All Entries in the "Gardening & Farming" Category
How to Build a Fountain
Are you looking for ways to add some extra charm to your front or back yard? Consider building a fountain. A fountain can bring an added element of beauty and serenity to any landscape. Here is how you can build your own custom fountain in an easy and cost efficient way. Read on. Procedure: Horse [...]
How to Make a Place for your Organic Herbs in your Garden
You may decide to grow a few herbs in the flower garden and this is very suitable if you want them mainly for their edible flowers, such as heartsease, bergamot, calendula or nasturtium. The shrubby, aromatic herbs like sage, rosemary, thyme, savory and lavender also fit in well, particularly if kept clipped back. Or you [...]
How to Sow Indoors in your Organic Garden
With sowing indoors you are much more in control of the growing conditions but that means the seedlings are much more dependent on you. Hygiene is important so make sure the trays are clean. Ideally they should be cleaned before putting them away the previous year, and then washed before use with a citrus-based disinfectant. [...]
How to Make a Good Compost Heap in an Organic Garden
The compost bin is at the heart of the organic garden. Every garden should have one, no matter how small the area. As you will see, you could even have a worm bin in the kitchen. There is great mystique attached to the making of compost and the composting process is complex, however, what you [...]
How to Grow Your Own Vegetable Organically
One of the best reasons for growing your own vegetables is that you can be absolutely sure how they have been grown and what has been sprayed on them. The aim of organic gardening is to work with nature, rather than trying to control it. So relying on natural predators to keep down pests plays [...]
How to Keep Records Effectively in your Organic Gardens
Keeping a record of what you actually did is even more important than the original plan. Noting down what you have sown, where and when, prevents you from hoeing it up, re-sowing before it has emerged, or forgetting to sow it altogether. The record can be a simple layout of the garden, large enough to [...]
How to Take Advantage of Critical timing for Pest and Disease Control in your garden
Maximum resistance Several vegetable varieties have a degree of resistance to pests or diseases so if you suffer from a particular problem in your garden it is worth selecting your variety for both this as well as for taste or keeping qualities. Look for blight resistance in potatoes. The variety “Valor” for instance is described [...]
How to Warm up the Soil to Sow Outdoors in your Organic Garden
Warming up the soil Having selected the seeds to be sown outdoors, the major mistakes to be avoided are sowing too early, too deep and too thickly. Trying to steal a march on nature may only result in the waste of precious seed as it rots in the cold damp ground. Nature usually catches up [...]
How to Save the Seeds of your Plans in your Organic Gardens
You can also harvest for next year’s crop, and seed-saving can become a fascinating and satisfying part of your gardening. It saves money and the number of seeds you save from just one plant will probably be enough for your neighbours as well. Seeds saved from plants that have grown well in your garden are [...]
How to Grow Vegetables in the Greenhouse
Greenhouse, insulated with bubble polythene, used for raising seeds and growing tender crops A greenhouse is not essential for growing vegetables, but if you want to grow a wide range of crops in reasonable quantities, it certainly makes life a lot easier. Buying a greenhouse Buy the largest greenhouse you can afford and can fit [...]
How to Grow Summer Radishes
Summer radishes are very easy to grow and will fit into the smallest garden, or even a patio container or window box. They are quick, too, taking only 4 to 6 weeks from sowing to harvest. By sowing small amounts in succession through the summer, you can have a constant supply of radishes for adding [...]
How to Grow Summer Turnips and Kohl Rabi
You may think winter turnips and swedes only have a place in the traditional allotment. But many smaller turnip varieties take as little as eight weeks from sowing to eating, so they make excellent catch crops. Kohl rabi is a continental relative of the turnip and is a decorative substitute worth considering in even the [...]
How to Grow Swedes
Swedes are one of those vegetables that never seem to get into ready-prepared, convenience dishes and yet are still popular with cooks who prepare their own food. They belong, perhaps, to what one might call the category of “wholesome food” (such as stews) rather than high cuisine, but they are increasingly used in a wide [...]
How to Grow Sweet Corn
Sweet corn, maize or corn-on-the-cob (Zea mays) is a cereal. It is a rather dramatic plant, growing up to 1.5m or more. The airy spikes of male flowers decorate the top of the plant, and the cobs, with their female flowers, form where the broad strap-like leaves join the main stem. They have an ornamental [...]
How to Grow Tomatoes
Tomatoes are probably the most widely grown of all vegetables. Even people without a garden often manage to grow a plant or two on a balcony or patio. One reason for this is that tomatoes are relatively easy to grow, but another must surely be that supermarket-bought tomatoes bear little resemblance to what a gardener [...]
How to Grow Tomatoes in Your Greenhouse
In the past, gardeners have tended to be rather conservative in their choice of tomato varieties. But modern hybrids, developed for commercial growers, have been joined in recent years by a huge number of heritage varieties from all over the world. These include varieties with green, white, brown, orange, yellow and striped fruits as well [...]
How to Grow Turnips
Like swedes (rutabagas or yellow turnips), turnips are members of the cabbage family. The origins of the turnip go buck so far that they are obscure, but the wild plant from which it is derived is still commonly found throughout Europe and Asia and is thought to have been cultivated as far back as prehistoric [...]
How to Grow Vegetables in Your Border
Vegetable plants can benefit from the extra shelter provided by a mature, established shrub border early in the season and from the partial shade in high summer. The downside is that they will have to compete for moisture and nutrients with established border plants and may not get enough sunlight. You will have to abandon [...]
How to Grow Vegetables with Allotments
You do not even need a garden to grow vegetables you can rent an allotment. If you are new to vegetable growing, you can rely on plenty of friendly advice and support too from a community of fellow gardeners. Choosing an allotment Find out about the allotment sites in your area. Some are run privately [...]
How to Grow Winter Cabbage
Winter cabbages are some of the largest and most ornamental of the cabbage family, and include blue-green Savoys and red-tinged ‘January King’. Both are worthy of a place in a mixed border in their own right. Winter cabbages require plenty of space and a rich soil, but will reward you with a very heavy crop [...]