Posts Tagged ‘Gardening’
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Eco Indoor Gardening ? a Fun and Healthy Pastime
Posted on October 14th, 2011 by admin
Indoor gardening is becoming a popular activity worldwide. Indoor plants not only detoxify the air, but also provide a charming and decorative addition to any home or apartment.
ORGANIC PLANT FOOD A HEALTHIER CHOICE
Derived mostly from non-renewable fossil fuels, chemical fertilizers are used to fertilize soil. The widespread and excessive use of chemical fertilizers has increased air, soil, and water pollution. As well, these fertilizers have increased the amount of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. More scientists are coming to the conclusion that small doses of pesticides and other chemicals can adversely affect people, especially children.Studies have shown that people exposed to toxic chemicals while working on farms often develop various forms of cancers later in life. Also, these chemicals are dangerous when stored around the house, contaminate the soil, and are difficult to dispose of properly.
Many of the fast acting fertilizers can stunt, burn, or kill your plants. When you choose eco organic gardening, you are helping to protect the environment. Natural organic plant food can restore healthy soil, improve seed germination, stimulate root growth, and reduce the need for synthetic chemicals. Natural plant foods such as Solay Simple Biodynamic plant food mix, is formulated with ingredients that come directly from nature. Nothing has been chemically altered or synthesized.
BEST PLANTS TO CLEAN INDOOR AIR
Certain plants are excellent in ridding the air of pollutants and toxins. Plants that rate highly as an indoor purifier include: Chinese evergreen, Areca palm, Reed palm, Dwarf date palm, Boston fern, Janet Craig dracaena, English ivy, Australian sword fern, Peace Lily, Rubber plant and Weeping fig.
EASY TO GROW PLANTS AND HERBS
When growing indoor plants and herbs, it is important to have knowledge of each plants needs for survival and success. For some plants, a sudden change in temperature, drop in humidity and too much or too little water, can hinder its growth. The following is a list of plants that are easy to grow indoors:
1. one of the hardiest of the indoor plants because it can survive during long periods of inattention.
2. one of the most popular plants grown by indoor gardeners because it is easy to care for and adaptable
3. with its unique plant forms, temperature and moisture adaptability, cacti are an attention-grabbing group of plants.
4. this plant will add a tropical decoration to any part of your home.
5. an excellent selection for beginners because it is a low-light lover and requires little maintenance.
POPULAR HERBS
Basil is a unique herb because it requires moist and rich soil. Cilantro, or coriander, a strong herb originating from tropical Asia, requires plenty of water and a warm environment. Mint is a flavoring herb with many assortments, tastes, and scents. Popular varieties include apple, spearmint, and peppermint. Oregano and marjoram are very similar and have often been mistaken for the other. Marjoram has a much milder taste than oregano. Sage, particularly common sage, is a main cooking herb, but most other members of the sage family have been used for cosmetic purposes.
Herbs need at least six hours a day of full sun as well as good drainage. Many scented herbs, such as oregano, rosemary, and thyme, originated on rocky hillsides in the Mediterranean where their roots escaped the hot and dry environment in cracks under large rocks. Although most of these herbs are not too dependant on soil fertility, the beds should be enriched before planting.
A HEALTHY AND REWARDING HOBBY
Eco indoor gardening techniques are less costly, easier to handle, and environmentally friendly. Indoor gardens not only provide health benefits to your home, apartment, or office, they are also an enjoyable and rewarding hobby.
Solay Wellness http://www.natural-salt-lamps.com hand crafts and imports fair trade earth friendly lifestyle products including Salt crystal lamps, gourmet Himalayan salt products, organic skin care, natural hair care, SLS free oral products, natural pet products, salt pipes, salt therapy aids and more. Read our blog for quality health information at www.solaywellness.blogspot.com. Enjoy our 90 day guarantee.
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Organic Gardening – General Notes on Organic Horticulture Organic Gardening Systems
Posted on October 14th, 2011 by admin
Organic horticulture employs the crucial principles of organic agriculture for the successful herbs, fruits, vegetables, flowers and ornamental plants growing. These principles concern the management of pests in the garden, soil composition and conservation, etc.
General Notes
Mulches, Double Digging, compost, Vermicompost, cover crops, mineral supplements and manures are the main constituents of the soil mixture in this kind of gardening in contrast to the commercial farming. Organic horticulture expects to minimize the risk of insects, fungi, and diseases development with the help of maintaining the high quality of the soil. Nonetheless, sometimes it is still necessary to use insecticidal soaps and sprays, pheromone traps, or other pest-control means, created especially for organic farmers.
Experts define five fields of horticulture:
- olericulture, which stands for the production and marketing of vegetables;
- pomology that means the production and marketing of fruits;
- floriculture, which is the production and marketing of floral crops;
- landscape horticulture that includes the production, marketing, and maintenance of landscape plants;
- and finally, post harvest physiology that studies and practices the preservation and maintaining of the quality of horticultural crops
All these areas can utilize the key principles of organic gardening.
Organic horticulture employs the methods and uses data, which have been collected for thousands of years. Generally speaking, this type of gardening is based on the natural, long-term processes and eco-friendly, global approaches, in contrast to horticulture, based on the use of chemicals that speed up the processes and aim at the separate results and reductionist strategies.
Organic gardening systems
There exist various formal organic gardening systems that utilize peculiar methods. They are listed among the general organic standards, but are more specific than them. For example, Rudolf Steiner developed the so-called biodynamic farming. Masanobu Fukuoka, the Japanese writer and farmer, practiced Natural Farming, based on the so-called no-till system for the small-scale production of grain. Finally, intensive and biointensive techniques and SPIN Farming (Small Plot INtensive), developed in France, also belong to the small-scale gardening methods.
A garden in a container or growing box provides healthy, organic, and highly nutritional food. Moreover, it is also the means to share ones experience, to improve local economy, and to offer better and more sustainable way of living. A small raised bed garden of 32 square feet is capable of supplying tasty, healthy, and organic greens to a family, requiring, at the same time, less water and fewer nutrients if it is based on the postulates of bio-intensive planting and square foot gardening.
In addition, the existing garden can be improved with the help of composting or vermicomposting. These methods allow getting the best organic fertilizers by reusing organic matter, which provides necessary nutrients to the organic garden. Besides, compost and vermicompost are always an easy way to improve the results.
My name is guy. I am the founder and owner of the urbangardenershop.com.au . I fell in love with hydroponics gardening. As time went by I gathered a vast knowledge base and 2 years ago I decided to find a way to make hydroponics gardening a hobby that anyone can peruse. I added a hydroponic gardening information center to our hydroponic supplies site that offers a large range of hydroponics articles. Thank you for your interest and feel free to ask questions on hydroponics gardening in our site
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Gardening and Farming the Biodynamic Way
Posted on October 10th, 2011 by admin
When presented with the notion that biodynamic gardening and farming is an exceptional forum with advanced methods, one scientist scoffed, saying Youre not espousing a system that plants by the phases of the moon, and such, are you?!
This scientist fails in his profession the moment he makes such a comment. I was tempted to respond with, Where were you when the calendar went beyond the 1950s?! A true scientist does his research before making statements. Had this individual looked for it, he would have found irrefutable evidence from scientific research that has found, indeed, that the phases of the moon have a significant impact on many gardening operations, including ideal times to sow seed, or to transplant, and for most gardening operations. The world of nature holds a treasure trove of secrets, to be harvested for those who can stay the distance, who can penetrate into the deeper resources.
Other noteworthy aspects of Biodynamic methods:
The Biodynamic system was inaugurated in 1924 by Austrian spiritual scientist Rudolf Steiner, as a system that not only embraces the living ecology of the soil, but goes further, into the interaction of elements of the cosmos on the plant community.
You could say that to the degree organic food rises above mainstream food, so does biodynamic rise above organic – meaning its produce is even more vital and nutritious. Soil and plants are not only physically enriched, but are enhanced on the etheric level – in effect, aided to evolve to a higher state.
Homeopathic preparations are one of the devices used to accomplish this enhancement. Sometimes they are implanted in the soil, other times applied as a spray.
A quote from the Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association:
Rudolf Steiner presents a notion of science that says we can know things that go beyond what we can weigh, measure, and calculate. Science is the practice of observing phenomena and relating them in a way that correctly represents the phenomena’s reality. Agricultural judgments about health, what to do where, and when to do what, best succeed when we begin to rely on a certain wisdom gained through observation and experience and when we perceive consciously and concretely the phenomena that induce life itself.
Biodynamic farming and gardening combines common-sense agriculture, an understanding of ecology, and the specific environment of a given place with a new spiritual scientific approach to the concepts, principles, and practices of agriculture.
For further resources, visit the insight21 website.
J Graf is the coordinator of Insight21 and Earth Vision – doorways for the 21st Century.
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The Biodynamic Gardening Fuel
Posted on October 10th, 2011 by admin
The mind and body of every person works in tip-top condition because they are fed with foods that provide vital nutrients. Machines complete their long list of workloads and withstand the pressures of every single task because they are appropriately powered by any of the energy forms available. Just like in the two mentioned situations agricultural methods are made possible because of certain key elements that provide for win-win opportunities. Lets take a look at the very fuel that makes the biodynamic gardening and farming machinery run to its full potential.
The presence of humus stains on the soil is very important in ensuring favorable crop production. First lets find out what humus is. Basically, humus is a degraded organic material that can found in the soil which brings about the dark brown or black characteristic in some of its layers.
In the field of soil science, it is referred to as any organic matter that has reached a certain point of stability in which breakdown will never take place and in unchanged condition it will remain unscathed for a long period of time. In agricultural talk humus can be described as mature compost that is naturally occurring to be extracted in sources like forests to amend soil. Moreover, it is identified with topsoil horizon that is composed of organic materials.
Humus is usually tagged as the life-force of the soil. Now, this so-called life force can occur via a process known as humification which can take place via natural means with the soil itself or by compost production. The significance of stable humus contributes to the soil fertility both in terms of physicality and chemical components. But for some agricultural gurus its highlight is within its ability to suppress soil deterioration and plant diseases.
Humus works in various ways. In physical aspects, it contributes to the retention of soil moisture by adding up to its microporosity and encouraging the formation of patent soil structure. In chemical terms, it facilitates easy access and absorption of plant nutrients by incorporating oxygen into large organic molecular compartments that will generate active forms of negatively charged sites that can attract positively charged ions of nutrients. In biological facets, it allows adequate and appropriate feedings of soil organisms that eventually results into good reproductive results.
Humus is actually a complex substance having a nature that is not fully grasped within the agricultural circles. It can only be differentiated from organic matter as having a more uniform appearance of a dark, spongy, and jelly-like substance. It is amorphous in terms of structure meaning it does not possess a definite character and shape.
Humus can also be termed as humified organic matter as in recent versions of studies and documentations it has been considered to be an integral portion of soil organic matter. However the line between humus and organic matter can be drawn by employing the services of a microscope. The view of a humified organic matter without chemical manipulation within the magnifying capacities of a microscope can showcase minute but identifiable plant-like and animal-like microbial remains which have been mechanically altered.
Biodynamic gardening is just like its fuel. The humus, with its unique complexities enables each and every plant-loving individual to enjoy their craft and reap its rewards.
Get more complete tips on Biodynamic Farming , visit: www.biodynamicfarming.getmytips.com
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A Merrier Biodynamic Gardening
Posted on October 9th, 2011 by admin
It is always good to have a lot of company especially during trying times. It is also an effective practice to mix things up especially when one activity becomes too much of a routine and starts to offer boring and tiring moments. Simple food delicacies become a sumptuous festivity due to variances in color and texture. With this in mind, lets take a glance of how biodynamic gardening and agriculture in general make s things brighter and more effective via crop rotation.
Crop rotation otherwise known as crop sequencing is the method that involves the cultivation of a series of crops that are part of different types within the same area or agricultural vicinity. This is done in sequential times or seasons to promote many benefits in crop production. One very good example is the prevention of pathogen and pest build up that is normally takes place when only a single crop type is used.
Crop rotation also brings forth a specific balance that is very vital in avoiding the increase in the deterioration and reduction of soil nutrients. The balance can be associated with the varying fertility demands of the various crops utilized. A conventional ingredient in the success of crop rotation is the assurance of optimum nitrogen levels through the constant deployment of green manure with cereal and other forms of crops. Soil structure is also strengthened because of the presence of deep-rooted and shallow rooted crops.
Crop rotation avoids a significant decrease in soil fertility by practicing alternate mechanisms in terms of planting. Practitioners of the method make it a point the a certain crop cultivation that leads to soil leaching of a specific nutrient is timely followed by another that does not have the same effect. One example is the practice of planting cotton after the rice season. In this manner farmers are benefited in two ways. There is no need to let the plants fallow and there is decreased demands for the usage of artificial fertilizers which ultimately results into continuous field production and economical stability.
As mentioned above, crop rotation offers a medium for cultural control. This means that there is adequate defense against pests and diseases that can wreak havoc in every sector of the soil as well as the plants situated on it. The principle behind this is that the use of constant variation in crop types helps in placing pest population levels to a low percentage.
Basically plants that are members of the same taxonomic family attract similar pathogens. The regular change in the planting location can also break down or limit the cycles of pest development. The root-knot nematode causes severe malfunction in plant systems that are prevalent in warm climates and sandy soils. It has a gradual build-up phase leading to high levels within the soil resulting into deterioration in plant productivity mainly because it has the ability to cut off vital plant circulation coming from the roots. Now by following the crop rotation concept, cultivating a crop that is not prone to nematodes during an initial season can aid in the reduction of nematode levels in the soil therefore the farmer is allowed to grow susceptible crops the following season.
Biodynamic gardening and farming is an in-depth approach towards positive agriculture. Just like its buddy crop rotation practitioners must constantly devote time and heart in order to end up in successful harvests.
Get more complete tips on Biodynamic Farming , visit: www.biodynamicfarming.getmytips.com
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Biodynamic Farming Secrets
You Too Can Use This Advanced Technology To Heal Polluted Soil, And Turn Ordinary Plants Into 'Super-Food' Loaded With Nutrients, to Heal And Sustain Your Family - I'll Teach You How, Step-by-Step, In Less Than 60 Minutes