(Via Home and Family: Gardening Articles from EzineArticles.com)

Posted by admin to Uncategorized on 2008-01-09, 11:58:06

Due to the steady rise in heating and cooling costs over the past decade, homeowners are taking advantage of every money saving idea that comes there way. One of the most popular methods in recent years is landscaping for energy efficiency. Shade trees that block the sun and lower air conditioning bills and privacy screens that double as wind barriers for the cold winter months have become staples in the attempt to save energy and funds through landscape.

(Via Home and Family: Gardening Articles from EzineArticles.com)

Posted by admin to Uncategorized on 2008-01-09, 11:57:38

Now that the holidays have passed and 2008 has arrived, it's time to start thinking about your springtime landscape and gardening plans! In fact, with New Year's resolutions on everybody's mind, it may be a great idea to come up with a list of gardening resolutions to make this year's landscaping experience an enjoyable and productive one. You know, a list of all those things you've wanted to do with your yard and garden over the years but just never seem to accomplish.

(Via Home and Family: Gardening Articles from EzineArticles.com)

Posted by admin to Uncategorized on 2008-01-09, 11:57:02

While homeowners all across the country drop thousands of dollars on landscaping each year, few take into account just what their yard will look like in the cold winter months. Plants tend to die back and trees go dormant, creating a dismal landscape that one must contend with all winter long. This can be avoided however, if during your initial landscaping plans you choose to include and put emphasis on shrubs and perennials that will provide visual interest in the wintertime.

(Via Snappy's Gardens Blog)

Posted by admin to black gold, compost, dogwood on 2008-01-09, 11:19:00

I have been off today. It was a day of cleaning up the Alley that runs behind the garden.The neighbours two doors away had decimated the hedge but left the shredded branches and leaves along the path (except for their own bit if alley).
I collected the woody bits and big stemmed branches and moved them into the sanctuary behind the Wall. This strip is a buffer zone between the building site and the alley way alongside the houses.
Birds fly around and sing in the enclosed sanctuary, as the fencing keeps all people out.
I swept up leaves and rotting leaves from previous falls, and added them to my black compost bin. It needs mixing up tomorrow with my garden waste from the renovation, then watering and left.
It is Gardening alchemy to turn rubbish into new black compost, black gold. It will be used to raise up the right hand border, keep moisture in, and add lots of nutrients for the Vegetables, Rose bushes, and Herbs I want to grow there.
Fran brought me the fabulous Red Dogwood pictured above before I put it into the ground, between two Carex grasses and a Rose bush. The left hand border is slowly filling with plants.
The first spring bulbs have begun to appear from the soil. Cat noticed all of them as I could not see them. I look that often I begin not to see whats there!
Added tonight to the left hand border were four stainless steel solar lights. It has a white ghostly glow now in the darkness.
The Alpine Strawberries have started to germinate in the pots, ready to grow on a bit before being transplanted into individual pots. I put in ten pots the ten match sticks covered in seeds.I wander how many will actually germinate. They are destined if they survive to grow along the edge of the left border. To grow over the stone slabs that hold the soil in the raised bed.
I will photograph the left border tomorrow in good light. I planted the Dogwood in the fading light. The birds were not as active today. I saw my robin, a blackbird, two unknown brown birds,a coal tit, and a lot of blue tits. I hung a new bell shaped seed feeder on the fruit canes and they were landing on it within five minutes.
The peanuts near the house were mouldy (no more from Wilkos now) so thats why they were not touched. Another gift from the Birds came on monday. A bird bath with two little birds peeking over the edge.
There is now a variety of food sources, on the bird table, on the fence, and on the ground for the new ground feeding birds I saw today. There are three bowls of water, one was half empty today.A bird has been bathing, singing loudly, and splashing half of the water out.I hope to see the birds using the en suite garden facilities soon!
I love the bright colour of the Dogwood stems, I heard it needs cutting back in April to three or four buds length to keep it young and growing the fine red stems. Cornus have a variety of flowers and fruits, as well as bright Autumn leaves before the Red stems are revealed.
In the Winter garden colours are needed to have something to look at whilst Spring bulbs develop under the topsoil.
A few more photos to follow to illustrate this post :)

(Via Home and Family: Gardening Articles from EzineArticles.com)

Posted by admin to Uncategorized on 2008-01-09, 09:31:50

The fresh bamboo shoots can be canned and preserved it in brine for export. In its nutritional aspect, crude fat, crude fiber content and carbohydrates of bamboo shoot are low and that makes it an ideal vegetable for people wanting to reduce weight.

(Via An Iowa Garden)

Posted by admin to Uncategorized on 2008-01-09, 09:11:00

Disporum sessile (sometimes called Japanese or Chinese fairy bells) is a species that I've just been growing for a couple of years, but it is rapidly becoming a favorite. It is native from mainland east Asia to Japan, and is a rhizomatous spreader. The regular species grows up to two foot tall, but there are numerous named clones selected for their foliage and habit, and most of these clones are smaller in stature, with D. sessile 'Tightwad' at top (a variety from Plant Delights Nursery), being only six inches or so tall. I much prefer these smaller varieties, and there are a number of these types with variegated foliage, like D. sessile 'Sunray' shown below. There are some yellow foliaged forms that I lust over, but in order to obtain one of them for the garden, their price is going to need to decline rather rapidly (or the cats are going to have to start earning their keep). Disporum sessile has creamy, greenish-white, hanging bells for flowers, and one of the reasons I like the shorter clones is that the flowers (being the same size in all the varieties I've seen) are therefore proportionately larger for the plant.
These plants are spreaders, and while said to be refined little plants, some of them are a little... vigorous. 'Tightwad' in particular seems to have ambitions out of proportion to its stature; I think it may be multiplying by seeding as well as by rhizomatous spreading. Fortunately for it, it is just so darn cute that I'm cutting it some slack... but I have my eye on it.

(Via The Blogging Nurseryman - The Art of Running a Small Garden Center or Nursery)

Posted by admin to California, nurseryman on 2008-01-09, 08:52:45

We’re back from our vacation to southern California and the coast. We headed down to Riverside to visit my daughter and granddaughter. While there we stayed at The Mission Inn which is a National Historic Building that is a must see if your ever in that area. It is a cross between a hotel, mission, and castle. Covering a whole city block Monica and I spent two days exploring. It is truly a magical place.

From Riverside we drove up the coast to Santa Barbara for a couple of days. After that it was up Hwy. 1 through Big Sur and to Monterey. Then up to San Francisco and home. We had a great time and feel refreshed, which is what vacation is for, right?

Just wanted to let you know where we have been. I will post more once I find out where I left my eclectic toothbrush holder, (I meant electric but it was a bit of an eclectic toothbrush, too), (Santa Barbara likely) and my camera cord used for downloading pictures, (lost somewhere after Santa Barbara and before Monterey). They do call that “The Lost Coast”, now I know why.

(Via Home and Family: Gardening Articles from EzineArticles.com)

Posted by admin to Uncategorized on 2008-01-09, 08:24:18

The potato is one of the most versatile vegetables you can put on your plate. You can mash them, dice them, and slice them. Did you know you can even grow them?

(Via Home and Family: Gardening Articles from EzineArticles.com)

Posted by admin to Uncategorized on 2008-01-09, 06:43:07

Think you have to rely on pesticides or chemicals to rid your lawn of troublesome pests? Think again - nature has an entire arsenal of organic, environmentally friendly weapons you can call on to get the most from your garden without harming the planet.

(Via Aaron’s Home and Garden)

Posted by admin to books on 2008-01-09, 05:57:36

Decorative Concrete is a colorful home improvement manualfor those looking to do it themselves, both indoors and outdoors, with all kinds of aesthetic additions where imagination is the limit and desire is the key to success.

Before the dark-ages, more than two thousand years ago, the Roman Empire had already perfected the use of limestone and clay to keep their city-state safe from invaders and they already knew the secrets we use preciously today.

Let the ancient décor of lost Keptchu civilizations, Egyptian, Greek, Persian or perhaps even Mayan or Aztec delight the surroundings of your home in a meditation that takes you into a world of inspiration, through concrete.

Design ideas, instructions to address all sorts of solutions, from fireplaces surrounds, garden art, garden planters, pathways, floors, stepping-stones, counters, sinks, tabletops, columns, pyramids, spheres, cubes or whatever the imagination is capable of creating, this book is filled to the brim with emphasis on extravagance.

Finishing techniques such as, surface designs, paint treatments, polishing, sculpting, carving and texturing with mosaics and insets; you can tell stories in elaborate decoration that rival even the vast empire of Rome itself, all it takes is focus and intent on your inner most desires, and let them loose, in a permanentform.

With sixteen different projects to get you started, fully comprehensive step-by-step how-to photos, these easy to follow directions make each new piece of artwork an adventure in and of itself, taking you just that much closer to your own paradise at home.

This 192-page paperback, written by Jeanne Huber, is now in the second edition as of July 2007, published by Sunset Books, with 385 colorful photos, more than a 100 images and 50 pages more than the first edition, measuring 10.50 x 8.1 x 0.5 and shipping at 1.3 lbs.

Decorative Concrete is a DIY book for those looking to transform their home into a special meditation, filled with vast expanses of human art work in concrete, it is open to anyone willing to study the masters; this is self-reliance, taking concrete artwork onto a whole other level, one that transcends even thousands of years, permanently, in the vast expanses of your own home.

Tags: Decorative Concrete