If your garden lacks life and the plants seem to be wilting, your plants are probably dehydrated and need a little extra care. It is fairly easy to spot dryness in plants and there are some obvious and some not-so-obvious reasons for dehydration in plants. However, with proper knowledge and care, a dehydrated plant can be cured.
Tags: dehydrated plant · dehydration · dry plants · dryness in plants · Watering1 Comment
Drought prone regions often call for smarter garden watering practices as water is an extremely precious commodity. In fact, authorities in some places will even impose water restrictions thereby limiting water usage of households. If you live in a drought prone region, you have probably already mastered the art of gardening with water restrictions in place. But even if you do not have to really worry about water restrictions, it is a good idea to be an environmentally conscious gardener and conserve water anyway.
Believe it or not, gardens account for about 25% of water usage in a household and a lot of this is due to unnecessary wastage that can be avoided if you are conscientious. To optimize your usage of water, some of these garden watering restriction tips might be worth considering.
Tags: conserve water · drought · Drought Resistant Plants · garden watering · saving water · water restriction3 Comments
Rosemary is a typical perennial herb and the plant has very distinct evergreen leaves looking like slender needles. The evergreen plant has a pleasant fragrance. Rosemary herb belongs to the ‘large mint’ or ‘lamiaceae’ family of plant kingdom. There are several other herbs belonging to the same family but rosemary herb is one of the characteristic varieties.
In addition to being grown as an herb the rosemary plant is also grown as a hedging plant. Rosemary bush is also very common among gardeners. Hot dry climate is normally most favourable climatic conditions for the rosemary plant grow healthily. As far as the type of soil is concerned the rosemary plants need well drained and alkaline soils.
Rosemary Varieties
There are several rosemary varieties that can be easily grown in the gardens. Some of the more popular ones and generally proffered rosemary varieties across the world include following; [Read more →]
Tags: growing rosemary · Herb gardening · How to grow rosemary · Rosemary · rosemary bush · rosemary herb · rosemary oil · rosemary plant · rosemary plant care · rosemary varietiesNo Comments.
Greenhouse gardening is a scientific method of growing plants and you can build your own greenhouse in your garden. If the space permits and your garden plan can accommodate you should have a small greenhouse or a mini greenhouse in your own your garden. It is a great idea indeed. A small greenhouse in your own garden will help you in many ways. In case you do not have enough space and money to invest for a full scale greenhouse you may not worry anymore. You can easily build your own greenhouse that could be a small greenhouse or a mini greenhouse for your newly planted greenhouse seeds.
Mini Greenhouses Best for Greenhouse Seeds
Such types of mini greenhouses serve multiple gardening purposes. A mini greenhouse in your own garden will allow seedlings to grow healthily. Everything starts with sowing seeds in appropriate containers. There are specific trays and saucer-type containers that can be used for this purpose. Vegetable seeds can be comfortably sown in these trays. Greenhouse seeds have been found growing better and healthily subsequently. [Read more →]
Tags: Build your own greenhouse · Building a greenhouse · economic recession · Germination · Greenhouse · Greenhouse Gardening · Greenhouse kit · Greenhouse kits · Greenhouse materials · Greenhouse plastic · Greenhouse seeds · Greenhouse supplies · Greenhouse supply · Growing plants in a greenhouse · How to build a cheap greenhouse · How to build a greenhouse · How to make a greenhouse · Indoor greenhouse · Mini greenhouses · Portable greenhouse · Small greenhouse · Vegetable GardeningNo Comments.
Gardening is not just about growing plants in gardens but it is a greater responsibility in itself for maintaining biodiversity while protecting environment and helping eco-system. As responsible gardeners ,we all are equally concerned over the increasing loss of the biodiversity across the world.
Scientists have been successful in identifying reasons for loss of biodiversity the world over. A group of researchers at the University of Zurich has concluded that excessive fertilization is the root cause of reducing of the biodiversity.
When extra nutrients are added to the soil in the form of fertilizers, the overall rate of growth of plants tends to increase very fast. As a result the habitat gets overpopulated. This in turn results in to blocking of proper sunshine to the smaller species and thereby disturbing the biodiversity balance of the nature. The areas that are affected by this over-fertilization syndrome get depleted in the number and varieties of plant species very rapidly. [Read more →]
Tags: Biodiversity · Eco-system · Environment · Excess Fertilization · Fertilizers · gardening · NutritionNo Comments.
Researchers have been successful in mapping a draft version of the date palm genome disclosing several intricate genetic issues. This research has revealed extremely useful information about date palm. Newly discovered date palm genome pattern will ultimately help in increasing overall fruit yield. Researchers also believe that the unlocked secrets will help in understanding the susceptibility and resistance to plant specific diseases. It will also improve the quality of the date palm in long run.
The DNA of the date palm for this research was collected from the leaves of the date palm plant provided by the Qatar Plant Tissue Culture Lab. For entire Middle East, almost all parts of the Northern Africa, and Pakistan the date palm is quite important. It is one of the major agricultural sources of nutritious fruits in these areas of the world. Date palm fruits are exported throughout the worldwide and people enjoy its taste and understand its nutritious values. [Read more →]
Tags: Date Palm · Date Palm Plant · DNA · Genetics · Genome · Growing Date PalmNo Comments.
Perlite plays an important role as far as the gardening is concerned. Outdoor gardening is largely dependent on the good quality soil mix and perlite mixed with soil makes up an ideal combination. Perlite mixed with soil is generally considered as an essential ingredient for all types of houseplants. Use of perlite as a growing media helps in solving several problems that gardeners normally come across.
Horticultural perlite is a sterile matter and it is by and large free of any weeds and diseases. This characteristic of perlite makes it appropriate for home gardening. Every gardener therefore should understand all the facts about perlite and how perlite can be used effectively for all gardening purposes. 
What is Perlite
Perlite is a typical mineral which is volcanic in nature. It is part of the lava that comes out off the volcano and therefore has a very typical thermal expansion perlite property. It can expand even up to 13 times of its normal grain size and original volume if subjected to a temperature as high as 1600 degrees. At this high temperature the magma mineral particles start popping out just like popcorns. As a result of this thermal process a new material comes in to formation which is granular, snow white, and is extremely lightweight. [Read more →]
Tags: gardening · patio plants · Perlite · perlite insulation · perlite loose-fill insulation · what is perlite4 Comments
Entire world is passing through a phase of global economic recession and effects are clearly visible now. It seems that everyone has withdrawn himself in to its own shell and hunker down is the best policy in such tough times. Saving money is the new mantra of this age and expending spree has just passed out. Gardeners across the world can easily understand the importance of what they have been doing through all these years.
Hunker down in gardening terms can be best understood as a proven method to survive safely. You grow what you can and save money. It is as simple as that. Your garden could be a place where you start planting vegetables, herbs, and everything else that you would have purchased from the markets otherwise.
Start Hunkering Down with a Good Plan
Hunkering down with your garden needs a good planning at first. You must make out a list of plants, vegetables, and herbs that can be easily grown in your own garden. While doing this you must calculate how much money you will save ultimately. In nutshell it is simply working out the economics and cost effectiveness of the likely produce. A good budget planning would certainly help you a lot in saving substantially. [Read more →]
Tags: Financial Crisis · gardening · Global Economic Recession · Grow Vegetables · Growing Fruits · Growing Herbs · Hunker Down · Vegetable Gardening1 Comment
Gardening involves learning and practicing several techniques and methods. There are techniques being practiced over past many years and there are several innovations that help gardens improve significantly. Quite often conventional gardening techniques like coppicing and pollarding prove to be extremely advantageous whenever and wherever applied in good sense.
Coppicing and Pollarding: Understanding Basics
When a plant is cut back close to the ground level it results in producing young and vigorous stems. This process is called “Coppicing”. If the same method of cutting the plant is applied further up the trunk, it will be known as “Pollarding”.
Coppicing and pollarding are not new concepts in the gardening and agriculture. They are being used since long time now and even the early people in almost every part of the world used to pollard and store the branches to feed the stock through winters. Winters in many parts of the world are tough times and not much grazing is available. [Read more →]
Tags: Coppicing · gardening · gardening Methods · Gardening Techniques · Ornamental Plants · PollardingNo Comments.
Mellissa Trujillo from the Associated Press (AP) says, “These gardeners would have green thumbs-if they had thumbs”. Mellissa reported in the “US news and World report” that undergraduate students of a class at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have successfully “created a set of robots that can water, harvest and pollinate cherry tomato plants”.
The robot developed by these students costs just$3,000 and is small in size. This “robot gardener” moves around the garden on a base that is quite similar to the “Roomba Vacuum”. It works on the pre-defined networked plant indicators. When a plant indicates that it requires watering the robot catches up the signal and its water pump starts sprinkling on the plant. As soon as the cherry tomatoes get ripe the robot comes to know about right timings and uses its arms to pluck the ripe fruits. [Read more →]
Tags: cherry tomatoes · Garden · gardening · Massachusetts Institute of Technology · MIT · ROBOT Gardener · Robotics · Robots · sensorsNo Comments.
My name is Bill Stanley and I have been a home gardener for over 20 years. I enjoy sharing my gardening tips with friends and family, as well as the rest of the world!