New TheEasyGarden Website

As you can see we’ve recently added a completely new design to TheEasyGarden.com website!  It seems we’ve caused a bit of confusion in the community as seen here.  Fortunately it seems like most people like the new look of the site and the new forum colors.

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Things to Remember in Indoor Gardening

Indoor gardening is the solution if you don’t have enough space or land for your plants. It is the process wherein the plants are nurtured within a residence, building or in a greenhouse. Indoor plants also serve as decoration to your homes. But of course, there are some pointers to consider when you have an indoor garden.

The amount of light in your house will determine what type of plant is suitable in your indoor garden. Plants that require low to medium amount of sunlight is appropriate in your indoor garden. Since the plant will turn to the light, you should rotate the plant to have an upright growth of your plant.

When it comes to watering of your plants, it is better to ask the person who sold you to know how much and how frequently to water the plant. Don’t over water the plants because it might rot its roots. Temperature and humidity also affect the growth of the plant. The temperature range of most indoor plants should fall between 65-75° F, during the day and 10-15° F at night.

For indoor plants that grow very quick, you can fertilize it every 2 to 3 months while dormant plants do not need fertilizers at all. Since they are indoor plants, they received less sun so it does not need to be fertilized often. It is very important to remember that not all plants have the same requirements of light, water, temperature, humidity and fertilizers so proper monitoring of it is a must.

Home Gardening plus Children Equals Fun!

Ever wonder what are the past time activities of children nowadays? Kids are more involved in playing video games in which there comes a time they will be addicted on it. It is not good to become addicted to computer games because kids tend to neglect their studies and sometimes they don’t care what’s happening around them, especially on their environment. Why don’t you teach your child to do home gardening?

Through home gardening, children will learn the significance of taking good care of our environment and how men are interrelated to it. There are some benefits your kids might get when they get involved in gardening.

Children can learn more about Sciences through the help of home gardening. They can observe a plant’s life cycle wherein they can witness the different stages of the plant development from a seed ending to a mature plant. It also teaches them the roles of water, soil, air and sunlight to a plant.

Engaging to gardening, children can develop their sense of discipline and hard work because there are a lot of pointers to consider when taking care of a plant. It requires their perseverance to nurture a healthy plant. Gardening can also provide relaxation not only to the children but also to the adults. It has a calming effect that may reduce their stress and anxiety. It also helps the kids to appreciate and respect nature. Lastly, it also gives time to bond with each other where you can deepen the relationship to your child.

Tips On How To Get Better Gardening Supplies

Have you ever really given your gardening supplies a second look? Most people don’t, and that is why we recommend that you do so now. Very often, people use old, rusty gardening supplies to tend their gardens. For people who use chemical fertilizers and growth boosters, many of these are stacked haphazardly in the back shed where they linger in the fumes of other chemicals like gasoline for the lawn mower or even leftover cans of paint. In other words, your supplies are becoming health hazards… not only to you, but to your plants as well. Here are some reasons why you should get the necessary supplies for your garden.

For prunes, shears and other cutting instruments… it is necessary to have these cleaned, oiled and sharpened at all times. Using a rusty pair of clippers on your plants causes more damage since these usually do not cut off cleanly. Plus, any accidents can cause severe infection from the oxidizing rust. If you have any of these, it would be better to dispose these ASAP and acquire new ones.

The same is true for shovels and spades. These should be cleaned thoroughly before using and just before being stored away. Dust, rust and any other material that may have accumulated on these instruments tend to stay in the soil for a long time. This is not particularly great if you are tending a vegetable or fruit garden.

For chemical enhancers (everything from chemical fertilizers, to insecticides, to bloom enhancers) try to buy only the smallest containers possible. If you can, try to buy those that are serviceable only for one application. The longer you store these, the more hazardous these become to the environment and the people using them. Better yet, why not switch to organic enhancers instead? These are less likely to be accidentally ingested… and even then, organic enhancers are 100 times safer than the chemical ones.

What Everyone Ought To Know About Gardening Tools

Some say that gardening tools are just “stuff” you use in the garden. This may be true on one account, but getting the right tools to do specific jobs around your patch of land can mean the difference between a healthy garden and a just-barely-there garden. The right gardening tools can help maintain the health of your plants, the soil that they are growing in, and the water that you feed them with.

For starters, using the proper tools means you get the job done a lot faster. This will cut your working time in the garden by as much as 50%; and might even afford you more time to make those garden improvement projects you have been meaning to do. You do not have to get the latest and most expensive tools all the time. Just try to make sure that you actually use the tools as they are intended.

Try also to keep your gardening tools in proper working condition. Rusty tools like spades, shovels, shears, pruning instruments and the lot should be permanently retired. Not only do these rusty implements damage the plants, but the oxidized metal may contaminate the soil as well. Unfortunately, rust tends to stay in the soil for years; and plants can absorb this through their roots and slowly poison them as well. Traces of rust can also make their way to the vegetables and fruits you may be growing in your garden.

It is also essential to tuck gardening implements away when you are not using them. Even simply leaving the garden hose out in the hot sun can cause your plants serious damage. More often than not, the plants accidentally get doused by heated or iced water from the hose, damaging leaves and flowers. Store all non-essential tools properly away. This leaves your garden looking less cluttered and actually safer for everyone… especially your plants.

Tips On How To Choose Garden Flowers

Are you starting your first garden? That’s great! A nice patch of garden flowers can be both soothing and stunning at the same time. Aside from choosing the actual garden layout and the materials you would need to plant the garden, you would need to choose your garden flowers carefully. Technically, you can plant away all you want.

This is your garden after all. However, a carefully structured area with complementing or contrasting layout of garden flowers can really get you that envy-inspiring patch of land… even if you only have a very limited space to work with. Here are some tips on how you can do that.

1. Work with the blooms that you see growing commonly in your area. Exotic flowers may be wonderful to look at, but these are very difficult to grow given any circumstances. Try to find out which of the native blooms you can actually plant on your patch of land, and start from there. Native flowering plants are the ones best suited to the kind of soil you already have and the type of climate in your area.

2. There are garden flowers that bloom year round and there are those that usually bloom at different times of the year. By combining the year round plants and the seasonal plants, you can almost be assured of a healthy flower garden at all times.

3. Work within a certain theme. This brings about a whole new dynamism to your patch of land. You can either have a native bloom garden; a one-color garden (e.g. white flowering plants only, or different shades of red blooms only); a contrasting garden (sharp contrasting colors when it comes to blooms); or a complementing garden (blooms are arranged according to the standard hues of the color wheel.)

Tips On How To Make Your Gardening Seeds Really Fruitful

The premise for starting a garden remains fundamentally the same. You get some gardening seeds, you plant them, you water them, you weed them and you let the plants grow on their own. If you are thinking that this sounds too suspiciously simple, then you may be right. Although there are some plants that need minimal care, there are ways wherein you can improve the seeds’ growing environment. And in so doing, you can also improve the plants’ development as well. Here are some tips.

1. It all starts with the health of the soil. The best type of soil is the one that is loosely compacted, moist and dark chocolate brown in color. Try to prepare the soil before you plant any seeds. Turn the soil using a shovel or spade, digging to about a 1½ feet deep. Remove any weeds or roots or pebbles that might appear, and keep turning the soil. If you want to use fertilizers (organic would be best), mix this in the turned soil 2 to 3 days before you plant the seeds. Water the soil to a consistency that is moist to the touch, but not dripping wet.

2. If you bought a packed envelope of seeds, make sure that you follow the directions on its label carefully. There are usually recommendations as to the amount of light that the plant should get, and its estimated “growing time.” If you bought gardening seeds from someone else, ask the vendors what the optimum conditions are for the plant to grow. Try to list these down and perform the recommendations faithfully.

3. One test for making sure that the seeds you plant will fruit is to simply soak them tap in water for 5 to 10 minutes. If the seeds float, it is very likely that these no longer contain the materials necessary for new life. You can throw these out. The ones that sink to the bottom of the container are the ones heavy enough to contain the budding plant matters.

Tips On Starting Your Very Own Herb Garden

Starting your very own herb garden can be the easiest thing in the world. For starters, most herb plants are hardy plants that can thrive well in almost all climates and locales. Also, your herb garden does not need to be expansive. A few patches of one type of herb can serve its purposes. However, the first thing you have to figure out when starting this endeavor is exactly what kind of garden you are planning to have. There are 3 general types of herb gardens.

Culinary herb gardens are the most common. In fact, these are now so prevalent in most modern homes that they are being commonly referred to as kitchen gardens. Typical herb shrubs used in the said gardens include: basil, bay, cilantro, coriander, dill, marjoram, mint, oregano, parsley, rosemary, rue, sage, and thyme. Tea, fresh oolong or any other type of tea plant, now also belongs to a typical kitchen garden. This, however, is different from conventional vegetable gardens, but many homes now carry both types at the same time.

Medicinal herb gardens are those that are supposed to serve as a source for more traditional forms of remedies. These gardens are now enjoying a resurgence of sorts, especially since people are re-discovering the power of natural, organic and alternative treatments to diseases, illnesses and bodily aches. Typical herbs found in such gardens are: chamomile, dandelion, dill, eaglewood, foxglove, garlic, hawthorn, konjac, peppermint, purple coneflower, smearwort, sweet sagewort, wormwood, and yarrow.

Lastly, religious herb gardens are those that carry the most aromatic herbs. These days, herbs harvested from such gardens are used primarily as ingredients for aromatherapy. Some of the most common herbs found here are: ague root, alfalfa, chicory, frankincense, hyssop, lavender, myrrh, and saffron.

How To Start A Vegetable Garden

If you are starting your vegetable garden, here are some of the most basic things you need to know. One: not all vegetable plants are terrestrial; some can be aerial. The aerial plants are the ones that need enough wooden support to climb and suspend its fruits. Examples of these are certain types of squash, eggplant (aubergine); and all types of gourds. Technically, these aforementioned plants are considered fruiting plants. Nonetheless, these are still staples in any vegetable garden.

Two: some vegetables are aquatic, meaning that these need to thrive near or right in the middle of a water source (e.g. swamp cabbage.) Three: not all terrestrial vegetable plants produce above ground. Root crops like potatoes, peanuts, and carrots all yield their produce underground. And lastly: a vegetable garden, like most fruit garden would need vigilant care because it is the favorite haunt of vegetable eating insect and animals.

Saying thus, the first thing you need to do to start off your own vegetable bearing patch is to determine the size of your planting area. Your planting area helps determine what and how many vegetable seeds you can plant in one season. Some vegetable plants would need a lot of space in order to grow, such as cabbages and lettuces. These vegetables must be spaced widely apart to allow maximum growth. If you have limited space though, you can either have the aerial plants mixed with the terrestrial plants as a way of utilizing the same space.

Make sure though that the plants growing under the shadow of the aerial plants are those that do not need a lot of sunlight to thrive. Plants like tomatoes and cabbages need long exposures to sunlight, and may not fare very well in shaded areas.

Or you could try hyrdophonic farming, where plants are allowed to grow in their own miniature bio-pot while suspended in water. But the thing is: hydrophonic farming may save you a lot of space, but this method of farming entails a lot of specialized equipments and apparatuses.