Posts Tagged "Easy"

The Mantis Home Garden Tiller Makes Gardening Easy

Posted by admin on Sep 3, 2010 in Gardening | 0 comments

by Topsy at Waygood

The Mantis Home Garden Tiller Makes Gardening Easy

The Mantis Home Garden Tiller Makes Gardening Easy

When I’m having a super stressful week, I enjoy sneaking away and going over to my friend Jen’s place. Stepping into her backyard is like stepping into a whole different world!  The backyard is filled with gardens!

Recently I had stopped over and chatted with Jen for a bit while she was edging one of the rock gardens with her nifty mantis garden tiller. I have to say I was really impressed with how easy this normally time consuming task seemed to be. We chatted away while Jen worked, mainly about her tiller. It is so light and easy to use; simply plug it in and away you go. Jen said that she doesn’t know how she would manage without it as it certainly made it easy to keep on top of all her gardening chores.  Her lovely garden is certainly testament to her gardening skills and her electric mantis home tiller and cultivator.

The particular rock garden she was working around is incredible!!!  It’s probably a 8′x10′ garden.  In the center of the garden is a boulder with water cascading down the front of it, into a small pond.  Near the large rock, Jen placed medium rocks here and there.  The perimeter of the garden is bordered with flat rocks from a nearby river.  In between all the rocks is a mixture of gravel and thousands of blue glass stones.  A cement bench faces the boulder and pond.  The garden is exquisite!

Probably my most favorite garden when I need to be cheered up is Jen’s whimsical garden.  It’s about the same size as the rock garden.  For the border, Jen used all sorts of bird houses.  They are line up like townhouses!  Inside the garden are a few tree stumps with interesting plants and tin birds arranged on and around them.  In the far right corner is an oak tree.  A bird “tree house” has been built at eye level.  There’s a window box to the tree house containing ivy that has grown almost to the ground.  On a long branch on the left side of the tree are several tin birds dangling from it.  The garden contains simple forget-me-nots and purple violets.  Facing the garden are two metal lawn chairs with large bird feathers painted on them.    

My husband loves the “olden days” garden.  At a flea market, Jen was able to purchase an old outhouse!  It was falling apart and how she ever got it home, I don’t know.  The outhouse has ivy covering most of it.  Beside the outhouse is an old cast iron bathtub, just filled with vibrant flowers.  On the other side of the outhouse is an old caned chair with most of the seat torn out and a plant growing up through the seat.  Behind the outhouse is a clothesline with long johns hanging on it.  On the ground is a pair of boots with the toes ripped out and plants growing.  Also hanging from the clothesline is a wind chime made of old silverware!  

Watching Jen use her electric mantis garden tiller and cultivator to get rid of the weeds, I was almost envious.  She gets to enjoy these gardens every day.  As she tends to them regularly, it’s not work.  She enjoys caring for them and adding new pieces here and there.  It’s a very special place and I’m glad for our friendship.

Herb Gardening Made Easy

Posted by admin on Aug 31, 2010 in Gardening | 0 comments

by UGArdener

Herb Gardening Made Easy

Herb gardening is becoming more and more popular every day, and for a good reason. Herbs have practical value, serve a purpose, and with herb gardening you can actually use your plants. When most people think of herb gardening they automatically think of cooking, but herbs are also grown for their pleasant aroma and their beauty.

One important part of herb gardening is drying the herbs for use during the winter months, especially if you plan on cooking with them. First the tops of leafy herbs have to be cut, washed, and hung up for the water to evaporate. Then, tie stems together and hang up in a paper bag to dry. After two to three weeks they must be removed; crumble the leaves, dry them out in the oven, and store in a glass jar.

One of the most common herbs gown in herb gardening is basil. “Dark Opal” and regular green basil are beautiful additions to any garden and often used as decoration. Dark Opal has light pink flowers and dark red leaves. Basil isn’t just used for its looks; it is used for extra flavor in tomato juices and pastes.

Chives are very petite looking and resemble a blade of grass. They are much stronger than they look, however, and will grow well through a drought and a drought. Their toughness and sturdiness makes Chives a perfect plant for herb gardening, especially if the gardener doesn’t want plants that require a lot of hassle. Chives are good used in salads, egg dishes, and many different sauces.

Mint is also very simple to grow and is good to use in mint jelly, mint juleps, lemonade, and any other kind of fruity drink. Mint is also good in herb gardening for its unique minty smell. Two herbs that appear in nearly everyone’s herb garden are thyme and sage. Both of these herb gardening favorites are used for flavoring soups, chicken, turkey, pork, and other sausages. Sage is also grown sometimes for its beautiful blue spiked flowers.

Lavender is probably the best smelling herb in all of herb gardening and is often used in candles, as a perfume scent, and to improve the smell in linen chests. The light purple flowers smell absolutely lovely.

Other types of herbs often grown in herb gardening include borage (used in salads), chervil (used in egg dishes), sweet marjoram (flavors lamb, fish, salad, and soup), sesame (flavors crackers, cookies, and bread), and dill (flavors meats and used in pickles). Herb gardening allows gardeners to use herbs from their own garden for cooking, looks, and smell. Herb gardening will produce much fresher herbs with more flavor than store-bought herbs, and are a lot cheaper.

Gardening With Easy Care Perennials

Posted by admin on Aug 27, 2010 in Gardening | 0 comments

by UGArdener

Gardening With Easy Care Perennials

Perennials are those flowers which reliably bloom year after year. They die back to the ground each winter after flourishing for a full growing season only to reemerge again in the spring. They’re also noted for their texture and vibrant colors. Generally, perennials are a bit maintenance though there are those require almost no maintenance. These perennials are some the easiest to care for. They also provide colorful flowers and long lasting foliage.

Daylilies are a very common perennial which do remarkably well with very little maintenance. Their flowers, which are available in a wide range of colors, bloom on stocks which grow up from clumps of long pointed foliage. A profuse bloomer, daylilies flower for weeks. They prefer a bit of shade in the afternoon when the sun is strongest.

Iris is one the first perennials to emerge in the spring. Its purple or white flowers are an essential in the spring garden. Iris grows in spreading clumps which increase in size each year. When their finished blooming, iris will provide the perennial garden with striking foliage through the summer.

Hosta is an extraordinarily hardy and durable perennial. They can grow for an entire season with very little care. Hosta provides the garden with mounds of lush foliage and striking purple or white flower. Hosta is also very adaptable and versatile and can be used in a variety of garden situations. They’re effective as an edging plant and when grown among other flowers in a perennial bed. Hosta is great for shade and part shade gardens.

Astilbe is one of best perennials for the shade or part shade garden. They prefer organic soils and protection from the afternoon sun as dry soils and direct sun tend to cause withering in the plant. Astilbe has finely cut, fern like foliage and pink, white, or peach colored flowers. Astilble may require dividing every few years to encourage healthy blooms as they will often out grow their spot in the garden.

Geranium, a great perennial for the border garden, is a vigorous grower and flowers abundantly. With its spreading habit and profuse flowering abilities, geranium provides the garden with pink, white or purple flowers through mid-summer. Geranium is a wonderful edging plant in a full sun perennial border. Geranium is able to thrive for years with very little maintenance.

Asters bloom in fall and are effective in both the formal perennial garden and the wildflower meadow. Asters bloom in a variety of colors including, white, pink and purple. They are great addition to any perennial border.

Black eyed Susan can tolerate poor soils and survive extreme conditions such as heat and drought. The challenge with black eyed Susan isn’t growing them its keeping them from taking over your garden. As a vigorous grower, they require dividing every few years. Their tall stems produce bright yellow flowers bloom in summer which last though early fall.

Sedum autumn joy is a wonderful fall flowering perennial. It grows clumps which grow larger year after year. Its blooms are tones of pink and not deadheaded, they turn a rusty brown which can add winter interest to the garden. Sedum autumn joy also provides the garden with beautiful lush foliage in the summer.

While these perennials are easy to grow, there are a few very basic maintenance guidelines to follow which will help your garden flourish. In the summer, deadheading the perennials the process of clipping off the spent blooms, in necessary to encourage new blooms. As your perennials grow larger and begin to crowd each other, they may require dividing. Dividing perennials is easily the best way to increase your plant stock. Simply dig the perennial you intend to divide out of the ground making sure to dig out as much of the root system as possible. Take a shovel and chop or divide the plant in half and then replant each half.

Before planting your flowers, observe the conditions of your garden so you can determine what will work best for you. Have a plan or list in hand before you head out to the greenhouse. Once planted, these perennials will provide years of gardening enjoyment.

Container Gardening – Easy Steps To Successful Container Gardening

Posted by admin on Aug 23, 2010 in Gardening | 0 comments

by UGArdener

Container Gardening – Easy Steps To Successful Container Gardening

One of the more popular forms of gardening as of late is called container gardening. Its popularity is based upon the fact that you can bring almost any type of vibrant arrangement into your garden, home, deck or patio, bringing life to your surroundings in a very neat and tidy way. By adding different types of flowers including perennials, garden variety plants, or herbs of your choice, container gardening will create an inspirational treat for your family and friends alike. Here are a few ways that you can successfully grow plants and create treasures throughout your home with this new gardening fad.

The main focus of container gardening at first is choosing the type of container that you would like to put your plants in. Depending upon your particular interest or taste, you may want to use a variety of different kinds of containers including metal, concrete, and even plastic. Very popular models are would or would tone materials that look organic in nature. Also very popular are containers made of stone which give a very earthy feel to any area of your home or even outside your home.

When choosing a gardening container, you must also think about price and weight. Most plastic containers are very affordable and can be found in hundreds of different colors to match any particular setting that you may have in mind. If you are going for a stone motif, if you have had a bad back before or back surgery, perhaps a better choice would be something lighter than stonework, perhaps plastic replicas of stones in a container format that will give the same look and feel as the real thing.

The other thing to consider is the weight of the dirt that you are going to be putting into the container. If you are an organic gardener, and you are using worm castings or some other form of compost that is rich, this will help lighten the load as this material is light and fluffy in the beginning. Although you can grow plants of almost any type in your worm compost, it is better to mix it with regular soil which will add density and weight to the container that you are placing it in.

If you are concerned about the quality of containers, you may think about the price you are paying for each one along with the style of each gardening container. Terracotta and concrete, depending upon where you buy them and who has made them, will probably last several years. Prices, due to the exponential popularity of this type of gardening, have gone down and you can also count on them not weighing as much as they did in years past with the added benefit of being weatherproof and possibly even more sturdy than before.

Going back to basics, what in gardening containers are still very popular. If this is your choice, it is a good idea to make sure that the wood itself is made and they rot resistant wood. Types of wood that are good for this are Cedar and Redwood because they are made of a higher density would then say your typical pine tree. Folk may be a poor choice due to the acidic levels in the wood itself. Either way, make sure that you can live with your decision based on price and appearance before you choose a wooden container that may not be there in just a few short months due to natural decomposition.

When choosing plants for your container, your best bet is to choose something that is colorful and matches the surroundings that you are placing it in. Some people, however, like their planters to stand out and will choose very bright colors for the planter as well as the flora that they plant within it. If you are using them inside, make sure that the plant you use are geared to live in warmer climates and likewise the ones outside should be designed to live in colder weather conditions. Also consider where you live and how long you would like your plants to grow. Replacing plants can be costly and therefore you should consider these options before making your purchase.

Overall, like most fads, container gardening may pass in just a few years. However, with the advancement of most people toward a more organic society that grows its and food and creates its own compost to ensure healthier and better food for themselves and their family, using containers may play a large role in this advancement and may go a long way into the future as a permanent mainstay in most people’s households that are organically oriented. Choose wisely, and make your home a better place by adding a gardening container that is just right for you.

Garden Composting – The Easy Way To Compost

Posted by admin on Aug 23, 2010 in Gardening | 0 comments

by antonychammond

Garden Composting – The Easy Way To Compost

Garden composting has been around for hundreds if not thousands of years. Due to the exponential increase in population and the demands that a industrial civilization require in order to sustain itself, the natural processes have been set aside in regard to fertilization of our soil in an attempt to ramp up the production machine and at the same time forget how we used to simply go outside and begin to plant our garden during the planting season.

With the rise of increasing amounts of pesticides and other chemical imbalances in our industrialized food, there is a quiet movement that is growing more loudly each day that is moving toward a more naturalistic society which involves remembering how we used to create the food that we ate everyday. Here are a few tips on how you can begin to create a very rich soil for your new garden through composting the easy way.

The first thing you should know about the purpose of compost is that it is used to enhance the very structure of the soil itself. For instance, a good garden soil does not have a hard, dry consistency to it but it is loose and capable of holding enough water for the plants as well as providing an adequate exit route for excess water and drainage. Good quality compost can even be added to the most clay filled soils and improve their soil structure enough to yield high producing quality crops. Moreover, garden composting will take your average garden and make it into an extremely fruitful and profitable garden if you choose to market your excess yields.

Another important aspect of the composting process is the release of necessary nutrients such as nitrogen to the soil and many who use compost produce excellent garden soil without the need of any kind of fertilizer at all. And while you are doing this, you realize that not only are you saving money by creating compost with recycled garden waste, but you are helping the environment at the same time by not utilizing our many landfills for the organic material that we are accustomed to throwing away.

Now let’s get into how we can use space in our garden to begin the composting process so that later we can begin to mix it in and easily move into the planting process.

Most organic materials will decompose. You should use in your compost pile things such as leaves, grass clippings, and any substance that is organically based such as straw or hay. From your kitchen, you should add things such as coffee grounds, egg shells, and that any organic material such as left over vegetables that were not eaten.

If you are a contractor, you can even add a little sawdust if you believe that your nitrogen to carbon ratio will be too high. Obviously, do not add residue from pets such as dogs in that they are very capable of passing disease into your compost pile. Also do not add things such as grease or any milk products as this will attract any nearby rodent populations which will again add diseases such as Haunta virus to what you are trying to create.

Once you are in a routine of adding these materials to your pile, you will have to wait several weeks for your ingredients to reach a certain temperature. It is during this stage that any remaining disease or organisms will be eliminated because the pile can reach temperatures of 160 .

Basically, this becomes kind of a balancing act between the ingredients that you have added and the results that you wish to achieve. For instance, if you have too much carbon-based material such as paper or well aged cow manure your in your pile, your compost pile will have trouble reaching optimal temperatures in order to eliminate the bacteria that you are trying to kill. Likewise, if you walk past your pile and smell the fresh scent of ammonia, more than likely you have too much nitrogen in the pile. However, in the end, given enough time, your compost will be created.

Once the compost pile is finished, you can then begin mixing this with your soil to enrich your garden area so that your crops produce bountifully and in record time. Other possibilities are that you could use a trashcan or a structure such as a box that you could make in order to hold your compost but if all you have is a tarp that you can place over the compost so that it does not dry out, you are in business in creating the best material on earth for a successful garden venture. Either way, following this very simple system for creating your own compost will take very little time or effort and will generate high yields for you and your organic gardening family.