Posts Tagged ‘Gardening’

Monasteries with dramatic gardens, adorned with garden statues and water fountains, flourished throughout Europe in the first half of the first millennium, and along with cross, monks carried the plough. Hard work, which had fallen into disfavor, was raised from the dust by the monks. “It was the special glory of St. Benedict [the founder of the order to which St. Augustine belonged] to teach the men of his day that work in the garden, sanctified by prayer, is the best thing a man can do, and this lesson has never been lost sight of since his time, as reflected in the beauty of the garden grounds.”

Within the walls of Benedictine monasteries, therefore, were large gardens with dramatic statuary, water features, and hanging wall fountain gardens cultivated by all the resident monks, often along with smaller ones assigned to the abbot and the chief almoner of the community. Formerly despised by the earliest Christians as symbols of paganism, flowers were now grown to decorate the church. The roses were often grown in large stone garden planters and was held in the highest esteem. At Subiaco is still preserved the roseto, a little rose garden set with a large stone statue of St. Benedict. The rose bushes it contains are said to be the same as those whose beauty delighted his senses, and with whose thorns he was accustomed to mortify his flesh.

The coming of St. Augustine to Canterbury in 597 A.D. was the beginning of a new era in gardens for the British Isles. The civilization, arts, and letters which had fled before the sword of the English conquest in post-Roman times returned with the Christian faith. In England, the revival of horticulture and decorative gardens and the introduction of several new vegetables and fruits was brought about by the Benedictine St. Augustine and his disciples. The flourishing gardens sported water fountains whose design was clearly inspired by the fountains of Italy.
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Planting a backyard garden can be a fun and rewarding experience if you approach the planning and preparations aspect of gardening in the right way – but a lack of planning and preparation can cause your hard work in the hot summer months to yield mediocre results (if any) at the end of the growing season.

Perhaps somewhere in the world, the key to successful gardening is simply dropping a handful of seeds into the ground and watching them spring up. But most garden soils require careful attention and preparation.

Choosing a Plot
A common mistake among beginning and experienced gardeners alike is to plant more than they can possibly care for. A successful vegetable garden plot does not need to be big. A small, well-tended garden will grow as much or more produce than a larger one that the owner cannot keep up with.

Backyard gardeners should choose a sunny spot where water is readily available. Most vegetables do best in full sun if possible, but at a minimum, your garden should get at least 6 hours of sun a day.

Try to select a spot with good, rich soil. Good garden soil is deep, loose, fertile, well drained, rich in organic material and has a neutral pH. The ideal garden soil composition is about 5% organic matter, 25% air, 25% water, and 45% mineral matter. If you are planting a garden in a desert area with naturally not fertile soil, plan on working to improve the soil that is there.

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Garden Sculpture & Fountains added much to the decorative effect of the Roman garden. Carved balustrades, benches, tables, bas-reliefs, and statuary were considered the most important part of many gardens, and were beautifully designed. To supply this ornamentation, shiploads of the finest sculptures, statuary, and artistic fountains were exported from Greece to adorn Italian pleasure grounds.

As in Greece, garden statues were usually set up in honor of some appropriate divinity. Accordingly, images of the Graces, the Seasons, Pan, Sylvanus, Flora, Pomona, and Vertumnus were frequently erected. Terminal statues with knobs below the shoulders, from which a votive garland of flowers might be hung, seem especially fit for the open air.

Refreshment being one of the most desirable luxuries for human beings and a necessity for the vegetation, an abundance of water fountains were indispensably connected with out-of-door dwelling-places. In the baths, fish-ponds, and fountains, great ingenuity was displayed to please the eye while the body was being reinvigorated.

From an elaborate chateau d’eau to a slender font of a drinking water fountain, almost every form of ornamental hydraulics with which we are familiar, and many others now unknown, seems to have been employed by the ancients. At Pompeii there are a variety of outdoor water fountains in a good state of preservation. Hardly any main area is without a rectangular basin of water a foot or two deep, either lined with marble or mosaic. Usually they are placed entirely below the level of the pavement, but occasionally the edge of the basin is surmounted by a marble statue rising a few inches above the surface. A marble table or statue was often placed in connection with these fountains.
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The Tulip Tree has got its name from its tulip shaped flowers. The flowers of a Tulip Tree are located at great heights and typically reach a size of 2.5 inches. The Tulip Tree produces monoecious flowers with yellow-green petals. The corolla has a beautiful vivid orange shade. Some people find the leaves of the Tulip Tree similar to tulips too, at least with a little imagination. The leaves are four lobed and have a notch at the tip. A Tulip Tree leaf will typically reach a length of 4-6 inches in diameter. The leaf colour is bright green and will turn yellow in autumn.

The Tulip Tree is sometimes called “The King of the Magnolias”. It is called Liriodendron tulipifera in Latin, and it belongs to the Family Magnoliaceae. The Tulip Tree is related to the Chinese Tulip Tree (Liriodendron Chinese).

The Tulip Tree is utilized as timber and is very appreciated among carpenters since the wood is easy to work with. Tulip Tree wood has a pale yellow color and is particularly popular in furniture, wood carvings, cabinetry, veneer, jewelry boxes and musical instruments. Earlier, the Tulip Tree was frequently used in canoes created by Native Americans. The Tulip Tree bark has been used as a substitute for cinchona in traditional remedies.

The popular Tulip Tree is known by many names in English, including Canoewood, Saddletree, Tulipwood, Whitewood, Canary Whitewood and American Whitewood. The Tulip Tree is not a poplar, but it is still commonly referred to as Tulip poplar, Hickory poplar, White poplar and Yellow poplar.
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Even a composting neophyte can create top-notch compost with the right recipe. Akin to cooking, composting is half art, and half science. Awareness of these basic factors will help you getting started. Just like a chef demands high quality ingredients, successful composting needs the best ingredients too. Good materials for composting include these: grass clippings, leaves, plant stalks, hedge trimmings, old potting soil, twigs, vegetable scraps, coffee filters, and tea bags.
Bad composting materials include: diseased plants, weeds with seed heads, invasive weeds, pet feces, dead animals, bread and grains, meat or fish parts, dairy products, grease, cooking oil, or oily foods.

To prepare compost, you need organic materials, microorganisms, air, water, and a small quantity of nitrogen. Organic material is what you are trying to decompose (see above for Do’s and Don’ts). Microorganisms are tiny forms of plant and animal life, which break down organic material. A small amount of garden soil or manure supplies adequate microorganisms. The air, nitrogen, and water offer an encouraging environment for the microorganisms to produce your compost. You can add enough nitrogen to the compost with small amount of nitrogen fertilizer., which can be purchased at hardware stores or nurseries. Air is the one ingredient which you can’t have too much of. Too much nitrogen can kill microbes; too much water causes insufficient air in the pile.
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Growing vegetables in your garden can save you money. During harvest time, your own produce becomes part of your meals. Home gardeners feel deep satisfaction in preparing salad or seasoning the casserole with freshly picked plants from their own vegetable gardens. Their feeling of the taste is incomparable. Fresh surplus are distributed to friends and love ones while some are keep frozen.

It doesn’t require much space to grow vegetables. Even a container pot or a window box will do the trick. Where space is limited, you can grow a mini-garden indoor or outdoor. If you have a good sun, access to water and enough containers, growing a garden’s worth of fruits and vegetables in a limited space is a no-brainer. You can even harvest more than one crop if your choice of plants and planting schemes are all well planned and executed. Windowsills, balconies and doorstep areas can be used, as well as empty packs of milks, pails, plastic buckets and cans.

When planting in containers, proper spacing is very important. One sturdy plant is better than several weak ones. Crowding chokes root systems will slow growth and poor production. With container vegetable garden, you no longer need to worry about poor soil types and bad drainage, or heavy-duty tiller to break up hard clay and rocks. There is no weeding to worry about and you can change the looks of your container placements by simply moving them around anytime to a place you wanted to.

Vegetable gardening offers a change from the monotony of the supermarket. You can grow variety of vegetables that you want. When choosing plants for your vegetable container garden, consider container worthy crops such as beans, carrots, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, eggplants and radish. Other root crops such onions and turnips can also do well in containers, but remember to always take care of these crops by ample fertilizers and water. Also consider grapes and berries. Though some take a while to get established, they bear fruits more each year. Planting for fall crops can be started in early summer, though summer planting can still be done in June in most regions.
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If you’re seriously interested in knowing about Bulb Flowers, you need to think beyond the basics. This informative article takes a closer look at things you need to know about Bulb Flowers.

Once you begin to move beyond basic background information, you begin to realize that there’s more to Bulb Flowers than you may have first thought.

Just about every flower gardener will work with bulb plants at one time or another. Bulbs are loved by gardeners for the ease with which they grow, their hardiness and the fact that they can bloom again and again for many consecutive seasons without the need to replant. With all these advantages, it is no wonder that bulb plants are so popular among both new and experienced gardeners.

Choosing the right bulbs, however, is one thing that many beginning gardeners have trouble with. After you develop and eye and feel for finding the best bulbs, however, you will be able to spot them from across the garden center.

When choosing bulbs for your garden, it is important to choose the firmest and largest bulbs. The size of the bulb is important, since large bulbs are more likely to provide many blooms. The firmness of the bulb is a good indication of its health, and bulbs that are soft or mushy are unlikely to bloom. Bulbs are particularly susceptible to water damage. It is important to choose a bulb that is not to soft, but it is also important to look for cracks or scars. Bulbs with cracks or scars may have become too dry to bloom. Likewise, any bulbs that have begun to spout roots should be avoided, as they are unlikely to bloom properly once planted.

How bulbs are planted in the garden is important as well. Most bulbs are best planted in the fall, most commonly in early to mid October. The goal is to get the bulbs into the ground six weeks before the ground begins to freeze, so obviously the best time to plant will vary from location to location.

Bulbs should be planted in a well prepared soil, and the depth they should be planted will be determined by the type of bulb. For example, crocus bulbs are generally planted four inches deep, daffodil and hyacinth bulbs six inches deep and tulip bulbs at a depth of eight inches.

A simple gardening tool called a bulb planter is great for achieving a more uniform look to the blooming garden. Bulb planters can be used to easily prepare perfect looking rows of flowers. Those gardneres who prefer a more wild and freewheeling look, on the other hand, often dig a single hole and plant several bulbs in it. This approach can lead to spectacular, if somewhat unpredictable, patterns once the bulbs begin to bloom.
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Winter has an effect not only pot plants outdoors, but also indoors. Find out what are the key factors that affect your plants in winter and what you can do to help
them stay healthy at this time of the year.

1. LIGHT is the very first element to consider. In winter, when the light is not so strong, you can place your plants closer to the windows, and rotate them regularly so all the leaves receive enough light.

Choose the most appropriate location taking into account the following window orientations:

-North: it doesn’t receive direct sunlight, but it is a good source of light for your plants. Most convenient in summer.

-South: it receives the most sunlight. Very convenient in winter.

-East: it allows early sunlight, which is very important for an excellent growing of your plants.

-West: it receives much sunlight, but its convenience depends on the amount of light the plant can receive.

2. TEMPERATURE is another key factor to consider because in winter we increase the temperature of the room via heaters, fireplaces and other heating devices. Plants suffer many times because of this, and we do not realize.

When the temperature of the room increases, the water of your plants evaporates quickly, and so it may be necessary to increase the amount of water they receive. As always, the exact amount of water will depend on the type of plant you have.

A solution to this is to place containers with water close to the plants. The leaves will absorb the water by transpiration, in a natural way.

And a quick reminder: although plants show beautifully when displayed on mantelpieces, remember to remove them before starting a fire, as the excess of heat could kill them.

3. WATERING your plants in winter is important for the reason told above. To water your plants properly, do so with abundant water fewer times, rather than with less water and very often.

The reason for this is because the water needs to reach all the roots of the plant, including the deepest ones. When you use abundant water, the plant does not need more water for a while, so you can space the watering.

If not watered properly, the plant may die, even though the surface of the soil may appear wet.

4. VENTILATION is a key factor since some indoor plants need air moving around them occasionally, so their stems and leaves can gain in strength.

Although they do not need a continuous flow of air, the truth is that they get exactly what they need under “friendly” weather conditions, that is early autumn, spring or summer, when we naturally open doors and windows and allow breeze to flow.
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