You can then go back and put seed on any parts you have missed or the seed is a bit thin. Next get a grass rake and rake the area over covering the grass seed with the soil. Do not worry about trying to cover all the seed, as it will still grow. You can then get your board and re-level the area in the same manner as before, if you have a garden roller you can use it to give it a light roll- but it is not essential. Now give the lawn a good sprinkling of water and leave alone.

After about two to three weeks depending on the weather you should start to see some growth. Once it starts it will soon thicken up to leave the whole area in your garden looking like a new green carpet.
Allow the grass to grow to about 2 to 3 inches long before cutting. Reduce the length of the lawn slowly, take at least three cuts over a period of three weeks to take it down to no shorter that 1 inch in height. Till next time just enjoy your gardens.

Ted & Sandra

The month with some really nice days, and really cold nights! Some of the warm days may tempt you to plant items that probably should not be planted during the month of February.

Tomato plants are often the veggies planted at this time. If you really want to plant tomatoes, you may want to use a product called “Wall-o-waters” these are see thru plastic columns that are filled with water and placed around your tomato plant. These are designed to help prevent your plants from freezing even in temps as low as 15 degrees f. Ask you friendly nursery for such a product.

Finish off your pruning jobs you may have started in January. The debate is still on-going as to use pruning sealer or not. I recommend using pruning sealer if you see evidence of insects or disease in the immediate area that you are pruning. If you notice no insect or disease activity, then nature will usually heal pruned areas.

Prune roses before February 14th, as a rule. The rose society recommends using Elmers Glue as an effective pruning sealant! Yes it really does work.

Remember when pruning the best rule of thumb is to have a reason for every cut you make.

You may fertilize your fescue, rye, or bluegrass lawns (cool season grasses) at this time of year. Use 16-8-8 containing zinc, sulphur, and iron, if it has been more than 6 weeks since you have last fertilized.

Grass & Sod maintenance tips.

You may plant fruit trees, shade trees, shrubs, and roses now. Most nurseries will have a large selections of roses in late January thru mid-March. Make sure to visit early so that you will still have a good selection to chose from.

Rose Gardening Tips

Planting early in the season has several advantages.

There is less stress on plants.
Most plants need less watering at this time of year due to the low temperatures.
The roots begin to grow rapidly because of the warm soil temperature. This will help kick off your plant to an early start before our dry spring winds begin to start.
Be sure to use root stimulator and a soil amendment.

The commercial nurseries may grow what the market wants and the market wants chiefly what is cheap and looks good. The home gardener should grow what the market cannot supply or the home garden is not worth the time.

A garden is a place in which plants are grown as well as herbs, vines, bushes, trees and grass. Too often people think that only formal and pretentious places are gardens. But an open lawn around the house may be a garden or a row of holly along a wall or an arrangement of plants in the greenhouse.

Usually there is some central feature to a garden, a them to which all other parts relate. This may be a walk or a summer house or a sun-dial or a garden bed or the residence itself, or a brook falling down between shrubs, bushes or clumpy growths.

There are many forms and kinds of gardens as there are persons who have gardens; and this is one reason why the garden appeals to everyone. and why it may become the expression of personality. The simplest garden is likely to be the best, merely because it is the expression of a simple and teachable life.

Grow the plants you want but do not want too many. Most persons when they make a garden order a quantity of labels. Fatal mistake! Labels are for collections of plants-collections so big that you cannot remember. And when you cannot remember you lose the intimacy you lose the essence of the garden.

Choose a few plants for the main plantings. The should be hardy, vigorous and sure the thrive in all types of weather. These plants you can buy in quantity and in large strong specimens.

Each clump or group or border may be dominated by one kind of plant-foxgloves, hollyhocks, spireas, asters. Miscellaneous mixtures are rarely satisfactory. The point is that the character of the home garden should be given by the plants that are most sure to thrive. The novelties and oddities should be subjects of experiment;if they fail the garden sill remains.

It used to be that gardening appeals only to the older folks. But nowadays, people of all ages, children, young adults, adults, and old folks alike, they see gardening as a refreshing and rewarding hobby to take. Why not? With all the benefits that you get, your being a busy, career person should never be used as a hindrance to start growing your own plants indoor or outdoor. You will see the big difference when you get to reap your own fruits of labors.

It doesn’t matter what you prefer. Would you like to have a bed of beautiful and colorful flowers, country garden full of wild flowers and shrubs, manicured lawn strategically placed with shrubs and little trees, or just a simple backyard with lots of pots and containers planted with grown plants? It isn’t a problem to start one because you can find lots of information on how you can start doing them. You can also ask questions and assistance from the experts.

For a starter, you will need these basic tools: trowel, spade, lawnmower, rake, and plants of your choice to grow. It would help a lot if you have some sort of garden plan based on the space that is available. In this way, it won’t be difficult for you to arrange some things like flower beds, lawns, paths, and on your garden bed or space.

The kinds of plants that you will grow will depend on what you want, the availability, and the climate that your location has. There are plants that grow only for the season but there are others too that can be cultivated to grow year after year. If you consider yourself a hobby gardener, then you would want to have plants that do not grow more than two seasons. These are perennial plants that allow you to tend to other things other than mere gardening.

If you don’t know what plants to start growing, you can always ask assistance from the local nursery available in your location. The experts from there should know what types would thrive specifically considering the climate in your area. And speaking of the local nursery, it is one avenue to buy plants you want on your garden. It is usually available with packets of seeds or small young plants for the beginners to grow. You can obtain them whether via online or mail order.

The small young plants are great choice if you want to have an automatic decorative display on your garden. Otherwise, choosing seeds to grow and watching them grow will provide great satisfaction from the accomplishment of having to cultivate and care for them. You can have the seeds planted on pots or containers, or you can plant them onto pre-designed bed of soil. Gardening should be this fun and exciting, and of course, rewarding, even if you are a beginner.