Gardening for Different Purposes: Opinion Essay

The wonderful thing about gardening is it has many different purposes. Whether you use your gardening hobby for recreation or for a functional purpose you will find a lot of gardening tips here to help you to achieve your goals. Gardening has a personal touch to whatever you choose to do, some prefer to just have flower gardens and some just a vegetable garden – and some prefer to mix them all together.

When I was growing up my grandmother had a garden that was straight raised rows, each year the crop was rotated to provide for better growth for the plants, never – ever was there a single flower within the garden. It was a very orderly garden and provided our family with a great variety of fresh vegetables and herbs through the summer.

Each crop ripening usually at different times and our family having the fill of some of the bumper crops. Zuccini is a wonderful vegetable but there are only so many ways it can be cooked creatively. Friends and Family also shared vegetables and fruits that were grown. Seeds were stored in a dry place for the following year – and the special ones were shared the following year.

There are also competitions to enter, fairs to show off your freshly grown crops, enter those jams made from fresh fuits and even to show what you have done with your garden space. For some the garden is a more personal space, a place that you can just sit and enjoy. Endless hours can be spent in a garden – not only with the work, but more importantly with the joy that a garden brings.

Planning or designing your garden can be done easily with the right tools. Your gardening plans can involve anything from larger scale vegetable gardening or flower gardening to raised bed gardening or on an even smaller idea such as container gardening..

Whether this is your first gardening experience or you have had gardens before and are looking for new ideas gardening tips will show you how to take care of different types of flowers, herbs and vegetables from seeds to mature plants.

Gardening is an art and involves planning, design and upkeep to grow a healthy, abundant garden. Before you start your garden you want to look at all the factors such as the purpose of your garden, existing conditions (climate and soil type), financial constraints and how much time you have to mantain your garden.

All your hard work has paid off, and now you are presented with a dilemma, too many vegetables! After sharing your wealth with friends, family, co-workers, neighbors and anyone that happens to come to visit, there are alternative options of what you can do with your extensive supply of tomatoes, zucchini and other bountiful crops that will bring great joy to the community around you.

There are many different ways to approach this, the easiest would be to look up in your local phone book for organizations that you could donate your vegetables to. A good place to start would be food banks, womens shelters and half-way houses. Dont be discouraged if at first you are turned down, some community resources have to follow guidelines that will not allow them to accept fresh fruit or vegetables.

You can also look up on the internet for locations near you that would find great joy in being the recipient of your sharing. Another great idea is to do a vegetable exchange with other gardeners, you neighbor could have a bumper crop of beans or corn and not a great harvest on tomatoes, exchanging them will give you the best of both vegetables!

The only thing of caution here is that its a good idea to exchange with people that have the same basic gardening ethics, if you grow organic vegetables then you may not want to exchange with someone else that prefers to use chemicals or pesticides in their garden.

Preserving your vegetables for the rest of the year is also a great option. There are many sources online that can walk you through step by step on how to preserve your vegetables, either by canning, freezing or making something more specific like salsa sauce with your tomatoes.

You can use the same approach to this as the idea above as well, have a variety of vegetables gathered from people around you and have a harvesting party. Get each person to bring enough of something from their vegetable garden that each person that attends will have an item to go home with. (For example if you have zucchini, another has tomatoes, and yet another has beans, you would walk away with at least two other types of vegetables)

The first hint that you need to find alternative options is to realize that when your friends, family, and neighbors start running in the other direction and turning off all the lights and pretending they are not home when they see you walking towards them with more of your delicious vegetables, that there are alternatives that will not only help others in your community but make all your hard work in your vegetable garden go a little bit further in spreading the joy to others. For more gardening tips you can go to.

One of the nice things about summer is the richness of the colors of flowers that are abounding.

Daisies, lilies, roses, petunias, and so much more. Even the most cynical among us is touched by the burst of colors. Many people mistakenly think that plants and flowers are just something nice to look at. A female thing. If you’re thinking that way, you’re missing some of the most important benefits of plants and flowers.

Studies have shown that lots of green leafy plants help calm you and help relieve depression. This in turn helps you focus better and think more clearly. May be it has to do with the oxygen they give off? Similar studies show that just looking at flowers reduces stress. The scent of flowers is also calming.

Lavender is especially known for it’s calming qualities. In Feng Shui, flowers are said to strengthen family harmony and keep the flow of affection in all directions. When you get deeper into feng shui, there are different energies produced by placing certain colors in certain areas of your home. Green leafy plants in the entryway draw good energy into the house. If you have a lot of arguments in your house, you may have too much chi energy in your home. Feng Shui suggests putting plants in rich black soil in the south portion of your home to calm things down. Bathrooms in the south part of the house are believed to increase your chances of getting sued. Feng Shui prescription is to decorate with tall plants and wood.

Yellow flowers are said to have healing qualities in general. When you place them in the center of your home they keep you centered and balanced.

For financial harmony, surround yourself with red flowers. Fruit bearing branches represent abundance and good fortune. To keep the berries from falling off longer, scrape the bark off the bottom of the stems before putting them in water so that more water flows up to them. One of the hottest decorating trends this year is to put single buds in small juice glasses.

Place them across a mantle or shelf, or at everyone’s place at the dinner table to keep things calm. Think that will look good in my Pokemon Welchs jelly glasses? Or how about a prosperity centerpiece?

• Place a presoaked floral foam cylinder on a plate. For a small centerpiece, use a 4 inch cylinder.
• Spread a little of that moss stuff around the bottom edge, or cover the bottom edge with a piece of yellow or red ribbon.
• Cut your red or yellow (or combination of both) roses to 3 inches long. For the small arrangement, you will need 4 nice sized roses. Push them, evenly spaced, into the top floral cylinder.
• Now fill in with flowers, leaves, and berry branches.
• Stick a candle in the center.

For best energy results, use fresh flowers. (But Michaels has a 50% off sale on silk flowers pretty often too.) If you’re looking for some fresh ideas for your gardens outside here are more feng shui tips-

• Purple flowers planted in the south part of your garden increase passion. Petunias are a good low maintenance choice.
• Deep red flowers planted in the west part of your Garden bring success in business. I have red lilies, of course.
• Creamy white flowers planted in the north part of your garden (not the north side of your house) quiet anxieties. I like either lilies or fragrant roses.
• Ferns and grasses planted in the east part of the garden keep you feeling fresh and vitalized. I have Yucca. Not exactly a fern, actually it’s an evergreen, but I like it. Next year I want a cutting garden so I can enjoy the benefits of flowers even more!

And for you men reading this thinking, I don’t want to mess with flowers…. I’ve known many manly men who have put together great gardens.

My grandfather and my next door neighbor are two of them. And what about that funny guy who does the gardening show on HGTV? I love that show! Whether indoors or out, and whether you believe in such things as feng shui, working with plants and flowers really is therapeutic.

It can be as expensive or as inexpensive as you want. It can be a large project, or a very small one. It can be in any colors. Get creative! Gardening is not only a good mental exercise, it’s great physical activity too. And then kick back in your easy chair with the beverage of your choice and relax and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Creating the perfect garden for birds begins by understanding the needs of birds. Birds, as with other wildlife, require certain elements in the garden to survive. These elements include: Food Water Shelter

Planting for birds can add beauty as well as function to your backyard.

Begin by surveying your yard. You may already have some of the ingredients needed for a bird friendly backyard. Many flowers you already enjoy provide food for the birds. Coneflowers are a favorite summer and fall food source for Goldfinches.

Sunflowers offer the seed that attracts the greatest variety of birds. Consider tubular flowers for attracting Hummingbirds. Favorites include Trumpet vine, Cardinal flower, and Scarlet runner.

Annuals can also attract these tiny hummers, try including mass plantings of salvia, impatient, and containers of geraniums. Adding some of the ornamental grasses will also provide late summer feeding for birds, while providing beauty in the landscape. Those tall plumes provide seed Goldfinches, Black-capped Chickadees, and Purple Finches love.

Trees and shrubs in the landscape not only provide beauty but offer the birds a place to hide and raise their young. Flowering Dogwoods, and the small fruited crabapples, not only provide a valuable food source, but will attract Robins and others to nest in spring.

Select varieties that hold their fruit well into winter. Favorite shrubs include, Service Berry, Honeysuckle, and American Holly. Plant these and you are sure to be visited by Robins, Thrashers, Mockingbirds, and more.

Shrubs are also a favorite nesting site of the Northern Cardinal. Evergreens are an essential part of the bird garden. Providing important shelter and berries during winters cold. In spring, you’ll be rewarded by nesting birds by planting a few varieties of tall evergreens.

How you provide water isn’t important. Whether you add a full backyard pond or a simple bird bath, just be sure to add water. Birds need water not only to drink, but also to keep their feathers in tip-top shape. Even in winter, a water supply is needed.

Consider purchasing a bird bath heater. A heated bird bath will not only keep an open water source available for the birds, but will offer you a greater variety of birds to watch. Without a winter source of water, birds will have to use energy used to keep warm and survive to find water.

Allow your plants to remain in the garden through the winter. This allows the birds to feed on seed heads and insects much longer. Consider placing feeders and birdhouses in your yard. Once you’ve watched House Wrens scouring the soil for insects in your vegetable and flower gardens, you’ll be convinced, gardening for birds is in your best interest. Visit Wild-Bird-Watching.com for bird watching information on the nesting, mating, and feeding habits of backyard birds.

Well these truly are the ‘dog days of summer’. It is still hot some days really humid and every now and then not a bad day at all.

Here are a few tips to keep your garden and a few specific problems from getting away from you during the month of August gardening.

Your lawn, again usually three things or any combination of them may be the culprit(s) for making your lawn or patches of your lawn turn brown. Check water first. It may be that your sprinkler is just not applying enough water to certain areas of your lawn. Remember if you can see your footprints in the lawn after you walk on it then it is time to get water on it asap.

If the patchy brown areas of your lawn feel slightly ‘warmer’ than the green areas of your lawn it usually means that particular area is not receiving enough moisture. It is best to core holes in this area, which will help deliver water right to the roots.

The second item you may want to check will be for grubs. There will be no mistaking these creatures. They are usually about the size of your thumb, creamy white with a brown head. They will feed on the grass roots to store up for winter and ‘hibernate’ and emerge next year as adults.

These adults are the May and June beetles your see flying around at dusk in early summer. There are granular and liquid insecticides as well a natural beneficial nematodes to help control these critters.

The third item to check for will be a fungus. If you look closely at the blades of grass that are just around the edge of a dry patch you may notice lines or markings on each individual blade(s) of grass. If you have already checked for water or grubworms and are sure these two are not the problems this could be whats making your lawn turn brown. There are also granular and liquid fungicides available to help with this situation.

If you have any flowering trees or shrubs such as roses, crape myrtle, vitex, bird of paradise, oleander, among others it is very important to remove the ‘spent blossoms’ as they appear. This action will help keep your flowering plants blooming up until frost. If this is not done the plants will spend a lot of energy into forming seeds at the expense of new blossoms. Remember this usuallly works on just about any flowering plant.

If your plants are looking a little pale in color you may want to incorporate some iron into your soil. Plants and lawns can lose some of their deep green color this time of year due to so much watering. The soil may get leached out of it’s nutrients by August so it is important to replace these minerals with chelated iron or Ironite.

This not only puts a deep green back into the foliage but also makes flowers more vibrant. If it has been more thant 5 to 6 weeks since you last fertilized your lawn then it is time. For this area a 16-8-8 fertilizer with iron, sulphur and zinc is recommended. This may be used on a fescue, rye or bermuda lawn, as well as trees and shrubs.