The Best Way to Cut Firewood

I know it sounds terrible, but one of the reasons that I like working with firewood is that people leave me alone. I’m not asked to vacuum the living room, fix something or give anybody a ride. Maybe it’s because people don’t want to learn how to cut wood properly and get too close to a guy running a chain saw, or perhaps they know that I’m liable to put them to work stacking wood or dragging logs, among other things. (more…)

Back Yard Flower Gardens

Flowers in your yard and around your home create a beautiful colorful atmosphere to your landscape.
They can be arranged in flower beds or in border plantings. These include varieties of both annuals
and perennials.

Perennials In the Back Yard Garden

Perennials are flowers that come up every year from the same roots. Some of these flowers grow for two years and then they can reseed themselves. They grow throughout the summer and fall and prefer a half day of sun. Many perennials are adapted to certain conditions including shady spots, moist locations, hill tops and even water gardens. Perennials blend into border plantings where shrubs are the main focus. Tall flowers can be planted behind low shrubs, short ones in front of taller shrubs and in between shrubs. This provides color and brightness to the normally
green border plantings. (more…)

Back Yard Garden: A Family Affair

Working with soil and plants can inspire the inner human spirit. Gardening helps relieve the stresses of every day life and provides a natural inner peace. It leads to a healthier and more satisfying life style.

So turn off the cell phones, computers and television sets and begin a new partnership with nature. The size or shape of your garden does not matter. It need not be a square or rectangle in one certain part of the yard. Various vegetables and flowers can be placed in different parts of the yard depending on their sizes and the special conditions they need to thrive and the color
schemes you desire to create a pleasant atmosphere, A small herb garden near the house gives easy access for all of your cooking needs everyday. (more…)

Bulbs, Tubers, Corms and Rhizomes

Bulbs are a large group of flowers that produce beautiful displays year after year and require little care. Included with true bulbs are corms, rhizomes, tubers and tuberous roots. Plan your garden and yard program to create a colorful display that will continue to bloom from early spring through late fall. Make a list to see which will work best for you, how many of each bloom you will need
and the color scheme you would like to create.

Early bloomers include crocus, tulips, hyacinth, daffodils, lilies and iris. These are considered hardy bulbs. Different varieties of all of these flowers bloom at various times throughout the spring, summer and fall seasons. (more…)

Harvesting Your Garden

After putting a lot of work and time in your garden, with all the weeding and watering and patience that was required; now is the time to start thinking about harvesting your crops.  There are several options to consider when you are ready to reap the rewards of your efforts. Now is the time to make all of your hard labor pay off.

First, you can choose cooking the veggies. This includes boiling, baking, and broiling.  If your choice is boiling, then pick the vegetables close to meal time.  Do not remove the skins unless they are too tough. Skins contain many minerals and nutrients.  Do not boil too long as that will result in loss of valuable vitamins and minerals. Use of a pressure cooker is best, as there is very little water involved in this process.  Baking or broiling vegetables is better than boiling.<!–more–>

When preserving vegetables for a long time, freezing is the a better process.  Gather the crop when it is at its prime, then try  to get it into the freezer within an hour. Start by blanching the vegetables.  This is the quick boiling process that stops the growth of enzymes. Do this quickly for only one minute to avoid the loss of vitamins.

Have set up two sinks or containers, one with cold water and one with ice water.  Drop the blanched vegetables into the cold water first for one minute, then move to the ice water for two minutes.  Pack immediately in air tight containers and place in the freezer.  Those handy plastic bags work very good.  If you are freezing sweet corn, it is recommended to remove the kernals from the cob and then blanch.  If you need to repeat this procedure more than once, replace the cold water and add ice to the ice water.

The third option is aimed at root plants,such as carrots, beets, turnips and potatoes.In colder climates they can be left in the ground safely after several frosts.  In milder climates, these can be left in the ground all winter.  If the temperature drops, protect them with a thick layer of hay or straw.

Of course, eating raw vegetables is the healthiest choice to obtain all of their nutritional values.  Remember that if you used any sort of pesticide during the growing cycle be sure to wash your vegetables
carefully and thoroughly before preparation or eating.

Houseplant Basics

You have just moved into your first home or apartment and want to get some houseplants to enhance your decorating scheme. There are two main types of indoor plants to consider: foliage plants and flowering plants. Foliage plants are much easier to grow and they are tough. They can tolerate weak lighting, irregular watering. extreme temperatures and neglect.

Foliage plants don’t only have the basic green leaves. They come in many different shades of green from very light green to very dark blackish green. The leaves also come in a wide variety of colors from white, pink, red, purple, silver and brown, and have stripes and swirls of color in them.
(more…)

Winter Gardening. Get More Benefit From Your Gardening Skills

If you really love flowers and plants, but don’t have a lot of knowledge on this subject, container gardening may be a good place to start. For a change of scenery to brighten up a room or small patio, but with a limited budget, container gardening could be the perfect solution for you. Containers can be arranged in groups or a single plant used in any area of the house, patio or yard.

When buying the flowers, choose different kinds of flowers. Check out colors, shapes and sizes to see how they go together before you buy them. Then look at containers. They will be a vital part of your decorating scheme, so that the flowers and containers go together to form a colorful and bright scene. You might want to start looking for containers first. Go to garden centers and nurseries as they usually carry a large supply of both. You might even stumble onto the perfect item at a junk store or flea market at bargain prices.

If you are in a hurry and want an instant garden without all the fuss and labor of growing flowers from seeds, then watch ads for sales on mature plants at garden centers or discount stores that can just be transplanted into your special containers.

Carefully follow instructions for transplanting. If there are no instructions in the pots, you might want to invest in a manual for helpful hints and suggestions.

Watering plants is the most important duty you have to perform every day. Pots outside need extra care because they are exposed to sun, hot dry air and blowing winds. Check the soil in these plants twice a day and especially during long hot dry spells. Watering in the evening is the best time to prevent moisture evaporation. Plants inside the home are not at so high of a risk, but they need watching too. Both outside and inside plants need to be placed in areas where they will thrive. Do they need full sun or shade or do they do best in areas of partial sun and shade? This is especially important during the time of day of greatest heat.

Remember, all living things need feeding to live and be healthy. After you have had the flowers for a few weeks, they will need to be fertilized. There are many excellent products to choose from on the market. You can ask for assistance to pick the one that works best for you. There are liquid plant foods, slow-release granules or slow-release pellets. Some of the granules and pellets will feed plants for several months at a time. Make sure the soil is kept damp or the nutrients will not be released. Give your plants what they need when they need it and they will do great.

Protect your investments from pests and invaders. There are many products available to protect and guard your plants. These include spray and dusting powder insecticides. By spraying or dusting directly on plants, it can be absorbed in the leaves and root system and kill insects for an extended period of time.

Now, look at what you have put together and arrange everything to create beautiful, bright and restful areas both inside and outside of your home. After a time, if you see something that does not appeal to you, change it! Container gardens make this an extremely easy task to accomplish.