Posted by Bogdan on July 12, 2010 | No Comments
If you are familiar with our posts, we have written before and stressed the importance of rain water for your flowers or vegetables, and, of course, for your budget. Plants are a lot happier when being watered with natural watered. You can store this water in barrels or other recipients, but the problem remains getting a large quantity of water in a single place, instead of pouring over a large area.
You can direct the water by creating a path for it to follow (water spouts, for example). The biggest problem with water spouts in the process of harvesting the water, is that they are usually very close to the soil, and you can’t place a large container underneath them.
In this case, you can place rain chains at the edges of your house which will direct a large quantity of water directly into a container.
The garden rain chains are made of aluminum or copper, and can be found in various forms or styles: Japanese rain chain, cups rain chain, links, double links Zen loops etc.
You can also install a digital Waterflow controller, that can be connected with a computer, that checks to the local Weather Bureau for the forecast and decides if the plants need an intense watering or none! This can really save you a lot of money!
Posted by elutzik on June 21, 2010 | 1 Comment
My refuge is my dream house, which, for now, is just in my mind. It’s right in the middle of nature, with a huge garden, with a pond and paths and lots of plants, trees and flowers.
Any destination you might have for your dream house, just follow some simple rules:
- In a world invaded with modernism, a simple wooden house with a simple paint, colored door and windows and curtains in tone with the wood of the house would calm everyone.
- Your house and garden would be more relaxing with a lot of green. Just combine the paved areas with the grass and plants.
- The color harmony is the key. The floors, the ceramic or wooden flower pots, the garden furniture and the pillows are all great in ground tones.
- In a small space you can place a table and two chairs where you can drink your coffee in the morning or just sit and relax.
- You can place most of the flowers in pots because they are easier to maintain.
Posted by Bogdan on May 29, 2010 | 3 Comments
If you want to get in new eco trend, what can be more economical than saving water, even when you take care of your garden? You might say: I already am, because it’s raining pretty often and I don’t have too do it myself. Well, what about your indoor plants? Forgot about those, didn’t you?
While nature can take care of your garden in some areas, you can be a real ecologist by storing the water in rain barrels when it rains and use it later (that mostly applies to areas where it doesn’t rain that often). You can use that water for you indoor flowers also – it’s even more recommended.
But how can you start in this process of rain harvesting?
The simplest way is to place barrels under the water spouts of your house. This will do just fine, but you won’t get the maximum quantity. For more efficiency, position a chain in the spout: this will make the water flow a lot more precise. Professional rain water barrels have a side flat (for saving space), a valve for the hose, and are designed in various ways to fit well in the environment – after all, why does a barrel have to look a like a barrel? It can be a box, a wall, a crate…
If you decide to start harvesting in a rain barrel, you’re lucky: it’s a lot more organic and healthy for your plants!
Posted by Bogdan on May 19, 2010 | 14 Comments
Long lasting plants
In June, consider planting some summer flowers that will bloom every time until the frost comes, like: petunias, sage, lion’s mouth, queen of the night, dills, coreopsis etc. If you’ll plant those later, they will have difficulties in growing and they will have a light bloom, because the summer heat will affect them.
Rare and remove any weed from the young plants
Most flowers and vegetables seeded in the months until June have already bloomed. It is important to rare those and remove any weeds. If you don’t do this at the right moment, the plants will be compromised, growing frail and 
remaining little, overwhelmed by weeds, they will lack light and food because they will be too frequent. Eventually, they will bloom a lot later and will produce less and smaller flowers. In this kind of conditions, the vegetables will loose their quality too. Remove the weeds from the roots and get them out of the garden! If you leave them there, the first rain will revive them, because of their great survival properties.
Loosing the soil and destroying the crust
Because of the rains, frequent watering and even work and walks done in the garden, the soil will harden and form a crust at the surface, highly unfavorable to flowers, vegetables, trees and vine. The crust has to be fought with a light breeding, using the dig or the spud. This way, you can favor the water and air path into the soil and destroy the weeds, a feared competitor to water and nutrients for all crops.
Don’t neglect the watering
The weather is a lot hotter, so the lack of water is starting to get noticed in the soil for all the plants. You have to water very well, in a way that will make the water run towards the roots of the plants. If you seed some vegetables too, it’s good to know, for example, that the cabbage, the cauliflower, the cucumbers, the onion, the salad, the celery are great water consumers. Moderate consumers are the tomatoes, the peppers and the eggplants. Perennial vegetables are more resistant to drought than the annual ones. Water the garden early in the morning and in the evening, with water kept in open containers, that has the same temperature as the air, and repeat this process every 7-10 days.
The continuous blooming secret
For some species, you have to remove the flower as soon as it withers, to stop creating seeds, a process that will unnecessary use the nutrients and the water from the soil (unless you want to obtain the seeds!!). For the majority of the annual plants, the withered flowers should break at the stem clamping. For the roses, cut the stem for a region that will go down until it reaches the first leaf consists of five small leaves (folio); the first leafs under the flower have only three folios. Be careful that the first bud under the cut to be oriented to the bush exterior. This will grow a shoot on which, in some soils, in autumn will bloom a new flower. On bulb plants (daffodils, tulips, hyacinths) tear the entire stem, until the first leafs, which you’ll leave as they are until they turn yellow and dry. For the lilac, you can remove only the withered flowers on top of the branches, without cutting the wood part.
