Archive for March, 2011

How to Grow and Care for Flowers

Tuesday, March 29th, 2011
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How to Grow and Care for Flowers

A well attended s in your garden is a satisfying looks to your inner senses and creates an attractive landscape for your home and a boast to your visitors, friends and guests.

In order to create a vibrant garden with a lush ornamental and flowers, you need to make a simple garden plan to arrange your flowers in a manner not to compete themselves with sunlight, shade and soil nutrients.
You’ve to be acquainted with their natural growing environment so that your flowers are grown in their specific climatic adaptability to give you the best flowers you desires.

Ways to grow and care for your flowers

Location. See to it that you locate your garden with at least 5 – 6 hours of sunlight a day. Most flower plants needs enough sunlight exposure to ensure a healthy growth and beautiful flowers. You should have a record of sunlight level in your garden as a guide to track the changes of sunlight movement as the season changed. This way, you’re aware when to plant your flowers in every seasonal changes when sunlight is enough for growing plants.

Land preparation. Clear your garden from weeds and other foreign matters that would hinder your garden operations. Loosen the soil by plowing the area to a deep of at least 18 inches. Pulverize the soil with the use of a shovel or spade and mix with some compost to add more nutrients to the soil. Make some plots to ensure easy management of your plants and to make a raised beds against water accumulation during rainy days.

Planting. Plant your seedlings in a straight row in the plots the same depth the way they were planted in their previous containers to continue their growth undisturbed. Arrange your plants in a manner that their water and sunlight requirement are the same. Don’t plant together those that differs in their water and sunlight needs.

Water needs. After planting, ensure that your new plants are watered properly reaching up to the root system. Don’t over water your plants in their early plant growth. Maintain the soil moisture at a minimum level. Avoid wetting the leaves when watering to ward-off the plants from being infected with some fungus diseases, a common infection of flower plants.

Mulching. Put some mulching materials around the plants to maintain soil moisture level and to prevent the growth of weeds. Use a plastic mulching material if you can afford to buy, it’s more durable and effective in controlling weeds growth during the entire growing period of your flower plants. Plastic mulch is also effective as insect pests repellent.

Plant nutrition. As the plants progresses, fertilize them with a general purpose fertilizer every 3 months to maintain their growth development and supply nutrients needs. When your plants are already near their flowering stage, supply them with a low nitrogen fertilizer element to encourage flower growth.

Maintenance. Maintain their neat appearance by trimming some spent flowers and unnecessary branches that may interfere the plant’s growth. Remove those matured flowers to prevent from spreading some seeds in your garden that may produce some unnecessary growth of seedlings you don’t need.

Happy gardening!

How to Grow Blueberry for Fun

Tuesday, March 29th, 2011
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How to Grow Blueberry for Fun

Blueberry is ideal for planting in your garden because of its medicinal value which is good for your health and other members of your family. It is said to be low in calories and sodium and has no cholesterol level.

It’s a good source of fiber and contains pectin an enzyme known to lower blood cholesterol. Additionally, it’s said to help prevent bladder infections and has the ability to prevent some kinds of cancers.

To grow blueberry is easy but it will take about three years before you can harvest the fruits. You’ve to extend another three years to fully get your maximum harvest, however, once it starts to bear fruits, it will continue to give you blueberries in your kitchen.

To plant blueberry, it’s recommended to plant at least two varieties to give you more and larger fruits, because two cultivars will cross-pollinate each other resulting in an improved berry size as against a single variety with small fruit size.

Before you start your blueberry plantation, prepare your soil properly, make soil amendment if it’s poor. Add some organic compost to enrich the soil and make sure it’s well drained. Blueberry doesn’t tolerate in water-logged soil condition.

After the land is prepared, plant your seedlings at 4 feet distance between hills and at least 1 – 2 inches deep into the soil. Each plant should be planted alternately with other cultivar to give you quality and bigger sized fruit berries caused by cross-pollination once they starts to bear fruits.

Water the new plants on a regular basis, but don’t keep the soil soggy all the time. Allow the soil to dry between watering, just maintain the soil moisture to support the plant’s water needs.

Once the plants are established, start pruning operations, removing some dead branches, especially those the cris-cross inside the entire plant to allow other branches to receive enough sunlight and free air circulation around the plant area.

Provide some mulching materials around the plant base to control weeds growth and to maintain the soil temperature around the growing bush.

Fertilize them in the late winter or early spring, month before growth starts to appear. In sandy soil, apply the fertilizer again 1 month later, after the first spring growth appears.

You can see the fruit of your toil at least 3 – 6 years after planting. Once your blueberry starts to bear fruits, it will continue bearing and increases production when you keep them pruned.

To keep a good result, you should prune your blueberries during the months of March especially in colder areas and earlier when you’re located in a warmer location.

Happy gardening!