Garden Decors

Organic herbal gardening is a topic that had been gaining prominence, especially on the context of growing your own plant-based and natural medicines. A growing number of people are considering alternatives to a health system that is completely based on chemically derived pharmaceuticals.

Organic herbal gardening provides an alternative to pharmaceutics. This substitute option has a long history, but has been overshadowed in recent decades by an over-reliance on technological and scientific quick fixes.

The viewpoint of herbal medicine is one of considering the whole organism and not just the symptoms. As a result two people who visit a practitioner and have similar symptoms, may be suggested to take quite different remedies.

Overall, while herbal remedies have their critics, they provide a valuable complement to modern medicine for many ailments and its emphasis on prevention and balancing is liked with many who are striving for a more harmonic way of life.

Whether you are an experienced organic gardener or just starting out with natural medicinal herbs, you will probably share the wish to control the origin of foodstuffs and other bodily intakes with people with the same interest.

Many people now choose to grow part of the food that they consume through organic herbal gardening. Organic herbal remedies are in fact a natural progression from deciding to emphasize organic food for one’s own wellbeing.

It’s true that you can buy ready-made organic herbal medicines, but the option of growing your own is recommended, as you can get just what you need and have more control on the results. Plus, organic herbal gardening can be fun!

There are several ways to consume organically grown medicinal plants. The easiest one is simply to eat them, whether raw or cooked, and many therapeutic plants are part of normal kitchen usage, such as garlic or pepper.

You can also prepare herbal teas and brews. Plus, ingesting organic herbs is not the only way to consume them. You can also prepare balms and creams with many organically gardened herbs, and use them to relieve aches and inflammations.

To start organic herbal gardening for the purpose of improving your health, you can either start from seeds or buy seedlings from specialist shops, either by going there in person or by buying over the internet.

OrganicHerbalGardening.com covers all your organic gardening needs, with tips and information. Whether you want to grow herbs or construct an indoor kitchen garden, click on a link to start.

Oak is one of the best woods to use for patio garden furniture. It is local to most Western countries and, being a hardwood, can endure the weather, if treated properly. It is very durable and, so long as you maintain it, it will give you pleasure and comfort on your garden patio for decades to come.

Oak is certainly not inexpensive, but if you bear in mind that it will last for ten to twenty years, whereas plastic and metal may last two to four years, it does not work out a bad deal over the long term and during that time span, you will have been sitting on garden furniture that is the bee’s knees in every way.

Just a point of interest here that will give you more scope when you are buying your hardwood garden furniture, oak and cherry wood share many of the same characteristics as far as garden patio furniture is concerned.

The patterns of whorls and rings in the timber is truly beautiful, so in order to maintain the stocks of these trees, please make sure that your patio furniture comes from a replenishable source.

Make sure you follow the maker’s recommendations as far as preservation is concerned. This will prolong the life of your hardwood furniture, making sure that you will get extra life – up to twice as much – life out of your hardwood garden furniture.

The maker or craftsman will probably deliver your furniture primed and stained and maybe varnished too. If you get raw timber furniture, the maker is probably leaving your options open. The least you should do is rub an oil into it.

Ask at your decorators’ merchants or timber merchants which is the best. You could also stain it and varnish it. Ask to see examples before you go ahead, but it has to be done at least once a year anyway, so you can change strategy when it wears off.

This category of furniture will be seen often at commercial venues, because it is so hard wearing and long lasting, if correctly looked after. You should let commercial sense guide you and follow suit, if you can afford it. If you cannot afford a full suite of hardwood garden patio furniture all in one go, why not buy one or two pieces of furniture a year?

Once you have your furniture in place, you can start thinking about accessories. The most common accessories are lighting, power points, mosquito zappers, sun shades and patio heaters. You will perceive that restaurants and pubs with a patio will use patio heaters when the weather gets cooler.They have to do this, otherwise customers would vanish.

You can learn from this for your back garden. Get yourself a patio heater so that you can enjoy your garden patio in comfort every month of the year. Add a few extra plants and a few nocturnal blossoming plants. Put in a small pond with a fountain and some fish. Finish the whole picture with a few spotlights pointing at your favourite features and hang up a mosquito trap. This way you will get the utmost out of your oak or cherry wood garden patio furniture.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with commercial patio heaters. If you are interested in patio heaters too, please click through to Residential Patio Heaters.

The rose industry as we know it was invented by the French from about 1815 onwards. French breeders and growers produced a strong stream of new roses of every type throughout the 19th century. The industry quickly became driven by novelty, and has remained the creature of fashion ever since.

By the last quarter of the 19th century, it was dominated by French Hybrid Perpetuals and Tea roses. Then a change began to take place.

At about the same time, breeders realized that new markets were opening for ground-cover roses, especially in public landscaping schemes where hundreds of roses, all of one cultivar, are planted in vast masses to provide cheerful color and smother weeds. They had to be easy to grow and dense in their habit, wider than tall, and handsome in leaf.

Many had Rosa wichurana or Rosa sempervirens in their background. Roses like Sommerwind and Bonica 82 have been immensely successful as landscape roses, but they also make good individual plants for gardens.

Rugosa roses are a good example. Rosa rugosa is a large-flowered, hardy, thrifty, perpetual-flowering species from Japan, Korea, Siberia, and China. When it was crossed with European roses, it produced large (2.5m/7-8ft) shrubby plants, which were extremely hardy and floriferous with large, scented flowers and big, red hips. They are repeat flowering and easy to grow: `Mme Georges Bruant’ and `Mrs Anthony Waterer’ are good examples from the 1890s, but Rosa rugosa has continued to be used in rose breeding ever since and some of our best modern shrub roses are derived from it. Meanwhile, in England, Lord Penzance bred Hybrid Sweetbriars by crossing the native Rosa rubiginosa, mainly with Hybrid Perpetuals.

Many modern climbers (or “large-flowered” climbers) were bred by crossing the larger-flowered ‘Wichurana ramblers like ‘New Dawn’ with modern Floribundas and Hybrid Teas. The best seedlings would have large flowers, a climbing habit, and non-stop flowers: ‘Parade’ is a good example. Other climbers were selected from unusually vigorous seedlings of Hybrid Teas and Floribundas – those that grew to 3m or more, and flowered continuously.

The best were bred by Wilhelm Kordes in the 1930s and 1940s – (Frilhlingsmorgen) and `Karl Forster’ in particular. By far the most famous shrub roses now are the English Roses bred by David Austin over the past 25 years. These are intended to combine the best of the old roses (Damask scent, complex blooms) with the best of the new (health, vigour, thick petals, repeat-flowering).

Many consider beauties like Abraham Darby, Graham Thomas, and Mary Rose as the best of the old roses. It would be truer to describe them as the best of the new.

The African violet has a quiet charm and is one of the most generous of plants with its blossoms. Many plants flower without ceasing for well over a year. Frequently a well-grown plant will carry 30 or more open flowers at the same time, almost hiding the foliage under its crown of beauty.

The early spring month through summer is the time for propagating leaves. Cut a few leaves from the center of plant for best results. Trim the leaves stalk about 1 1/2 inches in length and insert in glass of water or vermiculite.

Proper lighting is very important – too much light may cause burning, too little will check growth and flowering. Light from an east window from September to March, and from a north window from March to September, should give excellent results.During the months when artificial heat is necessary, house temperatures should be about 70 to 72F. (21.11 to 22.22C.) during the day, falling to 65F. (18.33C.) at night.

Proper humidity and watering cannot be overstressed. Many troubles will be avoided if greater care is given these two essentials. To avoid water spotting the leaves, water plants with tepid water when the sun is not shining. on them. Pots three inches or smaller should be watered from the bottom. Pour enough water into the saucer and permit the plant to “drink” for a half hour; then pour off the excess. Larger potted plants should be watered from the top. Do not over water as this cuts off the air from the plants, and air is of the utmost importance.

Insufficient humidity causes leaf curl and bud drop. To increase the humidity, fill plant saucers with moist gravel, place pans of water near radiators or use plant sprayer.Plants should not be watered on cloudy or rainy days, unless, of course, they are very dry. It is well to check them daily, since allowing the soil to get too dry affects the tiny root hairs that absorb the food for the plant. These tiny hairs become incapable of absorbing water when dried out, causing a setback to the plant until new root hairs are grown.

If the water in your area is chlorinated, draw some off for watering and allow it to stand for 24 hours before using it on your plants. Try to use rain or spring water when available.To feed the plant, choose a clear bright day, water the plant, wait several hours to prevent burning of root hairs, and apply a liquid organic plant food according to the directions of the container. It is well to make a V-shaped hole against the side of the pot and apply fertilizer slowly at this point. Fertilizer should always be applied to the surface of the soil, and the watering following fertilizing should be surface watering; then return to usual method. A three-inch pot will accommodate a plant for a long period of time. It is time to repot when there is a network of root hairs and a 9 to 12-inch spread to the plant.

For repotting, the soil should be a loose, friable one consisting of one-third good garden soil, one-third sand and one-third peat or leaf mold. To this mixture add one teaspoonful of bone meal for each quart of mix. The soil should be slightly acid, about pH 6.5. For the beginner and the inexperienced gardener, it is advisable to use one of the well- prepared organic soil mixes on the market. These mixes are complete and especially prepared for African violets. When potting, remember that the roots are delicate and the fine root hairs absorb the nourishment, so care must be taken to pot loosely, gently firming the soil about the roots. The potting mixture should be moist, not wet. Place a piece of broken flowerpot over the drainage hole of a large pot, then a 1/4 inch layer of chicken grit (or crushed oyster shells or flowerpot chips), followed by a wad :if sphagnum moss and the potting soil. Place enough potting soil in the pot so that when the root ball is set on it, the crown of the plant: 1/4 to 1/2 inch below the rim of the pot. If pots are to be watered from below, omit the drainage material and just cover drainage hole with broken pot chips.

The newly potted plants are ready for bath to cleanse the leaves of dust. Place them in the bathtub and sprinkle with tepid water from a watering can equips with a fine nozzle, until leaves are clean soil settled in the pot. Leave the pots in tub and keep them shaded and out of drainage until the leaves are dry. If leaves become weak and the room temperature is too cool, leaves will spot. Stem or petiole rot can occur where leaves touch the rims of clay pots. To prevent this condition, plant the plants only in plastic pots so that the leaves cannot touch the clay pot rims in paraffin.

Alfafa is excellent for swine, alfalfa is also used for sheep and cattle; mixed stands reduce the hazard of bloat, but even such pasturage is best supplemented with grain rations for improved stock energy. Rotational grazing of alfalfa pastures is best.

Alfalfa is usually planted with a nurse crop. It can be broadcast seeded in winter wheat or similar crops early in spring, but best results are obtained by drilling seed with oats or other spring-planted grains.

Use 10 to 12 pounds of seed per acre when seeded with a single grass, 5 to 6 pounds per acre in other mixtures.

The nurse crop will control most weeds and although the alfalfa stand will not be quite as heavy as it would be if it is planted alone, the grain crop will make up for the loss.

Alfalfa does best on well-drained, deep loams with porous subsoils. It does not thrive on either acid or highly alkaline soils, preferring a pH of 6.5 to 7. Areas east of the Mississippi generally need lime for best results.

Potassium and phosphorus may also be necessary, since alfalfa needs these for a good yield. Alfalfa does well on dry soils if irrigated. For best results, alfalfa seeds should be inoculated with rhizome bacteria before planting.

When bloom is delayed or spotty, cutting may be gauged by the amount of new growth at the crown. However, a cutting should not be made in the fall later than four weeks before the average date of the first killing frost. This will permit considerable top growth so that the roots can store enough food for winter.

If you are unsure about the best planting time for alfalfa in your area, check with neighboring farmers or with the state agricultural extension service.

Poor aeration can also be due to restricted flow of air from the atmosphere into soil pores. Most of the gaseous interchange with the atmosphere occurs through diffusion, which is hampered by a lack of macro pores in the soil. On heavily textured top soils and in compact sub soils, the rate of gaseous movement is particularly slow.

Fine-textured soils have a large proportion of pore space, but since the space is filled with micro pores that can hold water, the soil can easily become waterlogged. In silt loam soils in good condition, the total pore space is often nearly 50 percent of the total and is likely to be shared evenly by water and air.

Soil aeration is directly related to the porosity of the soil. Proper aeration of the soil is important to proper plant growth. Well- aerated soil consists of a large proportion of macro pores, allowing sufficient quantities of the right gases to be available to aerobic organisms to encourage best functioning and growth.

The earthworm will burrow down six feet and more, leaving its passageways as means for the entry of air. Applications of organic matter automatically multiply the earthworm population. In well-run organic farms and gardens there should be millions of earthworms per acre.

The first step will be to add humus. This may not be easy, but the results make any effort worthwhile. By doing this every one of the problems named above will be minimized, some entirely eliminated.

The soil will become easier to till. Moisture will seep down and be held instead of running off. In this converted adobe, earthworms may be planted and will flourish. Since humus is a neutralizer, the alkalinity will be brought down to a point suitable for many garden plants.

Tilling is an excellent means of improving soil aeration and reducing the carbon dioxide content of the soil.

A waterlogged condition is so detrimental to plant growth that even a short period may seriously endanger some plants. This may occur either in poorly drained soils composed of fine particles or in well-drained soil if enough water is rapidly applied. Prevention of this type of poor aeration necessitates removing water from the land, either by controlled runoff or drainage; the latter can be particularly effective.