Building a Garden Pond and Perennial Flower Bed From Scratch

We had a large newly created yard and I have a love of flowers so I naturally desired a flower garden. The problem was that the fill that was trucked in to create this yard was all chunks of blacktop and concrete with a light sprinkling of top soil to cover the chunks. There was no digging into the dirt without hitting something solid. We couldn't even drive in a tent stake.

The town workers were scraping the sides of the roads after a long winter of sanding icy and snowy roads. They had two loads of roadside dirt they wanted to dump that looked like pretty good dirt so I let them dump it in a pile in the back of the yard.

After staring at the pile for some time, I began to see a fish pond and perennial garden in the dirt. My husband and I started working moving the dirt around to form a bowl in the center and grading the dirt away where the flowers would be planted. A flower bed would be wonderful, but with a pond in the center it will be even better.

Because we didn't know what we were doing, we used a grey plastic tarp for a liner. It worked well for two years. The spring of the third year we replaced it with rubber pond liner which will last many years. We purchased a pump and a filter so we could keep fish.

We had a fairly large pile of limestone rocks left over from an old rock wall. These rocks became the border for our perennial garden. My sister has horses and a nice pile of old horse manure. She graciously brought me a pickup truck load of manure which we mixed in the dirt. There is a recycling plant nearby that makes compost so we got a load of it to help improve the soil.

Another sister was cleaning out her perennial beds in the fall and throwing out a lot of overgrown plants which made great starter plants for me. I filled the back of my truck and brought them home to their new bed. I placed the plants in the ground for the winter. In the spring I divided the plants up and spread them out and had a great start on my flower bed.

Each year since then I add a few plants purchased at flower shows, the grocery store, and nurseries. I’ve also traded many plants with others happy to get different plants than they have. Now, seven years later, I am enjoying seven flower beds created basically the same way with beautiful flowers blooming from April through October.


Beginners Vegetable Gardening : Organic Vegetable Gardening Tips

Garden Design for Novices

Designing your garden and maintaining it can be a very rewarding, satisfying and relaxing way to spend your spare time. Even the most neglected piece of land can be turned into a beautiful, productive garden, full of color, wildlife and places to sit and relax. If you are interested in gardening or are keen to undertake some garden design at home, then this article is for you. If you want to create the garden of your dreams and learn how to maintain it successfully then read on.....

Successful garden design

Planning the best garden begins with deciding what the space is to be used for. It may sound obvious, but many people fail to consider this simple concept. Do you need an area for your children to run around in? Are you interested in growing your own fruit and vegetables? Do you need a shed to house your tools and  gardening equipment? These are some of the questions you need to ask yourself when planning your garden. Having mapped out your goals you need to think about how much time you want to spend maintaining the garden. If you are someone who likes to get stuck in and is looking forward to getting their hands dirty then you may want a variety of flower beds and vegetable beds. If you prefer to look at your garden rather than work in it then you may be happier with a nice terraced or paved area with just a few pots and other items of interest, reducing the need for excessive garden maintenance.

It is a good idea to get a paper and pencil out at this point. Maybe a quick sketch can really help you bring your ideas to life. Nothing fancy is needed here - perhaps you could plan where the beds will be and the lawn. If you require a patio area, you could add it to the sketch, or a pergola maybe. You could get help with this part of the equation by a specialist company if you are drawing a blank.

Ongoing garden maintenance

You should remember that it is not just the initial work that will need to be undertaken to create the perfect garden. Ongoing maintenance will undoubtedly be needed. Depending on how you design your garden will depend on how much maintenance work needs doing, and how regularly. If you dream of a cottage style garden then there are always going to be beds to weed, plants to deadhead, trees to prune, hedges to trim and so on. If you are pushed for time, are you really going to be able to carry out all the necessary tasks?

Some gardens don't require a large amount of work. This is especially true of those that rely on non-plant related features such as water fountains and statues. It is possible to create an interesting and unique space in even the smallest garden without using too much greenery. Decking is another great way to enjoy your garden without needing to spend too much time working in it. Add a few pots here and there, perhaps a small fish pond, and you have a contemporary and relaxing environment in which to read a book or entertain friends.

garden services

However , there is a third option. This allows you to have any garden you want without having to do a lot of work - hire a company to do it for you. There are companies who can do garden maintenance for you. They can clean out the pond, water the plants, deadhead the roses, prune the trees, harvest the fruit and vegetables, mow the lawn..... the list really does go on and on and includes all garden design too. This is a fantastic option for those who don't have the spare time to carry out the work themselves but want to enjoy a beautiful garden at home.

However you choose to design, maintain and enjoy your garden, make sure you end up with a space that you enjoy and can't wait to spend time in, regardless of whether that is with some secateurs or a good book and glass of wine in your hand!

The Natural way of growing big vegetables! gardening

Hay Bale Gardening

Hay bale gardening technique is a low-cost and convenient way of growing flowers and vegetables. Growing vegetables in a hay bale garden is similar to the technique used to grow vegetables in a raised bed garden. If you are just getting your bales, give the bales a thorough soaking, and let them begin to break down before you plant your vegetables. Hay or straw bale gardening is another great way have your garden if you have limited space, terrible soil, a bad back or those who are confined to a wheel chair! So much time is saved by not having to weed or hoe or even water as often as well. This project was first researched by a Dr at the University of Minnesota Extension says, "Hay bales provide a well-aerated, disease free growing medium that is perfect for growing vegetables.


The popular method of hay bale gardening is getting more popular in town, a friend told him how to get prosperous crops using nothing but wheat straw, potting soil, a little fertilizer and some tomato plants "Every fall I get some bales and let them sit out all winter to get good and soggy, I plant a few every year and I've had real good luck. Another friend who was in the landscaping business showed him how to use wheat straw to garden "He had all kinds of crops including cucumber, squash and green beans, you can raise almost anything except corn, because it's too tall and the bale will fall over.


Bales first should be situated in a full sun formation, with twine and wire ties kept in tact. Since bales may be used two seasons, synthetic twine can be used to provide the most durable binding. For optimum root penetration and plant growth throughout gardening months, bales should be placed with strings wrapped horizontally and straws set vertically. The next step is hydration, the key to successful hay bale gardening. A form of hydroponics, the hay bale is like a sponge, and you can't let them dry out, or your crop just does not work. While watering the bales twice per day, fertilize them every other day for six days with one-half cup each of a high nitrogen fertilizer. Working with the bales is much easier than working on a traditional garden. You're putting your garden at eye level, you can see your progress, you can weed it a lot easier and harvest easier. (Posted by Denise in Creative Organic gardening). Straw bale gardening is an interesting option for those who have either limited soil, limited space or have difficulty bending over. This is important if you intend to get two years possible out of each bale in your straw bale gardening efforts. Remember several things about placing your bales in your straw bale gardening layout. Straw bale gardening layouts can be placed end-to-end to create long gardens or grouped into traditional bed shapes or even set up as maze types of gardens. How crazy does it sound, growing tomatoes in bales of hay. I planted peppers, tomatoes, flowers and beans in the hay bales in different arrangements that were pleasing to the eye. Somehow I find it oddly interesting kind of like growing tomatoes upside down. In my garden adventures with hay bale and straw bale gardening I have tried several different gardening techniques. While I like growing melons and gourds in the bales both are heavy feeder so I created a hay bale/ straw bale square garden technique to use with these crops. Lay the bales out to form a square with an open section on the inside. Now it's time to prepare the bales for planting. Straw bale gardening has many positive aspects. Valerie Everett I prefer straw bales as they contain less seed and last longer but straw is more expensive so my choice for the garden depends on the best buy I can get or which crop I am growing. For squash plants and gourds I use hay bales. First get bales that still have the string tightly around the bale. And if you know where you want your garden position the bales. For more information and tips on gardening go to www.Teegoes.org

From Zero to Vegetable Garden in 6 Months - Tips So You Can Succeed

Hard-Times Gardening � Sustainable Without Fertilizers

I teach the Mittleider Method of vegetable gardening. It’s often called better than organic gardening, because we use only natural mineral nutrients, and eliminate weeds and pests without pesticides and herbicides. In addition, virtually nothing is left to chance – much different from those who depend on the unknown composition of manure and compost as their only source of food for their gardens.


I’m asked occasionally if the Mittleider gardening method is sustainable in the long run, “since it seems to be based on the availability of modern day fertilizers.” Since some folks feel that today’s fertilizers may not always be available in the future, how viable is this system for ongoing sustainability in the long run?

First, the Mittleider method is NOT dependent on commercial fertilizers for viability. Our experience around the world for over 40 years, however, is that everywhere we have been - including several countries in Africa, Armenia, Madagascar, Papua New Guinea, Russia, and 23 others - fertilizers have always been available.

The careful use of natural mineral fertilizers increases a family's gardening yield many times - sometimes as much as 10 times what they were growing without them. This is what has allowed America to change from one person feeding 4 or 5, to one person feeding 100 other people. So why would we NOT use them?? And why would we not want to teach people in the developing countries to use them - unless perhaps we WANT them to stay in the 19th century?

We recommend people obtain enough natural mineral fertilizers and seed (a #10 can of 15 varieties of heirloom seeds is available at www.growfood.com) for at least one extra year's garden. Mineral Fertilizers keep almost indefinitely, and they cost very little, compared to the yield they produce. Small storable packages of micro-nutrients are also available at www.growfood.com.

Here’s how you can grow a productive and healthy garden using manure tea. Get a large burlap bag and a 55-gallon barrel. Find cow or horse manure (chicken or turkey is twice as hot, so less will be needed), and fill the bag 2/3's full. Place the bag in the barrel and fill it with water. Let the manure "tea" soak or "steep" for 24 hours, then use the tea to water your vegetable plants.

Replace the bag of manure in the barrel and let steep for 48 hours. Use the tea, then dump the spent manure out and dig into an unused portion of the garden - it has almost no nutrient value, but can improve soil tilth.

Remember to plant your plants a little further apart when using this method, because they will be competing for less available nutrition. In addition, every watering should be with the manure tea for your plants to be healthy and thrive. You should expect to grow a smaller garden, and spend some time finding manure.

If manure just isn't available, consider saving kitchen scraps and human waste. Many countries do it all the time, so it's not the end of the world. And all clean, healthy plant residue should be saved and properly composted for re-use in the garden - again preferably as manure tea.

The Food For Everyone foundation teaches the Mittleider method of organic gardening. Know as the poor mans hydroponics you can increase your yields five to ten times. Tomatoes, vegetables, herbs, berries you name it these nutrients will produce the best results.






How to Plant a Vegetable Garden : Weed Control Tips for Your Vegetable Garden

7 Reasons To Grow Your Own Organic Vegetable Garden

During the last decades there has been a change towards mechanization and homogenization of farming, which uses pesticides, additives, herbicides, synthetic fertilizers and mass-production techniques. All this is clearly affecting mankind's health, and new diseases are spreading rapidly amongst humans and animals (bird's flu being the most recent one).

The World Health Organization produces reports to show how the use of chemicals and other products on food, coupled with the manufacturing processes involved, are actually a threat for our health.

If you have space for a few pots or even a small piece of land, it is a wise decision to grow your own organic vegetable garden. Today I'm presenting you with seven reasons for doing this:

1. You will have no additives in your vegetables. Research by organic food associations has shown that additives in our food can cause heart diseases, osteoporosis, migraines and hyperactivity.

2. There will be no pesticides or synthetic fertilizers used. These chemical products are applied to obtain crops all the time regardless plagues or weather conditions, and affect the quality of the vegetables. Besides, pesticides are usually poisonous to humans.

3. Your vegetables will not be genetically modified (GM). Antibiotics, drugs and hormones are used on vegetables to grow more and larger ones. One of the consequences of this practice are vegetables which look all the same and are usually tasteless. Besides, we end up consuming the hormones that have been used on the vegetables, with the potential risks for our health.

4. Eating your own organic vegetables will be much more healthy for you. They will not contain any of the products or chemicals named above, and they will be much more natural than any ones you would find at the supermarket. Your health will not be at risk because you will then know that nothing has been added to your vegetables.

5. Your own organic vegetables will be much more tasty. The use of pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, hormones and antibiotics make vegetables grow unnaturally and take the taste away from them. With organic vegetables, your cooking will be enhanced as their flavour will show fully.

6. Organic farming is friendly to the environment. Because you won't use pesticides or other equally harming products on your vegetables, you will not damage the soil or the air with the chemical components.

7. When you grow your own organic vegetables you are contributing to your own self-sustainability and the sustainability of the planet. Small communities have been founded where members exchange products that they grow naturally, thus contributing to create a friendly and better place for us all.

In the end, eating organic products only means that we do not add anything else to them than they would naturally have. As you can guess, additives, fertilizers, pesticides or hormones are not components of naturally grown food. To better care for your health, grown your own organic vegetables -and a few pots is all you need.

Raised Bed Vegetable Garden Install from Start to Finish

How to Create a Butterfly Garden

People who love to garden also tend to enjoy watching butterflies flitting about. After all, butterflies are just as pretty to look at as the flowers that they visit. gardeners can entice even more butterflies to visit their gardens by creating gardens specifically for butterflies.

It’s quite easy to create a butterfly garden. You may even find that you already grow some flowers that attract butterflies. With just a little effort you can create a beautiful haven for these lovely winged creatures, and the butterflies will appreciate your efforts.

If you’re starting from scratch and will be creating a new planting bed for your butterfly garden, you’ll first want to learn how to properly create a planting bed for your plants. You can find information on preparing raised planting beds at http://www.freeplants.com

When deciding where to locate your butterfly garden, choose a spot that is not isolated from other plants. Butterflies will be more likely to find your garden if there are other flowers nearby to lead them to your butterfly garden. But if your butterfly garden is the only patch of flowers in a vast sea of grass, butterflies won’t have much reason to be in the area. If you have a border of flowering shrubs and other butterfly-enticing plants are scattered around your yard, the butterflies are much more likely to spend time in your garden.

The butterfly garden should include a variety of plants that attract butterflies, and those plants should be in a variety of colors and heights. Consider planting azaleas, rhododendrons and lilacs for height. Fragrant ‘James McFarland’ lilacs seem to be especially attractive to butterflies. Weigela, with its flowers like dainty trumpets, is another good shrub for attracting butterflies.

No butterfly garden should be without Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa). Not only will the bright orange blossoms attract many butterflies, but the plant will also provide food for caterpillars. Without the caterpillars there would be no butterflies. Dill and parsley also provide food for butterfly caterpillars. If you’re lucky, you may even have Monarch butterflies laying their eggs on the milkweed and you can watch the entire life cycle, from caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly.

Many other commonly grown flowers will attract butterflies, including hollyhocks, purple coneflowers (Echinacea), Black-eyed Susans (rudbeckia), cosmos, huechera, zinnias, beebalm and cleome. Buddleia, also known as butterfly bush, is a must in any butterfly garden. If you have room for this large plant, Mexican sunflower (tithonia) will attract many butterflies and hummingbirds with its sunny orange blooms.

Plan your butterfly garden so there are blooms all season long. The rhododendrons, azaleas and lilacs will provide a spring snack for butterflies, followed by summer-blooming plants such as the buddleia and asclepias. In the fall, butterflies will sip nectar from asters and ‘Autumn Joy” sedum.

In addition to providing food for butterflies, your butterfly garden should also provide a resting place along with shelter from the wind and cold. Include flat rocks in your garden where the butterflies can sun themselves. It’s even better if the rocks have shallow depressions where water will puddle and provide a place for butterflies to gather for a drink.

A small log pile will provide shelter from the weather for butterflies. You can also purchase butterfly shelters that look rather like tall, narrow birdhouses with several slots for entrances. These may attract butterflies, but in my experience wasps tend to move in, discouraging any butterflies from entering.

One final thing that every butterfly garden should include is a comfortable bench placed where you can sit and admire the beautiful butterflies. After all, you’ve created this garden not only for the butterflies but also for your own enjoyment.

How to Plant a Vegetable Garden : Tips for Pest Control in a Vegetable Garden

Growing Tomatoes In Containers Successfully

Modern urban living should not deprive you of the joys of home gardening. If you enjoy eating vegetables, you will derive even greater satisfaction in consuming your own homegrown vegetables. Growing tomatoes in containers has always been popular among home gardeners. It gives apartment dwellers a chance to own a garden despite living in small spaces.

Have you ever wondered why do people grow tomatoes in a container even when they have a yard or garden? Well, the answer is simply for better control, flexibility and convenience.

Tomato plants grow well on warm temperature, adequate sunlight and good quality drainage system. Occasional fertilizers add a booster to the plant' s nutrients and promote the production of big, juicy tomatoes. Similar to planting in the ground, it is advisable to grow tomato plants indoor carefully and transplant them only when they are strong enough. In transplanting, you should bury as much of the plant stem as possible. This promotes good formation of the roots, which results in an excellent base foundation for your tomato plant.

growing vegetables in containers allow you to control the state of your growing medium. Once you have discovered your success secrets through your gardening experiments, you can just rinse and repeat it in all your future gardening projects. You can choose total soil-free gardening, organic gardening or a mixture of both. A recommended recipe for good container gardening soil mixture for vegetable growing is 40% compost, 40% peat moss, and 20% perlite.

One of the advantages of having a container garden is that it frees you from weeding and messing with garden dirt. However , container vegetables will require extra care in watering and fertilizing. Tomatoes grown in containers have constrained root coverage and their growth is limited by the amount of water and nutrients in the container. During summer, you may even need to water your container vegetable plants up to twice daily to prevent it from drying up. Give your water thirsty tomato plants ample water and you can expect a delightful harvest.

If you are looking for an easy way out to watering your tomato plants, you can install automated drip irrigators for your containers. The installation is considerably uncomplicated and the price is not costly. The approximated price of an automated drip irrigation system set up ranges between $50 to $100. You could be easing yourself of a lot of hassles if you have a lot of container plants to take care of. It is surely a worthy investment that will pay off well in the long run.

One of the methods frequently used to lessen water evaporation is to apply mulch to your containers. This also aids in keeping weeds down if you are using compost or garden soil. Both pine bark mulch and black plastic mulch work great.

When your tomato plants start to blossom, it is time to increase the fertilizers to twice its usual amount. This helps to encourage fruit production and results in better yields. Always keep your fertilization rate constant.

Having your tomato plant blossoming with delicious-looking tomatoes is a wonderful feeling. However , it is advisable to pick your tomato fruits once they are ripe as this encourages the plant to produce a new fruit.

Growing tomatoes in containers is undeniably a very flexible and productive gardening practice. Be free to exercise your creativity with your container gardens, as tomatoes are generally hardy plants.

Growing vegetables on your balcony - Part 1