Learn About Gardens

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It had been several years since we first moved into our house, when I decided that I wanted to plant some flowers to brighten up the landscape. The logical decision, since I thought that I only new a little about gardening, was to go to the local greenhouse. The owner was extremely helpful and friendly and asked deep, probing questions. Well, he asked one question. I mentioned that I thought I only knew a little about gardening. It turns out I knew nothing. I couldn’t answer his first question – “Annual or Perennial.”

I told him that I wanted whichever one of them grew flowers. He laughed – I’m sure he was laughing WITH me – and said they both grow flowers. I figured some education was in order, so I asked him what was the difference between an annual and perennial.

He said the difference was simple. Annuals only last for a year. You plant them in the spring, enjoy them in the summer, and by fall they’re becoming next year’s fertilizer. In some cases, they will reseed themselves so you’ll see a similar plant the following year, but it will not be the same plant.

Based on his description, I assumed perennials were the flowers that kept coming back year after year after year. They would live on forever. The man at the greenhouse said I was close. Perennials actually have a life cycle that extends past a single growing season and usually into three, four, or five years.

I still wasn’t sure what he meant. He said that perennials are like a haircut. It grows until it gets too long and then you cut it. The hair hasn’t died, it’s just become shorter. That’s the winter months for a perennial. It grows and then the flowering part dies until the next year where it grows out again – just like my hair. As I rubbed my temple, I recalled my receding hairline. My forehead wasn’t this high a year ago. That’s when it clicked about the perennials. They live for several years – like my hair – grower taller every year, and then they start to weaken and die – again, just like my hair. He said that I knew exactly what he was talking about now.

Thanks to the advertisement I had just received in the mail, I knew that hair could be replaced. It was the same for the perennials, he said. After a few years it was a good idea to replace them with more viable plants.

I thanked the man for the education he had given me. I now understood that an annual plant only lasts for a year. A perennial lasts for many years. He said it was a good idea to mix the two when it came time for my garden. Together we picked out a nice matching assortment of plants, paid for them, and walked out to my car. Now … where are my keys?

I grew up in a urban area, with a yard made up mostly of dirt. My mother always had gardens growing, though, and everything from green beans to strawberries to lilacs peppered the dull dirt yard with color. What always intrigued me about gardening as a child, however, was not to be found anywhere in the many garden retreats of my childhood home, but at the edge of the woods behind my grandmother’s house. Every summer, as we ate our grilled meals with watermelon and berries, things were selectively discarded separately from the other garbage. These rinds and peels made their way out to that pile in the edge of the woods soon after dinner, adding to the compost heap that would eventually become the top soil for my grandmother’s flowers.

 

As the world becomes increasingly more aware and concerned about environmental issues such as waste disposal and renewable resources, composting is not something that is just confined to suburban homes with woodsy backyards. In fact, some experts predict that within ten years, composting will become as common a source of recycling as recycling aluminum cans or glass bottles. One reason that this does not seem unfeasible is the sheer simplicity of composting as a part of daily household routine. Using kitchen and yard waste to create compost that can be used to create a healthier lawn or garden around your home is a practical way to reuse waste from your home and also save money at the same time.

 

Essentially, composting is a way of aiding the decomposition process of formerly living plants and organisms that will eventually become part of the soil and add nutrients to the other plants around them. There are some basic necessities for your compost pile or bin. Like any living organism, your compost pile needs ample space for air and it also thrives on water. Microbes that aid in the decomposition process also work quicker when the compost pile is hot, but any temperature above about fifty degrees Fahrenheit can sustain a compost pile.

 

There are two basic categories of compost. One is green, and the other brown. The best compost piles are a good balance of both green and brown. Green is things like grass clippings, fruit or vegetable leftovers, coffee grinds, and other kitchen waste. Brown compost is things like wood chips, sawdust, dry leaves, and things of that nature. Brown compost may need to be watered before being mixed in to the compost pile. Grass clippings, kitchen waste, not pernicious weeds, hay, wood chips, and other yard waste make great additions to any compost pile. There are things that you should not compost, like chemically treated wood products, weeds, or diseased plants, meat, bones, and human or pet waste. The best way to think of this process is as creating a healthy diet for the microbes that are creating this compost for you. If you meet their ideal conditions, you will get a great final product that will meet your gardening needs.

Click here to learn how to make the world’s best compost!

There have been a huge selection of garden tools offered in a number of stores, but one must ask themselves which is better the powered tools or the traditional kinetic tools. The older tools have been tested and have been proven to last the course of time. There have been some tools that have been passed through the generations and are still in use. These are usually a shovel or a hoe that has been taken care of and has proven that quality counts.

Some of the powered tools have made the work easier, but they have a nasty tendency of failing the person at the worst time and this can be something that can make them a poor choice for some people that have a large area of work or are dependant on a large task that requires the reliability that tools should provide. Some of the newer tools have been proven to handle the abuse of yard work, but still they have their limitations.

Many of the electric machines have to be plugged in and are restricted to the reach of their cords. There are extension cords, but still this is a limitation that can make these machines a pain to use.

There are also gas powered garden tools and these have been a blessing, but they too must be fueled and have a short run on how much they can do compared to an older kinetic tool. People would prefer the power tools as they are less effort and are more of a modern method of doing things. Still these are limiting like the older tools and require the effort in surpassing the limitations that they have.

Some of the most popular tools have been seen in the world as a god send, but they are also more dangerous as they have fast moving parts and require a higher level of caution by the user and the ones that are around it.

Overall these tools as a whole should be used in union and should be utilized to garner the strengths of all types. There are methods that can make them all useful to the one that is using them for a project. Some have seen this and have used them in a method that can make a job much easier and others are just seeking to get the work done as soon as possible.

One of the concerns that people have with garden ponds is the predators that they can attract. This can be a problem if the person has fish or other wild  life living in the pond. Many times a person will have heavy vegetation in the yard and will have fish that will inhabit the waters. These can attract a number of predators that will prey on the fish and the other things living in the water such as snails.

Some of the most common are snakes, raccoons, and even domestic cats. Some people that have gardens have tried all series of methods to keep the creatures at bay and with little success.

There has been one thing that has proven to be good at keeping these predators out of a person’s garden pond and that has been having pets of your own. These pets are usually large dogs that can even make the most aggressive raccoon timid. Some of the pet owners have seen their dogs repel a cat from stealing a fish and even seen a raccoon stray away when there are dogs present.

These have been some of the challenges that the predators have posed and the dogs will only work if there is alternate food sources. Some people have actually placed little traps in the fauna for predators that would prey on the fish and make the yard unsafe for others that would like to see the wildlife that has teemed in the pond.

Even the snails that people can purchase for their pond can fall prey to these predators and that can pose an expensive problem as well if all the life in the pond is consumed. Some people that have had this happen will give up on fish for a few years to give the predators time to find other food sources. This sometimes works, and sometimes the predators don’t stray far enough.

These are some of the challenges that a pond owner must face and these are some of the things that have made people reconsider if garden ponds are really for them. Some people have also found other methods to evade the predator issue and that is something that should be considered as well. It all comes down to how devoted the person is to have garden ponds with life or not.