(Via grow this)

Posted by admin to Boswell, Life of Johnson, blue hibiscus on 2008-02-29, 10:41:00

“MADAM,--I hope you will believe that my delay in answering your letter could proceed only from my unwillingness to destroy any hope that you had formed. Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords: but, like all other pleasures immoderately enjoyed, the excesses of hope must be expiated by pain; and expectations improperly indulged, must end in disappointment. If it be asked, what is the improper expectation which it is dangerous to indulge, experience will quickly answer, that it is such expectation as is dictated not by reason, but by desire; expectation raised, not by the common occurrences of life, but by the wants of the expectant; an expectation that requires the common course of things to be changed, and the general rules of action to be broken.”
Boswell's Life of Johnson by James Boswell


Years ago, I had some surgery, and afterward was rewarded with a prescription for Vicodin. I recall sitting in my bathrobe on the living room sofa and reading the lengthy package insert with all the warnings about harmful side effects. When I got to the one that said “false sense of wellbeing” I giggled with delight to think that this would be considered a harmful side effect of the narcotic. Then I got depressed to think that the wonderful floaty feeling in the absence of pain was not real, it was “false”. Thanks a lot, Major Buzzkill.

But that wasn’t as bad as the above letter that Johnson sent to some woman who had asked him to find a job for her woefully untalented son. What a crushing way to demolish somebody’s expectations. Particularly, expectations raised by desire and/or the wants of the expectant. Whether it’s drugs or unreasonable hopes that lead us to think the world is okay, Johnson is trying to explain that pain is the price we pay for hoping too much.

But Johnson obviously didn’t garden, or enjoy the expectation as Spring begins to peek around corners and things in the yard begin to awaken. Now that we’re about to turn the calendar page to March, Nature confidently assures us that it is ok to start expecting Spring.

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

Posted by admin to Uncategorized on 2008-02-29, 10:40:19

Different color combinations can set the mood in your flower garden. By using color in the garden, you can create the effect of a hot or cool environment or set the mood for excitement or relaxation.

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

Posted by admin to Uncategorized on 2008-02-29, 10:02:41

Countless people travel to the great state of California without seeing one of the most magnificent creations on earth, the redwood trees. Although having great prominence and notoriety as being located mainly in California, many people don't know that they to could own a tree like this.

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

Posted by admin to Uncategorized on 2008-02-29, 10:01:32

One of the most pleasing trees to look at has to be the cherry tree. Many benefits also come with planting a tree like this on your own property. They don't only hold beauty but offer the possibility of bearing fruit in the future. With a little effort, you could also have a tree growing in your yard to bear fruit and beautify your home's landscape.

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

Posted by admin to Uncategorized on 2008-02-29, 09:10:24

Many orchids including cattleyas, phalaenopsis (moth orchids), cymbidiums, and paphiopedilums (slipper orchids) will bloom in the spring. If your plants are setting buds, or already in bloom, keep them well watered and do not change their growing conditions drastically. You'll get nice full flowers that last for their full potential; for phalaenopsis, this could be as long as three months!

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

Posted by admin to Uncategorized on 2008-02-29, 08:32:31

It is little known today but terrariums are also called Wardian Cases and this is in tribute to the man named Nathaniel Ward who began the whole art and science of terrarium making. It started with his unexpected discovery of some plants growing in a sealed bottle.

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

Posted by admin to The Big Boys, nursery, retail on 2008-02-29, 08:03:07

Here is some good news for the people of the Atlanta area who we’re bemoaning the auction of assets of Pike Nurseries. It looks like 400 of the 700 employees will keep their jobs as the stores change hands, but stay open. Here is the part that really opened my eyes. You have heard how retail [...]

(Via Snappy's Gardens Blog)

Posted by admin to african bag garden, garden art, red spears, statues, vegetable growing on 2008-02-29, 07:54:00

The Polyanthus Blue Shades is growing lovely now, even with todays wind and rain.
I am back on nights for three so the posts will slow down untill Monday.I was very productive yesterday with Cat helping me out. I bought three large 75 litre bags of compost, two bags of Pea gravel stones, and a few more plants to go with the four from Harlow Carr. I wanted to make the African bag gardens with Cats assistance.
http://www.sendacow.org.uk/schools.asp?active_page_id=271
The Charity Send A Cow started me thinking about vegetable growing in a container (or Sack) in December. I ordered two kits and they sat waiting for the stones, soil, bottle, and nice weather to be made up.

Take one hessian sack. Line the bottom with stones for drainage. Use a two litre bottle cut at both ends to leave a hollow tube. Fill the bottle with stones in the centre of the sack in a column. Fill around the bottle with soil and cow manure..I used some of the garden compost as no cows were available.
In Lesotho where these bag gardens are used they have a plentiful supply of stones from the mountains, and cow manure.

A bag garden in construction. Each bag took one hundred litres of compost and I found after halfway they are very heavy. They were placed in situ on the pavers. I put some long canes on edges to keep the sides of the sack taut and out of the way of the soil filling. The sticks can be used as stakes to hold the bag in place.

The Snappy Gardener in Action with the Second Bag Garden. Each kit came with seeds to grow vegetables. With names like Purple Power and Rocket Fuel. The finishing touch will be to decorate them with paint and coloured material. A job for when im off from work..

The central stone column is used for watering the Bag garden plants.It runs down the middle of the Sack. I need to cut some V's into the sides of the Bag to grow plants from the side as well as on top. It is heavy too and not movable by me on my own.

After the bag gardens were done I turned my Attention to planting the new additions from Harlow Carr and Hampsons. Two Teasel, One Valerian, one Catnip, two Photinia's, one Thuja Occidentalis Rheinegold, and a Picea Glauca Conica. I moved a few of the plants about to accomodate the newcomers. The garden is in a state of change. I moved the other green bird bowl to by the corner by the Blackberry bush. There are two pools of water now for the garden birds to drink and splash about in.

After Le Tigre et Le Crocodile in Paris here is my version. Two stone statues by the Holly. I watched a video of a healing garden that did Art Therapy in California. It had a collection of Art work around the Garden. This is part one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vz3_CyZ8WkA
and the second part is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJub3-ul5lQ
I saw plenty at Harlow Carr and on this video. I realised I had the plants, and the hard structures but not the fun things like Statues, gnomes, pink lawn flamingoes, or fairys etc. It is the fun twist that puts your personality on your garden. Whatever you like, if you like it...

The Bag Gardens just need a splash of rainbow colour to brighten them up. I have seed potatoes from Marshalls sat in an egg box developing shoots ready to be planted in the two grow bags.I went halfs on Wednesday with Cats dad to buy a patio Herb Planter. A round polythene bag with eight pockets rather like the Victorian strawberry planter. Thats what mine will be used for too :)
Strawberrys and Potatoes will join the African Bag gardens on the Pavers. The Container kitchen garden is growing slowly. I ordered another two Veg planters but they have not arrived yet. I think there is a movement in the UK to grow Organic Vegetables and Fruit, and the experts mention how container gardening can be done on any sized plot.
The benefit for me is that the two borders can grow flowers and soft fruit, and the Vegetables will grow on the pavers. It will be interesting to see how it all grows. The seed packets have been organised into envelopes with coloured names of the bag gardens.

The Mystery red spear growing. I saw some plants at Hampsons that looked like this. I will leave it for a while before saying what I think it is. Blackswamp girl you have already guessed correctly.
Its Febuary 29th too, a leap year! March starts tomorrow and I imagine the growing plants will speed up. So much is going on in the small urban plot of mine that its hard to know what to blog about. I have plenty of topics to write about and photograph.
Hope you all have good weekends and that your gardens keep growing on :)

(Via Aaron’s Home and Garden)

Posted by admin to Do-It-Yourself Aquaponics, Planters on 2008-02-29, 07:37:36

BackYardAquaponics is a do-it-yourself aquaponics page with an educational discussion forum that features people who actually do aquaponics themselves and a book with CDs about how to design, build and maintain your very own system by Joel Malcolm.

As the trend on urban agriculture and gardening grows more and more in the US, other countries follow suit, along with their own independently thought up ideas and projects.

Getting this information out on the web is our responsibility, but more importantly than allowing people to see the info, is motivating them to actually take hold of the reigns and do-it-themselves, experimenting with new ideas, perhaps even making a profession out of what appears to have grown only as a hobby.

How few of our younger generation is interested in gardening, much less urban agriculture or a variety of other more sustainable ideas that take us farther and farther along the road to self-reliance and more environmentally friendly practices that meet the needs of our growing society.

Why not take this kind of a project on with your own children as a home-schooling project? It will give them a more complete vision of how Mother Nature really works with interconnectivity.

Just imagine a company, placing an aquaponic model on the roof of the factory, connected to solar panels with signs that illustrate how important all elements in a system contribute to productivity?

Aquaculture and Hydroponics need to be blended to provide a more sustainable system with less ecological footprints; and BackYardAquaponics shows us how to do it in an easy-to-grasp user-friendly manner that really inspire the passionate to make their dreams come true.

Take Damion Hinksons System for example, that appears on the Forum, this is one more example of how innovators can revolutionize our ways of thinking, by using what means he had available, in a country with freshwater challenges and access to the internet, he built his very own aquaponic system at home.

The more people investigating this area, the more it will flourish, faster and the sooner it will become as common a household word as vegetable garden.

You may not be an expert in hydroponics or maybe you are, or perhaps neither an expert in aquaponics or maybe you are; but no matter what your expertise or level of schooling, if you have the passion to dream about doing your own aquaponic system and the courage to ignore the skeptics, be free, do-it-yourself and show others what is possible with aquaponics!

Aquaponic Do-It-Yourself Videos - Build and test your own concepts as this guy shows you on YouTube.com!

Aquaponic Gardening System - Part #1

Aquaponic Gardening System- Part #2

(Via EnjoyGardening)

Posted by admin to Current Articles on 2008-02-29, 07:37:10

Is the grass really greener on the other side of the fence? Well, this year the more appropriate question to ask might be, “Is the grass greener on the other side of provincial borders?”

Why the riddle, you ask? Simple. Beginning in 2009, Manitoba’s government will limit the concentration of phosphorus (technically phosphate) in lawn fertilizers to a maximum of one per cent as a way to reduce the amount of phosphorus that makes its way from lawns and into lakes and rivers. Like all issues regarding pollution, this one is also complicated, but the main concern is that adding phosphorus to our water can lead to an explosion of algae growth. In “normal” phosphorus-starved water, algae are very low. But add extra phosphorus and that algae population skyrockets—the dire results being a wake of oxygen-starved, murky-green water and a whole lot of dead fish.

So now that you are feeling a little uneasy about applying fertilizer to your lawn, it might be a good time to explain a bit more about this mysterious plant nutrient we call phosphorus.

Phosphorus is one of only three elements (along with nitrogen and potassium) that is referred to as a major plant nutrient. Translation: all three are required by plants in fairly large quantities, which is exactly why fertilizer labels lists three hyphenated numbers, with phosphorus always occupying the middle spot on the nutrient list. The main role of this all-important nutrient is to act as the energy currency or fuel that drives plant growth. Plants that are severely deficient in phosphorus are invariably stunted and will often reflect their deficiency by displaying a purplish hue in their foliage. I have seen an entire field of corn (unfortunately, mine) that was stunted and purple for that very reason.

Getting back to lawns, the main controversy regarding phosphorus is not about whether it is essential for growing grass (that’s a no-brainer); it’s about deciding how much is needed and what type is best to use. Manitoba, for example, has many soils that are inherently high in phosphorus, so applying phosphorus to lawns is completely unnecessary.

Saskatchewan and Alberta, however, have a little bit different situations. Because many of our soils show some level of phosphorus deficiency, most of our lawns benefit from the addition of phosphorus-containing fertilizers. Having said that, I have to add that I’ve seen many soil tests from people’s lawns that showed exceptionally high phosphorus levels due to years of high-phosphorus fertilizer applications. Exactly. So what can we do to ensure we’re making good decisions? Well, start by becoming smart, responsible consumers.

A simple rule to remember when buying lawn fertilizer is to only choose those with labels that have a phosphorus number that’s in the single digits. Fertilizers such as16-20-0 (which are often sold as lawn fertilizers), contain a disproportionately high concentration of phosphorus and should never be applied to lawns. The next thing to remember is that the best way to keep phosphorus from ending up in lakes and rivers is to read instructions. Misapplication and over-application are surefire ways to spread phosphorus granules across sidewalks and driveways. Not only won’t your lawn benefit from that, the environment and your wallet won’t either. Across the international border, it’s interesting to note that Minnesota allows the use of phosphorus only for establishing new lawns—any other use requires a certified soil test to prove that the soil is phosphorus deficient.

Intelligent use of phosphorus-containing fertilizers really is the key to keeping our lawns and water bodies in good shape. Phosphorus, after all, is a good thing. But like all things in life, moderation is the key. With it, there’s no reason why we can’t have grass that’s green on both sides of the fence and water that’s blue.