Sun 15 Mar 2009

Preparing Your Vegetable Garden for Spring!

Posted by Planter1 under General, Growing Season, Patio Garden, Tips, Vegetables, tomatoes
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Springtime is right around the corner, and now is the time to prepare your vegetable garden.

You don’t need a big backyard to have a vegetable garden. If you don’t have an area around your home to plant vegetables, consider container gardening. You can grow many delicious vegetables or herbs in containers in very little space. You can use a window sill, deck, patio, or porch.  All you need is sunlight and rich soil.

If this is your first year for a garden you will need to choose your site.

Sunlight:

Choose a site that gets a lot of sunlight. You will want at least 6 hours of direct sunlight each day.  Although 8-10 hours is much better.

Close to Home:

Pick a site that is close to your house. Having a site close to your house will be easier for you to water, weed, and keep critters out.

Soil:

Loose, well drained, and rich soil is what you will need to have a successful garden. Adding organic matter will improve clay or sandy soil.  

Water:

You will want to locate your garden near water. The closer to the spigot or other water source, the more chances of you watering your garden often.

Avoid low spots, like at the bottom of a hill. These areas will stay cooler longer and water may pool in the area. 

If you are planting your garden on the same site as last season, remove all dead plant material. Add organic matter and turn the soil. Don’t forget to rotate the crops from last season. This will avoid soil borne diseases and maintain a good soil balance.

For container gardening, you can use almost any type of container. The size of your container will depend on the vegetable that you will be growing and also the spot that you have for your container to be placed. If you are looking to grow tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants, you could use a 5 gallon container. Remember your container will need drainage holes and about 1 inch of gravel on the bottom to help with drainage.

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Tue 3 Feb 2009

Are Birds flying into or pecking at your glass windows and doors?

Posted by Planter1 under General, Tips
[3] Comments

 Birds will fly into or peck at windows and sliding glass doors for many reasons. When a bird sees its own reflection in the glass it instinctively wants to chase “the invader” out of its territory. Birds may also see the reflection of trees or the sky in the glass and attempt to fly through the window.

Millions of birds are killed or injured each year by flying into glass windows.

There are many ways to prevent this from happening:

Here are some ways to decrease the reflective ability of glass windows:

Place decorative window films or decals on your window. Non reflective decorations will help the birds avoid the glass.

Close curtains or pull blinds or shades down over windows.

 Place screens in windows to make them less reflective.

Soap your windows during the nesting season. You can use soap or salt mixed with water to spray on your window. When your window dries it will leave a film. You will need to repeat after it rains.

Move bird feeders; move them either 20 feet or more away from windows or 3 feet or under from the window.  This will not prevent non feeder birds from flying into windows.

Place a silhouette of a Hawk, Owl or Crow on the window. Most birds will want to avoid them.  If you can’t find a stick on, you can make your own. Just trace an outline of a large Hawk, Owl or Crow on black paper and attach it to your window.

Move Plants that are inside away from the window so birds do no attempt to fly towards the plant.

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Mon 12 Jan 2009

The Great Poinsettia Experiment: Keeping It Alive Until Next Christmas

Posted by greenthumb under Houseplants, Plants
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Most people regard poinsettias as disposable. They are bought or given as gifts around Christmas and expected to dry out and die about a week after New Years…if they last THAT long!

Well I received a white poinsettia for Christmas this year and have confiscated my sister’s white poinsettia – which was going down hill quickly. My goal is to grow both of these poinsettias in pots and have them healthy, happy and ready for next Christmas.

Repotted Poinsettia Plants

Repotted Poinsettia Plants

The first thing I did was replant them into new pots – they came in those really cheap plastic throw-away pots that were way too small for them. I put about an inch of gardening stones at the very bottom of the new pots. This helps with drainage. Then I added enough potting soil to allow the plants to sit high in the bigger pots. I wanted the roots to be no more than an inch or so from the rim of the new pot.

After carefully removing the plants from the old pots, making sure to retain as much of the original soil as possible, I gently sat them in the new soil and filled in around the sides. You want to keep the original soil around the roots – this will prevent the plant from going into shock.

I felt that the original soil was quite moist, so I did not water them into the new soil as I might normally do. I’ll watch them this week and if the soil seems dry, I’ll water. With poinsettias, you want to let the soil dry out before watering. Since I added the rocks to the bottom of the new pots, I’m not too worried about over watering, but I still have to be wary about it.

I’ve posted some photos of the plants in their new pots. Every few weeks I’ll post new photos and keep you updated on how they are doing.

If you save your poinsettias from year to year, please let me know. I’m open for all the pointers I can get!

Thanks and Happy New Year!

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