Raised Bed Gardening
Date: Sep 9th, 2007 12:10:15 pm - Subscribe
Mood: flabbergasted
Raise Bed Gardening is what a lot of people want to do, why? Raised Bed Gardening has a lot of advantages over normal gardening just think of the possibilities you have with it to design your garden, raised beds are perfect to create a beautiful visual effect in your own garden at home. In the next few paragraphs you will learn how to plan build and animate your own raised beds.
Lets for a moment put away the visual advantages of it, raised beds are just great. I used them for many years and still use them to grow a variety of different plants, I have a collection of herbs, tomatoes, potatoes, cottages and zuccinis in my garden on raised beds. In front of my porch are two very colorfull raised beds with all kinds of different flowers blossoming. You see you can grow everything in raised beds.
Though still alot of people have some problems with them. Well i always say preparation is essential for raised bed gardening. You have to know alot of things before you start out. First of all you have to plan where you want to put your raised beds. Be sure to select places with alot of sun especially if you want to grow vegetables. Herbs usually dont care about alot of sunlight though they still like 3h a day. The next thing to do is to specify which plants you want to put in which raised bed. This will be important for the size of the bed.
Now decided what you want to build your raised bed of, i suggest wood but you can also build it on stones, bricks or cement blocks. Make sure to have a good support if you want to elevate it. Usually i use stones for the bottom of the bed and Wood for the fence, or if i elevate it, strong wood for the bottom and some bricks to elevate it. I then of course drill some holes into the bottom to make sure its well drained. Dont drill too big holes though since the soil might get lost that way. Now for vegetables you will need a little bit bigger beds in width and length, go for 5 times 7 feet at least. Flowers and herbs can be put in everything from 1 to 1 feet to whatever you can imagine.
If you want to grow tomatoes or potatoes you will need a bed that is at leats 10 inch high, for cottages 7 inch is fine as well as for most flowers and herbs.
If you build your bed its time to mix the soil, use some soil from your yard add some potsoil and sand. Also try to find some compost either from your own composting or from the garden center. I also like to add some lime to it once a month. Once you planted the plants go and water them, put compost on them regulary and add some mulch to protect them.
If you followed me you will now be able to do some raised bed gardening on your own, good luck from my side just sent me an email if you have any questions.
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Apartment Gardening
Date: Sep 4th, 2007 9:05:36 pm - Subscribe
Mood: unfulfilled
Apartment Gardening
My first place was a 15th floor studio with about as much space as i now have in my toilette. Still i decided to mix up the dull and dark space with some flowers. So i ran into the next garden center and asked a lot of questions. Now you have to know i did have a little patio so it wasn't as bad as an idea as it seemed. And in fact in a few months my place blossomed all over. And i loved it. In fact it improved my mood with every day i spent there. The mix of colors, the feeling that you grow something by yourself, the blossoming flowers are just great. Besides i had a lot of fun while caring for all the things like the herbs and the veggies i grow. Don't let anybody tell you that you cannot do some gardening in your place. I cannot think of a place where you cant to some apartment gardening and grow some flowers or veggies or herbs or whatever you want to grow! This article will show you what you can do with your little space.
If you have a patio or something similar and there is soil, this is the best setup for the apartment gardening. Find a spot where you think will be about 4 hours of sunlight a day. This isn't alot but it is enough for most plants. Now you can decide to either just plant the things you want to grow straight into the ground or you can build a raised bed. You can grow alot of vegetables in your garden like peppers zucchinis cabbage and tomatoes. Just choose what you like. Tomatoes are my favourite because they are so easy to grow you should give them a place in your collection.
Once you found the spot and the vegetables, decide weather the soil is good enough for them. If not you should just build a raised bed and buy some soil from the garden center. btw. you should also get fertilizer and some compost ( if you don't have any in your garden).
Put the plants into the ground, then use the fertilizer and water them immediately. This should do the trick for most straight into the ground setups.
If you don't have a patio you can also go for the window gardening. I personally used this since i had a north-window and it looked like they grow pretty good there. Get some smaller pots or containers for the window or just some hanging boxes. Make sure to select the right plants. Most flowers grow indoors as do herbs. Herbs grow great indoors especially all the annuals. tomatoes can also grow indoors as can tomatoes if you find the place to put a big pot somewhere.
Now another idea is to just do the container apartment gardening. The idea is to put big pots and boxes everywhere you find a place for them. This should include things like your patio if you have one, the entrance of the building, outside your door or you could even ask your neighbors if they like to put the boxes into their patios. Just offer them some veggies in return and they will be very happy to be able to help you.
I think now you gained a pretty good idea on how to do your apartment gardening. Its almost impossible now that you don't know how to pimp your room with some nice flowers. I wish you good luck with the harvest for next year.
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