Gardening Top Info

Gourmet food is expensively delicious not only for its quality ingredients and taste, but also for its aesthetics. Aesthetics in food are making a big comeback in today’s restaurants, and for good reason. An experience involving one sense unwittingly involves more than one. So while we eat, we may think that taste is all that our brain is processing, but it’s a much richer experience than that. The smell and the sight of the food are major points in the eating experience. One of the most natural and most appealing ways to brighten up and beautify a dish is the simple addition of an edible flower! There are many varieties which are edible, and add a subtle flavor into your dish. Cooking with flowers, though, is a cautious process, as you must be completely sure that what you are serving is neither poisonous nor chemically treated. Once you have chosen your flowers safely, the options available for cooking are very wide. While I don’t recommend you start viewing bouquets as scrumptious s...

I’ve never laid carpet, tiles or lino but there is one floor I do know how to lay and that is the carpeting for the outdoor room. I speak of course of the most popular garden ground-cover the lawn. Prepare before you sow The best time to sow grass seed is between early April and early September, however you must firstly carry out some preparation. Ideally sometime between March and August you must “burn off” any unwanted growth. Achieve this by spraying all weedy soil areas on a dry day with a herbicide containing the active ingredient Glyphosate. Apply according to the manufacturers instructions and heed safety warnings. Grading the site A minimum of 1 month must elapse before you start to grade or level the site, this will allow the spray to reach the roots of weeds such as docks and dandelions. Ensure nothing but light rainfall occurs when you are carrying out soil movement and grading whether it be by hand or machine. This will prevent creating a pan in the soil (a layer of smeared...

Bonsai, as a Japanese art form, is more regulated than it’s Chinese counterpart, the penjing. Bonsai attempts to achieve the ideal tree, while penjing attempts to reproduce nature. This is why perfect styling exists in bonsai if you obey the ‘rules’, while penjing leave you free to your creation. As a result these are the basic styles : Broom (Hokidachi or Hoki-zukuri) A very harmonious style, this form has branches that develop at a certain height, forming an upside broom. This styling is mainly achieved through a technique called the “V” cut. The trunk is chopped where you want the branch to start to develop and then a deep V cut is performed on the remaining trunk. This will induce buds to break near the cut. Zelkova serrata are notorious for this styling but maple and other deciduous species can easily be styled that way. Formal Upright (Chokkan) A tree styled the “chokkan” way has a straight trunk tapering graciously from bottom to top. The first and biggest branch is often situat...

There are an extremely large number of rose varieties available at this time, most of these varieties are suitable to raise in your home garden. With so many different types to choose from deciding which roses to grow can seem more like a difficult task than a part of the fun of growing roses. By keeping just a few important factors in mind you can simplify this task and put the fun back into selecting your roses. Color How will a particular color of rose look in your garden, be sure to look at other peoples gardens and in magazines to see how different color arrangements work together. For some people the color of the roses will not be a very important consideration for others it will be one of the most important. Either way you will need to be sure that the color will complement the other colors in your garden and not clash with what you already have in place. Size Size will also be an important factor, how will the roses look in your garden once they have grown to their full height....

Have you ever heard of using tile in your garden? Here are some ideas of how to "recylce" your used and broken tile. The edging of a garden is almost as important as the garden itself. It's like a picture frame. The picture can be interesting and beautiful, but it needs a frame to really enhance its appearance. There are many different types of garden edgings. Many people prefer to use something heavy and permanent, like a low brick wall, or rocks set together with mortar. However, not everyone is physically capable of creating such a structure. Bricks set freely can be just as effective. They can be placed in a simple line, end to end, or stacked in a double row, with gaps in between. They can also be set diagonally, leaning against each other for support. Another attractive idea is to decorate short lengths of board with old tiles. Tiles can often be purchased very cheaply from re-cycling places. Glue your choice of tile along the board using an outdoor glue. On each en...

Community reading gardens are taking root across America. Here are some helpful hints for creating a reading garden in your backyard. Essentials include a clear area, a bench or hammock, shade and light and flowers and plants for inspiration and beauty. Think of color, shape, contrast and scent. Start by clearing out debris, sticks, stones and weeds. A vibrant lawn sets the stage. For mowing larger areas, a zero-turn rider, like the Troy-Bilt RZT 50, reduces time and effort. You can go forward, backward and cut around landscaping and trees. A lawn tractor can help quickly mow and mulch and haul materials. A string trimmer trims under and around bushes, trees and fences. Tillers create rich, workable soil by cutting into it and turning under vegetation and compost. Consider whether you want to spend more time reading or gardening, and choose high- or low- maintenance flowers and plants. For privacy and quiet, try a hedge or screen of ivy. A border of flowers, plants, stones or shrubs ca...

When the subject of gardens and landscaping is brought to a conversation, the first things that pop into people’s minds are trees, shrubs, flowers. Rarely do people take notice of something very significant and crucial for the beauty of most landscapes – grasses. Humans step on them, children play on them, dogs roll over them, but most of the time people ignore these prominent figures of gardens and parks. Imagine how a landscape would be without grasses – it would be dull, dry, boring if not downright ugly. Without grasses, a scenery would usually not be complete. Grasses are very useful not only for their aesthetic qualities but for some practical purposes as well. Grasses are very flexible as they can grow in almost any quality of soil more than other kinds of plants. Grasses do not need so much for them to thrive, just water is enough for most grasses to grow and make any landscape green. While many people have the notion that grasses are boring, their wide variety makes them inter...

Have you ever walked by someone's front garden and thought - what were they thinking? The mixture and variety of plants seems to make no sense and are placed haphazardly all over the place. Although you most definitely need to choose a variety of plant types and colors for your own garden layout, how do you know when you've gone too far? How do you keep your garden design focused, yet interesting at the same time?  Create a Theme Before you even place a plant in the ground you should decide on a theme. Take a good look at your home style and your planting terrain, while also keeping in mind the climate in your area. A tropical theme may be something you greatly desire, but if you live in a very dry, arid climate, that's going to be a tough garden to maintain. Choose a Color Scheme Once you decide on a general theme for your garden, you should think about color preferences. Although there is no hard and fast rule as to mixing plant colors, you will certainly want to avoid pl...

As we drove by the plush residential homes, some recently covered with a fresh coating of paint and with the variously landscaped yards displaying their beautiful spired shrubs, flowering gardens and well watered green lawns, it could not be helped but to notice the evenly placed lawn bags filled to the brim with yard waste, just waiting to be carried away by the scheduled garbage pickup. So much labor must have gone into neatly and carefully packing each one of them so they wouldn't be torn open by a stiff twig or two. Each fall and spring a similar scene is reenacted by most of us who seasonally do our traditional yard cleanup. Having been a fairly devout organic gardener in the 1980's and traditionally would save every bit of waste clippings from our yard that would then go into a 4x4 foot by 4 feet high loosely constructed wooden bin for later processing and churning into a fine mulch, it was difficult to see virtually truckloads of "Organic Gold Plant Food" just ...

When most think of flowers the image that comes to mind is that of a rose. A rose can be used to express any kind of emotion. It can indicate love or it can denote sadness. It can bring a peace of mind or it can excite the receiver. Little wonder that most of us want to buy a rose. And it is easily understandable as to why many of us would want to see roses blooming in our gardens. People like all the different varieties of roses. Yet as is the case with most things there are some roses that are more popular than the others. The image of rose that comes to the mind of most people is that of a hybrid tea rose. A hybrid tea rose usually has a large bloom at the end of a cane. The blooms of hybrid teas come in almost all colors except blue and black. It is the hybrid teas that are sold the most at florists shop. Examples of this type of rose are Double Delight and Mr. Lincoln. Another popular variety of roses is the Floribundas. These were earlier called hybrid polyanthas. These usually ...

There are two kinds of winter gardening. The first method usually starts in January as the gardening catalogs begin to arrive in the mail. This type of gardening is as easy as sitting in your favorite chair, browsing the catalogs, and either dreaming about what you're going to do this spring, or actually drawing designs for the gardens you intend to work on. The second type of winter gardening is to actually get out in the yard and do a little work. Of course if it's bitter cold, you'd be better off waiting for a good day. Winter is a good time to do some pruning if the temperatures are around 30 degrees or so. I don't recommend pruning if it's considerably below freezing because the wood is brittle and will shatter when you make a cut. One of the advantages of pruning during the winter is that you can see much better what needs to be cut out and what should stay. At least that's true with deciduous plants. The other advantage is that the plants are dormant, and...

When you choose what brand of oceanic plants you wish to have, summon up that the plants should only cloak about half of the water. Plants can be free floating, submerged, or marginal. Which you decide is all a matter of personal preferment. Some plants are good for their scent, pretty provide other oxygen than others and will last the pool health, and quite are exactly beautiful. Fish are not only nice to look at but they are also absolutely favoring. Fish help keep debris at a littlest and help in controlling larva and other insects.  Maintaining a flower garden is even painless than planting one. Still they can make it on their own, a bag of fertilizer applied in the early spring is a good idea. Drop behind any blooms after they embark to blench and keep them good and watered. To save yourself work throughout the after season of flower gardening, rid your garden of all junk and diverge out organic nutrients like peat slough or compost. Don’t forget to turn over the soil to p...