Gardening Question of the Day for Saturday, April 5, 2008
(Via Gardening Question of the Day (from the Old Farmer's Almanac))
How can I grow American bittersweet? Can it be started from seed, or does it need to be started as a plant? (answer).![]()
How can I grow American bittersweet? Can it be started from seed, or does it need to be started as a plant? (answer).
From The Old Farmer's Almanac.
Start a beautiful flower garden for less than $5
(Via Gardening Tips 'n' Ideas)
Hey, while we're at it, why don't we start a flower garden for half that? Yep...it can be done for less than $2.50. Even better, I'm sure it can be done for less than a miserly buck. Heck, you can start anything without a heap of cash behind you but unfortunately the dollars do hold the key to how far you can get.
Hey, while we're at it, why don't we start a flower garden for half that? Yep...it can be done for less than $2.50. Even better, I'm sure it can be done for less than a miserly buck. Heck, you can start anything without a heap of cash behind you but unfortunately the dollars do hold the key to how far you can get.
After reading this article I realised that money was not the pivotal requirement for starting a garden. I mean, I knew that already, I just hadn't considered the outworking of it. Then I began contemplating whether, in fact, it could be done for absolutely zilch dollars? Well could it?
The answer to the title comes from the article already mentioned. Obviously, if you can start a flower garden for $10 you can start one for $5 - just by sharing the costs (and the seeds) with another person. If $5 is too much, then find two other people and split the costs and seeds 4 ways. You get the concept.
So, taking this to another level of gardening for zilch cost, one only has to be just as frugal and willing to think outside of the 'box' to get started.
Obtaining plants for your flower garden
- Annual Flowers: - once your neighbours' flowers have finished blooming ask whether you can deadhead their plants for them and collect seeds while you're at it.
- Bulbs: - some gardeners only grow bulbs for one season and then discard them. Find these gardeners and hang around them towards the end of spring and early summer.
- Divisible Plants: - agapanthus, clivias, sansevieria, irises can often take over gardens. Offer the gardener to divide these for the princely payment of keeping some of the divided clumps.
What about soil for your frugal garden?
Obviously you compost - because that's free. This awesome natural resource can be used for multiple garden requirements.
- Seed-raising and potting mix
- Soil Improver (or Ammendments, as you like to call them north of the equator)
- Mulch
- Liquid fertiliser
You name it, compost will become your best friend when starting a frugal garden.
Tools?
If you don't have a rich aunt who loves to endow you with gardening goodies every time she feels benevolent then start finding other alternatives for forcing your garden into submission. I wrote a post a while back which gave some helpful tips on where you could source some cheap garden tools.
With these three elements in hand you should have no problem starting your flower garden for 'next to nicks'. C'mon...stop using lack of funds as an excuse.
Garden Candles - Light Up Your Garden With Outdoor Candles
(Via Home and Family: Gardening Articles from EzineArticles.com)
Imagine a warm summer evening, a glass of wine, a meal on the way, even maybe a barbeque. Now comes the decision, eat indoors or if you are lucky enough to have a patio, outside on the patio table. The trouble is the light is fading, what you need is outdoor lighting. But what?
Imagine a warm summer evening, a glass of wine, a meal on the way, even maybe a barbeque. Now comes the decision, eat indoors or if you are lucky enough to have a patio, outside on the patio table. The trouble is the light is fading, what you need is outdoor lighting. But what?
How to Build Hydroponics
(Via Home and Family: Gardening Articles from EzineArticles.com)
Perhaps the most important consideration when pondering how to build hydroponics systems is to have a clear plan in mind for the end result. Don't just throw a system together and expect to grow something.
Perhaps the most important consideration when pondering how to build hydroponics systems is to have a clear plan in mind for the end result. Don't just throw a system together and expect to grow something.
Fun With Growing Tomatoes In Containers
(Via Home and Family: Gardening Articles from EzineArticles.com)
If you don't have the space or patience to do outside gardening but would love to have home grown tomatoes, here's some good news. You can raise tomatoes in containers right in your own home.
If you don't have the space or patience to do outside gardening but would love to have home grown tomatoes, here's some good news. You can raise tomatoes in containers right in your own home.
Jack Pine Bonsai
(Via Home and Family: Gardening Articles from EzineArticles.com)
When cultivating your Jack Pine bonsai, either from seed or from an established plant, try to recreate the tree's natural environment as much as possible for the best results. You'll be stifling its natural growth process so it's more important than ever to provide the very best growing environment for it.
When cultivating your Jack Pine bonsai, either from seed or from an established plant, try to recreate the tree's natural environment as much as possible for the best results. You'll be stifling its natural growth process so it's more important than ever to provide the very best growing environment for it.
Starting Your Sweet Peas
(Via Home and Family: Gardening Articles from EzineArticles.com)
No ladies and gentlemen this particular article is not referring to Olive Oyls baby Sweet Pea but rather the ever popular flowering annual found in many home gardens. In this quick article I would like to explain to you how to effortlessly propagate these beautiful flowers to compliment your other colorful plants and garden flowers. First we must keep in mind that Sweet Peas commonly grow best when they are sowed directly into your garden area.
No ladies and gentlemen this particular article is not referring to Olive Oyls baby Sweet Pea but rather the ever popular flowering annual found in many home gardens. In this quick article I would like to explain to you how to effortlessly propagate these beautiful flowers to compliment your other colorful plants and garden flowers. First we must keep in mind that Sweet Peas commonly grow best when they are sowed directly into your garden area.
Carbon Capture
(Via EnjoyGardening)
first published March 27, 2008
At one time, the only thing ‘carbon credit’ meant to me was that I was the one who took the blame for burning the bacon. Fortunately, times have changed, and today, most of us associate carbon credits with offsetting the burning of fossil fuel by doing something that contributes to the sequestering of atmospheric carbon. And as many gardeners know, just planting a garden inches us one step closer to emerging on the plus side of the carbon credit equation.
So how does gardening figure into the whole carbon credit issue? Well, the ‘plant a tree; save the planet’ principle, although simplistic, has a fair bit of merit. A tree is about 45 per cent carbon (based on dry weight). Therefore, a 100 kilogram tree contains about 45 kilograms of carbon that’s not floating around in our atmosphere as carbon dioxide or other carbon compounds. Trees draw in carbon dioxide from the air that we breath and, with the aid of the sun’s energy, convert the carbon dioxide into a myriad of compounds—everything from wood to sugars. The bigger the tree, the more carbon that’s tied up or sequestered in its tissues. Of course, if you ever decided to cut down your tree and have a campfire, a lot of that sequestered carbon would become free again while you roasted your hot dogs and marshmallows.
Trees aren’t the only plants that pull carbon dioxide from the air; all plants (with the exception of a very few) need carbon dioxide to grow. But if you take a plant such as a marigold and compare it to a tree, the carbon sequestration equation becomes a little more complex. Annual plants, just like trees, absorb carbon dioxide during the growing season. But unlike trees that hold carbon in their roots, trunk and branches for years, the marigold dies and begins to decompose after the first fall frost. As soil microbes decompose the dead marigold, a good portion of the sequestered carbon is released back into the air as carbon dioxide. Nevertheless, a significant amount of carbon still remains trapped in the soil as organic matter because in cooler climates like ours, decomposition takes a longer time, thus allowing organic matter to build up.
The basic principle to keep in mind is when it comes to keeping carbon out of the air we breathe, sowing or transplanting any plant is always better than not planting at all.
The other side of the carbon credit/gardening issue is not just the trapping of carbon in your yard; it’s the offsetting of food transportation. Since a lot of our food travels an average of 2000 km getting to our tables, it takes a fair bit of truck fuel to keep us well fed.
Considering that a simple three metre by three metre potato patch could provide all the calories necessary to keep an average adult fairly full for a couple of weeks, planting a vegetable garden is an old idea that’s on the verge of making a comeback. At one time, a lot of people ‘had to’ grow a garden to feed the family. Today, the ‘want to’ gardeners of edible crops are making a conscientious, environmental choice to grow more of what they eat. Transporting food a few metres rather than a few thousand kilometres just makes sense.
So is gardening the solution to all of our atmospheric carbon issues? Hardly. But it is one small but very positive step that anyone with a bit of outdoor space can take. If you, like many others, are feeling guilty that you aren’t doing your part to keep carbon out of the air, a poplar, a potato and a shovel are as good a place as any to start.
