Pest Control Tips That Are Safe

In years gone by pest control really had nothing to do with safety. I believe that is how I lost my best friend Shadow, after just 7 years with us. That's why we believe so strongly in pest control safety. I'm talking abut safety in terms of the plants, animals and humans.

When it comes to our vegetable garden we pay extra attention. Who want to have anything harmful on our veggies when there are other methods for getting rid of those garden pests.

Growing an organic garden would no longer be organic if we start using poisons for pest control. The whole purpose of organic gardening is to get away from harmful chemicals.

Going Organic And Stay Organic May Mean Getting Your Hands Dirty

1. Use the physical pest control process.

This may be accomplished through picking grubs off by hand, creating barriers and traps and plugging holes. Snails can be found hiding in damp places under rocks and towrds the base of those plants with straplike foliage.

2. Apply biological pest control.

Encourage predatory insects such as green lacewings and dragonflies to feed on aphids and other pests that attack your plants. You can do this by placing a shallow bowl of water in the garden. Dragonflies especially will hover around water. Bacterial insecticides such as B. thuringiensis could also be used against caterpillars.

3. Only as a last resort should we turn to chemical pest control.

Organic pest control methods can be successful and the ingredients for many of the recipes can be found in the kitchen cupboards. If chemical sprays are really necessary, try and find the least-toxic. These include insecticidal soaps, horticultural oils, dehydrating dusts, etc.

4. Consider the use of safer pest control substitutes.

Recipes for alternative pest control include the following:

Against Green Aphids and Mites - Mix 1 tablespoon of liquid soap and a cup of vegetable oil. Dilute a teaspoon of this solution in a cup of water and spray on aphids and mites.

Against Cockroaches - Dusts of boric acid can be applied to cracks or entry points of these insects. Bay leaves on pantry shelves could also help in warding off these critters.

Make sure that the chemicals you use are made specifically for the insects you are targeting.

Setting up my indoor greenhouse so I won't be a month late like I was last year. I ended up paying a lot more for veggies all ready started.

Butterfly Gardening To Get Those Beautiful Creature To Visit Us

What is butterfly gardening? 

Butterfly gardening is the art or act of growing flowers and plants that will attract these colorful and dainty creatures to your garden. Delight your family and visitors with beautiful butterflies, but be sure to create a safe habitat for them. If you own cats rethink your plans, because it would be a shame to attract these lovely insects to their death.

The design your butterfly garden is a matter of personal preference. Typical points to consider are the size of your garden and the types of flowers and plants you want to grow. Pick a style of garden that appeals to you, but ensure it also contains the plants and flowers that appeal to the butterflies you wish to attract.

It is important to find out which plants and flowers will attract the species of butterflies. that live in your area. This information can be found at the local library.

To create the kind of environment that they find attractive, you will also need water of some kind. A birdbath will look attractive and keep the butterflies up off the ground, away from stray cats or mischievous puppies. A shallow dish on a post or hung in a tree will do just as well.

When planting your butterfly garden be careful how you coordinate the colors you choose for your flowerbeds. Although butterflies do not care about your choice of color, you don't want your garden to be a hodgepodge of unrelated colors and textures. Butterflies are attracted to those flowers that have nectar rather than pollen, like honeysuckle, milkweed, summer lilac, Valerian, daisies, Purple Coneflower, Yellow Sage, day lilies and lavender.

Some people find it helpful to draw and color a layout of their butterfly gardening plan to see what the finished product would look like. Keep in mind that warm colors like red and orange are flashy and showy. These colors have a greater impact against a strong green background. Cool colors such as blue and purple are soothing and toned down and would work better with a white contrast to create the look of freshness and brightness.

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An Introduction To Garden Herbs

There are a huge variety of herbs in the world, and each one is unique in its own way. If you are interested in a specific type of herb, you should research that one to understand the care it needs and how to use it properly. This article will hopefully help you begin to to understand the different types of herbs, and what they are used for.

From a growing perspective, there are of 3 categories of herb plant - Annuals, Biennial and Perennial:

• Annuals – common examples are basil, and cilantro - these will not survive the winter frost. Each year they must be planted from seed, or from a small plant you have kept indoors from the summer growth.

• Biennials - herbs form leaves in their first growing season, and flower and seed in the second season; then they die. Biennial herbs – such as parsley, angelica, or caraway - are best be sown in late spring, not in seed trays but directly into the garden. Prepare the soil first by working it to a fine texture and dampen the soil slightly. Plant the seeds in shallow rows, then firm up the soil on top of them. Fine seeds can be planted in a mixture of sand, which will allow them to spread more evenly. You can also cover the herb bed with wet burlap or paper in order to keep the soil moist during germination.

• Perennials – such as sage or winter savory - can and do survive the cold temperatures, and with proper attention, they will grow year after year.

Herbs can also be grouped into the categories for which they are used:

• Culinary herbs are probably the most useful to herb gardeners. They have a wide range of different uses in cooking. Because of their strong flavors, herbs like chives, thyme, basil, sage, savory, and marjoram are generally used in small quantities to add flavor to different types of food. Parsley is an extremely popular herb that is used mostly as a garnish. Some herbs act as natural sweeteners - examples are stevia, licorice, and the aztec sweet herb.

• Aromatic herbs have pleasant smelling flowers or foliage. Oils from aromatic herbs like mint, thyme and rosemary can be used to make different types of perfumes, toilet water, or other various scents. Parts of aromatic herb plants used intact can also be used in the home to scent linens or clothing. They can also be dried and made into potpourri which will enable them to be able to retain their aroma for a long period of time. Lavender and lemon verbena are great herbs to use for potpourri.

• Some herbs are also used for medicinal purposes. For centuries herbs have been used for medicinal purposes, especially in the East. Current medical knowledge recognizes that some herbs are beneficial to one’s health, while others are overrated. Herbs used for medicinal purposes should be used carefully. Some herbs are harmless but others can be dangerous if eaten. Herbs have many important uses - to relieve stress, ease pain, or to boost the immune system, and even to cure insomnia - herb Robert, and lemon balm I have found that Aloe vera is great to have around the house (usually potted) for any accidental burns and cuts (more healing than anything you will find in your local drugstore).

A final category are herbs that are used mainly as decoration, because they grow beautiful brightly colored flowers and foliage:

• Many have whitish flowering, some have various light colored flowers - like valerian - which has crimson blossoms, and borage and chicory, which grow gorgeous blue flowers

Not all herbs fit neatly into one of the above categories, and indeed some serve more than one of these categories. An example is mint, which can be used for cooking, tea, and pest control – but make sure you limit the boundarie of its growth, or it will become a pest itself growing wild across your garden!
If you would like more information on herbs, do drop by my how to grow herbs website, where I continually update articles and tips on gardening at home.
Whatever the interest that you may have in herbs, by understanding the facets of herb garden plants you are able to pick the herbs that will be most useful to you, and you can grow healthy, fresh produce at home.. Bon Voyage.

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The way to Grow Plants Organically

So, you'd like big, showy plants which will grow together to make a fabulous display inside your yard. There are two ways of achieving this. 1st is to give food to your plants with one of the proprietry chemical feeds which promote a miracle growth having plants ten times larger than standard and a lot of big blooms. This may probably do the job- for the short - run. However, after a moderately short time, the plant will have expended all its energy and perish. Not the best display possible! It will also be hard to grow other plants there without additional treatments of chemical feed. A pricey plan to get addicted to, and time consuming. What's more, if you spill the feed onto the foilage of your plant, it looks horrible.

The second technique would be to feed the land as opposed to the plant. It is neither as easy or as quick to give results, but, it will be undoubtedly healthier for the environment and in the long run provide you with superior, more robust plants. This applies to vegetables and fruits along with flowers.

Most plant life, regardless of whether decorative or cullinary, trees, shrubs or plants want the same simple needs for growing. Good fertile soil, water and light. The amount of light and also the types of nutritional requirements change from plant to plant but the fundamentals are broadly identical. We also need tiny insects to polinate blooms to create fruit and vegetables. So in order to create optimum conditions and create wonderful plants we must know very well what the plant demands and provide it.

1st test your growing areas. Employ a meter to test if it is alkaline or acid. This influences what kind of plants you'll be able to develop. There isn't any point in trying to grow plants such as azaleas in soil that is alkaline, and although is is realively not difficult to provide lime to soil to deminish its acidity, is much harder to remove it. Work with your earth not against it. If you really must grow a plant not suited to your soil, grow it in a pot, although ensure you feed and water it frequently.

Examine the fertility of your soil. There are kits which will show you the balance of the nutrients in your earth. Then look at it. Will it get water logged at anytime you have heavy rainfall, or is it very well drained. And finally, look at your yard during the day. When is it usually sunny, when is it mostly shaded and where is it at all times in shelter. Different plants prefer differant quantities of sun. Once you have got the answers to each of questions, it is possible to develop your plants to their whole potential with very little outlay.

Before you plant, thoroughly prepare the soil. Dig it over to aerate it and do away with any weeds and add fertiliser, whether in the form of compost or slow release proprietry fertiliser like blood, fish and bonemeal, or growmore. Then finally put your plants in. Look very carefully at your plants and select them to suit the position. Theres no point in placing flowers which require full sunshine adjacent to a wall which will shade them. Equally there's little gain in putting shade loving plants in full sunlight, they will just burn and perish. The whole purpose of looking after your backyard is to obtain a really good display.

If you feed your soil as opposed to your plants, you are going to grow more robust, healthier plants that will create large blooms over a long time period without any intervention on your part. They will be more able to resist deseases and fight off attacks by predators including aphids and when they are perennials, are better able to survive their dormant time and return the following year looking healthy and prepared to offer you additional pleasure, for almost no additional cost or work. And remember, to get really good results you should always start off with reliable seeds and plants.

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Use Rain Barrels For Collecting Rain Water For Your Garden

I have never been able to understand why people would be watering their lawn and garden all day while they are at work, what a waste of a precious substance. It's obvious that they either just don't give a crap or they are cluesless about conservation.

As a kid growing up on a farm we had a well and there was strict rules about how to use water and NOT waste it. The well didn't always have water in it and if my parents didn't plan for the future by building a reservoir to collect rain water we would have been in big trouble.

Today I live in a city and have to rely on the city to supply water to our taps but we still don't waste water.

We also have flower gardens and a vegetable garden that is forever growing in size and it needs watering when we aren't getting much rain. We could just grab the garden hose and soak everything and put a lot of water where it's not actually needed but we don't.

Instead of wasting the cities water supply on our yard we collect rain water and use that when we have it.

This coming season we plan to double or triple the size of our vegetable garden and we want a lot more flowers and shrubs so we will need to get a couple more rain barrels to collect rain water.

Note: If you find a useful barrel for collecting rain be sure that you add a mess screen over the top. It's important to have mess so that bugs like mosquitoes don't get in the water to lay eggs.

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Growing Strawberries in Our Garden

I think the only people that don't like strawberries are those with allergies to them and maybe two other people in the whole world. Does it sound like I like strawberries or what.

I started growing strawberries with just one strawberry plant. I put it into a small container and in about a week it had outgrown the container, so I put it into a container that was more than foot across and a foot and half deep but it still out grew that container so I put it into one of our raised flower beds and let it go.

We were told to pinch off any new strawberries to give the plant time to get strong and healthy. Well I don't think we needed to do that because this plant was healthy and kept on growing. Before the summer was over it had grown to cover a 3 foot by 6 foot section of that flower bed and in the second year it filled it so that we now have no flowers in there. But we sure had lots of strawberries this year.

Once the strawberry plant started producing this year we are covering it with a mess to keep the birds out of it. They got the best of us at the end of the season last year but we didn't mind at that point as we had eaten more strawberries than ever before.

I don't mind sharing what we have with the birds if they didn't waste so much but they would stick their beaks right through the berry and then leave it at that, what a waste of a perfectly good strawberry. The mess netting will help keep that from happening and likely double our yeld.

This year we plant to run an extra garden for strawberries and rhubard but we will put a boder around it and raise it a bit so we can control runners that might take over the rest of the garden.

We also want to try a couple of new things, like strawberry planters and The Topsy Turvy. The planters both look great in their own way but one will hang and the other will be put in a spot that makes it shine. We have an old tree stump with bird houses on it. I may just use that stump to raise the planter above the ground.

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Planning My Garden Ahead This Year

I thought, after a few years of winging it, that I would plan my gardening experience for the 2010 gardening season. I'm even going to keep a journal, so that I can remember the things to do next time and the things NOT to do.

I also thought it would be good to share what I am doing so that other that are as unorganized as I am can benefit and maybe even start planning your own garden.

Finding new friends online that have the same hobbies, like gardening, is easy these days and I learn a lot from reading their blogs and Twitterings, but I also like to be able to go sit in a quite spot and read a good gardening magazine.

Starting Plants From Seed

We live in New Brunswick, Canada so we have winters. The last couple of years I started things late and had to buy most of what I wanted to plant already started, so I spent way more than I needed to. This year we are building a little nursery in the basement, on the work bench I never use.