Bacteria, protozoa, fungi – while the wrong kind can make you sick, what a lot of people don’t realize is that not having enough of the right kind can make your plants very unhappy.
Soil isn’t just made up of dirt. It’s a blend of organic and inorganic materials and living organisms that provide your garden with the nutrients it needs. Most plants can’t just use the components in fertilizers straight from the ground. For the bulk of trees, flowers and vegetables, microbes and other friendly helpers in the dirt are needed to convert the vitamins, minerals and even water into a usable form. Without those little critters, plants do poorly.
So what does this mean for your garden? Have you ever tilled the garden until you got the dirt to be nice and loose? Then you dumped in some fertilizer and planted, only you didn’t get the amazing results you’d hoped for? What you don’t realize is, that by tilling heavily, you may have actually disturbed/destroyed what good bacteria, microbes, and other living organisms and soil structure those plants actually needed to thrive. Read the rest of this entry »
Depending on where you live, this is now the perfect time to plant your cool weather vegetables: lettuce, kale, broccoli, arugula, chard, mustard, carrots, radishes, cauliflower, peas, potatoes, spinach, cabbage, (even Brussels sprouts if you’re inclined.) There’s nothing like having fresh veggies all winter long…
If you live in a place where it doesn’t freeze at night, a regular garden patch will do just fine. However, if you live in a colder climate, then you may want to consider using raised beds and covers to keep your plants warm enough. Read the rest of this entry »
Squashes are a great way to help boost your body’s energy levels, plus they can aid you in your fight to keep your blood sugar even, and they can even fight wrinkles from the inside out. According to an article in FOR WOMEN FIRST, here are some squashes you should try out to get these benefits: Read the rest of this entry »
Are fleas the bane of your and your pets’ existence? Don’t have pets and yet you still have fleas in your home and don’t know why?
The little buggers are notorious for being hard to kill. One reason is that they don’t just live on cats and dogs. Their eggs can also be found in your yard and in fields, just waiting to be dragged into the house on your shoes or pant legs and into your carpets, waiting for warm weather (and a warm body to go by) to hatch and start feeding. (And don’t forget your car – you may have picked up some from the house or yard and gotten some in there, only to bring them back into the house after they’ve hatched to start the whole thing over again!) Read the rest of this entry »
Do you have trouble figuring out where you should put your plants? Do you put them in the garden and just hope for the best, which, if you’re like me, is practically a death sentence for each poor plant?
While surfing Amazon.com , I came across this nifty little gadget that looks like it was created with just me in mind: THE EASYBLOOM. Check it out:
How It Works
1. Set It
Plug the EasyBloom Plant Sensor into a USB port–you will be brought to your My EasyBloom Dashboard page. Put the sensor into Recommend or Monitor mode.
2. Place Sensor
Place the sensor in a spot where you would like to grow a plant, or adjacent to the plant that needs monitoring. Let the EasyBloom Plant Sensor gather a ‘plant’s eye’ view of that location.
Every year, I can’t wait for the end of June, beginning of July, as that’s when our sweet cherry tree goes to town.
When we moved into our house, it was the dead of winter, with snow on the ground, and not a tree in sight had leaves, so we had no idea what kind of fruiting or flowering we could look forward to come spring.
Imagine our surprise the first summer to see that we had a sweet cherry tree! (My absolute favorite fruit! Give me a bing cherry or 300, and I’m a happy – and bloated – puppy. I also adore blueberries, raspberries, Thompson green grapes and raw English snap peas, but if I could only have one, it would be the cherries hands-down.)
And given the prices of cherries these days, up to $8 or $9 a lb., having my very own tree is heaven!
Well, it’s one where you try to make everything involved as "green" as possible. (And I don’t mean the color, unless of course it’s your favorite to begin with.) An eco-wedding is one that does everything in as environmentally friendly a way as possible. That can include everything from the flowers to the invitations to the ring to the dress and more.
Say you decide an eco-wedding is for you. Where do you start and how do you keep it from costing a fortune? Well, here are just a few ideas of things you can try:
Location Nowadays, garden weddings are becoming more and more popular. This doesn’t mean that it has to be YOUR garden, though. Try to have your wedding in a garden or outdoor location that’s centrally located to all who attend. That way they can save on travel time and fuel, saving your friends and family money and putting less stress on the environment. And if the locale already has an existing recyling/compost center nearby, that’s a bigger plus for when it’s time to tear down… Read the rest of this entry »
I don’t know about you, but I love Japanese gardens, both the rock garden style and the more lush traditional type. The simplicity and tranquility of Japanese gardens help me still my mind after a busy day. With just a few simple items and plants, strategically placed, you can have an area of beauty and restfullness and it doesn’t take a lot of space to achieve it.
Japanese rock gardens (karesansui) can go on a desk, in a small space in a corner of a yard, or can be created to take advantage of a large lot. It’s up to you how much space you want to devote to yours. They vary anywhere from very austere (rocks and sand only) to ones with a few plants added in. The traditional Japanese garden adds water features, decorations and many more plants. Whichever type you choose is only limited by your imagination (and budget). Read the rest of this entry »
Now that’s one way to combine two things I need to do: get both me and my garden in shape!
This book focuses on keeping the gardener fit and flexible, which can only help improve our garden. I mean, how great do your plants grow when your back is too out of whack to bend over to get those pesky weeds out of their way?
The GET FIT THROUGH GARDENING book gives you all sorts of great exercises you can do while working on your garden, whether it’s a small kitchen garden or a whole acre or more. Even if you just cut the grass regularly, you can pick up some great tips on making sure your knees, neck and back don’t suffer any more than they have to to have a great garden or landscape.
Bacteria, protozoa, fungi – while the wrong kind can make you sick, what a lot of people don’t realize is that not having enough of the right kind can make your plants very unhappy. .jpg)
, I came across this nifty little gadget that looks like it was created with just me in mind: THE EASYBLOOM. Check it out:
So, what IS an eco-wedding you ask?
Japanese rock gardens (.jpg)
Now that the weather is warming up again, our friendly neighborhood bees are starting to wander by our yards, helping to pollinate our plants. 
