Fiber-Optics and Gardening - Who Woulda Thought?

Wednesday, June 11th, 2008
by Keith Markensen

Whether you’re looking out over a dark patio or a massive estate, it’s now cheaper and easier than ever to provide your darkened areas with affordable and attractive garden lighting.

One of the more recent evolutions in garden lighting is the use of fiber-optics. These lights are contained in small canisters or cylinders containing thousands of fiber-optic strands to exude light.

The first major benefit of this light source is the lack of electrical current needed to fuel it, making it extremely safe, even around areas with water. Secondly, these lights require very little electricity at all, making them a great cost saving option, and a good choice for the environment.

Another money saving option that can be used to illuminate your garden is the use of solar garden lighting. Using a single Nicam or Nicad battery, these lights gather their operational energy during the day through the sun’s rays and automatically turn on at night, as the presence of the sun disappears. At dawn, they will automatically turn off again. These lights will charge even on cloudy or overcast days, as the sun’s effect is still there, even if it can’t be seen.

Solar garden lights come in many different shapes, colors and sizes. Flat lighting can rest on the ground and be used to effectively light pathways from below, you can also have versions that come attached to spikes or mounted on poles, offering a variety of potential areas for the lights to be placed.

Solar garden lights may also be safely and easily used in and around water, such as in a small pond or swimming pool. This style of lights often comes in the form of floating balls, and in a variety of colors.

A seamless and clever way of integrating solar lighting within your garden is setting is through the use of garden rocks. These rocks are hollowed out on the inside and fitted with halogen lamps, which give the effect of the rock itself glowing. These can come in a number of styles that blend well with your garden during the day when their form is more visible, including natural looking granite style rocks, and models with moss or other greenery ‘growing’ on them.

With the number of different options on the market today for garden lighting, there’s no need to fall into the same old habits of buying traditional lighting fixtures. Any style of garden can be effectively accented with the appropriate lighting source to smartly illuminate your green paradise.

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Gardening Indoors Beyond Spider Plants

Tuesday, June 10th, 2008
An African Violet is beginning to flower

Image via Wikipedia

by Thomas Fryd

The world over, gardening is a popular pastime among people from all walks of life. Whether planting vegetable patches to save money on produce, or planting a variety of plants for the sheer pleasure of the craft, gardening has remained a relaxing and humbling experience for hundreds of years. While outdoor gardening is the preferred style of most serious gardeners world-wide, giving your inner sanctum some plant love is much advised as well, and brings with it a new set of techniques and tricks that may escape even the veteran outdoor gardener.

Indoor plants function largely as decorative, while also instilling the room with a sense of nature and cleanliness. From window sill herb gardens that provide an extra dash of charm to both the room and dishes, to an elegant vine plant hanging its tendrils down lazily from its perch, to a small rubber tree in the corner of a room, the options for indoor gardeners are as diverse as the ones available for outdoor gardeners.

The variety of options doesn’t end there though. Annuals and perennials can get a head start by being groomed indoors for the coming season, and gardeners with a real eye for meticulous detail and the wish to cultivate something truly extraordinary can take on the task of rearing begonias or African violets.

Coleus are a striking plant, with a dazzling display of colors made especially effective when catching the rays of the sun from a windowsill perch. Baby’s tears are evocatively named for the striking image they portray, teardrop shaped leaves spilling elegantly over the side of the pot. A plant favoured for fall time grooming is the chrysanthemum. The winter doldrums can be beaten by planting a variety of striking flowering plants to bloom before their time, such as daffodils, hyacinths or crocuses.

Hanging baskets containing a variety of plants can supply any room with a unique look. Just make sure they’re high enough to avoid the heads of your tallest house mates. Kitchen windows are the perfect place for herb gardens and other salad friendly delights. They’ll provide your kitchen with a sumptuous smell that just may cause others to think it’s meal time all the time.

For the salad lover the tiny gourmet leaves of the mesclun plant will tempt your palate and those of all around you. The best things in life take time is a saying that the mesclun doesn’t adhere to. It grows its delicate leaves quickly, and spoils just as quickly. The indoor gardening enthusiast must constantly be on the lookout for the perfect opportunity to harvest these leaves and make them a part of a delectable salad immediately. The extra monitoring effort will be well rewarded with a great tasting salad.

Indoor gardeners are certainly not wanting for options like bamboo palms for example when it comes to their craft. What it lacks in the appeal of being outdoors and knee deep in dirt under a baking sun, if you want to call that appealing, it more than makes up for with variety and charm.

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Zemanta Pixie

The Cure for Artificial Dust Magnets - Indoor Plants

Friday, June 6th, 2008
Houseplant

Image via Wikipedia

by Thomas Fryd

When it comes to home decorating, choosing the plants that will take up residence alongside the furniture is often a more difficult proposition than the choosing of the furniture itself. Plants come in such a wide variety of colors, sizes and styles that they can single-handedly provide a touch of unique flavor and warmth to a room that furniture simply can’t accomplish. This lead to rise in artificial plants, as homeowners sought to outfit their homes with this touch of flavor, while avoiding the upkeep involved in doing gardening, often seen as too time consuming and difficult.

With the right schedule and planning though, indoor plant care requires very little effort, and gives your house added benefits beyond the mere aesthetic value of artificial plants by being a natural vacuum cleaner of your air supply.

If you don’t know the first thing about indoor gardening but would like to get started, these are some of the most important pointers for you to consider.

Lighting - As even the most egregious of gardening neophytes surely knows, plants require varying degrees of sunlight to survive. Based on your plant choice, a suitable area of the house will also need to be selected, providing your plant with the just the right amount of UV. In the absolute absence of such light in your ideal area for a plant, you can always resorting to moving it for stretches of the day, or setting up an artificial light source near it to keep it healthy. Plants that are easily kept in areas with minimal natural lighting include the African Violet and the philodendron.

Watering - Like above, it’s common knowledge that plants need water. What isn’t common knowledge is how much water each plant needs, and a common practice is to over-water house plants, which can be just as harmful as under-watering them. A simple bit of research will tell you how much or how little to give to your plant. Learning how to care for a peace lilly is a great education primer on plant care.

Potting - All indoor plants require placement in pots or containers of some sort. The pot should be neither too restrictive, nor too broad, and should always be clean with fresh soil when you add your plant to it.

Humidity - Many homes and even outdoor areas are too dry for the liking of plants. For this reason it may be a good idea to spray your plants leaves gently with a water bottle, and even outdoor plants can benefit from this practice.

Fertilization - This will be dependent upon the individual plant, like most of the above options. Fertilization is ideal for helping plants to maintain themselves with less constant care from you. If you’re following the above steps, fertilizer will probably not be necessary, but if you would like to take advantage of its potential, you’ll again need to base the decision of what type of fertilizer to use on your specific plant.

These easy tips can help you maintain a bevy of indoor plants with ease, giving you their decorative aspects and their air cleaning quality as well. That feeling of nurturing life is also an added bonus, and a great reason to get your kids into gardening as well.

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Zemanta Pixie

Light Up Your Landscape with Ease

Friday, May 30th, 2008
by Kent Higgins

Gardening is both a peaceful endeavor and one that fulfills our natural instinct to make use of and cultivate the land around us. With many gardening shows and gardening specialty channels now available on T.V, and numerous places to gather information related to gardening online, gardeners are now more informed and knowledgeable about their craft than ever before.

This, combined with an increased awareness of the environmental hazards facing us, has given rise to an increase in the popularity of solar lighting in gardens. These are both environmentally friendly and great additions to any garden.

Solar lighting is not only cheaper and better for the environment; it also avoids the pitfalls that occur when installing electrical lighting in a garden area. These electrical lines must be installed underground in shallow trenches to avoid the danger of being exposed wear and tear and the elements. Solar lighting requires nothing more than a battery and some natural sunlight to perform their magic.

There are many varieties of garden lighting sometimes called malibu landscape lighting. Dome lights, pole lighting, globes, stepping stones and lanterns are all viable choices. Dome lights are kept low to the ground, and often have spikes attached to them which can be easily inserted into the ground, holding the dome light in place above the ground.

Garden lighting is often constructed from molded plastic, stainless steel or copper, and can be fitted with colored bulbs or panels. Solar lighting will most often exude a soft white or amber glow.

For gardens featuring at least a small pond or water source, solar balls can be used to great effect. These balls will float freely on the water, providing a gentle, moving source of illumination.

Another popular garden lighting source is solar floats. These objects are disc shaped and can be used in a number of places where other lighting sources may not be viable, such as on a table, in a pool or hot tub, or in a garden pond or water source. These discs can also come in styles which change color, offering a unique visual accompaniment to your garden.

Solar flowers are one of the latest innovations in garden lighting, and certainly one of the most unique and stunning available. They come in styles resembling typical garden flowers such as lilies, sunflowers and poinsettias. The flowers are placed into the ground attached to a spike, and offer illumination by way of thousands of fibre-optic strands.

To give your garden visitors the red carpet treatment, consider adding solar stepping stones. These stones come in a variety of styles, shapes and colors, and infuse your garden path with a bright glowing ambiance through the use of LED lights.

No matter the style or layout of your garden, there are a number of great lighting choices that can be used to seamlessly match the style of your garden and accentuate it. Going the solar route can save you a lot of many over the long term and is great for the environment. Don’t leave your garden wallowing in darkness, illuminate it and share its splendor with all, day or night.

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Vegetable Gardening

Friday, May 30th, 2008
Collingwood Children's Farm garden plots and in the background, farm animals (mostly sheep).

Image via Wikipedia

by Charles and Kim Petty

Vegetable gardening has lately become just as popular as going to the grocery store for produce. Vegetable gardening can produce vegetables that are usually cheaper than store bought, and vegetables from a home vegetable garden definitely taste better by far. Vegetable gardening is no different than growing herbs or flowers and if the proper steps are taken and the plants are give the proper care they will flourish and produce very tasty vegetables.

First you must decide what size of garden you wish to plant and then select a place for it; somewhere that has good drainage, good air flow, and good, deep soil. It also needs to be able to get as much sunlight as possible. Because vegetable gardens have such tasty rewards, many animals, such as dogs, rabbits, deer, and many others will try and get to your veggies. One way to prevent this is to surround your garden with a fence, or put out a trap to catch mice, moles, and other animals.

Before planting, the soil must be properly prepared. Good soil for vegetable gardening is achieved by cultivation and the application of organic materials. The soil must be tilled (plowed) to control weeds and mix mulch into the soil. If you have a small garden, spading could be a better bet than plowing. Mulching is also a vital part of soil preparation. Organic matter added to the soil releases nitrogen, minerals, and other nutrients plants need to thrive. The most popular and best type of mulch you can use is compost. While the kind and amount of fertilizer used depends on the soil and types of plants, there are some plants that have specific needs; leafy plants, like cabbage, spinach, and lettuce usually grow better with more nitrogen, while root crops like potatoes, beets, turnips, and carrots require more potash. Tomatoes and beans use less fertilizer, while plants like onions, celery, and potatoes need a larger amount.

One thing that is vitally important in vegetable gardening is the garden arrangement. There is no single plan that will work for every garden due to varying conditions. One popular way to arrange a vegetable garden is to plant vegetables needing only limited space together, such as radishes, lettuce, beets, and spinach, and those that require more room together, such as corn, pumpkins, and potatoes. Try and plant tall growing plants towards the back of the garden and shorter ones in the front so that their sunlight does not get blocked.

When you are finally ready to begin planting your vegetable garden, make sure and plant at the right time of year. If you are dying to get an early start, you may want begin your garden inside in a hotbed and then transplant when the weather permits. After you are finished planting, make sure your vegetables receive the appropriate amount of water, which depends on the type of plant. Most plants will need the equivalent to about an inch of water per week.

Weeds must be controlled in vegetable gardening because they will take up water, light, and nutrients meant for the vegetables and they often bring disease and insects to the garden. You can get rid of weeds by cultivation or mulching. To protect against disease and insects you can buy seeds that are disease resistant or use controlled chemicals.

Vegetable gardening is many people’s favorite form of gardening because you can actually taste the fruits of your labor. Vegetable gardening is not that expensive to start and the taste of home grown veggies definitely beat out that of supermarket vegetables. Your vegetable gardening days will be full of produce if you take the proper precautions when planting and continue maintenance of your garden.

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18-6-12 is Not a Lock Combination

Tuesday, May 27th, 2008
A compost bin

Image via Wikipedia

by Thomas Fryd

One of the great things about outdoor plants is they require very little attention. They gather all of the nutrients they need from the surrounding air and soil, and in an environment that is anything but arid, require very little to no feeding. This is in contrast to indoor plants, which require a thoughtful and constant eye from the gardener. If you’re not careful though, even outdoor plants can suffer if not properly setup and looked after.

Fertilizers come with varying concentrations of three key elements, Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium, and the degree to which each element exists in a particular fertilizer is displayed on the packaging, abbreviated as three numbers separated by dashes. 10-10-10, an equal mixture of all three elements is common, but many other mixtures can be found to suit individual plants or patches of garden.

Each plant species will require different amounts of these elements to thrive, and just as they can wilt under too little of these elements, so too can they suffer if given an overdose of the wrong element. The season will also affect the needs of many plants, with flowering plants requiring more sustenance in spring while they grow, and less in the fall.

Plants also absorb this fertilizer at differing rates. Fertilizer with slow-release nitrogen beads is often ideal, as they deliver material below the surface at a steady rate.

Phosphorus is essential for flowering plants, and is tied in with the pH level, or acidity of the soil. This pH scale functions on a scale from 0-14, with 7, the pH level of water being neutral. The lower on the scale, the more acidic the compound is, the higher on the scale the more basic.

If soil is either too basic or too acidic, it can affect an indoor houseplant’s absorption and release of phosphorus, inhibiting plant growth, especially the growth of roots.

The finally element, potassium helps fight diseases and also promotes the development of fruit bearing plants. It aids fruit growth and development by transporting elements throughout the tissues of the plant.

Another convenient fertilizer option is to go with an all purpose liquid, which works with a number of different plants, effectively delivering an even level of fertilizer. For some plants with higher absorption rates though, this method may result in delivering elements to the plant too quickly, potentially poisoning the plant.

Whichever method and degree of fertilizer you choose, always be sure to apply the fertilizer to dry soil. Applying the fertilizer to wet soil can lead to an increased concentration of elements and damage the plant.

New plants will not need fertilizer after purchase in most cases, save for flowering plants in spring. All others should be fine to begin with if they were properly maintained at the gardening center before purchase.

Through careful soil and element manipulation, you can ensure your plants will survive and thrive under almost any condition, and with a minimal level of further upkeep required. Be sure to read the labels on your plants, or consult someone with a knowledge of the plant to ascertain its ideal fertilizer choice.

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The Cultivation of Vegetables

Monday, May 26th, 2008
Hoe, as it's featured on Bahasa Melayu Wikipedia. Originally uploaded to Bahasa Melayu Wikipedia by User Abangmanuk.

Image via Wikipedia

by Kim and Charles Petty

Before taking up the garden vegetables individually, I shall outline the general practice of cultivation, which applies to all.

The purposes of cultivation are three to get rid of weeds, and to stimulate growth by (1) letting air into the soil and freeing unavailable plant food, and (2) by conserving moisture.

As to weeds, the gardener of any experience need not be told the importance of keeping his crops clean. He has learned from bitter and costly experience the price of letting them get anything resembling a start. He knows that one or two days’ growth, after they are well up, followed perhaps by a day or so of rain, may easily double or treble the work of cleaning a patch of onions or carrots, and that where weeds have attained any size they cannot be taken out of sowed crops without doing a great deal of injury. He also realizes, or should, that every day’s growth means just so much available plant food stolen from under the very roots of his legitimate crops.

Instead of letting the weeds get away with any plant food, he should be furnishing more, for clean and frequent cultivation will not only break the soil up mechanically, but let in air, moisture and heat all essential in effecting those chemical changes necessary to convert non- available into available plant food. Long before the science in the case was discovered, the soil cultivators had learned by observation the necessity of keeping the soil nicely loosened about their growing crops. Even the lanky and untutored aborigine saw to it that his squaw not only put a bad fish under the hill of maize but plied her shell hoe over it. Plants need to breathe. Their roots need air. You might as well expect to find the rosy glow of happiness on the wan cheeks of a cotton-mill child slave as to expect to see the luxuriant dark green of healthy plant life in a suffocated garden.

Important as the question of air is, that of water ranks beside it. You may not see at first what the matter of frequent cultivation has to do with water. But let us stop a moment and look into it. Take a strip of blotting paper, dip one end in water, and watch the moisture run up hill, soak up through the blotter. The scientists have labeled that “capillary attraction” the water crawls up little invisible tubes formed by the texture of the blotter. Now take a similar piece, cut it across, hold the two cut edges firmly together, and try it again. The moisture refuses to cross the line: the connection has been severed.

In the same way the water stored in the soil after a rain begins at once to escape again into the atmosphere. That on the surface evaporates first, and that which has soaked in begins to soak in through the soil to the surface. It is leaving your garden, through the millions of soil tubes, just as surely as if you had a two-inch pipe and a gasoline engine, pumping it into the gutter night and day! Save your garden by stopping the waste. It is the easiest thing in the world to do cut the pipe in two. By frequent cultivation of the surface soil not more than one or two inches deep for most small vegetables the soil tubes are kept broken, and a mulch of dust is maintained. Try to get over every part of your garden, especially where it is not shaded, once in every ten days or two weeks. Does that seem like too much work? You can push your wheel hoe through, and thus keep the dust mulch as a constant protection, as fast as you can walk. If you wait for the weeds, you will nearly have to crawl through, doing more or less harm by disturbing your growing plants, losing all the plant food (and they will take the cream) which they have consumed, and actually putting in more hours of infinitely more disagreeable work. If the beginner at gardening has not been convinced by the facts given, there is only one thing left to convince him experience.

Having given so much space to the reason for constant care in this matter, the question of methods naturally follows. Get a wheel hoe. The simplest sorts will not only save you an infinite amount of time and work, but do the work better, very much better than it can be done by hand. You can grow good vegetables, especially if your garden is a very small one, without one of these labor-savers, but I can assure you that you will never regret the small investment necessary to procure it.

With a wheel hoe, the work of preserving the soil mulch becomes very simple. If one has not a wheel hoe, for small areas very rapid work can be done with the scuffle hoe.

The matter of keeping weeds cleaned out of the rows and between the plants in the rows is not so quickly accomplished. Where hand-work is necessary, let it be done at once. Here are a few practical suggestions that will reduce this work to a minimum, (1) Get at this work while the ground is soft; as soon as the soil begins to dry out after a rain is the best time. Under such conditions the weeds will pull out by the roots, without breaking off. (2) Immediately before weeding, go over the rows with a wheel hoe, cutting shallow, but just as close as possible, leaving a narrow, plainly visible strip which must be hand- weeded. The best tool for this purpose is the double wheel hoe with disc attachment, or hoes for large plants. (3) See to it that not only the weeds are pulled but that every inch of soil surface is broken up. It is fully as important that the weeds just sprouting be destroyed, as that the larger ones be pulled up. One stroke of the weeder or the fingers will destroy a hundred weed seedlings in less time than one weed can be pulled out after it gets a good start. (4) Use one of the small hand-weeders until you become skilled with it. Not only may more work be done but the fingers will be saved unnecessary wear.

The skilful use of the wheel hoe can be acquired through practice only. The first thing to learn is that it is necessary to watch the wheels only: the blades, disc or rakes will take care of themselves.

The operation of “hilling” consists in drawing up the soil about the stems of growing plants, usually at the time of second or third hoeing. It used to be the practice to hill everything that could be hilled “up to the eyebrows,” but it has gradually been discarded for what is termed “level culture”; and you will readily see the reason, from what has been said about the escape of moisture from the surface of the soil; for of course the two upper sides of the hill, which may be represented by an equilateral triangle with one side horizontal, give more exposed surface than the level surface represented by the base. In wet soils or seasons hilling may be advisable, but very seldom otherwise. It has the additional disadvantage of making it difficult to maintain the soil mulch which is so desirable.

Rotation of crops. ——————

There is another thing to be considered in making each vegetable do its best, and that is crop rotation, or the following of any vegetable with a different sort at the next planting.

With some vegetables, such as cabbage, this is almost imperative, and practically all are helped by it. Even onions, which are popularly supposed to be the proving exception to the rule, are healthier, and do as well after some other crop, provided the soil is as finely pulverized and rich as a previous crop of onions would leave it.

Here are the fundamental rules of crop rotation:

(1) Crops of the same vegetable, or vegetables of the same family (such as turnips and cabbage) should not follow each other.

(2) Vegetables that feed near the surface, like corn, should follow deep-rooting crops

(3) Vines or leaf crops should follow root crops.

(4) Quick-growing crops should follow those occupying the land all season.

These are the principles which should determine the rotations to be followed in individual cases. The proper way to attend to this matter is when making the planting plan. You will then have time to do it properly, and will need to give it no further thought for a year.

With the above suggestions in mind, and put to use , it will not be difficult to give the crops those special attentions which are needed to make them do their very best.

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Sheltering Landscaping Trees in A Landscape Garden

Friday, May 23rd, 2008
Sofiyivsky Park in Ukraine goes back to 1796.

Image via Wikipedia

by Mark Robinson

One of the critical factors in ensuring that your shrubs and trees develop well in your landscape garden is that you make sure that wind damage is vastly reduced. Landscaping Trees in a Landscape Garden can be seriously damaged by heavy winds in various ways. One of the simplest ways to to decrease wind damage is by utilizing Tree Shelters and Other Protection.

Tree Shelters and Other Protection can drastically decrease damage to new shoots, buds and leaves by creating a full or partial barrier to the wind. Prevailing winds rock the trees forwards and backwards causing damage to the roots especially the fibrous roots, this, together with the fact that winds also increase osmosis, means that trees easily become seriously dehydrated. Tree Shelters and Windbreak Netting are low priced items of garden equipment so why penny pinch? In the end it will most probably work out more costly in the long term if you do without them.

Protecting landscaping trees in very exposed areas can be very difficult and you will, most likely, decide that it would be more effective to use both windbreak netting and tree shelters together. By using this tip you will discover that you have manufactured something similar a controlled environment, these useful devices also help in stabilizing the surrounding air temperature by acting as insulation (as the best types have twin walls). Also, because they are moulded from an incredibly strong and durable type of clear or opaque polyethylene the resulting tree shelters are relatively lighter than if a different material was used. They are very easy to flat pack resulting in transportation which is easy and cheap, even heavy weight designs are light weight.

If you live in a coastal site you will find that tree shelters are also a great solution for the problem of salt damage. Reducing salt damage is, more than likely the only way to ensure that some species of tree survive in in your vicinity. Windbreak netting is also a brilliant, easy way in which to protect against salt damage. Windbreak netting is also effective in reducing sunlight in sunny positions as it restricts sunlight by forty to fifty percent.

Tree Shelters are also needed if you reside in a region where animals are a problem. Tree shelters will stop any damage made by browsing beasts such as rabbits, dear and similar. The spiral types have been designed for this reason and are most probably the most logical. Windbreak netting is not likely to stop rabbits as it is commonly made of a mesh of polyethylene but it will most probnably stop other creatures.

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Naturally Say Goodbye to Garden Pests

Tuesday, May 20th, 2008
Shredded wood used as mulch. This type of mulch is often dyed to improve its appearance in the landscape.

Image via Wikipedia

by Keith Markensen

It’s an unavoidable fact that if left untended, for every flower and plant that adorns our gardens, a greater number of pests will also take root. The good news is that removing these scoundrels from infesting your vegetation does not need to rely on chemicals, nor should it. For each individual species of pest that shows up in your garden abode, there is a natural solution that is cheaper and most importantly, safer to use than pesticides.

Shockingly, North Americans use upwards of 130 million pounds of pesticide each year, both in their gardens and in their homes. This dwarfs the amount used by farmers by almost three times, and accounts for a high percentage of wildlife pest poisonings and contamination of surface water from pesticide use.

Cutting back on this problem requires educating gardeners and homeowners everywhere. Taking the initiative by spreading the word yourself can only help, and the best way to do that is to lead by example, and keep your own home pesticide free.

The following tips will help you keep your garden healthy and pest free without resorting to harmful pesticide use.

The most common problem gardeners will face is insect damage to their plants. With proper cultivation and gardening methods, this problem can be drastically reduced before having to resort to other methods. This means having well-prepared soil, adjusting the pH balance as needed, good drainage and air circulation.

As your garden continues to grow and take shape, remove and dispose immediately of any struggling plants. Be sure to keep your compost area for storing your weeds, discarded plants and compost well away from your main gardening area, as the compost heap will be sure to attract pests.

Keep your garden beds well mulched and top-dressed with compost to ensure healthy plant development. Ensure you’re using clean mulch, bought from a reputable dealer or cultivated yourself.

Be sure to keep your garden area clear of debris and things that will attract insects. If you have fruit trees near your garden, be sure to dispose of any fallen fruit immediately. Spoiled pears or apples will attract all many of pests.

Seaweed fertilizer sprays are useful for strengthening soil and promoting plant growth. They contain helpful minerals and trace elements like iron, calcium, sulphur and magnesium.

Mix up your garden beds with a variety of plant types interspersed throughout. This makes it difficult for plant specific pests to propagate and spread throughout your garden bed.

If you’ve used your gardening implements on infected plants, be sure to sterilize them before using them on healthy plants.

Finally, you can call on the power of nature itself to help you in your fight using a natural product like neem oil. By attracting or purchasing insects which feast upon the particular pests bothering your plants, you can remove them in one fell swoop of natural selection. Praying Mantises, Hover Flies, Ladybugs, Chalcids, Brachonids, and if they don’t frighten you, Wasps, are all insects which will help you battle common varieties of garden pests.

Having a healthy and beautiful garden should not be your number one priority, the health and safety of family should be. Thankfully it is not a choice of one or the other. By using any or all of the above tips, you can keep your garden looking great, and have no fear of your children playing near your plants. It’s truly the best of both worlds.

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Bringing Asia to Your Backyard

Monday, May 19th, 2008
A kaiyu-shiki or strolling garden

Image via Wikipedia

by Kent Higgins

With greater interest being shown in Asian culture and practices in recent years, oriental or ‘Zen’ style gardens have also shown an increase in popularity. Featuring design elements inspired by traditional Japanese gardens, oriental gardens typically consist of things such as water from a pond or small waterfall, pagodas and oriental garden lights.

These oriental garden lights are available as solar garden lights, which require no electricity, storing up the sun’s energy during the day through a Nicam battery, and then releasing it at night through an LED connector which can hold up to a 15 hour charge. These solar lights are easily installed, cheap, and environmentally friendly.

A popular choice among oriental style solar lights is the pagoda solar garden light. Designed in the shape of a pagoda, which is a tiered structure with angled eaves, these lights offer a striking and stately design. The pagoda solar lights are attached to a pole inserted into the ground, and are most often used along pathways, to surround open gathering areas, or tucked in the corners of decks.

Another traditional oriental garden touch is the use of solar stones to provide gentle illumination to dark areas. These stones look not unlike real stones, but have small solar panels inserted into the middle of them. They require no form of installation or upkeep, they can simply be placed in any area that fits their aesthetic design and they’re ready to work. These stones may come in particular shapes, the most common of which is the hexagon, a shape symbolic in Feng Shui philosophy.

Garden lamps are a perfect accent to a traditional styled garden, being made from granite or concrete, or a durable plastic mold made to look like granite. These lamps feature hollow interiors from which the light illuminates, the energy for which comes from the solar panel on their top, which charges throughout the day.

Finally, wall sconces add a unique look to any garden, and are especially suited to small garden areas enclosed by walls on at least one side. These sconces can be attached to the side of any wall or deck, providing gentle white or amber light over your garden. Solar wall sconces can be found in a plethora of styles and colors.

You won’t be left wanting for great design choices when constructing an oriental garden centered around great led solar landscape lighting. These lights can be found in many gardening or craft related stores, or through the internet at similar dealers or through dealers specializing in Asian or Asian style products.

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