Archive for the ‘Gardening’ Category
How To Grow A Cottage Garden
- Author: admin
- Filed under: Gardening
Oct 24,2010
Kathy Wilson asked:
Cottage gardens are traditionally thought of as English gardens, lushly planted with colorful jumbles of flowers and shrubs, and grown in areas with mild winters and cool summers. Unfortunately, most places in the U.S. outside of the Pacific Northwest do not have the proper climate for an English garden.
Luckily, American cottage gardens are just as beautiful and better adapted to our climate. Still based on the lovely informal array of flowers and shrubs, they are perfectly suited to most informal suburban homes or country lots without the need for a huge English manor garden space that few of us have.
American cottage gardening encompasses using more drought tolerant and native plants, plants that are hardier for cold winter climates, and plants that tolerate and even thrive on the sunshine. The style tends to look natural and free flowing without any plan or design, however does indeed usually have a backbone plan to bring out the best in plant color combinations and textures that compliment each other. That being said, cottage gardens are also places where self seeded plants may be allowed to pop up as they will, and the garden is always a surprise from one season to the next! Flowers, shrubs, vegetables and herbs may share the same beds, and roses abound! Vines soften fences and walls, and furniture and decor is simple and comfortable.
Some easy to grow, drought and heat resistant plants perfect for the American cottage garden include yarrow, valerian, Russian sage, coneflower, coreopsis, scabiosa, joe pye weed, daffodils, sunflower, butterfly bush and roses. Many herbs also love heat. Sage, thyme, purple basil, golden oregano and lavender all thrive in my high desert garden. Annuals can be seeded directly in the garden and many self sow for next year as well. Good cottage gardens choices include cosmos, annual sunflower, cleome, alyssum and poppies.
Cottage gardens are magical places, full of charm, whimsy and surprises, and a perfect place to let your creativity in the garden shine and grow. Don’t forget to add a meandering path, a rustic or painted arbor, and a picket fence here or there.
My own garden here at The Garden Glove is a cottage garden style, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. See photos and read articles on cottage style gardens at TheGardenGlove.com/cottage_garden.html.
If you’re looking for a laid back style, beautiful easy care flowers, and a charming feel for your home and garden, cottage style is for you.
party favors
Cottage gardens are traditionally thought of as English gardens, lushly planted with colorful jumbles of flowers and shrubs, and grown in areas with mild winters and cool summers. Unfortunately, most places in the U.S. outside of the Pacific Northwest do not have the proper climate for an English garden.
Luckily, American cottage gardens are just as beautiful and better adapted to our climate. Still based on the lovely informal array of flowers and shrubs, they are perfectly suited to most informal suburban homes or country lots without the need for a huge English manor garden space that few of us have.
American cottage gardening encompasses using more drought tolerant and native plants, plants that are hardier for cold winter climates, and plants that tolerate and even thrive on the sunshine. The style tends to look natural and free flowing without any plan or design, however does indeed usually have a backbone plan to bring out the best in plant color combinations and textures that compliment each other. That being said, cottage gardens are also places where self seeded plants may be allowed to pop up as they will, and the garden is always a surprise from one season to the next! Flowers, shrubs, vegetables and herbs may share the same beds, and roses abound! Vines soften fences and walls, and furniture and decor is simple and comfortable.
Some easy to grow, drought and heat resistant plants perfect for the American cottage garden include yarrow, valerian, Russian sage, coneflower, coreopsis, scabiosa, joe pye weed, daffodils, sunflower, butterfly bush and roses. Many herbs also love heat. Sage, thyme, purple basil, golden oregano and lavender all thrive in my high desert garden. Annuals can be seeded directly in the garden and many self sow for next year as well. Good cottage gardens choices include cosmos, annual sunflower, cleome, alyssum and poppies.
Cottage gardens are magical places, full of charm, whimsy and surprises, and a perfect place to let your creativity in the garden shine and grow. Don’t forget to add a meandering path, a rustic or painted arbor, and a picket fence here or there.
My own garden here at The Garden Glove is a cottage garden style, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. See photos and read articles on cottage style gardens at TheGardenGlove.com/cottage_garden.html.
If you’re looking for a laid back style, beautiful easy care flowers, and a charming feel for your home and garden, cottage style is for you.
party favors
The Hidden Facts of Non-Organics Vs Organics
- Author: admin
- Filed under: Gardening
Aug 27,2010
Cooper Hill asked:
Imagining your goal is to avoid ingesting pesticides, pick organic crops from the most common – pears, peaches, grapes, nectarines, apples, strawberries, bell peppers, cherries, celery, lettuce, carrots, and kale. A regular diet of the non-organic versions of these could lead you to consume up to 10 different pesticides a day.
Every plant regardless of its properties starts as a seed. Each seed starts off in a good amount of soil or fertilizer. While many people still don’t see the differences between organic and non-organic there could be high health risks involved. In several schools around California school children have been exposed to pesticides with out even ingesting the product. Imagine acres of farm land being sprayed with pesticide on a mildly windy day, as the pesticide hits the crops, not all of it is kept on the fields. Chemicals have blown through local schools causing two children to collapse in spasms at one local school in Strathmore California.
If you decide organic fertilizer isn’t for you, you might be at risk for not only health problems, but the lack of full flavor from your fruits and vegetables. 40 percent of the most common pesticides used in the U.S. are banned in several other countries. As these fertilizers enter the soil the nutrients may be absorbed in some of the plants, but the left over toxins are what stay in the dirt. Instead of ruining your ground soil, why not find some insects that eat the harmful bugs on your plants, saving your soil, and the flavorful fruits and vegetables. Non organic methods may be easier, but what are you willing to give up, health, flavor, soil?
One of organic fertilizers strengths is its abundance. Generally, this kind of fertilizer has basic natural elements that are found in the environment. The use of organic materials as fertilizers also promotes recycling by finding a new use for supposed wastes (Chicken Poop). This makes biodegradable scrap a possible nutrition supplement for plants and garden soil. They are the exact opposite of chemical fertilizers, which have to be bought from stores. In addition, organic matter, which is mostly the main component of most organic fertilizers, aid in sustaining air and water in the soil for plants’ additional source of nutrients.
party favors
Imagining your goal is to avoid ingesting pesticides, pick organic crops from the most common – pears, peaches, grapes, nectarines, apples, strawberries, bell peppers, cherries, celery, lettuce, carrots, and kale. A regular diet of the non-organic versions of these could lead you to consume up to 10 different pesticides a day.
Every plant regardless of its properties starts as a seed. Each seed starts off in a good amount of soil or fertilizer. While many people still don’t see the differences between organic and non-organic there could be high health risks involved. In several schools around California school children have been exposed to pesticides with out even ingesting the product. Imagine acres of farm land being sprayed with pesticide on a mildly windy day, as the pesticide hits the crops, not all of it is kept on the fields. Chemicals have blown through local schools causing two children to collapse in spasms at one local school in Strathmore California.
If you decide organic fertilizer isn’t for you, you might be at risk for not only health problems, but the lack of full flavor from your fruits and vegetables. 40 percent of the most common pesticides used in the U.S. are banned in several other countries. As these fertilizers enter the soil the nutrients may be absorbed in some of the plants, but the left over toxins are what stay in the dirt. Instead of ruining your ground soil, why not find some insects that eat the harmful bugs on your plants, saving your soil, and the flavorful fruits and vegetables. Non organic methods may be easier, but what are you willing to give up, health, flavor, soil?
One of organic fertilizers strengths is its abundance. Generally, this kind of fertilizer has basic natural elements that are found in the environment. The use of organic materials as fertilizers also promotes recycling by finding a new use for supposed wastes (Chicken Poop). This makes biodegradable scrap a possible nutrition supplement for plants and garden soil. They are the exact opposite of chemical fertilizers, which have to be bought from stores. In addition, organic matter, which is mostly the main component of most organic fertilizers, aid in sustaining air and water in the soil for plants’ additional source of nutrients.
party favors
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