Archive for September, 2008:
Attracting birds to your garden
One of the greatest joys of gardening is the pleasure you get when birds, butterflies, and other wildlife start visiting your yard. Birds and butterflies are particularly enjoyable, because they’re beautiful to watch while they’re going about their business.
If you like the idea of attracting birds to your garden, it’s easy enough to do. Just plant some trees, bushes, shrubs, and flowers which are naturally attractive to them!
Trees which produce some type of berry - even berries which are not edible by humans - are almost always guaranteed to bring birds to your yard and garden. The birds will particularly be attracted during the winter time months, because finding food that time of year is more difficult. And once you’ve started attracting birds to your garden, they’re more likely to keep coming back each year.
A crabapple tree is an excellent example of a fruit bearing tree which attracts birds. The Sugar Tyme Crabapple species will actually help to attract up to thirty different species of birds to your yard because it bears fruit throughout the fall and winter.
Dogwood trees are another wonderful choice for attracting birds. The Cornelian-cherry Dogwood produces deep red berries in late July or August, which the birds feed on through the winter.
If you don’t have room for trees in the yard though, try some bushes and flowers instead. The American Cranberrybush for example, grows red berries through the winter, which can attract up to thirty-five different types of birds. Spicebush, St. John’s Wort, Bayberry, and Sumac are examples of other bushes and shrubs which attract a wide variety of birds to the garden too.
Keep in mind that any type of tree, shrub, vine, or plant which produces fruit will attract many birds to your garden. So if you’re trying to grow fruit for yourself or your family such as grapes, strawberries, or blackberries, you might actually find yourself having to fight the birds for the fruit.
If flowers are your preference, then anything which produces nectar of some kind will help attract birds to your garden. Flowers which have a tubular shape to them are especially attractive to hummingbirds, as is the color yellow in large masses.
Honeysuckle vines are particularly attractive to both hummingbirds and bluebirds, and Roses, Sunflowers, or Butterfly weed will attract both birds and butterflies to your garden too.
Source:http://www.prettygardentips.com/attracting-birds-to-your-garden/
One Vital Aspect Of Organic Gardening Is Feeding the Soil
Here is an important aspect of organic gardening and I’m sure that you will relate to it very well. Just imagine this, you are famished, you are waiting to be fed, you also have not bathed. The thing is you have spent so much time taking care of others and working, so much so you have not had time to look after yourself.
Just think how you would feel? For a certain amount of time, you might be able to accept this. You may still carry on for a while and ask for nothing in return. But as the days pass by, you will feel the negative effect this is having on you. So much so, the effect on you would be that you will not have the energy you once had. You would grow weaker and weaker, until you could no longer carry on the way you used to
Now ask yourself, how is this related to the organic method of gardening? Well that is easy, you should compare this to the state of the soil. Soil is very important in this type and for all other types of gardening.
The soil is the base for everything. It is the bed, or the home of your plants
Depending on where you are located, the soil that you will have to work with will vary to a high degree. What you will need to do when choosing what you are going to grow, is only plant anything that is suitable to the soil you have available to you. When you have picked the right kind, then you are now on you way to the first steps of your gardening adventure using the organic method.
As said above, the soil must never be left untended. It must never go hungry. Or else, what happened in the example above will also happen to the soil. You need to constantly feed soil. You have to bathe it and you need to take care of it, just like how you would tend to yourself.
You will know from your school days that the soil needs water, sunlight and air. But if you do everything organically now. Does it make out any difference? Yes, it makes a lot of difference. Although you still have to feed your soil and the plants water, you will have to add something else. Whet you will need to add is organic waste placed in the soil.
Have you ever heard of composting? This is the process where you culminate decaying natural material like leaves, grasses, peelings of fruits or vegetables, even manure and fish heads, all these will act as you soils to act as fertilizer. This is the organic remember? You if you follow this way you cannot resort to anything synthetic.
Not only are you going to feed the soil, you also have to attend to it regularly. Mulching is like massaging the soil to keep its shape. This way, you will be able to get rid of the pests that your soil has got through the coming days or months.
By doing this it will actually help you prevent getting far bigger problems in your garden. There are many types of soil that you will find, they need different types of care and attention. As an example, clay can hold up water better than the sandy kind of soil. You will need to know these kind of details, so you will to be able to improve on your organic gardening adventure.
Having a Beautiful Garden
You’ve decided that you want a vegetable garden to lower your grocery bills. But, where do you start? There are eight essential steps to successful vegetable gardening. But you might need to check abd learn about making a garden first.
Step 1. Pick an appropriate area for your garden. When you choose your site, consider these important factors:
- Sunlight. Most vegetables grow best in full sunlight. Choose an area that gets at least six hours of sunlight a day.
- Soil. The best soil for growing vegetables is a dark soil, rich in nutrients, that has good drainage but will still hold sufficient moisture for the plants. Don’t plant your garden too close to trees and shrubs whose roots will steal nutrients and water from the vegetables.
- Water. Place your garden near your water supply — faucets that can be reached by no more than two hose lengths.
Step 2. Create your site plan. Make a plan before you purchase your seeds or plants. It will help you decide how many you need to buy to best fit the available space. Base your plan on the vegetables that your family likes, how much work you want to do on the garden and how much room there is in the garden. Create a quick sketch to follow while you are planting.
Step 3. Buy your plants and/or seeds. Be sure that the plants you get will grow well in the area where you live. Buy young, healthy plants that are not limp or straggly or that have been over-crowded in pots. On seeds, look at the date stamp on the package to make sure they are not too old.
Step 4. Prepare your soil for planting. This is one of the most important things to do for a successful garden. To prepare the soil, add a layer of compost or fertilizer over the top of the soil. Then till (or spade) this layer into the existing soil. Rake the soil into rows or mounds, depending on the type of vegetables you’ll be planting.
Step 5. Sow your seeds. If some of your vegetables will be planted from seeds, plant them first. Sometimes seeds are started indoors or in a greenouse to give them a good start. When seedlings appear, thin them to the distances recommended on the seed packets.
Step 6. Plant your plants. Plant young plants following the directions given by the plant nursery where you purchased them. Planting times can be tricky. You want to plant early, but not so early as to stunt their growth in cooler weather. Some plants will require netting or wire forms for best results.
Step 7. Care for your growing plants. Once your vegetables are all planted, you need to care for them by watering, weeding, pruning, and protecting them from insects.
Step 8. Harvest your garden. Different vegetables are harvested at different times. Vegetables should be carefully watched and picked at their peak. You may eat them immediately after harvesting or you can freeze or can them for later use.
Source: http://debiijoy.wordpress.com/2008/09/29/having-a-bountiful-garden/