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A Basic Guide To Container Gardening

February 16th, 2009    Subscribe To Our Feed

Container gardening can be very convenient for individuals with minimal space in their homes or those who wish to have plants inside their homes. Container gardening enables the gardener to bring in a splash of color to their homes. Compared to single pots, most containers used in container gardening are relatively large and can contain several plants of the same species or of different species.

Choosing A Container For You Garden

One thing that you should consider when choosing a container is the kind of plant you wish to put in the container. Some vegetables require deeper pots for their roots to burrow into while others will not require as much space. Container gardening mediums vary from containers such as plastic pots, terracotta containers and wooden boxes.

Plastic containers for container gardening tend to discolor in time and may also eventually be susceptible to cracks and deterioration. Unglazed terracotta containers will dry up eventually and may be prone to breakage as well as being heavy to cart around. Glazed terracotta containers are ideal since the glaze seals them and protect them from drying up. Wooden containers are prone to rot although choosing wood that is not susceptible to rotting is an option. 

One advantage of wooden containers for container gardening is that these can be made to fit the specifications of the area you wish to put your plants in. You must bear in mind that treated wood that you will use for container gardening can affect your plants so ask what chemicals were used to treat the lumber before you buy.

Containers used for container gardening must also have a very wide opening for better plant growth. The containers must also have appropriate drainage to prevent root rot and other root damage.For containers with big drainage holes, you can line the bottom part of the container with news paper to prevent soil loss.

Most container gardening are for indoor plants so it is best to consider the areas where they are placed. Sunlight is one thing to consider as well as the temperature in the area. Some plants need more sunlight than others so make it a point to ask or find out what kind of care your plants need.

Container gardening can be especially good when you plant herbs or vegetables that you place in your kitchen for fresh use when you are cooking. Live plants can also bring color to any area of your home.

For more information please visit my Gardening And Moon Phases Website.

French Garden Designs

January 30th, 2009    Subscribe To Our Feed

Horticulture, in simplest terms, is the cultivation of a garden. The word itself comes from Latin in two parts: Hortus, meaning garden, and cultura, meaning cultivation. Garden cultivation is considered a form of art and, like all art forms, it has different styles.

The traditional French garden style was first developed during the Baroque and Rococo periods of the 17th and 18th centuries. The gardens of the era were majestic exhibitions of power and riches constructed by royalty and aristocrats for the purpose of impressing guests. Inspired in part by ancient classical gardens, traditional French garden style is formal. The garden design is geometric, organized and disciplined, and the gardens are almost always laid out on level ground. The terraces that are often a feature of such gardens are artificially created, and elaborately designed stairs are included to link one terrace to another. Because of the largely flat topography, traditional French gardens use large sheets of water for their reflective qualities or as impressive, artificial fountain displays. Below is a list of the main attributes of traditional French formal garden design.

* Yards are contained of square frames and constantly shuddered by neat, squared bushes

* Flowerbeds are also geometrical in shape rectangular, oval or circular.

* Parterres are an important feature of formal French gardens. These gorgeous, vast geometrically designed patterns on the ground were made with flowers, dirt, gravel and stones of all different colors. Parterres are often lined with boxwood, lavender, or rosemary. Parterres de broderies or rather, embroidery parterres, are magnificently elaborate. Visitors can view parterres from garden terraces.

* Water features are mostly canals and large, flat pools. Most of these water fountains have engines to operate them.

* Allees, meaning axes or rides, is the term used for the garden walks or pathways, bordered by trees or neatly clipped hedges that provided the framework of the French garden style. A fountain or accenting garden ornament of some kind is the usual destination of such straight pathways.

* French Garden Ornaments: In French garden designs, you will find a lot of statues, columns, trellises, sundials, birdbaths and more. Symmetrical placement occurs with these objects.

*Vegetation: Planting designs are most often created according to color. French gardens predominantly use pastel colors with a touches of yellow, red or orange and some lilac and blue. Ideally, gardeners should choose plants that bloom all year round.

* Primarily French in origin, and available as an optional feature, Orangerie is a large glass-enclosed room in the garden where you’ll find lemon, lime, and orange trees blooming during the cold winter months.

Most of the time Herb Gardens will be in French Gardens. The French garden style is well-planned and organized, providing different locations for various gardens types such as fruit, rose or herb. The herb gardens are another feature of the garden and are not just herb patches. Paving is used in a specific pattern a chessboard pattern or a circular pattern, laid out like the spokes of a wheel. Seats are often placed in the center or in a corner of herb gardens. Some of the more common French herbs are lavender, rosemary, sage, marjoram, thyme and sweet bay.

A famous example of the traditional French formal garden style described above is the Versailles Gardens located just outside Paris. King Louis IV hired landscape architect André Le Nôtre to create the Versailles Gardens, in 1661. These gardens occupy an area of 800 hectares, very roughly about 400 acres, on the west side of the Chateau de Versailles. With perfectly trimmed lawns, blooming flowers and parterres, this garden also has several dozen statues and sculptures. The most impressive feature of the gardens, however are its 1,400 fountains. An enormous system of pumps and reservoirs, including fourteen water wheels, was built to bring the waters of the Seine River up to the garden. Still, there was never enough water to run all the fountains at once. As the King approached the fountains, one by one they would be turned on. Today, they are only operated on Sundays.

If you aren’t planning a visit to France, you can still get an idea of the traditional formal French garden style by visiting the Conservatory Garden in the northern sector of New York City’s Central Park.

Despite the fact that traditional and formal gardening styles of France influenced the designs of gardens around the world, not all French gardens are traditional. France has many less formal gardens, including the Giverney garden overflowing with blooming flowers as shown in Monet’s beautiful paintings.
Browse here for articles full of information about Garden designs and Horticulture.

Building Indoor Greenhouses from a Kit

January 18th, 2009    Subscribe To Our Feed

So, you’ve determined to raise greenhouse floras inside, but don’t wish to go through all the bother of building your interior nursery from scratch. Never fear. An immense assortment of indoor greenhouse kits are available from supermarkets, garden supply shops and online retail merchants.

Types of Indoor Nursery Kits

Inside greenhouse kits go from a miniature herb garden that you can keep on your table top to a kit capable of turning your basement’s shelving unit into a conservatory. There is no basic list of size categories and terms like “portable nursery”, “mini indoor greenhouse”, “small-scale nursery” and “orchid nursery” can have a diverseness of meanings depending on the preferences of the supplier. It is best to work out how much space you require and then attempt to find a kit to match it. Chances are, somebody will make one in exactly your size!

What’s In The Box?

The real contents of an indoor greenhouse kit vary, but typically the following will be included:

A base: this can scope from a flowerpot-type structure in the smaller kits to a set of up to 4 shelves in the more voluminous ones.
Potting soil or peat: some kits, recognized as hydroponic kits, do without this and permit the gardener to grow plants in substances like coconut fiber, sand, crushed rock or a liquid food solution instead.
A cover, commonly formed of the selfsame type of glazing stuff observed in full-size nurseries.
Indoor Greenhouse Lighting materials: given the absence of sun in a standard interior nursery, special fluorescent lamps are required to furnish the light and warmth that would ordinarily be provided by the sunlight.
Watering kit, ordinarily consisting of a sprayer mechanism, timekeeper and reservoir for water or nutrient solution.

Basements: They’re Not Only For Wastrel Kids Any More

If you’re feeling very determined, you could switch a percentage of your cellar into an indoor greenhouse. Aquacultural kits work particularly good for this purpose, as they furnish all the light, H2O and sustenance required to produce tropical and semitropical floras in what is in all probability the coolest, gloomiest space in your house. You can buy a cover for an present shelving unit that will enclose heat and moisture for your plants, or you can purchase the shelving as part of a kit, with the same components as in the kits named above. You will need to devote special attention to the ventilating system and air circulation in your cellar to stop the inflated humidity from decomposing your wooden beams and joints. Also, make a point to confer with any family members who use the cellar, to make sure they don’t object to it being turned into a hothouse!

Easy Ways to Set up a Greenhouse Inside Your Home

January 9th, 2009    Subscribe To Our Feed

Do you long to grow hothouse plants but don’t have a back yard? Maybe you should think about getting an indoor greenhouse. If you live in a condo or apartment, it’s easy to see the attractions of an indoor greenhouse. But even homeowners with large yards are attracted to the idea of an indoor greenhouse.

A real benefit is the lower expense involved. A small indoor greenhouse can be a lot less expensive than building even a basic lean-to structure. It’s really quite easy to build an indoor greenhouse just with materials that you can buy at most home improvement stores.

Perhaps you like the idea of an indoor greenhouse, but really don’t want to go to the trouble of building it yourself. Well, you’re in luck, because you can buy an indoor greenhouse kit. These products are available in an assortment of brands and styles. They’re available at nurseries, department stores and even online.

Indoor greenhouse kits range from a tiny herb garden that you can keep on your countertop to a kit capable of turning your basement’s shelving unit into a hothouse.

If this isn’t enough to meet your needs, it’s possible to make a basic homemade greenhouse at very little cost. Begin by building a freestanding set of shelves, about 4 shelves in total. You will need to attach it securely to the floor.

Once this is done, you need to provide a means of retaining heat and moisture. You can do this by covering the shelves with plastic wrap, or even an old shower curtain, held together with duct tape. You can heat your greenhouse by buying a heating pad and laying it on the floor. Set up a thermometer and check it frequently to monitor the temperature.

You can give your plants a humid environment by placing a cup of water in the greenhouse. The plants will require light, and you can provide this with a simple fluorescent light. But you should really consider purchasing a specially designed grow light that will help your plants thrive. A basic unit is relatively inexpensive.

Next you need some soil-filled containers to set your plants in. Arrange them on the shelves and add some water. Now can step back and admire the results of your labor in creating a homemade indoor greenhouse.

Use these suggestions as a guideline, and throw in some imagination and style. By doing so, there’s no doubt you can buy or build an indoor greenhouse that will suit your needs perfectly.

Easy Guides To Indoor Herb Gardening

January 9th, 2009    Subscribe To Our Feed

Indoor Container Herb Gardening

Indoor herb gardening can be a functional and fun hobby. For those who have no idea what indoor herb gardening is, it is cultivating and growing herbs in the home. The herbs are usually grown in containers which are sometimes placed in or near windows for sun exposure. There are so many benefits from indoor herb gardening. These benefits include convenience of having fresh herbs on hand at your kitchen when you are preparing a meal. Nothing beats fresh herbs when cooking.

What Your Should Know About Planting Herbs In Containers

Indoor herb container gardening is quite easy, especially in this day and age of almost instant everything. Many stores sell pots with premeasured soil and seeds for easy indoor herb gardening. All you have to do is pour the soil in the pot, push in the premeasured seeds and water.

There are a few simple tips you should be aware of when planting herbs and one of these is being careful when you place the herb seeds in the soil. Placing them too deep could translate to the them not growing well whilst too shallow could mean that the roots would not get a firm grip on the soil and easily be toppled over. When you start off your indoor herb gardening project, you will need to ensure that a thin layer of sandy soil or even gravel is placed at the bottom of the container pot. Doing this will allow for proper drainage so that the pot will not be water logged. Many of the common herbs really do not want too much water being maintained in the pot so this point should be taken seriously. At the bottom of the pot, it is of course necessary to have holes to facilitate the proper drainage needs. For some, they may even prefer to place additional pieces of chips or tree bark as part of the potting mix. This technique does the job of not only providing excellent drainage for the pot, it also gives additional organic matter into the pot which provides added nutrients as it decomposes and thus improving the chances of a successful indoor herb gardening project.

A few other things you may want to do is to ensure that your pot’s soil is ever so slightly moist at least until the herb seeds have germinated. This can be done by misting the soil around two or three times each day. Like most plants, indoor herb gardens need sunlight and as such the herb plants should be exposed to sunlight for a few hours a day. By providing exposure to sunlight the plants are coax out of their seeds. As a matter of fact most herbs enjoy sunlight so ensure that they get an abundant amount everyday, and for many reasons this is why the window sill is an ideal place to put the indoor herb garden.

These indoor herb gardening tips are useful for novice gardeners who wish to make an indoor herb gardening effort in their homes. This effort for indoor herb gardening can be beneficial for the gardener in easing stress.

Maintaining An Organic Garden is Rewarding

December 27th, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

Planting an organic garden can be a quite fulfilling and educating experience.  The know-how for cultivating vegetables, herbs and some other plants have been around for many years but growing an organic garden has only recently become a very popular endeavor. There are many people who don’t get accustomed with the thought of eating vegetable that has been poisoned with harsh fertilizers and pesticides. They just do not like the idea of using chemicals near their homes and neighborhoods to grow their gardens. Growing an organic garden involves knowledge that can be developed in various different places. A lot of people interested in growing an organic garden are able find several books on the subject. These books will provide many details that will support a devoted gardener produce a fantastic garden world not using harsh fertilizers and chemicals.

There are many organic garden centers that are also available to assist gardeners planning to grow plants using natural materials. The staff at these garden centers are experts in growing an organic garden, in addition they are very often willing to share helpful tips. Organic garden centers have people who can give information on soils, fertilizers and organic pesticides.  The staff often provide workshops that are open to their customers.  The garden centers usually have all the necessary items for organic gardens on stock.  In addition to this, they normally sell plants that will love using all natural products.

Growing An Organic Garden is not Possible without Knowledge Of Techniques

Maintaining an organic garden is difficult without a little study in order to have good results.  Good soil is the basic ingedient for planting an organic garden.  Soil differs greatly from one area to another so a closer look into the soil is a crucial step in planting an organic garden.  Natural products can be added to the soil to make it successful for an organic garden.  There are also techniques that can be used to prepare the soil for planting. A devoted gardener is able create a top soil for thriving plants and take only natural products.

Planting and growing an organic garden demands to know about insects and some other bugs that are detrimental to a successful garden. There are people who use a pesticide to get rid of useless pests.  Nonetheless there are some elements that can be added to the garden to kill unwanted pests.  Ladybugs can be added to the garden to rid the garden of aphids.  The presence of these nice little insects is good for a garden.  A certain type of wasp is also good at killing caterpillars and aphids.  The wasps and the ladybugs do not harm the plants, on the other hand they will eliminate the bugs that will hurt the garden.

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