Archive Category: 'Garden & Plants'

• Gorgeous Framed Succulent Art: {DIY}: Hola, this is something! Today’s feature is from Sunset with Make Your Own Living Succulent Art: We’ve all gone wild for those dramatic “living walls” of succulents. Here, grower Robin Stockwell shows you how you can make your own. Instead of framing a picture, why not a whole garden? Here, cuttings of assorted succulents knit together to [...]
• Growing Strawberries: {Tip Sheet}: If you’d like to get your kiddos interested in gardening, growing strawberries is just the plant to do it! They bear juicy, red berries that everyone loves and are pretty easy to grow. If you don’t have space for a garden, no worries–strawberries can be planted on a balcony, in flower beds, and even hanging [...]
• Forcing Flowering Tree Branches Indoors: {How-To}: For Earlier Blooms Want to bring springtime in a little earlier this year? Visit your flowering shrubs or trees some warm day late this month (January), and take a few branches. With very little trouble you can force many of them to bloom indoors, long ahead of their outdoor blooming date. The cheerful blossoms are a [...]
• Growing Tomatoes: {Tip Sheet}: When To Plant: Plant seedlings in the Spring after all danger of frost has passed. You can either purchase seedlings at your local greenhouse or try growing your own by seed. Start the seeds indoors about 6 to 8 weeks before the last expected frost. The seeds will need plenty of light to prevent becoming [...]
• How To Build A $50 Greenhouse: {DIY}: Today’s feature is by the Door Garden with this diy tutorial How To Build My 50 Dollar Greenhouse: Now that I have a little bit of experience under my belt using my small greenhouse I see that this is a tool that I enjoy using and that can extend the productivity of my garden throughout the [...]
• Growing Garlic: {Tip Sheet}: Garlic (Allium sativum) is easy to grow in home gardens and since it’s used so much in cooking (and in home remedies), why not try growing some this year to have a stockpile or two to enjoy (and some to share with family and friends too)! Growing Garlic: Tips & Info When To Plant: If you live [...]
• Grow $700 of Food in 100 Square Feet!: Today’s feature is from Mother Earth News with Grow $700 of Food in 100 Square Feet! If more Americans grew a little food — instead of so much grass — our savings on grocery bills would be astounding. The total value of the fresh vegetables author Rosalind Creasy grew in her 100-square-foot garden in 2008 was $683.43! Small [...]
• How To Grow Basil: {Quick Tips}: Basil is a great choice to plant both indoors and outdoors since it’s easy to grow and is useful in so many ways. It can be used in salads, makes a great pesto and seasons dishes like soups, casseroles and sauces. It is also a key ingredient in many home remedies (such as treating wasp [...]
• How To Multiply & Extend Your Poinsettia: Thousands of homemakers received poinsettia plants this Christmas. These colorful plants, so fitting in holiday home decorations, sometimes become a problem after Christmas when blooming ends and many times they are thrown out. If you love filling your home with Poinsettias during the holiday season, here’s how you can get another blooming season from them. The poinsettia [...]
• Jade Plant Care & Growing Tips: The Jade plant (Crassula ovata) is a succulent and is one of the easiest to grow houseplants–it can live for decades with the proper care (or maybe neglect is a better word). A native of South Africa, it grows naturally in dry conditions and has developed thick fleshy leaves to hold the moisture which it [...]
• Spider Plant Care & Growing Tips: Spider plants (Chlorophytum comosum) have long been popular as an indoor plant because they’re so easy to grow (both indoors and outdoors). If you’re looking for a lush, fast growing houseplant that’s fuss-free, this one’s for you. Here are a few tips for growing one in your home… Spider Plant Care & Growing Tips Plant Appearance: Green [...]
• Christmas Cactus: Houseplant Notes: Soil: Does well in almost any good garden soil. Needs no feeding except when buds begin to set. Water: Avoid overwatering. The plant needs to be gently pushed into dormancy at the beginning of November to ensure Christmas blooms, allow the plant to dry out between light waterings during this time. Keep soil lightly moist during [...]
• Do You Grow Dishcloths?: If you never have grown your dishcloths–try it! The dishcloth gourd, Luffa acutangula, is easily grown from seed, and produces a very satisfactory, sanitary dishcloth. Most seed catalogs list it. Plant the seed of the Luffa vine about the middle of May, or the time you plant your cucumbers should be right. In the fall the gourds produced [...]
• Forcing Paperwhite Narcissus For Winter Blooms: Paper white narcissus (daffodil family) is one of the easiest bulbs to force indoors over the winter season and they don’t need to be chilled first like other flower bulbs do (see Forcing Bulbs Indoors For Winter Blooms). To force narcissus bulbs, you just need a container, a bit of water and some pebbles! Here’s [...]
• Houseplant Care & Growing Tips: Houseplant Care & Growing Tips Lack of humidity is one of the biggest problems for house plants, particularly during winter when heating systems dry air to desert conditions. To raise the humidity, set your potted plants on trays or pans filled with gravel and water. Keep the water level below the top pieces of gravel. Most flowering [...]
• Forcing Bulbs Indoors For Winter Blooms: How-To & Tips: Imagine the dreary months of January and February, cold, bleak, windy–but you can easily add a touch of Spring inside your home by forcing bulbs ahead of time that will then bloom indoors during the winter months. Here’s how: Understanding How Forcing Bulbs Works When planting flowering bulbs like Tulips in the garden, you need to plant [...]
• Plastic Tunnel Cold Frame: DIY: Today’s feature is from The Door Garden with this DIY project for a Simple Plastic Tunnel Cold Frame or Row Cover: A simple plastic tunnel like this can serve as a cold frame to grow salad greens all winter long, to grow out tomatoes and other tender plants, to extend the season for an early [...]
• A Few Fall Cleanup Tips: Here are some tips for preparing your yard for winter, this makes yard maintenance much easier to deal with in the Spring! Clean Garden Pots: Wash grime & rings away with a 50/50 water and vinegar solution. Works well on both plastic and clay containers. Clean out the gutters, but wait until all the leaves have dropped. [...]
• How To Sterilize Soil At Home: Potting soil is sterilized to give your plants the best growing environment possible by killing weed seeds or disease organisms that might be lingering in the soil. Most commercial potting soil is already sterilized but if you want to use that rich dark soil right from your garden or reuse your potting soil, here are [...]
• How To Plant Tulips For Beautiful Spring Blooms: Tulips are a favorite garden plant and well known as harbingers of Spring (they’re one of the first plants of the season to produce blooms). Their beautiful flowers and vibrant colors are a refreshing change after a cold and dreary winter. Tulips are easy to plant and maintain although the digging required can be a bit [...]
• Patina In Minutes: How To: Today’s feature is from DIY Ideas with Patina In Minutes: Why wait a lifetime for a rich patina finish when you can create it yourself? Here’s an easy way to add a faux-patina to concrete pieces you have for the garden, this adds a richness to the items that you’d otherwise have to wait years to naturally [...]
• Charming Kitchen Plants From The Garden: Flowers and house plants are not the only types of greenery which will enhance the appearance of the home. Vegetable arrangements are attractive and original. A vegetable plant placed on a sunny window ledge will last for months. The best way to grow vegetable plants is in water. Appropriate for the kitchen are the old-fashioned sweet [...]
• How To Store Seeds: If you’ve tried saving seeds from your garden in the past and didn’t have much luck with them germinating in the Spring, chances are you didn’t store the seeds in the environment they needed. Storing garden seeds in optimum conditions can keep most varieties viable for several years, following the steps below can increase the [...]
• How To Ripen Tomatoes: Tips & Tricks: Ripening Tomatoes On The Vine Here are a few tips to help speed up and encourage tomatoes to ripen on the vine close to the end of growing season: Keep plants free of diseased leaves and pinch off new flowers so all the plant’s energy can go into ripening the fruit. Watch plants daily and pick off the [...]
• Get Rid Of Gnats: Tips & Remedies: Fungus gnats are small dark flies (about 1/8″ in size) that look similar to mosquitoes and are often confused with fruit flies. They thrive in humid environments and breed in the damp soil of houseplants. The gnat larvae is what causes damage to your plants by eating the plant roots, root hairs and stems. The [...]