Welcome to The Tao of Garden

Gardening is simply the practice of cultivating plants. People grow ornamental plants to harvest their flowers, foliage, or to get dyes out of them. They are also grown for their overall appearance.

There are also plants that are cultivated for human consumption. They are consumed as fruits, vegetables and herbs for medicinal purposes.

When we talk about gardening the subject ranges from fruit orchards to long boulevard plantings. Gardening practitioners may specialize themselves in growing only one type of plant or they may also practice mixed plantings that involve many various plants.

Gardening requires active participation of the practitioner and it usually requires intensive works and discipline.
Here you'll find many tips and tricks that are related to gardening.

There are various methods, types and approaches to maintain a healthy and beautiful garden. You can find all of them here.

You may want to learn what's the proper way to landscape the yard, choosing the right soil, maintain the plants, growing indoor gardens, and many many more.

We also look forward to hear your insights, suggestions, and even requests around gardening and landscaping. So please don't forget to leave your precious comments...

Happy gardening... :)

Apply The Layering Landscaping To Make Your Garden More Beauty


Do your garden need landscaping? If the answer is yes then you can perform the landscaping planning for your garden.

This is very exciting and good thing to do. You will be activating your all imagination in planning about the garden and thinking that where would you be placing the plants and flowers in your garden.

You can add the addition level of layer over the garden landscape and make it more beauty by applying the layering landscaping. When people visit your home, first they come to see is your garden. So welcoming the guest in the fabulous and lively garden is always exciting.

Also good landscaping will make you and your garden landscaping a topic of discussion in your neighborhood.

It is not very difficult in layering the garden landscape. You must have knowledge about the flowers which you are going to plant in your garden. The choice of the flowers and plants will affect the overall look of your garden landscaping.

The proper placement of these plants is also very necessary. Like for instance you surely do not want to place the taller plants with the shorter plants.

So make the rough sketch about your landscaping planning on the paper before starting placement of the plants. This way you will be able to make the work faster as well as it will make the things simpler for you. This will also lesser down the problem rising for you.

You must be layering the garden in three layers. The back row must have all the tallest plants and trees and it must be facing the northward. For this you must have information about the plants heights. The best thing is to buy the baby plants for layering landscaping.

You also need to talk with the gardening person in the stores about the plant’s growth and their heights. This will lay foundation for your layering landscaping of the garden.

If you have placed the baby plants in the first and middle row that grow too much tall then you have to rearrange these plants again. It will waste your time and effort and if not done will give the messy look.

The proper layering will make your garden landscaping look marvelous and it will add the depth interest in gardening. This is the way in which you can make the layering landscaping of the garden successful.

Front Yard Landscaping: The Low And Easy Maintenance

Many people want to have the low maintenance front yard. You can have the low and easy maintenance by making it done by the professionals or even by doing yourself.

Even though you have to perform little jobs in the overall maintenance of the front yard, still you can have the beautiful looking front yard all over the year.

If you are getting the help of the professionals in setting up the front yard landscaping for you, explain him about your goals and let him know that you want the yard that will need little attention of yours.

Having less grass in your front yard landscaping will let you save your time. The mowing the gardens will take lots of your time and effort in shortening the grass. So it is better to ask the professionals to guide you about alternatives still making the lawn looks good with minimal efforts.

Some people use clovers in their front yard landscaping instead of grass. Clover lawns save your lots of time and money. You will not need to mow the clovers so often and it is also a good landscaping technique for the areas that are prone to droughts.

Another benefit that can be attained from having the clover’s lawns is that you are also able to keep away from the bugs. Bugs really hate clovers.


Another hassle can be watering the garden. That is the main reason; people opt for automatic irrigating systems now-a-days in their front yard landscaping. It will save you a lot of time and money as well.

This is also the superb idea to keep your front yard wet in hot days and they will always be looking healthy. And guess what you do not really need to indulge yourself in sprinklers.

These systems can be installed by getting the help from the professionals. The little leakage in the pipes of these system will bring flood in your garden and rot everything and this means that you have lost your front yard landscaping altogether.

Making Desert Landscaping


If you are the citizen of desert place, then desert landscaping will be working for you.

Although, it is bit tough apply then any other landscaping method but the only way to apply in the deserts.

The desert landscaping only allows you to work with the plants and the trees that can retain water inside them and can survive for long time if no water given to them.

Of course plating those plants that cannot retain water will die soon afterwards and there will be your lose.

So before making desert landscaping, give some time in finding about the ways to do desert landscaping and collect all the required knowledge about it.

You will need handsome amount of money and time for irrigating the land in desert area. So the best way is to select those plants that can even thrive in the hot sunny days.

The advantage of using these plants is that they not only remain alive in the hot sunny days but also thrives in to the poor quality soil. It is very obvious that the place where the sun rays are too much and direct affects the quality of the soil.

Here are some suggestions about the plants that can be used in your desert landscaping:

1.    Longwood Blue bluebeard:

Longwood blue bluebeard is a shrub and deciduous plant. It re-grows in every spring season with full of health and that is the reason it becomes the first choice for desert landscaping.

Its growth is about 3 to 4 feet in height and 2 feet in width. It is a beautiful and lovely blue flower that clusters with silver foliage and it also smells good.

2.    Autumn Joy:

It is the wonderful perennial that can be used in desert landscaping. You can have choice for selecting the color of the leaves obtained from this plant. It can even grow in the rocks that make it the ultimate choice in desert landscaping.

The flowers of these plants are really awesome and different from every other plant. These flowers grow in clusters and have different shades and colors.

Yellow, orange and the pink are the most common colors. It also attracts the butterflies and makes the scene auspicious.

Concrete Landscaping Is Very Easy To Work


Concrete landscaping has been introduced 10 years later and now it is become the choice for many people. It looks very pretty and fascinating in your backyard landscaping.

You can apply concrete landscaping at different parts of your backyard. Mostly, people use it on the paths and walkways of their garden. This is mostly done if the garden area is large enough to have paths and walkways.

For smaller gardens, concrete landscaping can be done in the different manner. In smaller gardens you can have patio where you and your friend can enjoy tea or coffee drinking. Party at concrete patio is something worth remembering and builds the nice memories.

Another type of concrete landscaping for backyard is the stone walls. Stone walls have got popularity in no times and mostly people have applied it already. You can apply the stone walls with different gorgeous frames in the front gate or around the backyard. The use of simple walls is another form of concrete landscaping.

These walls are used to keep the pets inside your yard. It is the good technique to stop your dogs specially those who just find ways to get out of the home. It is also a good way to stop the intruders outside. The walls will be putting hindrances for the burglars to get in to your property.

You can consider these types of landscaping for your backyard and can hire the professionals to implement it in your yards.

Concrete landscaping can be used to keep the soil in the place. If your backyard has slippery soil then you can build the walls to make the retention of the soil. The two purposed concrete landscaping will provide you safety against the slippery soil and also enhance the beauty of your landscaping.

Concrete landscaping is very easy to work with that is why you can try various things with it. Concrete solid bricks or whole solid slabs can also be used if you want to apply the concrete landscaping in your yard. You can also design the landscaping stones so to look unique and creative.

They can be cut in any shapes and sizes. Just give sometime in doing research about concrete landscaping and you will be surprised to know that how much more is there in this type of landscaping.

Finding Landscaping Company


Even in this fast and advanced world it is not easy to find a good landscaping company. If you are hiring a company for the job than you have to make sure that the landscaping company that you have chosen will be able to do their work properly.

It does not matter that the job is small or a large one but you must look for a better company who is reliable and also trustworthy.

The first thing that you should look for while finding a company is how long they have been in this business? If they are in this business since a longer time then there are more chances that they are good at what they do.

Exceptions are there but if their work was not good then they would not have survived for so many years. This is a rule of thumb and everyone should keep this in mind before searching for a landscaping company.

Once you have looked up for a company you should further research on that company before assigning them the job. Most landscaping companies work on a small scale. They have very less employers and a bulk of work to do so the chances are that their company would not be as good as other companies working on a big scale.


The contractors in the small company have so much things to do at a time so they can not concentrate on any one thing and most probably they would not show up for the meetings. The owner of the company has to do most of the work, like take the appointments, get to the appointments and to do the actual landscaping work.

So before hiring a company, find out how many clients the company is handling at that time. if the company is too busy that it can not take out time for your work then you should look for any other company.


The one that can give you time. You are paying for the service so you should choose a company that can give you time as well as a good work.

If you will not do the researches work before hiring a company then you might not get a good work from the company and your money will be wasted.

Learn The Things About How To Landscape Your Backyard


Backyard landscaping can have many benefits. One of them is ensuring your well-being.

Landscaping the backyard will allow you and rest of your family members to change their mood and feelings by coming in that part of the house.

It is the part where you and your family can enjoy in the most safest and comfortable environment.

Landscaping backyard in such a manner that it will become the place where you can spend your time alone or even in the gathering of other people, in most peaceful and comfortable zone. You can also make the sanctuary a part of your backyard landscaping that you have never had before in your life.

It is not very difficult to landscape your backyard but it requires time and dedication. If you feel that you do not have enough time in landscaping the backyard, you can get help from the professional. Landscaping backyard yourself will become difficult for you if you do not have experience in doing it before.

So first learn the things about how to landscape your backyard. You can make yourself enrolled in the landscaping crash course that will help you to get knowledge about each and every aspect of landscaping that you have never learned before.

Landscaping backyard by yourself will save you lots of money and also it will increase your experience. But if you do not know how to do it and still taking plunge, then it will end up in costing you more.

First figure out that what are your requirements about landscaping your backyard. If it is just the simple and straight job that you can do easily, do it yourself. But if you want irrigation and planes things done, then hire the professional for performing these jobs.

You must decide that how you want the things get done. Taking plunge in backyard landscaping without having appropriate knowledge and information will just result in messy things.

Internet and public library are the other sources from where you can learn about the backyard landscaping. You can get many books on backyard landscaping from the library and read it so to make the best choice in fulfilling the backyard landscaping needs. You can also get tips and numerous articles on the same topic from visiting the online websites.

Tips On How To Pick The Best Landscaping Ideas


There are numbers of backyard landscaping ideas and most of them are pretty terrific. But of course you cannot go for all of these ideas. You must have to see what your backyard landscaping needs are and research about it.

This will let you choose the best idea available in front you for landscaping your backyard. This article will give you insight about how you can select the best idea for you and how can you implement it.

The use of the tress in your backyard will add natural colors and let you feel fabulous. The choice of the trees depends upon your taste.

You can add the deciduous trees in your backyard that will be helpful for you to provide stability to your backyard and also give it a structure. Using the trees in the backyard is the good idea and also it is close to nature.

You can also use the evergreen trees in your backyard. It will be as fresh and green in winter as it was in summer. On the other hand, deciduous trees do not give nice look in all the seasons.

Landscaping the backyard for looking lively all the seasons will allow you to opt for the evergreen tress. It will make the landscaping look green all around the year.


Use of the hardscape is also an interesting backyard’s landscaping idea. It involves the use of walls, fences and rocks. Regardless of season, it will grab the attention of the people towards your backyard landscaping.

You can opt for trees around them and can also hang pretty flowers’ pots over it in the summer and spring season. Beside just use of the plants in the backyards landscaping you must also keep the other ideas in your mind. There are lots of other stuffs then the trees and plants that can be made the part of your landscaping.

You can frame your property of backyard by covering the fence around it. The use of the fences in your backyard landscaping is such a wonderful idea that will get appreciation of all the people. Framing the backyard with fence will give you a good and marvelous picture and you must try to opt for such type of ideas for landscaping your backyard.

Gardening With The Proper Tools

For the proper gardening, different types of tools are required. The more appropriate use of the tools will ensure the proper and quicker growth of the plants, fruits and vegetables in your garden.

Gardening is the long process and it requires lot of time and effort to grow the garden. Proper care, love and attention is required to grow the seeds in to a plant that will produce vegetables or flowers ultimately.

Gardening need caution and care. You must be pretty sure about the deepness and fertility of the soil before plantation. You must appropriate place in order to grow the garden.

You must also know the soil requirement for each plant. Some plant do not required to be buried deeper and just needed to be covered with light soil just for the protection for the growth.

Spading fork, cultivator, hoe and the trowel are some important tools that will be required frequently in growing the garden.

Use that tools which is best suited for your garden. You may require more tools then the above mentioned one. Use all the tools required in order to make the garden healthy.

Tools are used in maintaining the garden after the plantation of seeds and plants. They are also used in working with the soil, once or twice in a week.

By working in the garden, you will get experience and can easily determine that you need to do more with the tools or the plants are growing as they should grow.

Enjoy The Benefits Of Gardening With Herbs At Your Own Home

If you have garden with herbs at your own home, you can enjoy fresh herbs in your daily cooking.

If you do not have herbs, do not worry you can have them. They are really easy to grow and do not require your much time and attention.

You do not need to do proper planning for growing the herb garden. Only thing you must keep in the mind that herbs require sunlight, great rich soil and warm temperature to grow successfully and faster.

After providing the above mentioned required things, you can know enjoy the fresh herbs by just waiting them to grow. Give it appropriate time to grow.

Some herbs that are most popular and easy to grow are: Oregano, Chives, Basil, Cilantro and parsley. You can grow them individually or can even grow the combination of herbs.

You can initiate your herb garden by finding the appropriate place where sun light comes directly and provide warmth. If you do not have such place at home and you really desired to grow your own herb garden you can provide the artificial lighting for the growth.

After finding the artificial light, next step is to find out a box or a pot and add soil in it. Soil must be fertile and then plant herbs which you want to grow.

Add sufficient amount of water in the seed when you plant the herbs. Then later on add water as required. Check the availability of light, it must not be too much that burn the herbs. Appropriate amount of light must be given to make them grow properly and without damaging it.

How Gardening Make You Feel Relax?

Hobbies are the way to get you involved in your interested work and thus keeping you away from the stress and depression.

It gives you challenging task to accomplish and build your self-esteem and confidence. You can better utilize your time with hobbies. Gardening is also a hobby that usually people adopt.

How gardening is stress releasing and make you feel relax? It is because when you are alone and doing the work to accomplish a task you feel away from the stressful situation.

Like other hobbies, gardening can also raise your confidence and self-esteem. A pleasant garden in front of you, with flowers and plants make you feel satisfied with your work. It also keeps you separate and away from the home. It let you enjoy the fresh atmosphere that is good for your health.

Gardening can be done in both the indoors and outdoors. It depends upon the area of your home. Even if you do not have sufficient area you can still do gardening.

Gardening puts the positive impact on mentally disturbed and sad person. These people feel that they are the losers and they have low self-esteem.

Gardening will raise the positive feeling in them and with the help of other persons they can get back on the right track back. One can feel the positive changes in the attitude of the person who are involved in the gardening.

In winter times one can grow the garden inside the home, in order to keep the garden safe from snowfall and dry winter.

Grow Your Garden Inside Your Home

It may be possible that you want to have your own garden, for getting your own fresh grown vegetables and fruits, but you do not have place to fulfill your desire.

But do not worry; now you can grow your garden inside your home. This will also allow you to control the temperature and set it according to the requirements of the plants.

There are many ways in which you can grow the fresh vegetables, fruits and herbs inside your home. In order to do that you must require pots to grow the plants.

You can plant them in pot and place the pots in your windows or front porch or may be make a small greenhouse in front of the porch that faces the sun, so that the plants can get light and warmth directly for the growth.

In order to grow the garden inside, you will need a square box and a round galvanized tub, to place the soil in the little depth. You can put the seeds and plants inside it. Provide it with sufficient amount of water.

As you do not have much space so you cannot grow the complete range of row vegetables. So you have to decide which vegetables you want to grow each week.

Of course you will be needed to preserve the vegetables and do not want it to be stale. You can preserve them by dehydrating, freezing or canning method.

Look how easily you can make your dream of gardening fulfill without requiring much space and in less expenses.

Add More Fresh Herbs Into Your Gardening Gifts

Giving gifts are in our tradition and it makes other realize that how important he/she is for us. It also let him/her feel special. So what gift should be given that would be worth using?

Gardening gifts are becoming very popular now a day. They can be enjoyed for the long time and also provides satisfaction. They are also better because other will definitely use it and also less expensive.

Gardening gifts must be according to the interest of the other person. Like for instance, if the receiver always loves to eat the Italian food, you can give him/her an indoor garden, which can grow herbs like basil, oregano and cilantro.

You can even add more herbs in it so that they can enjoy the fresh herbs every time in making the Italian dishes and always remember you while enjoying the fresh herbs.

Herbs can also be used in numbers of ways. It can be used in other foods, teas and can be used as ailments to the parts which have pain and causing you discomfort.

Mini green house can also be a great gardening gift. You can give them seeds, watering can and fertile soil when they have intention to build a garden in their home.

You can also give them the cans for preserving the food which they have grown throughout the planting season and they want it to store it up till the entire winter season.

Gardening gifts are always best and they let others know that how much you care for them. These gifts are long lasting as well as can be used life time.

Teach Your Kids About Gardening

Gardening is very important because for survival we all are dependent on food. There are different types of gardening in which you can grow plant, trees, flowers, herbs, fruits and more.

Garden can be of any size. It can vary from acres and acres of land or it can be small box with only few plants in it, which you can be placed in the window.

Different plants need different climates and different seasons. You can involve your children also in gardening. They can help you out in growing the vegetables to be eaten for dinner and they can also helps you out in preserving the vegetables and fruits to be eaten during the winter season.

Gardening gives many lessons to the children which are much important for them. It teaches them that how the seeds grow the plant and how we get food and from where and also teach them to be patient and see them growing slowly.

Gardening also provides the chance to the children to work outdoors and do productive things with fun. Always take the children to acquire for the stuffs required for gardening. You should also ask them to grow their plants themselves in small pots and boxes.

For gardening supplies you will be requiring the seeds, soil, watering can, hand held garden tools and some fertilizers for the soil if needed.

You should teach your children to read each packages of the seeds carefully and ask them to notice that each and every plant require different time duration to grow and how much deep they needed to be planted.

For instance, cucumbers need light soil for plantation while carrots need to be planted deeper in the soil. This knowledge will let your children understand and will let him grow plant accurately and productively.

Fresh Food In Your Garden

When we see the 'Little House on the Prairie', we can recall the time when there was no grocery store to carry the vegetables from. Life was very difficult at that times when one has to grow food himself for his family.

This would be like plowing the garden for growing plants and working with the team of horses. Tired from such hard work, a person normally fell asleep early after the dinner.

It was very tough job. One has to work hard and had to gather the enough amount of food for saving himself and his family from starving during the winter season.

But know our life has become so much easy. We can easily get the vegetables and fruits from the grocery store at the cheap prices. If we grow the food ourselves it would cost us more than buying it from nearest grocery store.

Most of us buy the food from the grocery stores because they are affordable. But some people have X and Y personal reasons to grow their own garden.

Growing your own garden has many benefits. Working hard in your garden will give you experience and it will teach you tricks and give you tips which later on you can pass it on your children.

Initial cost for establishing the garden is high, but you can grow the food all along the year. You can also preserve the food for the winter season. In the end you will find your garden repaying you in form of fresh and clean vegetables and fruits.

Seeds and plants are expensive to acquire. So you can save the seeds from the vegetables and make it grow next year, rather than buying the new seeds. By this way you can save your money.

Growing Flowers In The Garden

Imagine the fragrance and colors of the fresh flowers which you have just picked up from the garden. Nothing of course can replace these feelings. It makes the day brighter.

By putting the flowers in the flower vase and setting it on the middle of the dining table will enhance the beauty of the room.

What if you yourself have grown these flowers? The sense of pride and accomplishment will fill you and it will cost you nothing for enjoying the flowers in the home.

But if you have not taken the plunge to grow the flowers yourself, you can do it now. It’s never too late. You will find that growing the flowers is very easy job and it will gives you relaxation and refreshing feelings as well.

There are some flowers that are difficult to grow and they only grow in certain season a year. They are known as seasonal flowers. Like for example Christmas cactus.

Gardening the flowers can also earn money for you. You can take part in the flower contests and can win monetary prizes and ribbons.

You can also use these flowers for selling in the flea market and or the floral shops. You can also use these flowers as a gift for someone very special, someone who just had a baby, someone how is feeling lonely and disturbed or even to a person who has birthday. You can also give these flowers to a person who is in hospital.

Flowers can tell the things which you cannot even say. They are the most precious and valuable gift. They are used to uplift the spirits. Different colors of followers depict different meaning. Other person can judge your feeling with the color of the plant. So if you do not have courage to say a sorry to your friend, you can fetch a white rose for him/her.

Knowing About Vegetable Gardening

Vegetable gardening has now become one of the most popular hobbies. Vegetable gardening allows you to have fresh and healthy vegetables with great taste which is better than what you buy from a vegetable store.

In vegetable gardening, you don’t need to follow any out of the way instructions.

It’s just like the normal flower or herb gardening and needs appropriate care and you will see that your garden will produce delicious vegetables and bloom for a long time.

The first thing needs to be considered is the size of the garden what you want and the proper place for it. But keep in mind that the place which you choose should have a proper draining system, a better flow of air and a nutritious soil.

The sunlight is very necessary for the plants so consider this as well. The animals like dogs, rabbits, deer and lots of others will try to get in your garden and eat these tasty veggies so you need to protect it using fence or just try to set some traps in which animals like mice and moles can be caught.

Now start the planting, but wait! You need to prepare the soil first. Preparing the soil includes cultivation ant the use of organic materials.

Weeds are a big problem so to avoid them, till the soil properly. If you own a small garden it’s better that you go for spading.

Mulch the soil as much as you can and compost stands at first for this purpose. When you use fertilizers, they emit nitrogen, minerals and different type of useful nutrients, which plants need to grow better and healthy.

Different plants and soil need different amount and type of fertilizers for their growth such as the leaf plants like cabbage, spinach and lettuce needs more nitrogen to grow well, while on the other hand, potash is the basic need for the plants like potatoes, beets, turnips and carrots.

Some plants like tomatoes and beans need not so much fertilizers while onions, celery and potatoes require a big amount of fertilizers.

Garden arrangement or organization plays an important role in vegetable gardening. There come a lot of different conditions so it doesn’t work well if you keep the same arrangement for every type of garden.

Some plants does not require much space or area together like radishes, lettuce, beets etc while some plants like corn pumpkin and potatoes need more space together so plant them in this way, it’s a good idea.
As sunlight is very important for plants to grow so plant them in such a way that longer ones come on the back side and shorter ones come at the front so that no plant will come in the sunlight’s path of the other.

You cannot start planting at any time of the year with specific ones, as every plant has a particular season to grow.

If, this happens that you badly need to plant then you must plant them at a warm or hot place and when the weather get changed you transplant them.

Water is an essential part during plants’ growth so make sure that you water them properly according to their type. Some plants need more water and some need less like an inch per week.

After all this care, one thing which can be dangerous are weeds. Doing all this hard work and getting nothing at the end is such a disaster.

Vegetable Gardening For Dummies

Weeds use all the water, light and nutrients which are necessary for the plants. They harm the plants with diseases and insects. To get rid, you must cultivate or mulch the garden. Most of the seeds come with the label “disease resistant”, try to use them or you must need to use chemicals.

Vegetable gardening is the best among all as you get to taste the fruit of your hard work. It’s a cheap way of satisfying your hobby and most of all their taste is just much better than the ones bought from the market. Proper maintenance and following of instructions is the key point to have a lot of end product.

How To Get Better Result Of Compositing And The Organic Gardening

Compositing is the most respected technique that must be adopted by all the gardeners. The question is which materials to be used in the compositing.

Well theories tell us that we can use any organic material in composting, but in real life it is not really as simple as it seems.

In compost pile several organic materials cannot be used, as you do not have pretty knowledge that how much of its quantity be required, only experts can do that.

In this article I will try to let you understand that which materials must not be used in the compost and which can be used in compost.

The composters at home can use numbers of materials that are available in their kitchen and the backyard. The industrial composters however, have benefit over us because they are entertained with the large number of waste materials from the industries that can be used in the compost.

Another thing they do not need to worry about the smell coming out from the compost pile. But if the compositing pile at your backyard will start stinking, you in that case has to face the taunting from the neighbors as well as the other family members.

You can though use the materials from the lawn that are dying to be disposed. These can be the extra grass, grass clippings can be used in the compost pile in the backyard. Hay can also be used if you do not of grass clippings.

The usage of hay is mostly practiced by the farmers in the compositing. Farmers always want to dispose of the hays. But make sure that if you are using the hay, pick only the green ones that are rich in nitrogen.

Vegetable peels, fruit rinds, tea bags, eggshells and coffee grounds can be used from the kitchens that are also enriched with the nitrogen. This will attract the pest that is why you must have take measures in stopping the pests.

Compost pile can also include the wood chips, wood shaving, saw dusts, paper, and other wood products. But be-aware not to use the chemically treated woods in the compost pile it can be dangerous for the soil.

Things that must be avoided to be the part of the compost piles are the plants that are died due to some disease. The died infected plants are most like to infect the future plants as well.

The waste from the humans, dogs and cats must also not be included in the compost pile as they can contain diseases. These diseases than can become the cause of making the other people sick by affecting the plants.  

Although the grasses can be used in the compost pile, but try to include the grass that can grow in the compost pile. Do not include the weeds like morning glory, ivy, sheep, and kinds of grasses, these can re-grow the new garden in the compost pile.

Compositing is best for the garden but yet selection of correct materials will determine the success of the compost pile.

Organic Gardener's Composting 

The Ways To Learn About Gardening Gift

Gardening is one of the hobbies which have become so popular from years.

You may know a gardener who is so stuck to his hobby and would love to have any gardening gift or present for his special occasion ahead.

Gardening gifts have no limits, as they can be bought for beginners and experts as well and they can be purchased from anywhere like online, nursery, feed store, farmer’s market, your local Wal-Mart or grocery store which is the best thing about them.

An informative or instructive book on gardening is the best gift for a beginner. These books will encourage and help them to know how to get rid of these insects, diseases and weeds.

These books will tell the gardeners about the specific plants which can be planted in their area and what amounts of sun, water and nutrients they individually want.

These books are available at your local bookstore, nurseries or online. A gardening CD is another good idea of giving him a gift if he is obsessed with computer usage.

Another appreciating gift is the plant. No matter the person is beginner or expert, it’s the gift which would surely be admired. A traditional gardening gift “plant” can be a poinsettia at Christmas or any other plant like moss is even a good idea. If you go for buying seeds or a bulb to transplant or a perennial which will bloom for long is even not bad.

Try to give theme gifts like a herb plant with a card hanging which includes a recipe or a plant which appeals butterflies due to its nectar along with a book written on butterflies.

The most attractive and charming gardening gift is gardening tools. But it needs a good budget. If you are willing to spend some extra cash then you must go for it.

Lavender: Practical Inspirations for Natural Gifts, Country Crafts and Decorative Displays

It includes simple things like a hoe, a rake, gloves or big things like an electric blower or vacuum. These will help to clean the driveways and sidewalks. Hedge trimmers or sprinklers can also be given.

Calendar is another gift of appreciation but is rare. It will help the gardener in giving him different gardening themes or even tells him about the moon phase which greatly affects some plants. The best gardening book is the farmer’s almanac which includes weather information, moon phase, when to pant, when to prune etc.

Another gift which the gardener will ultimately like is the gift certificate to any nursery or store where he can buy the things of his own choice. He can buy the tool which still incompletes his tools collection or any plant of his need.

Though a gift is difficult to decide, still if you have gardener friends, it becomes easy as you can buy any gardening gift, which will allow you to choose from the best price range, which suits you.

It permits you to buy even a cheap pair of gloves or a power tiller. Try out your green thumbs for the next occasion of any of your friend buying any gardening gift.

The Benefits Of Using The Red Worm Compositing

Compositing is one of the methods that have been used to solve the environmental problems as well as act as the food for the soil and fulfill the lack of nutrients in the soil.

The scientist have tested this method in the laboratory and approved the new compositing method named as “worm compositing.” This method is capable of achieving the new success with the use of red worms.

Also it is been a fear in us for the creepy worms and we consider them as the goose bumps. This can be the best way to make any one alarm and shocked.

But on the other hand the fact is that these worms are very helpful in cultivate the environment for the long time. It is playing its important role in making the compositing process successful.

You may think that the use of creepy red worms in compositing is not the good idea. But wait take a deep breathe and think again, that these little creatures are much crucial for the safety of the environment. Some advantageous of using the red worm compositing are discussed below that will surely change your mind:

Advantage Number 1: Flexible: Indoors or Outdoors, Take Your Pick:

You can carry the red worms’ compost indoors as well as outdoors, it is up to you. The best thing is that you do not need to be with them all the time. They will do their work themselves without charging you any thing and without stopping work day in and day out. All you need is to feed them so that they can be in working condition all the time.

Advantage Number 2: All it needs is moist bedding:

Worms need the moisture and that is the component that can be easily get. Only you have to provide the worms with the moisture and have to get relax while they will perform their job in making the soil fertilizer.

Advantage Number 3: Worms are readily available and are not that hard to cultivate:

The worms are not even difficult to be found. You just have to keep the jar in your hand and collect them from your garden. You can also find them in the bathroom as they are rich with the moistures. Only you have to feed the worms and they will be happily rendering you later on.

Advantage Number 4: Aside from the yuck factor, the worms will happily do the work; you only have to regulate them:

Your work will be of the worm manager. Once you have collected the worms and placed them on the heap gathered, your work is just to feed the worm labors. In American communities people and government is also supporting the worm compositing cause. You can get help from them too.

Advantage Number 5: Mobile bins will not affect the worms' performance:

Another best thing with worm compositing is that you can take the compost jars with the worms anywhere you want. But if this is on the large scale like industrial worm composting than you won’t be able to carry it.

Worms Eat My Garbage: How to Set Up and Maintain a Worm Composting System 

Understanding About Organic Gardening

Organic gardening is not much different from regular gardening. The different is just that there is no use of synthetic or artificial fertilizers or pesticides.

This would probably make it difficult for one to protect the garden from insects, diseases and weeds. In organic gardening, plants and soil needs more care.

The first thing which comes in organic gardening is the soil. Organic matter should be added up in the soil for more productivity. The plants which are grown under organic gardening needs compost necessarily.

Compost made at home may include leaves, dead flowers, vegetable scraps, fruit rinds, grass clippings, manure, and several other things.

The soil which can be named as perfect must have a dark color, sweet smell and have plenty of earthworms. There are some soils which require comparatively more natural additives than regular soil may provide, like bonemeal, rock phosphates, or greensand. You can get to know about the nutrients which your soil needs by a simple pH balance test.

The thing which is a reason for the anxiety of even serious gardeners is the insects and they cause the gardeners to go for pesticides. Take some preventative measures to save your plants from insects and pests.

One thing which you need to keep in your mind that you need to maintain the water level of your plants balanced. They must not be too dry or too wet because insects always attack on unhealthy and weak plants.

If the plants are healthy, they will even overcome minor diseases by their selves. If you want your garden to be protective from pests then keeping a large variety of plants is obviously a good idea.

One idea which is the perfect one it that, try to grow your garden in such a way that it would be attractive and alluring to insect predators like ladybugs, birds, frogs and lizards.

This can be done by making a water place or by growing those plants which would be attractive for insects whose meal is nectar.

Sticky traps, barriers, and plant collars can also be used for this. You can find things in your home as well like insecticidal soaps, garlic and pepper.

Diseases can be avoided by the growth of disease resistant plants and they must be planted in prime conditions. A big reason for the disease to spread is the unhealthy air circulation, so to ensure protection from diseases, you need to have a proper site for your garden and a healthy way to water the plants.

In organic gardening, weeds are a trouble. You save your plants from weeds by the use of organic mulch but by spreading a layer of newspaper, cardboard or construction paper, under the mulch, plants can be more protective.

You can slow down the growth of weeds by putting corn meal gluten in early or starting season before plantation. An old tradition of hoeing and hand pulling is ever trustable. You need to be consistent in weed protection. You just need to mulch, pull and hoe and win the battle against weeds after a few seasons.

Organic gardening, if done properly and carefully, lets you have your plants truly clear from pesticides and much healthy. Organic gardening demands some extra time than regular gardening but after passing a reasonable time in organic gardening when you will get to know all of its benefits, you will worth it extra time.

Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long

Different Types Of Home-Based Composting Techniques

There are two types of compositing that have been flourishing, one is residential or home-based and other is industrial compositing.

Both of them have different types of techniques for compositing. Still the popularity of the home-based or residential compositing is booming more because it can be easily carried out in the small scale and also requires fewer efforts.

All one need is to have will and have enthusiasm to perform the compositing activities.

Also the residential compositing requires less machines and equipments to support the compositing function. Some of the home-based compositing techniques are described below:

Composting Toilet:

In the urban and the rural areas the most common and easy type of compositing technique is the use of the compositing toilet or pit. This method is quite easy to set up and monitor. This method is quite tricky and if followed on the larger portion of the home, must be discussed with the other family members.

It is also difficult to differentiate the materials on brown and green, however this method is most widely used in the homes on the small scale.

Open or Closed Bin Composting:

The compositing bin method is very useful and fruitful for those people who are compartmentalizing and organizing the compositing task. It is difficult to clean the compositing pit or the toilet sometimes that is why the use of compost bins has taken superiority over pits and ensures that the things will be under your control.

The compost bin will ensure that the other variables cannot affect the external materials in your compost pile.

German Mound:

German mound method is also known as the Magic mound method. The German mound contains the components like wood-rich gardens, clippings from hedges, prunings, bashwood and brassica stems. All of these components are placed in the circular trench that is almost 5 inches in breadth and one inch deep.

At the center a hole is dug. It gives an additional inch from the outer circle. The roughest materials are placed in it. The layers of wasted leaves, manures and the other compost materials are added over it. The result of German mound is obtained after four to five years from the installation period and then it can be used over the soil surface.

Ecuador Style of Composting:

In Ecuador style of compositing the banana stalks and the trunks of the trees have been used as the compost materials. It requires filling the entire compost pit or bin will the stalks of bananas and the tree trunks. After this the compost materials are mixed altogether that helps in the segregation of the compost materials more effectively and efficiently.

This process requires much space, because the compost pile can only be watered when the pile is a meter or more than a meter long. The pile does not have to be one meter long forever. Normally Ecuador people wait for the settling down of the layers and than remove the top layer for ventilation of the pile and in this way they produce the humus repeatedly.

The Composting Toilet System Book: A Practical Guide to Choosing, Planning and Maintaining Composting Toilet Systems, a Water-Saving, Pollution-Preven (Chelsea Green) 

How To Remove The Old Trees

There is a limit for every tree to end growing stage and has to say Bubye.

It is a painful decision to take, but at times, the tree gets too big in size and starts appearing in front of house.

Many diseases attract that tree and get a permanent swarm of some pest.

The big size also gets closer to the power lines which is dangerous. It will be a good decision to get rid of that big tree if any of these signs start appearing. It’s very hurting to destroy a tree for which a person has spent many hours, but it is also injustice to the tree to allow it to suffer from such bad conditions.

First make a plan to how to remove that tree. I know a person who is getting tired of counting the broken windows, knocking of the door, crushed cars just because of the poor planning of removal of tree.

It is very important to decide that on which side your tree will fall during the removal process so that no one got damages because of your tree.

After completion of your planning, it is recommended to tie two long ropes on the top of your tree and anchor them to the side where the tree will falls.  This thing allows taking control over the falling of your tree without any harm to others otherwise your tree could destroy many things near your surroundings.

Later than taking all the recommended precautions, chopping is ready to start. If someone wants to chop by himself, he has to take care of himself with those tools (axe or saw) which can damage anyone.

Chopping the tree by hand will take a lot of time also inaccurately that is why someone who has a chainsaw asks and borrows it.  If no one has a chainsaw, go and rent a chainsaw or buy it if it is needy.

Always wear face and eye protection before start chopping of your tree. Once upon a time, during chopping, wood chips fly into a person’s eye and blinds his right eye that is why never do this without protection. It is compulsory to wear protection accessories not only while chopping, but also whenever operating a power tool.

Once chopping starts make sure to make a cut in “V” shape. If someone cut a straight line, then the tree could fall by rolling to one side or the other side. If the cut is in “V” shape, then tree will fall exact on the direction where person wants it to fall.

Frequently it is possible that the tree will fall at some distance according to your measurements but this is only because of the human errors while cutting the tree.

If your friends are strong enough to hold the rope tightly, then the tree will fall on the exact direction where a person wants it to be. This whole chopping process can be completed in an hour and not more than this.

Now one difficult thing will appear that is removal of stump or base of your tree. Here, a person has several options; he can spend hours and hours to dig it out or he can rent a stump chipper completely remove the visibility of the base.

It is an observation that kids enjoys digging that is why if someone has kids then he could assign digging process to them because kids love to dig all day out with their friends. But if your tree has a stump more than 1 feet, then digging may not be done, and it will require a stump chipper.

Poulan P3416 16-Inch 34cc 2-Cycle Gas-Powered Chain Saw 

Making The Compost Pile: The Green And Brown

For making the delicious dish in the restaurant a chef needs to accurately measure the ingredients that have been used in the dish.

Same is the case with the compositing. The customers of compost will be the plants and the soil. So you have to ensure that you have mixed the proper amount of green and brown to make the compost dish successful.

Green and brown are the names that have been used for the organic materials that are used in making the compost pile.

It is not the color that differentiates the two organic components, but rather the composition. The green are rich with the nitrogen and the proteins while the brown is rich in carbon and carbohydrates contents.

Green allows the growth of the micro organism in the compost pile as they are rich with the nitrogen and protein. They are also been used in the compost pile for the heat generation. The brown components in the compost pile contain the energy needed by the soil organisms.

Brown also acts as the air filtrate due to the high amount of the carbon and also absorbs the bed smells that come from the compost pile. The brown also ensures that the nitrogen does not escape from the compost pile and also make sure that the humus is forming faster in the pile.

Do not decide the materials by the color. You can differentiate the materials by applying the simple test. All the materials that belong to green will be drown in the water after few days while the brown will float over the surface.
For instance, the leaves that come in the green, red and brown colors all belongs to the brown as they have high carbon contents. Similarly the Oak trees’ leaves do not fall under the brown category as they have high level of nitrogen and belong to the green family.

Green family also includes the grass clippings, wastes from the kitchen and the animal wastes. Grass clippings can only be used in the compost pile if you have not used any pesticides or the fertilizers. Green family also has members like vegetable and fruit wastes, eggshells, as well as coffee grounds, filters, and teabags.

While the Brown family contains papers, wood chippings, sawdust, bark mulches and other wood products. Sugar products are also the part of the brown family.

Sugar products can be comprised of molasses, syrups, sugar and carbonated drinks. Sugar products are very useful in activating and enhancing the microbes’ activities in the compost pile.

Hay, straw, pine needles and cornstalks also belongs to the brown category. The use of ore pine needles will boost up the process and are more advantageous for the brown family.

Compost pile can be successful only if you have used the correct ratio of brown and green. It is normally suggested that 3:1 is the best appropriate ratio, which means that three parts of brown and a part of green, which also means that carbon must be added in the three parts while one part of nitrogen will be enough for the successful creation of the compost pile.

Espoma CS3 Compost Starter