How to Involve Kids in Gardening?

Gardening is an interesting activity that can make the kids learn a great deal about various plants and trees. You can easily involve your kids in the daily gardening chores that are fun and easy. This will ensure that they come closer to the nature and understand many important things about gardening.

There are many easy to do activities in which the kids can lend a hand. By getting engrossed in such activities they tend to become more creative. Some of the common garden activities through which you can involve your kids in the garden are-

Picking Ripe Fruits and Vegetables-Harvesting period is an amazing time when you can engage the kids in picking ripe fruits and vegetables from the backyard. Children love to pick bountiful produce from the garden. You can even involve them in the kitchen while preserving and bottling jams or jellies made out of fresh fruits.

Watering the plants-Watering the plants regularly is one of the most basic garden activities which can easily be accomplished by the children. Through this activity the children will not only realize the importance of watering the plants but they will also love to spend time in the garden amongst beautiful flowers and plants.

Raking and Cleaning the Garden-Raking and keeping the garden clean of dead or spent flowers and leaves is very crucial to maintain a hygienic atmosphere for the plants to thrive. Autumn or fall is the season when you have to rake and clean the garden most as the plants and trees shed their leaves during this season. You can invest in some good rakes that are meant for children. They would love to gather dried leaves in a pile and play or jump on them.

Composting-Composting is another simple yet crucial technique in gardening. Compost can easily be prepared in the backyard by digging the ground and burying dead leaves, twigs or branches. Compost helps in making the soil rich and it helps the plants to grow vigorously. You can involve kids in the composting so that they become familiar with process and realize the significance of rich organic soil for plant growth.

Hand Pulling Weeds-Hand pulling weeds is an easy way of getting rid of nasty weeds from the garden. You can educate the kids on different kinds of weeds and ask them to remove them from the flower beds.

These are some of the many gardening activities through which the kids can be involved in gardening. Apart from these, you can also make the kids learn about different species of plants and trees. They can be taught about various other things in the garden that will enhance their knowledge and bring them closer to the nature.

Basic Gardening Tips for Beginners

You've decided to plant a garden but you need basic gardening tips for beginners, this is the place to be. Gardening has become a delightful hobby for people all over the world.

There are many rewards for the gardener, the visuals of his creation, the scent of the blooms, great fresh air and lots of exercise. Imagine a weekend spent in the yard with your feet up drinking in the spectacular gardens that you have created the fruits of your labor and love. If you are a beginner gardener, here are some basic gardening tips. No matter how much room you have, you can create a masterpiece garden.

The basic garden tips for beginners will help you create new gardens and make it a successful and joyful experience. In the beginning go slowly, start small but use your imagination. Choose a project that will not take a long time to complete. If it takes you weeks to finish a project you will get frustrated and start to hate the project you wanted to enjoy. Even if you have 75 or 100 square feet you will be amazed at how much you can plant.

If you are determined to have a larger project, then work in sections and turn your attention to one area at a time. This way as each section is finished you can enjoy that completed job. This will also build up your confidence as you go along making the next section not so daunting.

But for a beginner gardener a small scale garden is optimal. You are going to have to learn the basics of gardening, all about disease, the best way to control weeds and pests, the all important watering and when and how to fertilize. After your initial project you can enlarge the garden or plant one somewhere else in your yard with your new found confidence.

To cut down on the weeding of your garden, place mulch around the plants. This serves three purposes; it cuts down on weeding, as well as aiding in temperature control and water retention. Granted there are some gardeners that love to work the soil and weed the plants but it would be more rewarding to tending to the plants or just watching them grow. To maintain really healthy plants water for longer periods of time but less frequently. Do not let the plants dry out. Always water early in the morning so the plant leaves have time to dry out during the day which helps prevent fungal disease.

After planting, try to have your garden remain pesticide free. An especially good natural deterrent is as follows:

In a jar, combine 1 teaspoon dishwashing liquid and 1 cup vegetable oil. Shake vigorously. In an empty spray bottle, combine 2 teaspoons of this mixture and 1 cup water. Use at ten-day intervals (or more often if needed) to rid plants of whiteflies, mites, aphids, scales, and other pests.

These are the basic gardening tips for beginners. Remember, that you can create lovely gardens in containers which you can move around as you please. There are hundreds of different plant combinations and containers that you can use for a container garden. So, if you are an apartment or condo dweller, you can plant lovely gardens on your balcony or patio. The basic tip here is that container gardens will dry out much faster than the plants in the ground so be vigilant about checking them for moisture.

Happy Gardening And Good Luck!

Copyright © Mary Hanna, All Rights Reserved.

This article may be distributed freely on your website and in your ezines, as long as this entire article, copyright notice, links and the resource box are unchanged.

Mary Hanna is an aspiring herbalist who lives in Central Florida. This allows her to grow gardens inside and outside year round. She has published other articles on Cruising, Gardening and Cooking. Visit her websites at Gardening Landscaping Tips, Gardening Outside, and Herb Gardening

finaly i advice you to buy this ebook Will help you a lot.

Gardening Tips - Planting a Fall Garden

Planting a Fall Garden
For many gardeners, the term "Fall Garden" is synonymous with a second season of cole crops (not to be confused with cold crops). Cole crops are vegetables from the brassica genus, most notably broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower. These vegetable varieties are "cold tolerant" and actually grow and taste better when grown in the spring and fall... when average monthly temperatures are in the 60 - 70 degree range. During these early and later seasons, daytime high temperatures are around 80 degrees, while overnight temperatures are around 60 degrees.

However, you can have more vegetables this fall even if you don't want to plant broccoli, cabbage, or cauliflower. There are lots of tender vegetable varieties that you can grow for a second harvest if you have 45 to 70 days remaining before your first anticipated frost.

Timing
Timing is very important when planting a fall garden. If you're planting tender vegetables - those that will be damaged or killed by frost - you need to have enough time left in your growing season for the vegetables to mature.

Space
The other main consideration when deciding on whether or not to plant a fall garden is space. If you harvested a spring crop of broccoli, or if you've "reclaimed" some space where you recently had squash plants or other vegetables that have finished producing, then you have space to enjoy the benefits of fall gardening. Of course, you can always expand your vegetable garden beyond its current boundaries. Or, you can experiment with growing late season vegetables in containers on a deck or patio.

Getting Started
Prepare your garden's soil as you would for spring planting. Remove any dead plants or weeds from the area, and add some compost, organic fertilizer, or dehydrated manure to improve your soil's fertility. Use a tiller to prepare the area, just as you would in the spring.

Tender Vegetables that Mature Quickly
Here's a short list of easy-to-grow tender vegetables that mature rather quickly:
Radishes - about 25 days
Tyee Spinach - 37 days
Summer Squash - 41 to 55 days, depending on the variety
Lettuce and Other Salad Greens - 45 to 50 days
Bush Cucumbers - 55 days
Other Spinach varieties - 55 days
Swiss Chard - 60 days
Carrots - 70 days

A Note about Cole Crops
Cole crops will generally mature about 8 weeks after transplants are set in the garden. If you have 12 to 14 weeks left in your growing season, you can start your own cole crop seedlings indoors now. If you want to buy bedding plants for cole crops, check your local garden center to see if they'll have any when you want them; or, check your favorite seed catalog company online.

Give it a Try!
So, if you've got some space and you have seeds for quick-maturing vegetables, why not give fall gardening a try? There's very little risk... and the rewards can be wonderful.

more information here

Organic Gardening Has Many Advantages

Organic gardening grows in popularity all the time. Gardeners create their gardens especially for growing herbs, fruits, and vegetables for profit or personal consumption. This trend toward organic gardening has created many new advocates from the world of the food experts and chefs who are stating there is a great difference in the flavor of the organically grown and the conventional grown produce.

Organic gardening is basically growing things without using any chemicals, pesticides, or synthetic materials. You can do this growing vegetables, herbs, fruits, and even flowers. Organic gardening enable nature to take the reigns and lets things grow naturally, using only the nutrients provided by Mother Nature.

All the gardener does is care for the plants and give them their attention and what they need. This kind of gardening produces crops that come up ready to be eaten and that will stay fresh longer than those grown with conventional methods. The synthetic materials and the chemical compounds used to speed up the growth of the plants inhibits these qualities.

There are also other advantages when you engage in organic gardening like the costs. An organic gardener uses all-natural compounds for helping these plants to grow. These types of compounds are found in organic form fertilizers like branches, leftover food, and leaves.

You can take the branches and leaves and make them into a compost and mix it into your soil. The plants will absorb the natural essential nutrients out of the compost and grow naturally and healthy. These kinds of things you don't have to buy from a gardening store.

You can find plenty of guides and information about making your own compost online. The savings from this alone can add up to hundreds of dollars over time.

Growing your crops in this fashion is far more healthy and safe for both you and your entire family to eat. The chemicals fertilizers used to increase the speed of growth of the plants has been linked to various diseases such as Cancer. This is due to the fact that you are eating these dangerous things because they are absorbed by the plants.

This can pile up over time and cause your body a lot of harm. You cannot get them out of the vegetables or fruits simply by giving them a good washing. Today more and more people are turning to organic gardening to eat healthy and live longer.

For more information about organic gardening please visit our website here

Growing in Baskets

If you are growing plants in baskets there are a few things that you will need to take care of if the plants are to survive.
Obviously you will need to start with the best and healthiest seeds or plants.
It is important that you choose good quality container mix too. There are proprietary hanging basket mixes that you really should use as they have been developed to provide the best growing conditions in these unique situations.

For aesthetics you will probably want to get the basket looking as 'full' as possible so you will be cramming the plants in.
It is best to put the larger plants in the middle of the basket with smaller plants trailing out to the edges and the sides.

The larger the basket the better chance your plants will have to survive and they will also require less maintenance.

As with all plants no matter where they are growing water will be essential and with baskets more care is required than normal.

You can place a water trough between the plants and the liner to maintain a place to hold water that would normally seep through the liner.

In warmer weather you will need to water the plants more often and this is best handled with a long watering wand, which makes reaching the plants easier.

Occasionally, where you have baskets that are easily moved, you can soak the entire basket in a tub of water.
If the basket has been quite dry you will need to soak it until the bubbles stop rising.

Always use quality liquid plant feed to ensure your plants are getting all the nutrients that they require.

To prevent the plants from drying out in the sun and the wind aim to get maximum foliage coverage.

If you take the time to give your basket plants the additional care that they need, you will be rewarded with a pleasant addition to any living area.

How To Grow Herbs And Vegetables In Small Spaces - Kitchen Gardens:here

Small Spaces in the Garden

There are often small spaces in the garden that are left abandoned simply because we can't think of anything to do with them.

This doesn't have to be the case as almost any area can be enhanced with a little thought and planning.

Simply adding a garden seat can add to the enjoyment you can get from a garden as it offers a quite place to rest and relax and look at the beauty of your work.

Replacing a wet area with some paving and adding a pot or two can transform an unused area into some place that you and your friends will like to visit.

Even adding a water feature or a pond for fish will make areas like this a focal point of the garden.

There are so many things that can be done to almost any area of any garden that you are only limited by your imagination.

Careful design can make an area look bigger than it is or lead you on to other areas of interest in the garden.

Color choices in the surrounding plants will also determine the atmosphere that area will create for you.

We need these small areas of the garden that are tucked away to compliment the bigger spaces and add a degree of interest to the overall plan.

There are other alternatives if you don't want the focus to be taken away from the main planting and this might mean that the area will be used better for hiding away an implements shed or, provided it is in a sunny position you might decide to use the space for a greenhouse.

Sometimes, with a little thought, these spaces on your property can become your favorite places, rather than something that you would prefer to forget about.

And if you can't think of anything whatsoever to do with such a space, then it sounds like it would be an ideal place to have a compost:-)


Top Converting Home And Garden Product - How To Create A Biodome Greenhouse:here

Growing Your Own Vegetables

There is a great sense of satisfaction knowing that you will be able to wander down to your own garden and pick the vegetables that you have been growing and then cook them and eat them for your dinner.

You will never be able to get vegetables as fresh as that from the shops and you certainly will be able to taste the difference in the extra freshness that you will get with every bite.

Many vegetables taste just as good, if not better, eaten fresh from the garden without even cooking them.

Peas, beans, tomatoes and the like are all ready to be eaten and enjoyed as they are picked.

What makes garden fresh vegetables even more appealing is the fact that you will know everything that has gone into the soil and every spray that has been used to assist in the growing of those vegetables.

And that is something that you would never know about the produce that you buy from the shops.

You will need to use sprays on your garden to ensure you have a healthy crop so it is wise to look at all the instructions and the contents of any sprays that you might need to use.

By using the best sprays you can be satisfied that not only will your crops have had the best nutrition but you will also be safe from some of the chemicals that many commercial growers use.

You can often keep pests off your crops, or reduce the incidence of the damage they can create by planting companion plants around your crops to keep them away.

You can reduce the chance of getting disease by selecting resistant varieties of plants that are less susceptible to disease and by giving them more room to grow by spacing them out a little more.

Learn How To Grow Organic Food With Less Than 8 Hours Work A Year:here

Moving Plants

While winter is the ideal time to move plants they can be successfully moved at any time throughout the year provided care is taken.

Smaller plants, under three feet high, are the easiest to move.
The first step is to trim the plant by about one third.
The next step is to dig the plant out ensuring that the root ball is approximately the same diameter as the plant.
The plant can then be transplanted in the new position in the garden and the soil around it firmed.

The procedure with bigger plants in the 3-foot to 5-foot range is much the same but will take a little more time.
Once you have dug around the plant to a depth of approximately 1 to 1 1/2 feet, you should leave it for a week before finishing the removal.
After a week ease the plant out by digging under the roots and trim off long or damaged roots before transplanting.

For bigger plants and trees the procedure gets a little more involved.
The first step is to dig down deeply on two sides of the plant, through the roots at the drip line.
The plant should then be left for a week or two before the same procedure is repeated on the other two sides of the plant.
As with the smaller plants you will need to trim the plant back by about one third before starting.
After having dug around all sides of the plant you should wait another couple of weeks before digging under the roots.
Again, you will need to trim off long or damaged roots in preparation for the transplant.

Let another week or two pass before removing the plant and wrapping the root ball with Hessian to protect the roots.

You should have already prepared a new hole that will be slightly bigger than the root ball of the plant you are replacing.
Add compost, mix and slow release fertilizer before transplanting the plant.
Top up the soil and water it well.
Provided you have taken good care along the way the plant should settle in to its new location without any problems.

Plants Have a Mind of Their Own

Plants square measure plenty cleverer than we'd assume.
If you're alert to the changes that occur with the plants within the garden, you'll be able to typically predict everything from the approaching weather to the ever-changing of the seasons while not ever having to consult the weather charts or your diary.

The weather will, but trick flowers into 'thinking' there has been a modification within the weather or perhapsthe season.

This can be seen once there's unseasonal atmospheric condition once a chilly snap in winter.
Plants will 'assume' that it's begin|the beginning} of Spring and bulbs can start flowering.

In recent years several areas throughout the planet have practised unseasonal weather and extremes of weather and this has caused several issues for individuals growing crops.

Creating protected areas on your property will assist you to manage your plants and make sure that you get the flowers or fruits once you expect them to be prepared.
This will conjointly assist you to cut back injury which may occur from conditions like hail or significantrain.

Shading plants can even produce a false reduction in sunlight hours, which is able to have an effect on the plants growth patterns as they live the seasons by the number of daylight.

Hothouses will produce a false setting and this will be helpful if you would like to supply plants throughout the year for flowers or fruit.

Temperature is adjusted to manage the plant growth and to a lesser extent this will even be done by the position of your plants in varied totally different positions on your property counting on their exposure todaylight, wind, cold and rain.

Designing your garden by taking under consideration of these factors can enable you to scan your plants mindbeforehand, permitting you to induce what you would like, once you need from your garden.

It will enable you to arrange the progression of plants from one season to following.

Greenhouse for All Seasons

In several climates growing plants within the winter months will become quite frustrating, and if area unit|you're} finding that you just are therein scenario then it'd be time to think about obtaining a greenhouse.

Greenhouses area unit on the market in many alternative sizes and there area unit some terribly compact versions which will suit most budgets.
Having in an exceedinglyll|one amongst|one in every of} these greenhouses tucked away in a sunny corner of your garden are going to be a bunce once the weather dictates that you just would commonly ought to keepwithin instead of venture out into your garden.

With the additional benefit of having the ability to regulate injury that may are caused by birds, insects and therefore the weather, greenhouses may prevent lots of cash within the future.

They are wonderful for growing seedlings and conjointly for extending the season that you just are going to beable to grow specific plants by dominant the climate.

You should continually set your greenhouse during a position that gets the utmost quantity of daylightthroughout the day whereas permitting easy accessibility to water and electricity.

If you have got a very windy property check that that the door to the greenhouse is facing faraway from the air current.

When picking the scale of greenhouse that you just want continually attempt to get the largest oneattainable as once you see the advantages of getting a greenhouse you would possibly realize that you justare going to be wanting a lot of and a lot of area.

That approach you'll be able to unfolded your plants giving them a lot of area to breathe and reducing the danger of sickness.

Most smart greenhouses escort in-built ventilation systems, that area unit essential to scale back the temperature once it begins to rise.
If you opt to create your own greenhouse, ventilation is one among the foremost vital factors that you justgot to take into account.