Archive for the ‘agronomy’ category

How to Setup Your Own Garden

July 7th, 2011

Figuring out which gardening tips to follow can be quite a challenge. So much of the information out there is conflicting that sorting through it all can be very time consuming. Gardening is more involved than simply tossing some seeds into your yard and watering them every once in a while. Gardening takes hard work. It be time consuming. It won’t take long for you to realize that working in your garden, in spite of all of the time and energy it takes from you, is incredibly rewarding. Here are some gardening tips to help you grow the garden of your dreams!

Growing more than one plant can be tricky-put a schedule together for yourself and follow it. Input the number of times your plants need to be watered. Write down exactly when you plan on adding nutrients to the soil of each of your plants. Put all of these things onto your calendar and then follow the instructions on your calendar each day. Even your weeding schedule could be put on the calendar! This mapping and scheduling will help ensure that your plants grow to be healthy and thriving. If you haven’t ever grown a garden before, keeping the details on a calendar can help you make sure that you don’t miss anything. Bees are great! Even if you hate the idea of having bees near you, you need to learn to deal with them because they are good for your garden.

Bees are how pollen gets spread around your garden (which helps the plants grow). Plants cannot grow fruit or bloom until they’ve been “fertilized” with pollen. So, basically, you need to get used to seeing and dealing with bees. In fact, you might even think about doing whatever you can to attract the bees to your garden! One of the easiest ways to attract bees to your garden is to plant tomatillo plants; bees love tomatillos. Take care to plant more than one tomatillo plant because bees are not good at sharing; in fact, one of the best ways to get stung is to try to fight with bees to get the fruit from a tomatillo plant-instead, plant some tomatillos for yourself in another part of the garden.

Always remember that gardening happens throughout the whole year. Even during the cold winter months when not much is growing, there is work to be done. For example, you will need to prepare your garden’s soil for colder weather. Most of the spring plants you like so much get planted during the last few frosts of the year. Learn how to take care of your garden even when the plants are not blooming. You will have a far more successful and healthy garden if you do your best to take care of your garden plot throughout the whole year. Growing a garden doesn’t have to be hard. A thriving garden is inevitable if you are willing to put in the time, the effort and the work that goes along with growing and caring for plants. You just need to practice patience. It takes time to grow a garden that will flourish. Pretty much every person on the planet can learn to grow a wonderful garden. You don’t need to come pre-built with super gardening powers or a green thumb. You just need to find the right gardening tips to follow and you will be on your way.

Indoor Herb Garden: Questions That Must Be Answered

July 6th, 2011

So you really love gardening but you don’t have a space to plant or you live in a flat with just a little space for an outdoor herb garden. Then worry no more because to you an indoor herb garden is the answer you’ve been looking for.

The question most beginners ask is if the plants can thrive in an indoor herb garden. And the answer is a resounding yes. Actually, growing herbs indoors is easier that you think and what’s better is that the herbs that you grow, especially if they are culinary herbs, are just so near, right when you need them. You don’t have to go out to pick the basil you need for your pesto recipe!

Although herbs can be grown indoors, it must not be forgotten that they are still not indoor plants; that is they need air, sunshine and water during the day. Sunlight helps the herbs produce the essential oils that you will love when it comes to their flavor and fragrance.

Placement

The first step to consider is the placement of your indoor garden and it should be on the sunniest spot of the house- it could be on a windowsill, sun room, porch or balcony. However, if it’s not possible for them to get at least 5 hours of good sunshine every day, you can use fluorescent lamps to supplement their lighting needs.

What You’ll Need:

1. Container
For you to start growing your indoor herb garden, you need a trough or any long narrow container, or it could be individual pots which are at least 6 inches deep that can be mounted on your windowsill. There is a prescribed depth to the containers in order to give the herbs enough room to stretch out their roots and don’t forget to fill the bottom of the containers with peat or vermiculite for good drainage.

2. Soil
The soil to be placed on the pots should be rich but clean and light. You should avoid letting the herbs in pots dry out as well as making them very wet. Plant pills can be placed on them occasionally.

3. Type
Have you decided what herbs to plant on your indoor herb garden? There are plenty of them that can grow well even on indoors and the list includes parsley, rosemary, thyme, tarragon, sweet marjoram, chives, chervil, basil and mint will do well.

You can also buy indoor herb garden kits online to help you take the first step in growing your plants. An exciting new style of indoor herb gardening is called hydroponics – the roots are growing in aerated water, not soil. Consider joining the new hydroponics garden club now! Along with this, you should strive to learn all you can about growing herbs indoors to ensure that your garden grows healthy and productive.