Archive for Organic flowers
It’s A Season Of Marigolds. Marigold’s Secret Mission
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Marigolds truly live up to their name – a sea of molten gold flowers that have many more uses besides being beautiful in your garden. They are made for summer.
To meet the demands of their native lands–chiefly Mexico and Central America–members of the marigold family had to flourish in hot sun as well as tolerate poor soils and infrequent rain.These qualities make them one of the most foolproof summer annuals, whether you plant them in the ground or in a container.
Their leaves have another bonus: Like other plants whose foliage contains volatile oils, such as lavender and rosemary, marigolds seem to repel many harmful insects while attracting beneficial ones. Recent research indicates that marigolds contain compounds toxic to root knot and other plant-parasitic nematodes (microscopic round worms that damage plant roots).
If nematodes are bugging your crops, you won’t see them, but you’re sure to see the damage they cause: stunted, yellow, and/ or wilted plants, often with distinctly knotted and possibly rotting roots.
There’s no safe chemical cure for these microscopic, soil-dwelling worms except French marigolds.Plant them in rows or blocks between your crops (you have to plant a lot of them to get the benefit), and you’ll enjoy their flowers all season long. Marigolds suppress nematodes only when they are planted thickly and allowed to grow for many weeks. Read More→
Tall Plants: Large & Happy Blooms That Rise Above The Rest
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Tall plants with their large blooms bring an unexpected explosion of color to your garden. I’m talking about the easy- going giants that announce themselves by standing out above the rest.
Even the most delicately designed of perennial flower gardens will benefit from several tall plants to prevent the overall look from becoming boring. There’s a place in every garden for tall flowers, especially those that make excellent cut flowers.
Here are a few:
* Butterfly bush: A butterfly bush can grow to 5 or 6 feet — 7 in a good season. They attract butterflies and other insects as well as hummingbirds, drawn to their pink, white, purple or blue flowers. Full sun.
* Cosmos: This delicate-looking flower with its fernlike leaves is tough as nails and easy to grow from seed. Their airy, beautiful forms work well just about anywhere, whether it is a container, small annual bed or a large mixed border.
Cosmos need full sun, but will thrive in ordinary soil. In fact, cosmos basically thrive on neglect once they’re growing strong. Butterflies and bees love them. Sensation is just one of the taller varieties, topping out at 4 feet.
And no matter what your color preference is, there is a cosmos out there for you. In addition, adding cosmos will almost guarantee that your garden will be visited by butterflies. Read More→
Alert: Toxic Plants In Your Garden
Posted by: | CommentsWe often live side -by- side with toxic plants and are ignorant that many common plants we use for food, decorate our homes or add value to the landscape are poisonous.
You may be surprised to find out the incredibly lethal plants often hanging around the neighborhood park – or gracing your tabletop in the form of a centerpiece.
We have poisonous plants in our own private gardens, on sale at garden centers, on show in gardens open to the public; including many public parks that are totally unsupervised..
Surprisingly, there is more than one plant that could be in your home that is a potential killer.
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One, is the Daffodil. The bulbs of a daffodil can be deadly. If consumed they can cause vomiting and diarrhea.
Include with the bulbs of a Daffodil, the bulbs of a Hyacinth and the bulbs of a Narcissus. Both cause the same symptoms as a Daffodil and both can also cause death.
Daffodils are deer- and vermin-resistant, and no wonder — they have a poisonous numbing effect.
* Oleander : Oleander is a common garden plant, but ingesting any part of it can be deadly. Even the smoke from a burning oleander can kill you.
It is the most deadly plant in the world. It is also tremendously popular as a decorative shrub. Just one leaf can kill an adult, and fatal poisonings have resulted from minimal exposure to the twigs, blooms and berries.
Once ingested, oleander goes to work simultaneously on the nervous system, the cardiovascular system, and the digestive tract.
* Apples: The apples on the tree are, as we know, not only good to eat but also good for us. But not the seeds. They, as well as the seeds of apricots and the pits of peaches contain cyanogenic glycosides. If you eat enough of the seeds, you could very well die.
If you cut up apples for your children or prefer to eat whole apples down to the core, make sure you remove those seeds.
* The rosary pea may sound sweet and downright pious, but it’s actually one of the most toxic plants on earth. Its seeds contain a particular lectin known as abrin.
If chewed and swallowed, death will follow shortly. The seeds are easily identified with their distinctive bright red jacket and single black dot (almost like a reverse Black Widow spider And, Read More→
Clovers For Fertility: Maintaining Garden Soil Organically
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If your garden soil is poor, consider giving it some help. One way to amend garden soils organically is to plant a green manure cover crop. It requires minimum effort.
For 4,000 years prior to the factory-made fertilizers, the Chinese used every bit of organic matter they could lay their hands on to return to the soil the nitrogen and other nutrients their vegetable crops removed.
Americans have never been quite so industrious. Unlike the Chinese, our culture treats the organic matter we should be putting back into the soil as waste material, shipping it off to landfills or flushing it down the toilet.
Even small gardens will benefit from the use of cover crops, or “green manures”. Tilling, weeding, harvesting and foot traffic of most home gardens tends to destroy soil structure.
Planting cover crop is an easy way to revitalize the soil, and help soil tilth and subsequent plant growth.
Cover crops are planted in vacant space and worked into the soil after they grow instead of being eaten. They provide a number of advantages to the otherwise wasteful use of space during your garden’s off-season.
Cover crops help to retain the soil, lessen erosion, and decrease the impact of precipitation on the garden by slowing the runoff of water. And, Read More→
It’s Your Move About The Red Clover
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Red Clover is a very common plant with bright pink blossoms and is renowned for its fertility-enhancing properties. A delicate blossom on a hardy, nourishing plant could be the natural fertility booster that you are looking for.
It is known as a hardy plant that enriches the fertility of the soil its planted in. Natural wisdom has proven that it gives a tonic and enhancing effect to human fertility as well.
Common in fields and along roadsides, it has bright pink blossoms from mid-summer into the chilly days of fall. What can red clover tell about your landscape?
The reason for its presence is not to annoy or even mock you. Instead, it is merely assessing the quality of your garden soil. Typically, the presence of clover in your lawn indicates a low level of nitrogen in the soil.
Nitrogen in your soil will affect the part of the plant that is above ground, especially the green, leafy sections. Correct levels of Nitrogen will promote healthy green foliage.
Therefore, you will find that vegetables such as lettuce and spinach, as well as lawns, have high Nitrogen requirements.
Nitrogen is one of the most difficult nutrients to maintain in your garden as it is easily washed away by rain water. The Nitrogen level in your soil can, therefore, deplete quickly. And, Read More→
