As the Garden Grows

What's blooming today?


Set up an online database and chat for your garden group

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I just came across a site called GroupLoop.com and I thought that perhaps Gardening clubs might be able to use Grouploop to create a central area where archive files, minutes of the club meetings, and a calendar of the clubs upcoming events could be kept. All members of the group or in this case Gardening club would be able to access the files within the group and there could even be an area in which to chat on line once the Group was set up.

Grouploop could be used by the clubs board members to organize plant sales and perhaps fund raisers as well.

I’m talking about Grouploop as if it’s only for gardeners but any group of people from a business trying to organize it’s data and created an online meeting place for specific comitees to a family planning an annual reunion could use GroupLoop and it’s easy to use tools and services too.

I signed up and took an inside look at how to go about setting up a group and it’s very easy. The site is very well laid out with easy to understand instructions as you go along. Check out GroupLoop if you’re tired of passing emails back and forth as you try to organize meetings or a big event. It’s easy and it makes it simple to get organized.






Caring for flowering plants

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The holidays will be upon us soon and one of the gifts that is given most often to friends, and relatives as we travel back and forth from dinner party to house party is the flowering plant. Flowering plants mark festive occasions, convey best wishes, and brighten our holiday tables.

Some of these gifted holiday plants may become members of your household plant family, others that are more difficult to care for or to get to rebloom will be discarded shortly after the holidays end.

Most gift plants will benefit from strong natural lights in order to help them grow and build up extra energy for reblooming. If given warm sunny conditions the plant will require more water than if they were to be kept in cool offices or stores that are illuminated by artificial lighting. In most cases you will need to keep the plants soil moist but be very careful not to over water or under water as over watering will lead to fatal root rot, and under watering will cause wilt. Foil wrappings and plastic-lined baskets are popular pot covers, but allowing water to collect in them keeps soil saturated and causes root rot. Water your plants with tepid or room-temperature water to avoid shocking roots.

If you keep the plants in cool locations the blooms will stay fresh and colorful longer. They wither or drop when exposed to cold drafts and the extremes of heat common near fireplaces and radiators. Dry air can reduce bloom time, too. Increase humidity by grouping plants on a tray of moist pebbles.

Christmas cactus is a long-lived plant that can bloom heavily each year if given the proper treatment. Keep its soil moist from now through next September, then let it go quite dry. Cacti grown dry and cool in fall will set buds in time for the holidays. However, flower buds may drop if Christmas cactus goes too dry or if humidity is too low.

Huge trumpet-shaped Amaryllis flowers perch atop a massive stalk. As flowers fade, remove them but leave the stalk to wither on its own. Then grow your amaryllis as any other sun-loving houseplant, fertilizing regularly from spring until late summer.

Provide amaryllis with a two month rest in late autumn. Quit watering and allow the foliage to yellow, and dry up, then trim it away and put the dormant plant in a cool, dark place until November. At that time, you can start to force new growth by giving it sun and water.

Gardeners seeking maximum bulb growth often plant amaryllis directly in a sunny garden outdoors, after the threat of frost in spring. Otherwise, leave your plants in potbound condition, repotting only every two or three years. Both amaryllis and Christmas cactus are among the most reliable indoor bloomers.

Cyclamen is an attractive flowering foliage plant that comes from the store with mature blossoms as well as buds in all stages of development. Give it a cool location and all the sun possible. Making it bloom again next fall is a challenge best reserved for experienced gardeners. Most plant hobbyists choose to discard the plant after the blooming period is over.

Christmas peppers are pungent-fruited ornamentals that remain colorful for weeks if given strong light and cool temperatures. Raised from seed, peppers are inexpensive and easy to discard once they lose their red fruit.

A pepper relative, Jerusalem cherry, is covered with round red fruit, poisonous if eaten. Care for it as you would Christmas pepper, discarding the plant after fruit drops. Keep its soil moist.

If your poinsettia still looks good after the holidays, place it near a sunny window and keep the soil watered. New shoots will appear as the weather warms. Cut back the stems after bracts fade or drop off. If your poinsettia has gone downhill, prune it back to about four inches, set it near a sunny window and water often enough to keep it moist. It should sprout new stems when spring comes.

Bringing poinsettias back into bloom next year is possible if you water and fertilize through spring and summer, pinching new growth to encourage good form. Around October first, give your poinsettia total darkness from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. every day. Anything less than complete, absolute darkness during these hours will interfere with blooming. Continue fertilizing and watering, and your plant will show color by December. When bracts start turning red, you can stop the dark treatment.

Fingerprint door locks

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I saw a disturbing news story on TV a week or two ago about a new way for people to break into homes. It was so disturbing that that news program I was watching did a 10 minute segment on it and then followed up the next day.

I don’t want to give all the details about the news show that I saw in case some unsavory types find this post and use the technique, but basically it involved having a key made of the same brand as the home that the thief wants to break into and then simply using a hammer to tap the key into the lock. Unfortunately, and horrifyingly it worked within seconds every time it was demonstrated on the program that I was watching.

I eyed my door carefully as I watched the program and for many hours afterwords- that’s how disturbed I was by this new technique.

Then I started wondering how to protect our home. I have very odd sleeping hours so it seems that at any given hour one of us is up and awake in our home. I’m sure seeing someone moving around a home at all hours would deter the majority of break-ins from happening, but still home invasions do happen.

So what else could I think of to protect our home?

I came across a site that sells a new type of lock called the Fingerprint lock and it sounds like it’s exactly what I need in light of this new break in technique that I’ve just heard about.

Not only would this type of lock protect us from many types of break ins, but it would also save my husband a lot of grief. He comes from a long line of “Key Losers”. Every single person in his immediate family has the ability to walk into a house or room with their keys in their hands and within one minute the keys are missing. They put them in strange places and forget where they put the keys immediately. It’s unbelievable! It’s also very funny to watch, except for when it happens to my husband because then I need to give him my keys and if he loses them … well there will be H*** to pay. LOL Actually in the last 5 or so years he’s gotten much better about not losing keys. I’ve finally trained him to always put them in the same spot, but still, a fingerprint doorlock? That would ensure that lost keys would never be a problem again!

If we were going away and wanted to have someone check the house for us we could even “enroll” their fingerprint temporarily so that they could get into our home. Same thing if we took in any more boarders – and once they move out we could easily erase their prints from the door locks memory.

The fingerprint door lock comes in many different styles and price ranges. So it would be easy to find one or two for your home that would suite the style of your house or door, and your budget.

I’m really excited about this new product- particularly after watching the news program and seeing how easy it would be to break into our house with the normal dead bolt locks we have on our doors now.

What do you think of this product idea? Would you purchase one if the price was reasonable? Why or why not?

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