As the Garden Grows

What's blooming today?


You are here: Home / Archives for In The Garden

How To Grow Your Own Carrots

by

It is much better to grow your own vegetables from home, not only do they taste much better, but they are also much cheaper and healthier. Once you start growing your own vegetables, you will never want to go back to buying them from supermarkets.

You shouldn’t worry about growing your own carrots from home as it is quite an easy and quick process, as long as you have a little time to prepare your carrot seeds and to plant them.

Step One

The first step to growing carrots is to sow the carrot seeds. This may sound a little complicated, but trust me, once you’ve got the hang of it, it won’t ever be a problem again.

You should first make sure that you are planting your carrot seeds at the right time of year, it should say on the back of the packet when it is the best time to plant them. Most varieties of carrots are usually planted in March, if you wanted to get a start on your vegetable growing earlier than this, you can buy the Scarlet Horn or Nantes variety which can be sown in as early as February.

Before you begin sowing your carrot seeds, you are going to need to prepare your soil. You should prepare quite a large patch of soil; to make sure that it is healthy for your carrots to grow in you should dig it up and remove any weeds, stones and debris.

Step Two

You are going to need quite a lot of space to sow in your carrot seeds, the soil also needs to be quite deep so that the carrots have plenty of room to grow.

You should sow the seeds directly into drills. You should aim to sow them half an inch deep and 15cm apart.

Step Three

You need to keep your carrots healthy and fresh; to do this you should water the compost on a regular basis. If you start to notice that your carrots are wilting, this means they are not getting enough water. Give them a good soaking and this should rescue your carrots from any problems.

Step Four

It will usually take around 12-16 weeks for your carrots to grow properly. Once you believe the carrots are big enough for your use, they are ready to harvest.

Before careful when you pull them out of the ground, if it is a little tough to pull them up you can use a fork to help break up the soil around them.

Jenny started growing vegetables from her home and has really enjoyed it. She gets all her gardening equipment from http://www.gardenhealth.com/






Three Ways to Keep Your Organic Vegetable Garden Pest-Free

by

One of the most frustrating problems that organic vegetable gardens have is pests. Organic vegetable gardens are more prone to pest infestation simply because chemicals and pesticides are not used in controlling their population. Without artificial pest control products, controlling pest infestation is going to be much harder. Not only is it going to be very time consuming, but it’s going to be very back-breaking as well. However, it can be done. You can control pest population through organic and natural means.

Choose New Plants Carefully

If you’re going to buy new plants from a nursery, you have to check it thoroughly first before making any purchase and bringing them home. You don’t want to introduce pests into your garden, and you most definitely don’t want to introduce sickly and diseased plants. Yes, they may look healthy at first glance, but if you don’t know what to look out for, then you might end up with a pest-infested organic vegetable garden. The new plants might also infect your healthy crops.

For this reason, examine the plants at the nursery carefully before purchasing them. Look at the leaves and make sure there are no dead spots. See to it, too, that the stems are not rotted and that they’re not carrying any insects.

In addition to these, it will also be very beneficial for you if you examine their roots thoroughly. See to it that they look firm and healthy. White roots usually mean healthy plants; while dark and spongy roots mean unhealthy plants.

Encourage the Growth of Natural Predators

Chemical pest control products can eliminate pests in the garden. They can quickly and easily get rid of pestiferous insects that do significant damage to plants; however, they can also get rid of beneficial insects. Now, these beneficial insects and other animals are the natural predators of pests. They feed on them, control their population, and help keep them out of your vegetable garden. Since chemicals can also kill the natural predators, then what’s stopping pests from invading your garden again once the chemicals wear off?

If you don’t want to leave your organic vegetable garden defenseless, then encourage the growth of these natural predators. Don’t get rid of the bushes. Instead, only give them a good trimming once in a while so they can still provide home to natural predators. The same should also be done to trees. Trees provide homes to birds, which are also natural predators of pests.

Use Natural Pest Repellant Products

You can also repel pests by making use of natural and organic pest repellant sprays. You can make these homemade sprays by combining water and ingredients found in your kitchen. For example, oil and garlic spray works very well to kill aphids as well as cabbage moths. It can also get rid of mildew fungi. Alcohol and oil spray can also kill a number of pestiferous insects, and you can make this by mixing isopropyl alcohol, vegetable oil, and water.

There are so many recipes for homemade sprays that you can find online. But if the pest infestation of your organic vegetable garden is severe, then hiring a pest control company that offers green solutions is a very good idea.

Attached Images:

Jennifer Dallman writes for a Peoria pest control company. Through this article, she hopes to teach readers how to care for their organic vegetable garden properly.

5 Tips To Look After Your Garden In Winter

by

In the winter, I must admit it is very difficult to care and love your garden; this is down to the cold, wet weather which we experience. It is still possible to care for your garden in the cold months and make it look as amazing as it does the rest of the year. If you ignore your garden all through winter, then you are going to find yourself with a huge task as soon as spring comes round. Follow these 5 tips to make your garden look gorgeous all year round.

Tidy

The key to making your garden look beautiful all year around is by keeping it tidy. You shouldn’t just use your garden as a dumping ground for rubbish you no longer want in the winter. Clear up any unwanted debris and mess, and take them out of the garden. This will give you a good basis to work with. You should also clear up any dead leaves and weeds which you have growing in your garden. This is a task which you should continue to do all year round, as dead leaves and growing weeds is always an unwanted sight.

Lawn

You do not actually need to do much to your lawn in the winter to care for it, the best advice I can give to you is to just leave it. You can do lots of damage to your lawn if you decide mow it in winter and walk all over. You should avoid walking on the grass when it is cold or wet and you will force the grass to stop growing. A way to keep the grass looking fresh all year around is by sprinkling grass feeder and grass seeds onto the lawn. This will cover up any patches and keep the grass growing all through the year.

You should try and remove some of the dead leaves which you have on your lawn, this way it will look pretty all through winter.

Plants

You shouldn’t just assume that because it is winter you can’t have no plants, there are many plants which grow better in the winter compared to the summer. You should buy some winter plant life and plant these just before winter arrives. This will keep your garden looking alive and fresh through the whole of winter. You can also get some gorgeous garden ware such as lighting and gorgeous fencing which will make your garden look even better in the dark cold evenings.

Hayley loves making her garden into a magical wonderland each year. She uses http://www.nutscene.com/ to get some beautiful garden ware for the winter.

Meta