Gardening Articles

We are now moving into the time of year where it is great fun to be working out in the garden, spending long hot sunny afternoons tidying up the garden, weeding and planting new plants in time for the summer. Gardening is having a bit of a resurgence in popularity over the past few years with more and more of the younger generation having a go at growing plants and designing a garden, partly because of the exposure that gardening has been given by television design programs and because of acceptance as the garden patio area as an outdoor living space. But one of the biggest growths in the gardening sector has been with people growing their own fruit and vegetables. In years gone by everyone with a garden or an allotment would grow their own fruit and vegetables as a way of providing food for the dinner table when times were hard, now it appears as though we are going into a period of slight recession and people seem to have less money in their pockets because of rising costs people are trying to make ends meet by growing their own produce.

The way we live our lives on a daily basis is changing rapidly. The way we approach certain things in life is different to approach we may have taken 10 – 15 years ago because of the way we are educated by the television media and news paper media towards certain issues. One such issue is the way we eat and what we eat. In years gone by we would eat a fast food meal for convenience without giving a second thought as to what it might have been doing to our body, it was simply treated as fuel to get us through the day until it was time for our next meal. But in recent years there has been a concerted effort in the media and by health organizations to move us away from fast food and towards a more healthy way of eating, which can only be good news for us. The other thing that has changed over the past few years is the way we buy our food. More and more of us are now shopping in large faceless supermarkets because they are convenient and because they are cheaper than local stores.

The way that we look at food has changed over the past 10 – 15 years, for many people cheap mass produced fast food is just not acceptable in their diets any longer as they now understand more about the implications of how the food was produced, what it does to our body and the ethics that have gone into the production of the food. For this reason more and more of us are turning to growing our own vegetables and even having a go at rearing our own animals for meat and food. This all ties in very nicely with the boom time that cookery is having at the moment due to the increase in cookery programs on the television. We are more educated about food and how to cook it than ever before and with the help of the inter web we are never far away from some exotic recipe or another. So what can you do to join the growing number of people that are becoming self sufficient and more educated in what we eat and the way we produce our food?

A rain garden acts like a native forest by collecting, absorbing, and filtering storm-water runoff from roof tops, driveways, patios, and other areas that don't allow water to soak in.

Spring isn't quite here yet, but that is even more reason to get a head start on some spring clean up for your garden. Winter may not have been harsh from your perspective, but the winds and rains may have done damage to your lawn that will need some fixing up before they can start growing and producing come spring time. Some of the things to focus on if you want a great looking yard are: Spring Clean Up, Bed Prep, Turf Prep, and Composting.

As a rule, we choose to grow bush beans rather than pole beans. I cannot make up my mind whether or not this is from sheer laziness. In a city backyard the tall varieties might perhaps be a problem since it would be difficult to get poles. But these running beans can be trained along old fences and with little urging will run up the stalks of the tallest sunflowers.

A wild-flower garden has a most attractive sound. One thinks of long tramps in the woods, collecting material, and then of the fun in fixing up a real wild garden.

If you have heard of hydroponics or other methods of growing plants without soil and want to try it out at home, you can. Sometimes people get a misconception about hydroponics in reality it is really not as mysterious and complicated as it seems. A simple hydroponics system is easy to care for and set-up at home.

Fresh herbs can make a world of difference in your meals. Instead of buying them at the grocery store and getting too much at once or a bunch that isn’t as fresh as it could be, grow your own. Grow a variety or just your favorite, in a window box or on the kitchen counter. It is an easy introduction to indoor gardening.

Soil primarily had its beginning from rock together with animal and vegetable decay, if you can imagine long stretches or periods of time when great rock masses were crumbling and breaking up. Heat, water action, and friction were largely responsible for this. By friction here is meant the rubbing and grinding of rock mass against rock mass.