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If you are planning a camping or hiking trip you will want to make sure that you know the area that you are traveling to. Poison ivy is a plant that is very common among woodland and forest areas all over the country. If you have fallen into a little bit of trouble with this plant, look at these excellent home remedies to help you out!

Knowing about the native plants and animals in your area is going to be incredibly important. Before any hiking or camping trip, look up certain plants and animals that you should watch out for. There are plenty of excellent resources online that will plug you into a lot of useful information that will keep you and your travelers safe.

As soon as you know you have run into some poison ivy you need to rinse your clothes off. This is usually done outside before you get into the house. Try not to touch any part of your body and have a friend rinse you down outside with all of your clothes on. This will enable you to hopefully stop the poison from spreading.

You should also make sure that you take a nice hot shower after you have gotten rid of your contaminated clothing. Try to throw your clothes in the wash and make sure that you wash every part of your body. Unscented soap will work best; perfumes will often irritate the skin even more. Try yourself off and make sure to put on clean clothes.

Rubbing alcohol is another excellent remedy that you can use immediately as well as daily. Hikers and campers that are used to being outdoors all of the time will carry around a small bottle of rubbing alcohol with them. If you brush past a plant, you can use your small bottle to tackle the problem and keep it from spreading.

Oatmeal today is not just for small children with a bad case of the chicken pox. In fact, many adults will use this ingredient in a hot bath to help get rid of the pain and itchiness that the poison ivy plant causes. Keep in mind, this poison is often found within the leaves so make sure that you steer clear!

You can always use aloe vera on a number of ailments including sun burns and poison ivy infections. This is a topical gel that is all natural and found at local drug stores for as little as $3 per bottle. Make sure that you have a couple of bottles in your cabinets in the event that someone does get into some trouble.

If you cannot use a natural remedy to cure your poison ivy, you should see a doctor or a dermatologist right away. Most people have had a lot of success within a couple of days of using these home remedies. Make sure to apply any topical treatments or oatmeal treatments on a daily basis.

Find those Poison Ivy remedies online today. There are several poison ivy cure ideas that you will find. Go online today and get the help you need.

Landscaping is usually carried out with the intention of instilling a more cozy touch into the home and can be done regardless of whether the home owner is single and living alone or has a large family.

Whether you want to layer your garden, re-do your frontyard or have a make over done for your backyard, landscaping is the perfect answer.

Having a home that is the envy of all and sundry is the ultimate goal of any home owner This is why landscaping is becoming so popular because it guarantees a home worthy of pride on the home owner’s part and provokes jealousy on the part of the neigbours.

You need to know that sometimes, it is unimportant how long a company specializing in landscaping has been working because a few, inspite of their prolonged existence are totally unreliable; go for a landscaping company whose record speaks for itself.

If you reside in an area where there is no humidity and a lot of sun and you are interested in what type of plants will best suite your landscaping needs, you ought to consider plants or scrubs that thrive well in the sun and do not require much water to survive.

Landscaping is usually carried out with the intention of instilling a more cozy touch into the home and can be done regardless of whether the home owner is single and living alone or has a large family.

Landscaping can be done by landscaping professionals who are well versed in the art of landscaping; however, you can also landscape your home single handedly if you have an extensive degree of knowledge about landscaping and are confident of being able to apply what you know.

You must know that the decision to landscape your home is not one that is taken spontaneously..there is a need for you to find out about things such as zoning restrictions which may demand that you don’t use walls and fences, or that you don’t plant tress of a particular height.

In this information era of ours, it is very easy to find a landscape company that will garner your trust and earn your money.

If you reside in an area where there is no humidity and a lot of sun and you are interested in what type of plants will best suite your landscaping needs, you ought to consider plants or scrubs that thrive well in the sun and do not require much water to survive.

Want to find out more about Cordless Leaf Blower, then visit Victor Oz’s site on how to choose the best Black And Decker Cordless Leaf Blower for your needs.

The worst is over. It seems the snow has gone and we can now at least start looking forward to the warmer months, and in particular the summer time when we can at last enjoy the fresh air and greenery of our back gardens.

But keeping and maintaining a garden is not easy. Having a nice garden with lovely looking blooms in the summer, takes time and energy, both of which many people find are in short supply.

Previously, to have an attractive garden in the summer there were only two methods:  hard work; or resort to using powerful fertilisers, pesticides and other harmful products.

However, there is now an even easier, convenient, simple and environmentally friendly way to have a fantastic looking garden this summer without all the time, fuss and hard work.

Flower growing kits are a really clever idea and a simple method of having nice looking blooms in your own garden without any of the hard work or know-how.

Plant a Tree Kit

They contain everything you need to start the flowers off:

Pots, seeds, natural fertilizer etc. You can start them on the window sill or green house and once the blooms are hardy enough, you can replant in you own pots or garden.

And if you are finding, even with your newly planted blooms, that your garden is looking a little sparse – why not plant a tree?

As crazy as it sounds you can even grow a tree in the same method as you can flowers – using a plant a tree kit . You can start of with a small sapling on your window sill, plant it in the garden and then watch as the seasons roll by and it grows up to 20 feet high.

And what better present for somebody than a plant a tree gift set which will give them every thing they need to grow a tree on their windows sill that could eventually become a a beautiful tall feature in their garden.

Check out this video about garden pictures:

Here’s a quiet creation of still pictures and video of my father’s flower garden while visiting the homestead. It’s my small tribute for my family, and for Father’s Day. There’s some very minimal but nice piano music that sounds a little like George Winston interspersed.

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Product Description
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Garden Boots

Garden Boots

Check out this video about garden ideas:

Learn ideas for designing your vegetable garden in this free online video guide to vegetable gardening. Expert: Scott Reil Contact: www.safelawns.org Bio: Scott Reil is an accredited nurseryman and longtime horticulturalist with over two decades of experience in the field. Scott is now working for www.safelawns.org. Filmmaker: Christian Munoz-Donoso

A General Purpose Rock Garden Soil

The gardener knows that there is nothing like coarse, gritty sand for increasing the drainage properties of a soil. He uses it in his cutting bed, in the soil he mixes for potting. So sand will be one of the ingredients.

The roots of rock garden plants, as we have seen, like to cling around the moist surfaces of bits of stone buried in the soil, while the leaves rest upon those pieces which work their way to the surface, thus avoiding direct contact with the dirt.

An important ingredient will be stone chips. Ordinary crushed stone, such as is used for surfacing roads is suitable; this can be readily procured in most sections. If not, bank gravel, preferably not too fine or smooth, and not “washed,” will serve as a substitute.

For our third ingredient, we add humus or decayed vegetable matter, which is found almost invariably in soils in which rock plants grow. This material holds an additional supply of moisture, besides furnishing some plant food. For supplying humus, granulated peat moss is best. It is so slightly acidic that only the extreme lime-loving plants object to it, and it absorbs and holds more moisture than any similar material.

Moreover, it is both pure and absolutely free from weed seeds, an advantage which cannot be overemphasized in rock garden planting. Peat moss is now readily obtainable anywhere; but if you do not happen to have it, finely sifted leaf mold will serve. Commercial humus has more of a tendency than either of the above to get wet or soggy.

Fourthly, and lastly, to give additional body to the plant food, we add good light garden loam. This, however, should be wholly free from clay, which is the last thing, in the way of soils, to be used where rock plants are to go.

All this has required some time in the telling, but if you boil it down it comes to this. To make a satisfactory all around rock garden soil, mix thoroughly together the following:

1 part clean, gritty sand, 1 part stone chips, or clean, gritty gravel, 1 part granulated peat moss, or sifted leaf mold, 1 part clean, light garden loam.

You will have a soil in which 90% of the rock plants you are likely to try at the start will grow satisfactorily.

Special Soils for Special Purposes

Occasionally, however, you will find plants that require something different from the above in the matter of soil; these will grow in the above mixture, but will grow better if their tastes are catered to.

Some insist upon having an extremely acid soil, or a lime soil, in order to survive at all. Such plants as these may either be grouped by themselves, or may be started in pockets filled with a soil supplying their own special dietary requirements.

These special soil mixtures may be made up according to the following prescriptions, the chief changes being an increase in one part or another of the several ingredients. These proportions are approximate; there is no necessity for weighing out the ingredients on a jeweler’s scale.

Acid Soil

1 part sand, 1 part stone chips, 3 parts acid leaf mold (that is, leaf mold gathered from under evergreens, laurels, or the like), Lime or Sweet Soil 1 part sand or 3 parts old plaster, 1 part loan, 1 part peat moss

Dry Soil.

3 parts sand, 2 parts stone chips, 1 part loam, 1 part peat moss

Moist Soil.

1 part sand, 1 part chips, 1 part loam, 3 parts sphagnum moss or granulated peat moss, or both

Fertilizers

For plants other than the true rock plants and alpines-such as garden perennials and annuals, shrubs, evergreens, and most bulbs-and also for such of the rock plants or alpines as take readily to a somewhat stronger diet, very often decayed manure and bone meal may well be added to the general soil mixtures suggested above.

For evergreens, shrubs, or other plants which are to be set around the rock garden, by way of a background or setting, such conditions as are usually provided for them should, of course, be given. Particularly if any specialty garden features have been added, such as those in the Williamsburg Collection, http://technorati.com/videos/youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D9HrZ2bNaiGk.

Do not use any of the commercial fertilizers, except bone meal, and even with this great caution should be exercised.

Lime is not a fertilizer, but may occasionally be needed for the rock garden. If old lime rubbish, which is better for this purpose, is not to be had, ground limestone or gypsum may be used, to modify a soil otherwise too acidic.

Aluminum sulphate, now offered by most seed houses, works in the opposite direction. This may be utilized either to neutralize a lime soil, or, by applying it in larger quantities, to make the soil acid-reacting. Acidic leaf mold, which is to be found in most sections if trouble is taken to hunt for it.

Leaf mold gathered under oak trees is sufficiently acidic for most purposes, if decayed laurel leaves, conifer needles, or rhododendron leaves are not to be had.

For container gardening ideas, search the internet, the library or a bookstore. The challenge is to come up with a pleasing container garden design. There are an unlimited variety of containers available for your container garden. These range in size from small house-plant pots to large boxes and planters. Equally variable are the materials from which they are made. These include wood, glass, clay, aluminum, bamboo, straw, plastic, fiberglass, terra cotta, tin, cast iron, zinc, copper, and brass, each with certain advantages and disadvantages. What you select will depend on availability, cost, background, and appeal not to mention the characteristics of the gardening pots.

Here are some container gardening ideas. In addition to traditional circular pots and tubs, there are modern and ultra-modern forms—square, rectangular, triangular, hexagonal, and octagonal. Also eligible are old iron kitchen pots, kettles, pails, jugs, casks, vases, crocks, jelly tubs, barrels and nail kegs, Japanese fish tubs, old sinks, bathtubs, bamboo soy tubs. There are novelty containers such as driftwood, wheelbarrows, donkey carts, spinning wheels and boxes attached to roadside mail receptacle. There are also bird cages, decorative well heads, animal figures, and Strawberry jars. Woven baskets may be used to conceal unattractive containers. Even tar paper pots, handled by garden centers and florists, are worthwhile if painted or covered to improve their appearance. Any of these can be used in your container gardening ideas.

Where to find your container supplies? Start with what you have. If you scout cellars or basements, attics, garages, and sheds, you will doubtless encounter something interesting. Old-fashioned pots and kettles, often sold in antique shops at country auctions or seen at old New England inns, have much appeal.

Other container garden ideas are to consider old cookie and bean jars, pickle and other types of crocks, wash tubs, coal pails, jardinières, and ceramic bowls. For drainage, spread a thick layer of large pebbles or broken pieces of pots or bricks at the bottom and then water plants with care. In large containers of this kind, drainage material should be several inches thick. Where rainfall is heavy, be sure to keep garden containers without drainage outlets on porches, under awnings or the broad eaves of houses. With pails and old galvanized wash tubs, holes can be easily punctured at the bottom.

Plants in containers without drainage openings remain moist longer. Some of these—crocks, jardinières and cookie jars—are heavy enough to be secure against wind in outside container gardening.

What constitutes the ideal container for your container garden ideas? A container must be attractive, even if it is not an object of art. It should be strong and durable and able to resist all kinds of weather. This is especially true of the large sizes, which usually remain outdoors all year around. In the North, alternate freezing and thawing is a problem in winter (and could cause cracking); in tropical climates, excessive heat, humidity, and moisture are to be considered (and could cause fading). And in semiarid areas, there is the effect of scorching sun to keep in mind, another cause of fading. All these things must be kept in mind when coming up with your container gardening design.

The ideal container must be large enough to hold a substantial amount of soil. It should have good drainage facilities through holes or other openings at the bottom or sides, though this is not absolutely necessary. It must not rust, at least in a single season, and it should have a wide enough base to rest firmly wherever placed. Besides, it ought to be heavy enough to withstand average winds. In severe storms, like hurricanes and tornadoes, movable containers can be shifted to temporary safety. All of these things should be factored in when you are coming up with your container gardening ideas.

Resistance to rot is another requirement. Wooden containers—except those made of rot-resistant redwood, Western cedar, and Southern red cypress—will need to be treated with a wood preservative. Except for permanent containers, the ability to move your container garden is another feature, and sometimes a safety precaution, of portable container gardening. Large boxes and planters can be fitted with wheels, and garden centers have redwood tubs that rest on platforms with wheels. A hole in the platform corresponds to the hole in the tub. Large containers without wheels can be pushed on iron or wooden rollers by two or more persons; however, if you live in an area prone to disastrous storms it is best to keep your containers small.

Smaller containers are ideal for growing herb container gardens. If you plan to plant an herb container garden be imaginative Here are some container garden ideas for herbs that go well together.

For an Italian selection try Sweet basil, Italian parsley, Oregano, Marjoram and Thyme.

For a lovely scented container use Lavender, Rose scented geranium, Lemon balm, Lemon thyme, and Pineapple sage.

For really great salads try Garlic chives, Rocket, Salad burnet, Parsley, Celery.

And to say “We love French Cooking!” use Tarragon, Chervil, Parsley, Chives and Sage.

Any of these will liven up your cooking and please your family.

So these are just a few container gardening ideas. Get out a pad of paper and make up a container garden design that will please the eye and maybe even the palate

Happy Container Gardening!

Copyright © 2006 Mary Hanna All Rights Reserved.

my wife wants me to make a flower garden for her, which ok with me. now the problem, can anyone tell how many #40 bags of top soil it will take to fill a 3foot diameter and 10 inchs deep? thank you