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... :)

Humidity Harms Household Plants

Humidity is pretty much never seen in our house, yet you should often watch your plants keenly to prevent them from getting destroyed by the dampness in the soil.

When you possibly see your plants getting rotten or decayed, mildew or mold, then its high time that you should provide some fresh air flow for the plants or ventilate it so that your beautiful plants don’t perish away.

Despite the high moisture content, even minimal or decreased amount of moisture could have an impact on your plants as they completely drain the water in the plants more rapidly than they are capable of replenishing it.

When you come across the symptoms like the leaves turning brown, collapsing or falling of buds then these are due to the cause of reduced amount of humidity in the plants. This is more common in the cold and dry winter season as you make use of heaters at home.

Here are some useful methods to follow to control the humidity conditions of the soil so as to maintain fabulous and healthy looking indoor plants.

* It is not essential to water your plants routinely. Watering must be done only when the plants require them. Hence look into the soil in the pot to see if the plants have enough moisture content , else you could provide them with enough water.

* Also it is mandatory to supply the plants a blend of soil and fertilizer
which helps keep the water intact for extended hours. In contrast, if you use a sandy mixture, it will result in the water emptying or draining out quickly.

* Hence to control and maintain the level of humidity that is best suited for your plants, you can set up an electrical humidifier and a dehumidifier to increase and decrease the levels of humidity respectively.

*Place the plants in a location that is devoid of draft which could make the plants get dried completely.

*Make a large rack or tray filled with small stones like marble, pebbles and gravel, and place all your potted plants and flowers over it as the water below the pot evaporates and gives the plants its required moisture.

* Finally, you can notice that you will have great, healthy-looking plants when you follow these steps to keep the humidity conditions under control.

Indoor Garden And Pests

The garden that we grow indoors with the bright and lovely flower plants brings natural elegance to our house and the surroundings.

The word “household plants” not only implies that they have to be grown at home but they can be raised even inside a hotel, or to adorn a lobby or office as too.

These household plants demand more attention and its necessary to preserve it well so as to prevent them from pests or the insects ruining them.

These plants whenever are kept in the sun so as to get energy from the sunlight, are often affected by the pests or other insects, mites and their eggs.

It’s not so difficult to do away with these pests as they can be easily prevented or wiped off even without using any chemical insecticides. But still, if you find that your plants are being eaten away by these dangerous insects, then it’s good to use an insecticide so that you can just spray it on the plants to get rid of those pests quickly.

Prevention is always better than cure. And hence it is safer to actually examine the plants to see if they are infected by pests already while purchasing them.

The plants might not appear to be infected by pests at the time of purchase. But it is always possible that the plants can easily be infected.

Thus you can keep the newly-bought plant in your house or office under observation for a couple of weeks to find if it catches an infection. This is just to make sure that it doesn’t affect other plants as well.

So the best thing to do for your plants to grow well is to frequently check them for any pest infection and routinely spray some fresh clean water. Always remember that a feather duster should never be used to clean or dust the plants as this is the actual possible means of To prevent pests from infecting your plants it is best to insect them periodically and spray the plants with fresh clean water regularly. Never use a feather duster to clean the plants; this is a sure way of transmitting infections and insects to the plant.

Also your plants must be sprayed pesticides once in every two months to prevent insects from affecting them.

Cheer Up Your Window With A Beautiful Garden In Winter

As the winter season arrives , the terrible weather bites your feet and you would surely not want to go outdoors to look after your garden on these days. Hence there’s always another option of setting up your garden indoors.

An indoor  window garden is absolutely recommended to spice up your mood  by smartly choosing the plants that are best suited for winter like some aromatic and vibrant ones as well as those which appear to be delicious and  flavorful that decorates your menu during the winter. 

Hence give this fantastic method of  winter gardening a try.

The ideal place to start this indoor garden during the freezing winter is the windowsill as it will warm up the gardener’s spirit and heart combined with the best flavorings for delicious , nutritious and healthy soups , broths and stews as you grow the appropriate and beneficial herbs while the winter is ushered out.

In addition to the herbs like basil, compact dill and Greek Oregano that are adaptive to the autumn weather, you can also opt for thyme and parsley besides coriander that also very well adapt themselves to windowsill gardening and therefore they are certainly very apt to load up your winters with fragrance, greenery and relaxing as well as medicinal value when added to soups!
These herbs simply need regular watering and also adequate supply of sunlight for just about a few hours. These conditions are also the main requirements even for those plants that are not so fortunate to have a strong suite.

Sometimes, it can be a visual treat to your eye when your garden is filled up with vibrant fresh flowers and blooms that blossom during the winter which can be your perfect  bliss everyday by just sowing the seeds in a pre-prepared pot that has been mixed with soil and fertilizers as they provide they help nourish the indoor plants, seasonal herbs, pansies and calendulas.

Hence it surely cheers you up and makes the room joyful and brightens it up and makes it look livelier. So growing these flowering plants in your window garden subjected to receive enough sunshine, water and right soil-mixture, works most effectively for winning over the erratic climatic conditions of winter.

How To Keep Your Indoor Plants Healthy

Taking care of your indoor plants and keeping them healthy can really be a very difficult task.

So while deciding on what plants to grow, you can consider opting for plants that are capable of growing indoors with an atmosphere of minimal light, water and heat.

Usually plants take a lot more time to grow indoors whereas when they are planted outside they grow incredibly well and faster due to the energy from the sun.

A lot of other plants are found to cease their growth or they don’t seem to be showing any growth indications or they simply change from the period of autumn  to winter season.

Also the plants that are grown indoors have varied needs in contrast to those that are grown outsoors. Which however does’nt  mean that they should be “destroyed with mercy”.

It is very crucial to maintain a  temperature that is best suited for the plants that grow indoors to prosper. A  temperature between 60 to 70 degrees F ahrenheit  during the daytime and 55 to 65 degrees during the night is the best optimal temperature for the indoor plants.

Make sure that you don’t place your plants nearby a drafty or a draughty area  as it would result in drying and withering away of the plants.

Also it is a  wise idea to not place the plants such that they get the sun’s rays directly as they get dried out completely due to the scorching heat. So its advisable to keep your plants in a location that receives enough sunlight although not straight to the sun.

The temperature varies continually during the day and night times which is really not good for the plants’ growth as it will affect them greatly. The interiors of the house get drier during the cold months when compared to the summer which will clearly have a negative impact on the plants. Hence it is suggested that the plants be spray bathed twice a week for them to grow steadily.

As a final point about watering the plants,  the tap water that you use at  home is not good for your plants as it contains chlorine in it. . The water should actually be stored in a  container or a bucket for about two days before using it to water the plants. Doing this is to make sure that the chlorine contained in the water  dissolves well and thereby not harming the plants.

Some Suggestions To Raise Beautiful Indoor Gardening

Almost all plants and vegetations are suitable of flourishing indoors as they are all pretty much in need of similar types of environment to grow as the outdoor plants do.

An adequate supply of oxygen from fresh air, sufficient amount of light from the sun,  plenty of water and nutritional ingredients from fertilizers and composts account for the conditions that are appropriate for the plants to grow indoors.

So, here are some suggestions to raise beautiful and healthy-looking plants from the interior of your house.

All plants require enough sunlight which is their main source of growth. Light from the sun are very essential for a plant to grow well. The leaves of the plants does the process of absorbing  in the required amount of nutrition from water and soil and converts them into food for the plant. This process is called ‘photosynthesis’.

And hence a little amount of sunlight is required for the photosynthesis to take place. So while growing plants indoors, you have to make sure that your plants are facing towards the sun, so they can be placed near the windows. But if that’s not possible, then you can consider the option of purchasing a couple of indoor gardening lights.

That is because the ample amount of ultra violet radiations from the interior  gardening lights help nurture the plants in the absence of energy from the sunlight. Whereas ordinary lights are not suitable.

Also, like energy from sun, water is also equally essential for your plants to survive and grow well. Water that is in room temperature is required for the indoor plants. But always watering the plants more than what is required for them will also ruin them. Most plants either wither away due to lack of water or over watering them.

So there is a rule that you can stick to most of the time to find out if the water supply is adequate or not. Like in testing a cake, you can pierce a knitting needle into a plant container and if that needle goes in easily, then the soil has enough moisture content. Otherwise you water a bit more to dampen it.

So next to water, the third most important thing for any plant to survive is the fertilizer. So its good to add a  scoop of indoor plant fertilizer to your plant pot every fortnight without fail.

Do you know that used tea leaves make up for an excellent  supplement  of nutrition for your plants?

So just implement these useful and  simple tricks to make your art of indoor gardening  more beautiful and fruitful.

The Importance of Landscaping

One can only experience things by doing it. Have you ever landscape your own lawn if not you might not know the motives behind landscaping.

This article is going to put light to those motives which afterward convince you in landscaping your lawns.  Some of these motives are:

  • Aesthetics
Having well interior design is not enough for making your home outstanding. Exterior designing also matters. Landscaping lawns mean making your homes more appealing. No one would want to have messy lawn that gives the shabby look. 
  • Distinctive Look of Home

Everyone in this world have desire to demonstrate their distinctive characteristics. So they act in a manner that differentiates them from others. Home in which they live should also set them apart from their neighborhoods and the first and foremost part of every home is their exterior. That is why people put special attention in decorating their lawns and making them an exclusive one.

  • Property’s Worth Will Increase

Packaging plays an important role in selling a product. Only good packaged products are considered as the quality product and people prefer it. Same is the case with the property more it look attractive and stylish more are the chances of being valued by the buyers. And in making it worthy landscaping plays a vital role.

  • Landscaping Can Cut Energy Costs

Lawns landscaped in such a manner that it has trees and other plants. The advantage of having tree and plants are not uncovered. They not only provide us oxygen in the day time but also save us from the direct light of sun and decrease temperature by providing shades. This will help us ultimately in decreasing the consumption of air conditioners.
Through this article we put forward only few benefits of landscaping home lawns. Still there are many more that support landscaping and make it the outstanding feature in homes.