Modern Small Garden and Composting Decor by Groves-Raines Architect

This eco friendly small garden decor was giving us a simple decoration for our outdoor garden space to b e look more attractive and great. The decoration was using the metal work garden decor idea and the idea was to give the land being more comfortable and being the best space for the living things to live. The entire decoration of this construction was come from the diligent combination of the metal work and the natural ground decoration. At the end of this composting decoration we can cover the metal work with the ground that can be stuck on and the planter’s decoration. Actually, this modern garden composting designs will help our earth to be more comfortable to stay in. we will bring both new decoration and new atmosphere for our house space. We can place this decoration in both front and back side of our house. We can put this decoration based on our pleasure and our needs. The small construction of this garden decoration was match for the small house decoration, so guys don’t be shy to apply on this small composting garden construction.
Source: http://www.homehousedesign.com/modern-small-garden-composting-decor-groves-raines-architect/

eco friendly small garden decor

Most people realize that tomatoes are healthy for you and that they have a number of important substances in them that helps us stay away from cardiovascular disease, cancers, cataracts and other health concerns. We are finding that tomatoes contain so many vital nutrients and we are coming to realize how important it is to have tomatoes as part of a health diet.

When you eat tomatoes, it's the color in them that makes them so good for you. The color comes from lycopene which is also found to be an incredible antioxidant. Antioxidants block the effect of oxygen free radicals in the cells and therefore, block the damage they can do to cells that cause cancer in the right circumstances. This is why tomatoes appear to have cancer-fighting properties.

The amazing thing about lycopene is that it is about twice a good as many of the other antioxidants in foods. It has been found by research to be effective in preventing breast cancer, lung cancer and prostate cancer. Lycopene is effective against aging as well.

Finding the best tomatoes

When buying or picking tomatoes, make sure you pay attention to the fact that the tomatoes which are the best for you are those that are the reddest and the ripest. These are the kinds of tomatoes that score the highest amounts of lycopene as well as beta carotene, another healthful ingredient.

The good news is that, while tomatoes are good eaten without cooking them, they also have amazingly more effectiveness when cooked. As it turns out, lycopene is found in the cellular wall of tomatoes so that cooking a tomato with a bit of oil, such as olive oil, helps bring out the effectiveness of the lycopene. When you cook tomatoes with a bit of olive oil, the nutrient aspects of the tomato are absorbed more effectively.

It is always a good idea to pick the very best in fresh tomatoes but, with tomatoes, you don't need to purchase them fresh. Even tomatoes that have been shipped from relatively far away are still great choices and still contain a great deal of lycopene. In addition, you can buy canned tomato sauce or tomato paste or any form of tomato in a can and you'll still get the antioxidant benefit.

Source: http://www.squidoo.com/tomato-facts

Great Gardening Tips for Tomatoes

To get the best growing tips for tomatoes you need to first of all know what type of variety of tomatoes will grow well in your area. In other words what is suitable for the soil and also you must make sure you have done all the preparation work for your garden secondly what sort of tomatoes you wish to grow, you have two choices, determinate' or 'indeterminate' variety.



A determinate means: tend to reach a fixed height and ripen all their fruit in a short period. So the determinate variety grows to a bush about 1 metre (3 feet) high, at this stage it stops growing and has a concentrated crop of tomatoes which can be picked over a few weeks. Indeterminate varieties keep growing and can reach a height of up to 5 metres (15 or more feet) when fully mature. The fruit from these can be picked over a period of 12 to 20 weeks. An example of the indeterminate variety is called Brandywine.

Best Growing Tips for Tomatoes:

1. Make sure you have worked your soil which needs to be rich and well-drained, add compost so it is rich in nutrients.

2. Decide what sort of tomatoes you wish to grow: determinate or indeterminate.

3. Do you wish to grow tomatoes from seed or seedlings.

4. Make sure you have the correct tomatoes for your particular soil and the area in which you live.

5. When watering your tomatoes only water around the soil not on the leaves.

6. Plant tomatoes in full sunlight as they tend to thrive.

The above are only a few tips for growing tomatoes, you need to do your own research, talk to other gardeners and your local plant store for more information.


Author:Rose
Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/gardening-articles/great-gardening-tips-for-tomatoes-3658297.html

Designing a Tropical Garden With a Little Cost

Two weeks ago my friend asked me something about designing a tropical garden. He wanted to design a garden with tropical design, but he was confused because they have no idea.he said, he want smaller water feature like a pond or riverbed into his landscape.
Another problem he faced was the cost to create a tropical garden. with little cost, then I started making a list of everything that we will buy.
And finally we agreed to purchase:

• 2 sacks of cement, 4 sacks of sand, 2 bags of gravel, a water pump. (This is the material to create a small pond and decor)
• small size of the bamboo trees, palm trees, small size.
• some herbaceous plants.
  

to design this garden we do it in 3 days. first and second day we use to make a small pond. It took 2 days to make the pond dry and perfect. on day three we set all the trees that we buy and finish.

then a week after making the garden, my friend bought koi fish to fill a small pond.turned out with little cost we can create a tropical garden with great results.

Growing a Rose Garden

Roses have long been a favorite of flower lovers, going as far back as the ancient Egyptians. Roses were once considered disease-ridden, one-shot wonders to floriferous denizens. The earliest roses usually bloomed only once a year, but they gave off wonderful aromas. Old-fashioned roses can grow into large, thorny bushes, more vigorous than a modern hybrid tea rose.
Classic Old-Fashioned Roses
Select these classic roses if you want a more formal garden.

• Alba roses: Semi Plena, Konigin von Danemark
• Bourbon roses: Louise Odier, Variegata de Bologna, Madame Isaac Pereire, Honorine de Brabant Centrifolia roses: De Meaux
• Damask roses: Madame Hardy, Comte de Chambord, Celsiana
• Gallica roses: Rossa gallica officinalis, Cardinal de Richelieu
• Moss roses: Mundi, Empress Josephine
  

Napoleon's wife, Empress Josephine, surrounded her palace with every variety of rose. In the early 1800s, reblooming roses from China were discovered and interbred with old-fashioned European roses to extend their bloom period. These hybrids had fewer thorns and petals but rebloomed through the summer. Breeding efforts focused on improving flower form and expanding color selection. The results were grandifloras, hybrid teas, and other long-blooming plants that required high maintenance.

Traditional rose gardens are rather formal affairs. The beds are often laid out in geometric patterns, with tree roses at each corner and an arbor of climbing roses at the center or rear. Your home rose garden doesn't have to be quite so static. As long as proper planting distances are respected, the rose garden can take on any appearance from a near-formal style to a flowing island with an irregular outline. The only rule that really should be followed is that taller plants should go in the center or rear of the bed.

Purists grow only roses in a rose garden. Gardeners with less stringent ideas can introduce spring-flowering bulbs, noninvasive perennials, low-growing annuals, or other plants. The upkeep of these other plants should not damage the roses they are designed to set off. If you're really adventurous, you can develop an entire garden of roses in individual containers on a patio or balcony.

Although roses are quite specific in their needs, you can find a place for them with a little searching in just about any yard. The first requirement is plenty of sun: six hours or more a day if possible. Some roses will do well with less. Early morning sun is better than late afternoon sun since the flowers last longer under cooler conditions.

Now, roses will adapt to most moderately fertile soils, even sandy ones. Just make sure you work in plenty of organic matter: compost, well-rotted manure, etc. Test the soil for pH before planting. Roses prefer a pH of 6.5 to 6.8, although they will tolerate levels from 6.0 to 7.5. Any soil that is extremely acid or alkaline should be corrected by adding, respectively, lime or powdered sulphur.

Good drainage is essential in the rose garden. If your soil is constantly damp, consider either adding drainage tiles or raising the bed 8 to 10 inches above ground level. Soil that drains too well can be improved by adding organic material and through careful irrigation. In well-drained soil, you can plant the rose deeper than in heavy soil, covering the graft with insulating soil. In cold climates, the graft union should be planted 2 to 3 inches below the soil line.

Proper placement is also essential for a successful rose garden. Avoid areas near large trees and shrubs, since roses are intolerant of root competition. A certain amount of air circulation is beneficial, so avoid low-lying pockets. Windy spots can be moderated by using a windbreak. In cold climates, planting on a slight slope will help prevent damage from a late spring frost.

Bare-root or packaged roses are best planted in spring after all danger of frost has passed. In the deep South, the cooler winter months are the ideal planting time. Container-grown roses can theoretically be planted any time during the growing season. Avoid planting during the dry, hot summer months.

Source: http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/home/how-to-grow-a-specialty-garden3.htm
This picture taken from: www.thegardencentral.com

what is your favorite plant in your garden?

what crops you planted in your garden? roses, hibiscus, orchids or other flowers? so many plants in the garden, there must be one of the most you like. I especially like red roses and jasmine in my garden. I really enjoyed that flowers , when rain falls.
So, what is your favorite plant in your garden?

Growing Your Own Flowers

Flower gardening is basically, adorning your garden with flowers. Most gardeners, old and new ones alike, want to go into flower gardening.

There are different forms of flower gardening, as long as it is a garden with flowers it can be considered flower gardening, regardless of what kind of flower it is.

A different, though very popular form of flower gardening is wild flower gardening. Wild flower gardening may be the easiest form of flower gardening there is out there. But it is not as easy at it looks. Many amateur gardeners believe that putting up a wild flower garden would only require you to buy those wild flower seeds from the supermarket, scatter them over your backyard and just let them grow. This is not actually true. As most flower gardens, wild flower gardening does involve a little bit of work. You don’t just scatter some seeds and expect them to line up on their own, do you?

Before you go to the supermarket to buy those wild flower seed packets, you would have to first prepare the soil where you will plant them. Preparing the soil means that you have to water them regularly and till the soil completely. It is also advisable to your wild flower gardening in cooler climates, which are usually late fall or early summer. Late fall is the time that the soil is absolutely cool, this way, when you plant your wild flower seeds, they will not take root until spring, when they will be able to come in full bloom.

In wild flower gardening, a gardener can also consider planting perennials. Perennials are plants, or in this case flowers that can live their full life cycle in two years. (Annuals on the other hands, completes their life cycle in one year.) With this kind of flower gardening, perennials should be planted by early fall, ten to twelve weeks from frost, this way your seeds will have enough time to set up themselves before they can become dormant.

When needed moisture is absent from your soil the best way to start your wild flower gardening is at late fall. This is also the best time to start planting your wild flower seeds. With this method, even if there is little water, the gardener can expect lots of rain to douse your thirsty soil and plants.

The most popular wild flowers today are single special meadows. Plant single special meadows in mass and close together (but not too close, leave space for their roots to grow and so that they will not compete for both sunrise and food found in the soil), because they look better this way. Don’t worry if all your single special specie of wild flower would not bloom the entire period of spring to fall, this usually happens. Because of this, though planting single special meadows is the trend these days, some wild flower gardeners still opt to plant two or three species of wildflowers. By doing this, they are ensuring the complete bloom of all their wild flower species the entire spring to fall.

To ensure a better bloom rate from your wild flower garden, keep the seedling moist by watering them everyday. And although wild flowers are wild flowers, the gardener should still be patient enough to pull out the weeds from his flower garden, especially in the early stages of your wild flower garden.

In late fall or winter, keep the wild flower height to about six inches high. This process will prevent the other plants from invading your flower bed and will also help disperse the seeds of your wild flowers.