Daily Gardening Tips – A Substitute For A Green Thumb!

November 28, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment 

Abhishek Agarwal asked:


Home and garden owners in the country and city alike are the type of people who’d love to see their garden in bloom, even the tiny patches of land they may have because a garden in bloom is a thing of beauty and refreshes weary spirits anytime of the day. Even otherwise, a well-kept garden is a thing of pride for the owner and also gives home owners something to tend to with their own hands and watch it flower before their eyes, so they have the satisfaction of having grown something with their own hands right before them, which is very fulfilling.

If you are limitations of space and live in a small city apartment, you need not get disheartened as even you can ingeniously use small spaces to create garden-area, such as planter boxes, window-sill boxes, potted plants in the space you usually reserve for storing BBQ items or even the narrow confine of a corridor space used for stacking the bicycle. Hanging overhead pots and indoor plants is another good idea for bringing in some greenery into your home, especially when you are strapped for space.

Not only is it relaxing to have a soothing green space filled with lovely plants and flowers outside, but even the inner sanctuary can be much brightened up and used to reflect nature’s beauty by using container plants for growing greens.

Many city dwellers keen to utilize the balance of organic food have taken to growing their own veggies in a small kitchen garden area and easily grow tomatoes, herbs and flowers using simple, gardening tips for daily tending.

Balconies are especially good spaces, whether long and narrow or short and wide, for growing shrubs, trees and plants of different heights if only the ends and corners are trimmed properly, regularly. One can create interesting points of décor around the area where potted plants are kept, such as using bright, colored flowering plants in a semi-circular arrangement, split-level pot arrangements or even placing colored stones and rockery designs around it.

The other way to show off bright and beautiful colors is to set-off the shades with mirrored back-ground, pieces of colored glass and beads to reflect the colors of the flowering plants or simply placing them on a window sill that can also be viewed from inside the house.

If you live in a cold place, then it is only wise to move plants indoors or line the containers with foam to protect them from the chilly climate. City gardeners need to be especially wary of frost and excessive rain when wanting their apartment blooms to stay that way. Hibiscus blooms are pretty, tall flowers that grow to a good 3-4 feet in height while the miniature Alberta white spruce has lovely gray-green dense needles that beautifully offset these bright flowers, so are a good addition for a beginner gardener.

You can also have the pretty, light-colored sweet potato vine growing over a pot end over darker plants and remember to water the plants daily besides checking for their balance of soil and sun.



Indoor Gardening Tips – Nature At Home!

September 12, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment 

Abhishek Agarwal asked:


Bring nature into your living room and liven up the atmosphere by indulging in indoor gardening. It not only gives your interiors an aesthetic touch, but also works as a great relaxant. Who wouldn’t want to be in the company of beautiful plants and flowers after a long day at work.

They also function as natural air purifiers by ridding the atmosphere of unwanted carbon dioxide and turning it into life sustaining oxygen. Whatever choice you may have, be it tropical, exotic or common indoor plants, all of them add aesthetic value to a home and make it look more welcome and cozy.

Following are some useful indoor gardening tips to ensure that your indoor plants stay healthy and lively:

What food is to us, sunlight is to plants. Plants require from moderate to high levels of sunlight to survive. Every plant has it’s own diet levels for sunlight, thus, when shopping for indoor plants, you must look up the instructions to check how much sunlight the plant requires and what’s the best location to ensure they get their feed. Some may even need direct and bright sunlight and hence may need to be placed close to a south-facing window.

Plants that need low sunlight can be kept anywhere indoors as long as they get a minimal supply of natural light. They can also be kept near windows but with caution as too much light can burn them down, so a little distance should be maintained. Few varieties of plants that feed on low to medium levels of sunlight are Boston ferns, African Violets and Philodendrons.

Any list of indoor gardening tips will be incomplete if it doesn’t offer watering instructions. Indoor gardeners all over the world are accused of being too generous to the extent of killing the plants when it comes to watering. Like sunlight, every plant has its own watering requirements and should be subjected to no less or no more than that. Too much water can even rot some plants. A water gage will be a good investment to maintain a tab on the moisture levels of the soil, to keep it in synchronization with the plants requirements. Such gages are an economical means to balance the watering levels of different plants.

Another important indoor gardening tip is to always pay heed to the fertilizer requirements of the plants. For example, an indoor plant like African Violet, looks beautiful when bought afresh, however its leaves start yellowing over a period of time and eventually fall off. This is mainly due to the fact that many nursery owners use special fertilizers to catalyze the plants growth and make them look as much appealing as possible to the prospective customers. However, once bought, if they are not fertilized and taken care of in the same way, they die. Hence, you must ascertain each plants fertilizer needs at the time of purchase, so that you can take best care of them later.

It is always helpful to take professional advise from a plant specialist to know about your indoor plants fertilizer needs. Following all such indoor gardening tips dedicatedly will keep your garden lively and blooming.