Three Easy Garden Designs You Can Create
By admin | October 22, 2008
Garden No. 1: The Japanese garden.
Creating a Japanese garden is an interesting project because the Japanese garden design depends on symbolism as much as it depends on plant elements.
What is most important for a Japanese garden design is a prevailing notion of simplicity. There are a number of elements that make up a Japanese garden. These gardens often include water, a lantern, an island and a bridge.
A successful Japanese garden will inspire peace and contemplation. To enhance the atmosphere you may like to add a special place for you to sit, and contemplate.
Garden No. 2: The water garden.
Water gardens or aquatic gardens are especially popular because water has always been associated with serenity and peace. Water features in your garden can create a truly atmospheric place.
Water features are normally made up of three features: a pool, aquatic plants (submerged, like the water lily or floating, like the water hyacinth) and fish. Other decorative pieces, such as rocks, can be added and you can even build fountains and waterfalls for extra effect.
Garden No. 3: The English garden.
What is called an “English garden” refers to a style of “informal landscape gardening” that was popular, as the name reflects, in England over the last couple of centuries. There’s a lot of information available on the Internet to tell you what goes into an English garden. Some of the most popular items include a water feature and a sundial.
Whatever style of garden you wish to create please note: plan first. Things that are important to know before you start digging and planting include knowing what types of plants suit your climate. When your plants will flower is also important to know so that you don’t end up with a dull winter full of dormant plants. Water supply is probably the most important things to think about before your start. Speak to an expert about how to build a suitable irrigation system that will keep your plants well fed and keep your workload to a minimum.
Dakota Caudilla, journalist, and website builder Dakota Caudilla lives in Texas. He is the owner and co-editor of http://www.creative-garden-design.com on which you will find a longer, more detailed version of this article.
Tags: container gardening, gardening, landscaping, landscaping ideas, organic gardening, water gardensStarting an Organic Garden
By admin | July 20, 2008
Starting an organic garden isn’t that difficult. If you already grow vegetables, fruit or herbs, all you need to do is change some of your methods, so that, for example, instead of blasting a pest with chemicals, you protect the crop so the little beastie can’t get to it. Or you might introduce a predator to eat the pest.
I started out with just one item: carrots. This was because contaminated carrots was where I came in, heh (to read about this, go to http://www.GardenZone.info ) Probably not the best place to start, as carrots are quite challenging. You need to do more to get a decent crop from carrots than with some other vegetables, unless you want to drench them with the pesticides that set me off on this course in the first place.
If you want to get a taste of how much fun an organic garden can be, the best thing to do is just pick one crop from the annual varieties (because that way you start getting results before you get bored, hopefully).
Things to grow in your organic garden
The best idea is to choose something you like to eat, which is hard to get or expensive. Here are a few suggestions:
- Have you ever bought those really thin Kenya beans in the tiny packets? Some people call them needle beans, they are just ‘posh’ varieties of French beans, and very easy to grow. A packet of less than 250g will cost you a couple of quid in the supermarket. For the same sort of figure, you can buy a packet of seeds that will produce kilos and kilos of beans. You’ll have enough for you and your family and you’ll still be giving them away to the neighbours or selling them at the gate!
- You don’t often see the old fashioned runner bean on sale any more. And when you do, it seems to be overpriced, and a bit disappointing when you get it home. This bean is so tasty, very different in flavour to the French bean. Did you know that runner beans were originally brought to Europe as an ornamental? You can dot these around the flower garden and they won’t look out of place, if you keep cutting the beans.
- Almost everyone likes spring onions. You can grow these in a big pot, if you like, but you must keep them well watered and weeded. Other than that, these are very quick and easy.
- Mange tout peas are another luxury vegetable found in tiny packets at ridiculous prices. They are so easy to grow you will soon realise just what a rip-off they are in the shops. Believe me, once the plants are grown, they just crop and crop and crop. Don’t grow too many, or you will get sick of them, and so will everybody you know. You can put them in salad, stirfry them or stick them in a curry.
- My kids love New Zealand spinach (which is not a true spinach), a crop you hardly ever see on sale. It’s very easy to grow in southern counties, as is plain spinach, which will grow anywhere. Both can be used either as a cooked vegetable or in salad.
- Are you a salad enthusiast? Growing a mixed salading is a very easy start, and you get lots of different flavours to add to your salads. There are lots of different salad mixes available now. The price of a packet of seed will probably be anything from
Tags: organic garden, organic gardening, reasons for organic gardening, why grow organic, why organic
Six Good Reasons For Going Organic
By admin | July 16, 2008
I will freely admit that I devour every article that I can lay my hands on which deals with anything related to gardening. Everyone has something which they are passionate about in life, mine is my garden.
My friends tell me that I am obsessed, and maybe I am. I think my partner is obsessed, in his case it’s golf, but as yet I haven’t heard any of his friends telling him that he is obsessed.
The compelling joy of being a gardening enthusiast is the creativity of it, because you can see really tangible results for your labour. Watching your favorite roses blooming, or the pleasure of eating your own home grown vegetables, well, I think that takes a lot of beating.
However each to his own!
One of the reasons why I enjoy writing articles on my passion, is because I know that they will be read by people who most likely share my enthusiasm, and can relate to what I am talking about.
One hears the term “Organic” so much nowadays, that I decided to do some deeper research into the suject, and I am sharing with you in this article some brief findings from that research.
So the following paragraphs summarize some of the work of various gardening experts who are completely familiar with all aspects of gardening. I must say that I found some of the information totally fascinating.Since we are discussing the term “Organic” in a gardening context, it might be a useful start to define exactly what that means, so here it is, “Organic gardening is the way of growing vegetables and fruits with the use of things only found in nature”.
Really simple isn’t it, but most certainly not commonplace any more in today’s world I suggest.Having led up to all of that, a good question might arise as to exactly why you would want to indulge in organic gardening as such! Well, as the title of this articles suggests, here are six good reasons why you should do so, in my opinion at any rate.
1. You can easily make compost from garden and kitchen waste, alhough this is a bit more time consuming than buying prepared chemical pesticides and fertilizers. However it certainly helps to put garbage to good use, and so helps the environment.
2. Organic farming does not use chemicals that may have an adverse affect on your health, which is especially important when growing vegetables. The chemical companies do tell us that the chemicals we use are safe, provided that they are used according to direction.
Research has shown however that even tiny amounts of poisons absorbed through the skin can cause such things as cancer, especially in children. Quite a sobering thought is it not!On average, a child ingests four to five times more cancer-causing pesticides from foods than an adult, which could lead to various diseases later on in the child’s life. Remember, pesticides contain toxins that have only one purpose, which is to kill living things!
With organic gardening, these incidents are lessened.
3. Less harm is caused to the environment, because poisons are not washed into our waterways to give but one example, causing death to the native fish and polluting their habitat in most cases.
4. Organic farming practices also help prevent the loss of topsoil through erosion. The Soil Conservation Service says that an estimated 30 - 32 billion tons of soil is eroded from United States farmlands every year, and that’s only one country.
4. Cost savings, because you do not need to buy costly chemical fertilizers and pesticides with organic gardening. Many organic recipes for the control of pest and disease come straight from the kitchen cupboard, and sometimes other plants can even be grown as companions to the main crop. One example of this is the marigold, which helps to repel aphids from vegetables.
Mixing 1 tablespoon of liquid dishwashing soap, and 1 cup of cooking oil, can make a cheap garden pest spray for example. Put 3 tablespoons of this mixture in 1 quart of water and spray on to your plants. You will find this to be very effective!
5. A simple mulch of pine needles will help to suppress the growth of weeds, as well as keeping the moisture in. Another simple and much safer solution!
6. Organic gardening practices are much more likely to help keep the environment safe for future generations, and all of us who are responsible ciitizens, should always bear this in mind
The whole subject which is part of an on going worldwide debate, is far too complex to cover in such a short article, but I do hope that at least I have left you with some food for thought.
Imagine the overall benefits to be had in our environment, by many people undertaking even some small changes.
Marie K Fisher is an avid gardening enthusiast with a passion for exotic flowers and wonderful colors. She is a regular contributor to Garden Center Showplace, a leading online Garden Center Nursery. For details of their superb product range, and many more free gardening articles, visit http://www.gardencentershowplace.com
Tags: environmental changes, free gardening information, garden center nursery, organic gardening« Previous Entries