Indoor Gardening Tips

Image via WikipediaPlants are a great addition to the home, that many people don't think about. Aside from the aesthetic value plants provide your home with, there are also health benefits - grade school science class tells us that plants cleanse the air through utilizing the carbon dioxide and producing more oxygen. Here is some important information on how to care for your indoor plants to gain the optimum health and aesthetic benefits.

Lighting

Most indoor plants need good lighting. You can provide this through natural lighting in the room of your choice or there must be electric lighting. Darker-leaved plants usually don't need as much light as others.

Here are the varieties of plants (usually those that only require medium to low light) that are known to be suitable for indoor gardening:

a. Philodendrons
b. Boston ferns
c. African violets
d. Cyclamens
e. Creeping Fig

Image via WikipediaWatering

A common mistake most people make in indoor gardening is they tend to over-water the plants, which may lead to rotting roots.  Make sure to research the type of plant you have, because each kind of plant varies on their watering needs.

Potting

Choose good quality and attractive containers for your indoor plants. Make sure that the pot is clean before placing your new plant into it to prevent infection and to encourage healthy growth.

Humidity

In indoor gardening, humidity is a big issue.  The amount of moisture in the air has effect on the growth of the plants. In the morning, you may want to spray some types of plants with water for their much-needed moisture. Also make sure the leaves don't get covered in dust, as this can block both light and moisture absorption.

Fertilization

Just like watering, fertilizing depends on the type of plant.  If you have managed to supply your indoor garden with the right amount of light, water and humidity, fertilization may not need much attention. A good indoor fertilizer can be bought from most home depot or hardware stores - make sure it's organic - you don't want to be bringing chemicals into your home! More delicate or unique plants like orchids may need special fertilizers.

With just a bit of attention to these considerations, you can have a lovely and thriving indoor garden to keep your home beautiful year-round.

Great Gifts for Gardeners

There is nothing nicer than receiving a gift relating to one's passion. If your loved one's passion is gardening, then show your thoughtfulness by giving a gift that will be truly appreciated.

There are so many great gardening gifts that the only constraint is your own budget.

If your budget is small...
Go for things like gloves, kneepads or even a shady hat. A pretty pot (or a watering-can) filled with a small bag of potting mix, a packet of bulbs, some gloves and a small trowel or other tool will be received with delight by most gardeners. There are many hand tools at hardware stores that are reasonably priced. And you can even find most of these things online on sites like Amazon.com at a great price. (On a personal note, several years ago my best friend gave me a pair of rubber gardening shoes. A small gift, but I can tell you I have worn them hundreds of times, and they are now an essential part of my gardening attire!)


But if you feel that is too ordinary, how about a subscription to a gardening magazine? A tiny bit more expensive perhaps, but it will give twelve full months of delight. A book on gardening is another idea, but make sure your recipient does not already have the one you choose. Books are often heavily discounted at Christmas time, so you may get a bargain. There is a huge range of gardening books and magazines on just about every facet of gardening you can imagine. (For some suggestions see below, or visit http://www.newholisticliving.com/sustainablegardening.html and scroll down for some great gift ideas.)

On the other hand, a pot that contains a flowering plant is usually a welcomed gift. Be sure to choose a plant that is suited to your climate. Sometimes plants are sent from tropical to temperate zones and kept in artificial conditions in the store. These plants will not do well once taken from their environment. Shrub roses are hardy and attractive and grow in many climates. Tulips do best in a cooler climate.


If you have some room in your budget...
A more expensive tool may be appropriate. A pull-trolley is easier to use than a wheelbarrow and, like some electric tools, is still not terribly expensive. Small electric tools such as whipper-snippers can retail for as little as $20.00. Or if your friend has a hose but not a hose reel, then that would be a very useful gift that he would truly appreciate.

Automatic lawn mowers, electric cultivators, hedge trimmers and brush cutters are in the more expensive price range and you are the only one who can decide whether that is an appropriate gift. However, when the recipient realizes you have given a gift that complements his passion, expensive or not, it will certainly be a gift they will remember!

(For see below for a couple of suggestions, or visit http://www.newholisticliving.com/sustainablegardening.html and scroll down for a number of great gift ideas for the gardener in your life.)


A Few Good Organic Gardening Books & Magazines:
   

Container Gardening Tips for Newbies

Well, we're getting into winter now in many areas of the country, so many of us gardening addicts are turning to our winter pastimes, such as container gardening! Check out this article for some great tips on starting a lovely container garden to sustain your green thumb through the winter.

Image via WikipediaWe won't be posting on Thursday, as most of our readers will be busy spending time with their families, but be sure to check back on Saturday for some great gift ideas for gardeners, just in time for shopping season!

Container gardens can create a natural sanctuary in a busy city street, along rooftops or on balconies. You can easily accentuate the welcoming look of a deck or patio with colorful pots of annuals, or fill your window boxes with beautiful shrub roses or any number of small perennials. Whether you arrange your pots in a group for a massed effect or highlight a smaller space with a single specimen, you'll be delighted with this simple way to create a garden.

Container gardening enables you to easily vary your color scheme, and as each plant finishes flowering, it can be replaced with another. Whether you choose to harmonize or contrast your colors, make sure there is variety in the height of each plant. Think also of the shape and texture of the leaves. Tall strap-like leaves will give a good vertical background to low-growing, wide-leaved plants. Choose plants with a long flowering season, or have others of a different type ready to replace them as they finish blooming.

Experiment with creative containers. You might have an old porcelain bowl or copper urn you can use, or perhaps you'd rather make something really modern with timber or tiles.  If you decide to buy your containers ready-made, terracotta pots look wonderful, but tend to absorb water. You don't want your plants to dry out, so paint the interior of these pots with a special sealer available from hardware stores.

Image by LollyKnit via FlickrCheaper plastic pots can also be painted on the outside with water-based paints for good effect.  When purchasing pots, don't forget to buy matching saucers to catch the drips. This will save cement floors getting stained, or timber floors rotting.

Always use a good quality potting mix in your containers. This will ensure the best performance possible from your plants.

If you have steps leading up to your front door, an attractive pot plant on each one will delight your visitors. Indoors, pots of plants or flowers help to create a cozy and welcoming atmosphere.

Decide ahead of time where you want your pots to be positioned, then buy plants that suit the situation. There is no point buying sun lovers for a shady position, for they will not do well. Some plants also have really large roots, so they are best kept for the open garden.

If you have plenty of space at your front door, a group of potted plants off to one side will be more visually appealing than two similar plants placed each side. Unless they are spectacular, they will look rather boring.
Group the pots in odd numbers rather than even, and vary the height and type. To tie the group together, add large rocks that are similar in appearance and just slightly different in size. Three or five pots of the same type and color, but in different sizes also looks affective.

With a creative mind and some determination, you will soon have a container garden that will be the envy of friends and strangers alike!

Have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Getting the Most Out of Your Compost

After a couple of months taking care of your compost pile, turning over the pile every now and then, warding off insects and pests, and keeping the pile damp, it is only natural to want to get the most out of your compost. And this means using the compost wisely and effectively.

Image by Chiot's Run via FlickrYou will know the right time to harvest the compost when you no longer recognize the original materials that you used to make the pile. The finished compost should look more soil-like or humus-like. It is dark, loose and smells earthy. When you harvest the compost from your pile, if it seems too damp to spread well it would be best to spread it out a little first and expose it to the air. This will further dry the compost and will make it easier to use.

If you find some bigger chunks still not fully decomposed, throw them back to the next compost pile you’re going to make. One way to get the not fully decomposed material is to use a screen or wire mesh large enough to let the compost through but small enough to screen the remaining big chunks. (Or you can just rake them out, or pick them out by hand if there aren't that many.)

As you probably know by know, compost has a lot of benefits for gardeners. For starters, compost helps improve the overall soil structure. This means the density and porosity of the soil is improved, allowing plants’ roots to grab ahold of the soil better. Deeper penetration of roots means the soil also becomes more resistant to erosion and runoff. Likewise, adding compost to the soil allows better water retention.

Aside from the soil structure, the macro and micronutrients in compost contains provide plants with the needed minerals and nutrients to grow large and healthy. The soil holds in the nutrients better when compost is added to the soil. Not to mention, compost improves and stabilizes the soil’s acidity levels as well. These are but a few reasons why compost should be used by gardeners.

Let’s go back to your newly harvested compost. After removing the pieces that did not fully decompose and after curing the finished compost, the next steps would be using what you have been brewing these past few months.

Among the most common usages of compost is as soil amendment. This simply means you add the compost to your soil and to replenish the nutrients and other essential minerals for your plants to absorb. You can also spread the compost over the soil before the planting season.

Image via WikipediaAnother usage of compost is as potting mix. Mix the compost with sand and soil and voila! You’ll have a great quality potting mix which you can use for your plants. A mix of 1 part sand, 2 parts compost, and 1 to 2 parts soil seems to be the general agreement for using compost as potting mix.

You can also use your compost as mulch (also called "top-dressing" when used in this way). Mulch is a protective layer spread over the soil to help counter the effects of the climate. You might need an ample supply of compost if you use it as mulch though. To use it as mulch, you need two to six inches of compost covering the soil surfaces around plants, trees, shrubs, and exposed slopes. As mulch, the compost will help lessen weed growth, prevent erosion, attract earthworms, and help retain water.

Getting the most out of your compost is important. You worked hard creating your compost and now is the time to reap the benefits!

Video - Hot Composting Step-By-Step

Here is a video with step-by-step instructions for making a hot compost. If you don't have a lot of space, you can use a series of compost bins or tumblers as shown - these are smaller but easier to turn and don't take up as much room - in fact, you could easily fit several of these on a small patio. (Some examples of composting tumblers are shown below the video.)  (Note: If video does not appear below, click the link to view.)

How To Hot Compost
Hot Compost. Composting is nature's way of recycling and hot composting is a method of accelerating the process by regularly digging through, or turning, the decaying matter.


Composting Bins & Tumblers:
   

Cold or Hot Composting?

The heat that is generated from the active breaking down of organic matter into compost is known as hot composting.  There is also cold composting, it doesn’t take as much of a commitment from you to upkeep or manage but it does take quite a bit longer to yield results.

Image via WikipediaHot (or active) composting uses microbes to breakdown the matter.  Some experts will recommend you inoculate the compost with live organisms purchased from a gardening supply store in order to get the process started.  While others will recommend adding in healthy top soil as it also contains live organisms that will convert your organic matter into compost material.  Either way, once the process is started your compost pile will generate heat.  You should tend or check on your pile every second day to ensure good air circulation is maintained and that the right level of moisture is kept.

If you do not have the desire or time to maintain a regular compost bin, starting a cold compost (or slow compost) may suit you better.  In a cold compost, you are only using your yard waste and grass clippings instead of a combination of Image via Wikipediaoutdoor material with your kitchen scraps.  All that is required of you is to pile your leaves and grass clippings into a pile and wait.  The process is slow and long – it will not yield usable compost for up to one year.  Be careful not to put in any weeds or other undesirable plants, as there is no heat they will survive the composting process and can grow again when you use the finished material.

If you generate quite a bit of yard waste and it is too much to include in your regular compost bin consider using both methods - you will have some compost that is ready sooner, and some building that you can use next year.

Video - The 30-Minute Herb Garden

Patti The Garden Girl's videos are always fun, fast and entertaining, and we love that she focuses on sustainable gardening, even in an urban setting. This video shows you how you can create a delicious and useful herb garden in a jiffy, using a very nifty and super-easy gardening system, designed right here in Ohio!

Check it out and see how easy it can be to have a great and growing herb garden in literally just a few minutes.

30 Minute Herb Garden
This is a promotional video with Patti Moreno the Garden Girl for Garden Soxx Organic Growing System. The no excuses method of gardening will help you have a delicious herb garden in under 30 minutes. Watch the video and visit www.gardensoxx.com for more information.

Some Tips for Successful Herb Gardening

Herbs have been around since time immemorial and served different kinds of purposes. They have been used to treat illness and flavor dishes of every kind and cuisine; during some periods in history in some cultures they were even believed to have magical powers.  They are generally also pretty easy to grow, so they are a favorite of new gardeners and experienced green thumbs alike!

Cover of Herbs (RD Home Handbooks)Here are a few ideas on how to establish a successful herb garden.

Plan Your Garden

Consider the herbs you want to plant.  Think about their types.  Would you like annuals, biennials or perennials? 

How much space will they occupy in your garden?  If you want, you can purchase an herb gardening book that can give you the right information on what specific plants you are planning to grow. 

List or draw your garden on paper first.  Separate the annuals from the perennials so when the time comes that you have to pull out the annuals, you won't be disturbing the perennials.  Perennials can be planted on the edge of your garden so when it is time to till your garden they won't be in danger of getting dug up. 

Another thing to remember is that you should plant the tall ones at the back and the shorter ones in front.  Also, provide your plants with enough space to grow. Proper positioning will help you in this area.

If you would rather keep herbs out of your garden (and some are quite invasive) you could have herb pots. These are large containers with three or more outlets for the herbs. Fill the pot up to the first outlet and plant it before continuing on with the filling and planting process. Usually, the herb that requires the most water is planted in the bottom hole, while the variety that requires the least, goes in the highest hole.

Image by cosmic_spanner via FlickrSome Design Ideas

You may consider having a square herb bed.  You can have your square bed divided into four by two paths crossing at mid point measuring 3 feet.  You can border it with stone or brick.  A wooden ladder may also do the trick.  You can lay it down on your garden and plant your herbs between its rungs.  You can also choose to have a wagon wheel bed.  Planting here is like planting with the wooden ladders.  Plant your herbs in between the wagon wheel's wedges. 

Get Your Plants Growing

Of course, different plants have different needs, but many of them require alkaline soil.  This is the reason why you have to determine the herbs you want to plant in the planning stage.  This can more or less help you find out how you should care for your plants.  If you germinate your herbs from seeds, remember to follow the directions on the packet for soil, watering and temperature during germination.

Herbs are some of the easiest plants to grow. You just have to provide them with an effective drainage, sunlight, enough humidity or moisture and fertile soil.  Even with just minimally meeting these requirements in most cases they will be bound produce a good harvest. 

A Few Good Herb Gardening Books to Check Out:
   

More About Butterfly Gardening

When creating a butterfly garden, the possibilities of what to include in your butterfly garden design are endless. Below are some suggestions to help get you started. They are designed to spark the creative process of your mind and get you started on your way to creating a lovely butterfly garden.

Cover of Creating a Butterfly GardenBefore you even begin your butterfly garden, find out which species of butterflies are in your area. Consider taking an exploratory hike around your location with a butterfly identification book. This may take a little extra time and effort, but the results will be worth it. After you have compiled your list of local butterfly species, be sure to write down in your butterfly garden plan what these particular species of butterflies use for nectar and food plants. (And check out the cool resource shown here for more help creating your butterfly garden.)

Be sure that your garden is in a location that provides at least six hours of sunlight per day. Butterflies are cold-blooded creatures and therefore do better where they are warm and sheltered.

Wind can be a butterfly's worst enemy so be sure to have plenty of wind protection in your design. You can plant tall shrubs and other plants in order to create a wind break, but a location that avoids heavy winds is even better.

Image via WikipediaThe best of all would be a butterfly garden placed on the sunny side of your home with windbreaks on both the west and east sides, or wherever the prevailing winds come from in your area. Try and locate your garden close to a window so you can view the butterflies from indoors. Provide seating outside too.

If possible, you could excavate an area and build a stone wall around it. This would create the ideal windbreak for your butterflies. Make gravel pathways around your garden to save walking in mud.

There are many creative ways for constructing a butterfly garden. Take your time to design a garden that you will enjoy and be proud of.

Should You Try Rose Gardening?

Ask anyone who has a green thumb about rose gardening, and you may need a tape recorder to remember all the advice you'll get!  Almost anyone who has an interest in gardening flowers and plants will eventually mosey into rose territory.  It's almost irresistible because of the beauty and scent of one of the most popular plants on earth.

Cover of Rose GardeningA rose is like no other plant.  Rose gardening then will certainly open up grounds for controversy among fellow gardeners.  It's a subject like that of rearing children.  To the rose gardening crowd, their plants often become like their own children.  They must be fed and nourished and guided properly to bloom and flourish into their majestic beauty.

Gardeners have even been known to talk to their plants to coax them into perfect health. (I admit I've done this a time or two!)

Rose gardening is sure to involve getting your hands dirty.  If you want to truly enjoy the experience, you must dig in with gusto and heartily embrace your adventure.  Well, there are gloves, you know; but the earth welcomes the hands-on experience.  Some say it is quite gratifying to become like one with the soil.

There is surely an art to rose gardening.  The experience can be as simple or as scientific as you so choose.  You may want to stock up on things like mulch, a shovel, a hoe, weed-killer, a watering can or hose, and maybe some organic fertilizer or "food" for your rose plants.  Not to mention band-aids if your plants have thorns!  You're certain to get pricked at some point if you have the type of rose plant that produces thorns.  But it's all part of the true rose gardening experience.

Roses have been known to contract diseases, so you want to know your plants well to be able to recognize unhealthy changes in their leaves, color, overall health.  Some varieties are particularly susceptible to such and must be monitored.

Image by Carlos del Vaca via FlickrCertainly some research is recommended should you choose to begin rose gardening.  It would be advisable to research your particular type of rose plant.  The adorable miniature roses may need different care than another type of rose plant.  Also, a rose that grows well in one area of the globe may struggle in another.

Unsure where to start?  The internet has vast amounts of information for rose gardening.  There are gardening clubs in many areas.  You can search your local library or favored book store for the proper books or magazines.  Maybe it would be a good way to meet that neighbor you never knew how to approach.  There are also many elderly gardeners who would enjoy mentoring the right student in rose gardening.

Remember, when you choose your rose plant, you may want to share the beautiful blossoms with someone special, or many someones.  A child's teacher, some lonely person in a nursing home or hospital, someone who is unable to enjoy the rose gardening experience firsthand, a favored relative or friend.  So make sure you choose carefully and choose enough to share!  A rose just isn't meant to enjoy alone.

Improving Your Garden by Adding a Fountain

A great way to spice up your garden is to add a water feature. These can be both soothing and aesthetically appealing. Many find that there’s nothing more relaxing than sitting on a bench next to a garden and listening to a fountain while you read a good book or do some studying. Putting in a water feature is fairly easy and relatively inexpensive, and will add immensely to the pleasantness of your garden. Also, the maintenance level is minimal.

Image via WikipediaUsually, people install fountains for the benefit of the natural ambiance it provides. For some reason, being around a gorgeous scene of water gives you a positive energy. This is also good if you practice Tai Chi or some form of yoga or meditation. The constant drone of the water is exactly what most people need to concentrate on what they are doing. Even if you're not into that kind of stuff, just being in a garden with a fountain has a sort of meditative quality to it, whether you are actually trying to meditate or not.

When you first decide to put in a fountain, you need to put great care into picking out one that will go well with the rest of your garden. If you have any other decorations, you want to consider if it goes well with your motif. Does the fountain you're considering stand out in your garden like a sore thumb, or does it look like it was meant to be there? If you don't have a landscaper's eye, you may wish to consult a friend who does - they can be very helpful in this.

Another issue you might run into is supplying your fountain with power. This may especially be a problem if your garden isn't that close to your house. A solution that can work for this is to use an extension cord meant for being buried. All it will take is a few hours of digging a small trench to place the cord in, and you will have power to your fountain without an unsightly cord running across the yard. (Another option is to buy one of the newer solar-powered fountains, and then you won't have to mess with a cord at all.)

So if you're looking for a way to make your garden a more classy and beautiful place to be, you may want to consider installing a fountain. The whole process is surprisingly inexpensive, and I think that you will be very happy with the results. Having a fountain in your garden is not only soothing, but it also adds a lot of character to an otherwise bland garden. Remember, gardens are not just for giving us vegetables! A garden is a place to go when you want to retreat from the outside world and dwell in your own thoughts with no disturbances.