Free Gardening Tips

Are you looking for a way to draw interest to the outside of your home? Are you ready to make your home the one that everyone notices in your neighborhood? If your answer is yes to these questions, consider investing in outdoor wrought iron décor.

Using wrought iron outdoors is a timeless way to give your home character. Wrought iron is not going out of style anytime soon. It has been used as home décor since the 16th century and continues to be popular today.

There are a variety of wrought iron items available for outdoor use. These items include fences, gates, and stair railings; arbors, plant stands, and other garden accents; and patio furniture.

Fencing, gates, and stair railings made from wrought iron give your home a majestic, almost castle-like feel. When wrought iron is used to enclose your yard, it makes the statement that what it is holding is important. Wrought iron gates can even be used if you do not have wrought iron fencing as long as it compliments your existing fencing. A wrought iron gate or stair railing immediately gives a distinct character to your home's entrance.

You can give your garden the look of an elegant Victorian Garden with the help of wrought iron. Use a wrought iron arbor at the entrance of your garden as a focal point and a place to grow a beautiful vine plant. Or place a wrought iron gazebo or garden bench in the middle of your garden to give you a nice area to sit outdoors. Other garden décor items are available as well, including trellises and plant stands.

Patio furniture that is made of wrought iron is a great choice to accent your home's outdoor living area. Not only does wrought iron patio furniture look great, but also it is very durable. Wrought iron patio furniture comes in many different sizes, so there should be a set that is perfect for your outdoor area whether it is large or small.

Today we will discuss a fundamental question in gardening. Previously I was posed this question: "I hear that chemicals are poisoning our waterways, and that organic growing is much healthier than using chemicals. What's the truth, and how do I grow a healthy, productive garden without hurting the environment?"

This important question deserves an accurate answer. Therefore let's learn about plant nutrition. First , plants receive nutrition only as water-soluble mineral compounds through their roots. When we put plants, compost or manure into the soil, the organic material must first decompose, and the nutrient compounds must revert to water-soluble minerals before the next generation of plants can use them. This takes time, and sometimes as much as half of the nutrients are lost in the decomposition process. Nitrogen is particularly susceptible to loss because it is volatile and returns to the air very easily.

Second, there is no real difference between organic, and mineral or chemical nutrients. Everything in this world is a chemical! To the chemist the elements in the soil are called chemicals, to a geologist they are called minerals, and to an organic enthusiast they are called organics, but they are the same substances. To quote J. I. Rodale, from Organic Gardening magazine, "we organic gardeners have let our enthusiasm run away with us. We have said that the nitrogen which is in organic matter is different (and thus somehow better) from nitrogen in a commercial fertilizer. But this is not so." And "actually there is no difference between the nitrogen in a chemical fertilizer and the nitrogen in a leaf."

Third, there is no difference between soil and rocks except for the size of the particles, and 12 of the 13 mineral nutrients plants require are essentially ground-up rocks! They are natural, and there's really nothing "synthetic" about them.

So you see, there is no difference between "organic nitrogen" and mineral or chemical nitrogen, except two primary things. 1) the nitrogen that is part of an organic substance must decompose and revert to the water-soluble mineral state before being available to plants, and 2) mineral-source nitrogen is much higher in nutritional content, so much less is required to feed your plants.

As further evidence that mineral nutrients are not bad per se, I've researched which fertilizers meet the requirements for qualification as a Certified Organic garden, and 12 of the 13 nutrients we use in a Mittleider garden are approved. And the 13th - nitrogen - is the one that's most often used by organic gardeners, both in the garden and to aid in composting! Go figure.

This being the case, what should you do to assure you have the best garden and the healthiest plants possible? Give your plants accurate dosages of the best combination of nutrition you possibly can. The Mittleider natural mineral nutrient formulas are available at www.foodforeveryone.org/learn. You can mix your own "from scratch", or get the micro-nutrients from the Foundation website in the Store section. And never over-use any kind of fertilizer. Both manure and mineral compounds will harm our water supply if allowed to leach into the water table.

Meanwhile, remember that 99% of us depend on 1% to feed us, and commercial growers feed their crops! They use formulas like ours and call them "The preferred horticultural mix." Just check out Scott's Peter's Professional Pete Lite as an example.

This is not to say that organic materials don't have a place in the garden. You can improve soil texture and tilth by adding materials that have desirable characteristics, and even add some nutrient value. However, improving the soil in that way is not necessary to having a good garden, and people often introduce weeds, rodents, bugs, and diseases into their gardens, or provide a haven for them with their organic mulching practices. It is for this reason that we do not emphasize or encourage composting and manure.

Mittleider gardens qualify as "organic" because we don't use pesticides or herbicides. However, I suggest they are even better than organic, because the plants receive just what they need, they grow fast, and we almost never have insect or disease problems because there are no weeds to provide a home, and the plants aren't in the ground long enough for the pests to get established

Seed propagation can reveal itself to be difficult if optimal conditions are not present. One common problem is the damping of the seedling. It is often called as root rot. How do you know if your seedling are affected ? Well it’s pretty tricky. Almost 100% of the time you realize too late that your seedlings are affected.

Seeds will die in soil without germinating or seedlings will die overnight, they will be rotten at the base/soil line and the rest of the seedling will be laying against the soil. The damping off disease is caused by a fungi. Fungi being the scientific name for mushroom.

At least four different fungal elements are known to cause the suddent death. It could be initaially present in the soil used to sow the seeds, or be in the seeds itself. Seedlings can be affected in their first 4 weeks of living. Bad conditions are known to trigger this fungi activity.

First, overwatering will cause the shrooms to develop themselves and accelerate the rot of the seedling stem. Unsterile soil or dirty growing containers will cause damping.

The best way to prevent damping of your seeds/seedlings is to adopt a clean method of propagation. First, ensure that you use clean container ans sterile soil. You can also prevent damping by keeping your pot or seed tray clean. Preparing seeds correctly for germination is solving half the problem from the start.

Not overwatering is another method to prevent fungal disease. First, before each watering, you can check the soil to make sure it is dry enough. Letting the soil be on the dry side, but still moist between each watering is the best method to prevent damping.

Planting seeds too deep will also encourage productions of fungi or the activtion of the inner fungi elements. Seeds need to feel the heat of the light/sun.

Lastly, having good air circulation will help prevent damping, as it will help the seedling breath and the soil to dry out.

To be on the safe side, you can used different chemical products, such as damping-off, but the best way is to give your seeds/seedlings the best natural treatment.

Today we'll talk about preparing your lawn, trees, shrubs, and garden for winter, and how best to improve your soil during this time of year.

Much of this Country seems to be clay soil, so first let's find out how to improve problem clay soils. These procedures also apply to other types of soil, but may not be so important if you have loamy or sandy soil.

I don't often dwell on amending your soil, because it is not essential for growing a good garden if you feed and water properly. However, it can be a good idea, so long as you use clean, weed, seed, bug, and disease-free materials.

Weed-free grass clippings are good soil amendments when they're available, as are pine needles. And this time of the year you can also use your leaves. Mulch pine needles and leaves as fine as possible with a chipper/shredder or mulching mower, and then turn 3 or 4 inches of them into your soil-beds. Just don't use walnut leaves, as the sap is very hard on some of your vegetables, especially tomatoes. This procedure will improve your soil tilth, and doing it in the fall gives the organic material plenty of time to de-compose before spring planting.

What else should you be doing now to get your yard ready for winter and give growing things a head start for spring? The Mittleider Method - as taught in his gardening books available at www.growfood.com - teaches the importance of and best methods of weeding and feeding your garden. .A final weeding is a very good idea for starters. Left alone, some weeds will over-winter and come back strong as soon as the snow leaves your ground and before you can get into the yard. That's why farmers plant winter wheat, and gardeners plant things like garlic - so they have a head start in the spring. Don't give your weeds that advantage!

The next thing to do is to clean up and remove all organic materials from the garden area! Clean, disease-free plant residue should be turned into the soil along with your leaves, and you should remove everything else, so as not to provide a place for bugs to winter-over.

A slow-release fertilizer is also a good thing to put down in the fall. This way, it is available to lawn, plants, and trees as they first stir in late winter and early spring. This is also an excellent time to apply calcium, which is "the foundation of a good feeding program," and an essential nutrient almost as important as nitrogen. How is this best done? Calcium does not move very far in the soil, so it's best to work it into the plants' root zone in the soil. However, what about the majority of your yard, that doesn't get turned over every fall?

With lawn, trees, shrubs, vines, and perennials such as raspberries and asparagus, it is usually impractical to dig things up every year like a vegetable garden. Therefore, sometimes the question is asked "Would it be advantageous to aerate first, or use a root feeder or something similar to get Pre-Plant minerals more into the root zone?"

Many people feel this is important, and there may be some advantage to aerating your lawn or around your shrubs and trees before applying your fall slow-release fertilizer and calcium. However Dr. Mittleider says it is not necessary and doesn't do it, and we have never aerated our yard and get along just fine. Therefore, I recommend you spread the materials evenly on the soil surface, scratch them in with a rake or hoe, and either water them in thoroughly or, if you have already turned off your outside water for the winter, let the melting snow take them down into the root zone of your plants.

Do these things now and your garden can be a thing of beauty even in the winter!

Fruit tree are usually very beautiful in spring and in fall. Spring because they are full of flowers, and fall because they are full of fruits.

Many species, such as crabapple, cotoneaster, prunus and cherry, are beauty themselves. Often such specimen can cost alot in specialized garden nursery. One way to cheaply acquire a tree is to propagate them. Fruit tree can be reproduce with seeds or cuttings. Seeds is the easiest but longest method. You can buy seeds or collect them.

The best time to gather fruit tree seeds is in fall, when leaves are starting to drop. At this time, you are certain that the fruits are mature, hence the seeds are also. So, you can pick as many fruits as you need seeds. Some species, have more then one seed per fruit.

The method to clean and prepare the seeds is simple. For fleshy fruit, such as cotoneaster cranberry, crabapple or cherry, you can fill a bowl of hot water, but not boiling water. In the water, you gather the fruits and rub them with your fingers till the flesh is fully removed from the seeds.

Once you have separate the loose flesh pulp from the seeds, you can gather the seeds in a new bowl, pour some boiling water on it, to clean the seeds. Empty the water, keep the seeds, and repeat the process of boiling water.

You will then need to sterilize the seeds. This can be accomplish by laying the seeds on a paper towel on a cookie tray. On a sunny day, you leave the seeds in the biscuit tray under the sun, for at least 4 hours and till they become dry to to the touch.

You can store your seeds, in a dry ziplock bag in the veggie compartment of your fridge till you are ready to germinate/sow your seeds. For further germination instructions you can refer to my articles on my website.

A tree vitality requires a complex process consisting in transformation of natural ressource. In other words, the tree’s extract from the soil and the air, the elements they need and with the energy of the sun, it transform and devellop these ressource into food. Trees are mainly composed of three parts; the roots, the trunk and branches and the foliage (leaves or needles).

Roots

The roots are usualy the hidden part of the tree as they are primarly underground. They are destinate to play four roles in the tree vitality. They anchor the tree solidly in the ground, they absorb and transport water and minerals and they store the food processed by the leaves. In younger tree’s, the root system is composed of a sole main root, called the tap root. As the tree gets older, it will develop a lateral network of roots terminating with fine “roots hair”. These small roots, are the ones that absorb water and minerals. Food storage is necessary for next seasons production of leaves, seeds and flowers.

Trunk and branches

The trunk and branches also play different functions. They are the distributor of the water and mineral of from the roots to the leaves but they return the processed food back to the roots from the leaves. They also are a flexible support for the canopy. They are composed of four main sections. First, the Bark, wich protect the inner tree sections from insects, injury and prevent dryness. The second part is the cambium. It is a small layer of tissue compose with multiple cells that reproduce themself constantly which help the tree gain girth. It is also this layer that will form a protective skin again an injury before recreating bark. Third, the layer of sapwood. This layer is the highway for food, minerals and water. It act as the canal between the roots and the leaves for a back and forth distribution of goods. Fourth and last is the heartwood. It is composed of dead wood and is normally darker in color because of the higher resin concentration.

Leaves

The leaves are the factory of the vitality process. They transform the natural elements into food, with the help of the ligth/sun, a process called photosynthesis. The leaves also absorb carbon dioxide from the air to incroporate with water and minerals to form the complex but essential compound for tree survival.