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How To Use Annuals In Landscaping Your Garden
An annual, from the point of view of the amateur gardener, is any plant which must be replaced each year and which flowers only once in its life. Annuals generally are grown from seed. The chief advantage of annuals over perennials is their low...
Laying Out Your New Landscape
When planning your new landscape, the first place to start is by driving around your neighborhood and seeing what other people have done with their landscapes. Bring a sketch pad or digital camera to record things you like. Your next stop is your...
Putting PASSION back into home decorating
For most people, they can count the times they redecorate their homes in a lifetime on one hand. It's a shame because this is not because they don't have great ideas about how they want their homes to be, but that the thought of redecorating brings...
Some Thoughts On Planting Roses
Although all kinds of gardening is my passion in life, nothing
but nothing gives me greater pleasure than my beautiful rose
garden. They are just so stunning, and I do really love the
colors and the amazing varieties which are available.
To...
Types Of Roses To Use For Landscaping Your Home
If you enjoy roses, you can use them functionally as well as decoratively around your grounds — as creepers, shrubs, vines, climbers, hedges or just as beds of pure color. Rose originators are enthusiastic and tireless, and every year new...
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Keeping Soil Healthy
Soil is a composition of weather-beaten rock, minerals, decayed
plant materials and other organic ingredients. All this takes a
long time to develop, but can be damaged by our action or
neglect in a single season.
Plants can obtain nutrients from the soil using their roots and
change them to usable materials to grow new roots, leaves and
flowers.
All gardeners are to be custodians of the soil, taking the time
to replace food and other elements as they are used. We need to
treat it like we want to be treated, not like dirt.
Healthy soil should contain a mix of air, water, nutrients and
organic matter. We can protect this mixture by:
Adding organic matter on a regular basis is probably one of the
most important things we can do. Adding compost, cover crops and
animal manure can do many things:
+ increases the soil's capability to hold nutrients. + makes
food available to plants over a longer period of time. + lessen
the amount of nutrients lost by erosion or leaching. + provides
micro-nutrients that are needed by plants in small amounts. +
release nutrients already in the soil by increasing the action
of beneficial microorganisms. + increases the water-holding
capacity for sandy soils. + increase the drainage of clay soils.
+ saves money.
Do not apply fertilizer to lawns until we get a good soaking
rain, and for the best, safest, long-lasting results use organic
fertilizers. The wet soil puts the nutrients into a solution and
helps distribute the nutrients to the plant roots to be absorbed.
The ability of soil to drain water is important. But when you
read phrases like "plant in a well-drained soil" or "does not
like wet feet", they are talking about the plant's need for air.
The roots of plants require oxygen and any soil that is
waterlogged will be lacking oxygen.
Many plants will put up with high moisture-conditions during
the
growing season, but when the plants are dormant the same
conditions may kill them. By improving the drainage the plant
will have a better growing environment.
Another problem is soil becoming compacted by tractors and other
equipment or just by tilling it year after year. You will find
soil compaction in most soils, from gardens to farm fields.
Tilling the soil when it is too wet will clump and ruin the
composition of the soil. This condition takes a long period of
time to bring it back to health. To tell if the soil is too wet
take a handful and squeeze it, if it crumbles in your hand then
it is ready to till but if it clumps then it is too wet. Some
people now believe that tilling at all is not good for the
structure of the soil. It exposes the helpful microorganisms to
the environment and they are destroyed.
Gardeners may wonder if it is best to till the garden in the
fall or spring. Tilling the soil in the fall has advantages over
springtime. When spring arrives it allows for earlier planting
since the basic soil preparation is done. Tilling in the fall
allows a large amount of organic matter to be turned into the
soil and start decomposing because the microbes are active
currently.
An excellent source of organic matter is the fall leaves. Try
tilling a thick layer of leaves into the soil this fall and by
spring it will have decomposed.
Fall is a good time to test your soil and should be done every
couple of years. In conclusion, doing all the previous steps
should be done the organic gardening way. It's back to basic.
About the author:
Join Sintilia Miecevole, host of http://www.budsgardening.com
for a great resource site all about gardening. Enjoy everything
from news, tips, design, advice and landscaping to seeds, soil,
flowers, water gardens, perennials and organic gardening. Be
sure to visit http://www.budsgardening.com and enjoy!
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| Landscaping Ideas | Landscape Design | Landscaping Pictures |
| Information for homeowners on hardscape and softscape elements in landscape design. Includes a chat room and forum. |
| landscaping.about.com |
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| Gardening |
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| Landscaping - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
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| EERE Consumer's Guide: Landscaping |
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| Planning the Home Landscape |
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| Great Lakes Environment: Greenacres-Green Landscaping |
| A key source of Great Lakes environmental information. |
| www.epa.gov |
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| Landscaping - Outdoors - homesite.com.au |
| Landscaping - homesite.com.au, Australia’s No.1 home and garden web site. |
| www.homesite.com.au |
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| H2ouse.org : Tour : Landscaping |
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| Landscaping for Energy Efficiency |
| Are you looking for cost-effective yet eye-pleasing ways to lower your energy bills? Planting trees, shrubs, vines, grasses, and hedges could be the answer. |
| www.pioneerthinking.com |
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| Edible Landscaping Online |
| Only the most productive disease resistant varieties make it onto the approved list here at Edible Landscaping. Our plants are guaranteed to arrive healthy ... |
| www.ediblelandscaping.com |
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| Free Landscaping Ideas, Landscapes, Front Yard, Garden Landscaping |
| Landscaping ideas that transform your boring, unattractive yard into the picture perfect oasis you've always dreamed of. Find out h... |
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