Knowing About Beans

The seedlings that produce legumes, have a symbiotic relationship with a type of bacteria known as rhizobia, allowing them to extract a tremendous amount of nitrogen from the air and convert it to protein in the soil.

This makes them one of the most attractive plants for crop rotation, where their green plants are often plowed under and only used as a rich fertilizer to fill the soil of much-needed nitrogen.

There are actually a number of legume species that are grown exclusively for this particular purpose, to provide its high nitrogen content back to earth. These species include Cyamopsis, Leucaea, Sesbania, and Fallow, often called Green Manure species.

There are a variety of agricultural classes of legumes in production these days. They include those grown for industrial application (like timber), pharmaceutical industry including Fallow (Green Manure), flowers, fodder and grain.

Pulses are grown for their seeds and are known as grain legumes. Many pulses are grown to produce oil for industrial and home cooking. This includes a variety of beans and lupins, lentils, peas and peanuts.

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Perennial Plants Decorating Your Garden

Although perennials are designed to last more than a few years, you can structure your soil and plan a growing season to keep some of your smaller plants alive by taking good care of them.

Some trees can live for over 3000 years, so if you plant a number of smaller trees in your front or backyard, the plant can last for generations if the soil around your house remains healthy. Just like those giant Redwoods in California have lived for hundreds and some even a couple of thousand years.

There are other perennial plants you can plant in your backyard, like orchids and grasses. Another example, are ferns that can grow inside and outside your home, can last for years, and some fern species do not need much watering.

Structural perennial plants are specially designed for the plant to adapt to living year by year. The structures include rhizomes, bulbs, tubers, woody crowns, strongly and firmly in order to transfer nutrients to the plant.

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Harvesting Water With Rainfall Inches

Collecting and storing new rainfall for future use is called rainwater harvesting. If it is properly purified, then it can be used for drinking water. Otherwise it can be used for bathing and cleaning, or it can be used for irrigation purposes, especially in areas where the yearly rainfall average is low.

A rooftop system for catching those rainfall inches is the most common form of rainwater catchment system; where rainfall runoff is directed into rainwater collection containers or tanks.

Rain water collection can still be advantageous to gardeners living in areas where water collection isn't really necessary because the rainfall average in their area is an adequate amount.

Even in those locations, there is generally a few times a year when a short term drought occurs and supplemental irrigation from the spigot becomes necessary to keep gardens from submitting to the elements.

While this type of water supplementation helps to keep the plants alive, it is not until enough rainfall inches have fallen that vegetation really perks up with renewed vibrancy.

Rain harvesting systems are inexpensive and can be built into structures so that they are barely visible, yet always catching those precious rainfall inches. Rainwater containers or tanks can be buried in the ground or placed in a basement, invisible but highly useful.

Rooftop systems can be made so that they are virtually invisible from the ground. Look into rainwater harvesting as a way to save you money, to help reduce your impact on the environment and to bring a stream of fresh water to you each day.

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