Saturday, February 6, 2010

Growing Your Own Fresh Herbs With A Window Herb Garden

Window herb garden can supply your family with fresh herbs on demand. While you are cooking a family meal, you may suddenly realise you are missing herbs to add to your meal.

You do not need to run to the food store to buy some old, dried herbs. If you have a window sill, then you can grow herbs near your kitchen window and when the need arises, you can grab some fresh herbs to add to your meal.

Every cook knows, the secret to a delicious meal, is to add herbs and spices to improve the natural taste and help create a delicious meal. Many recipes call for herbs and spices.

Almost any meat, cannot be eaten without adding herbs and spices. Imagine trying to eat chicken or lamb without herbs and spices. I know, it is unbearable.

Same goes for salads. Rather than adding mayonnaise with its high calories content, you can add fresh herbs to improve the flavouring and keep the calories out.

Now you can see how eating more herbs may help in your quest to control your weight and enjoy meals with salads more often.

This is why, it may be a good idea to grow herbs in a window herb garden.

Fresh herbs are always much better than the dried variety you buy from the food store. When the need arises to add more flavours to your meals, you can always run to the window to pick some fresh herbs.

You can even experiment with many of your current recipes, for a better tasting meal with herbs from your window herb garden.

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Friday, February 5, 2010

Growing Organic Vegetables With Vegetable Garden Planning

Vegetable garden planning allows you to create a successful garden with the fresh vegetables you need to feed your family. Growing your own vegetables gives you the ability to control the growth of your vegetables and keep out chemicals, if you are looking to maintain an organic garden.

Picking fresh vegetables and eating them on the same day is a reward for your efforts, as you can taste all the natural flavours you may miss when buying vegetables from a food store.

Many of the fruit and vegetables you see at the store may have been picked weeks ago, and sent by refrigerated transport to your store. Quite often, some of these fruit and vegetables are unripe when they are picked and are artificially ripened before they arrive to you.

When you pick you own vegetables from your garden, you pick the most ripened produce and eat on the same day, allowing you to eat all the natural flavours in your family meals and salads.

With vegetable plants growing in your own garden, you can ensure you are not using chemicals to grow your plants by maintaining an organic garden.

You can keep out chemical herbicides and pesticides and use alternatives to keep pests out of your garden. Depending on the type of pest attacking your growing plants, you can use more natural means to keep pests out.

For example, if there are insects attacking your plants, you may look at purchasing ladybirds to eat the insects. If you have moles digging up your garden, you can use gadgets that make a noise or cause vibrations helping to deter gophers and moles. You can search for these gadgets online, or contact a nursery nearby. These gadgets are quite humane and do not kill the animals.

Rather than using chemical fertilizers, you may look at purchasing compost bins to create your own compost, from green and garden waste and food scraps. If you do not have the time to wait for the compost bins to generate compost, you can buy organic compost from nurseries to use in your organic garden.

Another option is to interact with other gardeners by locating and joining local garden clubs and online garden chat groups, to get more tips on vegetable garden planning.

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Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Better Ideas For A French Garden

French garden with a parterre is a formal garden with flower beds. There are many ideas you can use in your backyard, to make the yard much more interesting, by including a centerpiece, surrounded by flower beds and creating geometric shapes with hedges and shrubs.

If you have a love for gardening, then creating your own French garden in your yard, may be one of the better garden designs you can use. Especially if you want to impress visitors to your home, with the art you create using living plants.

Rather than use a haphazard method where you place bits and pieces on your landscape, you can use better ideas with style when creating your French garden.

If you are looking for garden design ideas, there are plenty of ideas you can use to beautify your landscape by looking at French gardens. You may start with the concept of a parterre, where your garden can be surrounded by flower beds.

If you are thinking to include a centerpiece in your yard, then you may look at incorporating flower beds close to the centerpiece The blooming flowers will be the icing on the cake. Especially when you include annuals and perennials that will bloom at different times of the season.

Another idea, is to grow trees, hedges and shrubs to create art in your front and backyard. For example, you can grow plants to create geometric shapes, including shapes of animals and people. A shape of a dog created with hedges and shrubs is a popular concept.

There are some of the many ideas you can use to add style to your landscape with a French garden.

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Monday, February 1, 2010

Keeping Out Chemicals With Organic Gardening

Organic Gardening uses naturally occurring materials for soil building, fertilization and pest control. With growing concerns about the safety of chemical pesticides and fertilizers, more and more commercial farmers and home gardeners are choosing this method.

Instead of using weed killers, weeds are pulled. Instead of using chemical pesticides, gardeners use deterrents like ladybugs and praying mantises. As a result, the foods grown are more nutritious and the entire gardening experience is more beneficial for the earth.

Soil health is one of the most important focuses of organic gardening. Even though organic matter (made of partially decomposed organisms and vegetation) only makes up 5-10% of the soil, it is absolutely essential in maintaining soil health.

A gardening expert will tell you that organic matter is what binds together soil particles to allow the passage of air and water. Humus holds up to 90% of its weight in water, in addition to absorbing and storing key nutrients.

Other microorganisms that live within the soil feeds upon this organic matter, which is what keeps the ecosystem thriving. The best way to increase your organic matter is to add organic compost bought from the store and made in your own kitchen.

Pest control will be another concern for your garden. Believe it or not, marigolds are some of the best pest controls in organic gardening. Marigolds keep away aphids, earworms, leaf hoppers, Mexican bean leaf beetles, rabbits, squash bugs, thrips and tomato heartworms.

Aphids are also deterred by rue, dill, catnip, fennel, mint and chives. Other natural home vegetable gardening pest deterrents include basil, green beans, nasturtium, tomato, wormwood, anise, borage, sage, thyme, radish, garlic, onion, potato, turnip, oleander, hyssop, rosemary, lavender, pennyroyal, mint, tansy, coriander, cilantro, horseradish, geranium, butterfly sage, larkspur, cloves, petunia and parsley.

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