Creating a Fairy Garden in the Landscape - Pahl's Market - Apple Valley, MN Start by selecting a site for your garden. It is best to put it in an area where you can view it up close. Many fairy gardens have small accessories and small details that are best enjoyed up close. Once a location is chosen you can begin the fun. The easiest is to place your largest feature first. Many times that is the fairy house. Once you have placed the house you can work on sculpting the other areas of your garden. Now you are ready for plantings and accents. The most important part of fairy gardening is to have fun. View Some Fairy Gardening Products: See All Fairy Gardening Products Available Online
Make Biochar to Improve Your Soil Last year, I committed one of the great sins of gardening: I let weeds go to seed. Cleaning up in fall, I faced down a ton of seed-bearing foxtail, burdock and crabgrass. Sure, I could compost it hot to steam the weed seeds to death, but instead I decided to try something different. I dug a ditch, added the weeds and lots of woody prunings, and burned it, thus making biochar. It was my new way to improve soil—except the technique is at least 3,000 years old. What’s biochar? Amazonian Dark Earths The idea of biochar comes from the Amazonian rain forests of Brazil, where a civilization thrived for 2,000 years, from about 500 B.C. until Spanish and Portuguese explorers introduced devastating European diseases in the mid-1500s. Amazingly, these “dark earths” persist today as a testament to an ancient soil-building method you can use in your garden. Finding Free Biochar Biochar’s soil building talents may change the way you clean your woodstove. How to Make Biochar The Bigger Picture
10 Homemade Organic Pesticides Ever wonder what farmers did hundreds of years ago to fight off crop pests? Long before the invention of harmful chemical pesticides (yes, the kind that is linked to cancerous cellular activity), farmers and householders came up with multiple remedies for removing insect infestations from their garden plants. The following list will offer some of our favorite, all-natural, inexpensive, organic methods for making bug-busting pesticides for your home garden. 1. Ancient Indians highly revered neem oil as a powerful, all-natural plant for warding off pests. To make your own neem oil spray, simply add 1/2 an ounce of high quality organic neem oil and ½ teaspoon of a mild organic liquid soap (I use Dr. 2. For treating plants infested with spider mites, mix 2 tablespoons of Himalayan Crystal Salt into one gallon of warm water and spray on infected areas. 3. Mix 10-30 ml of high-grade oil with one liter of water. 4. This is another great organic pesticide that works well on ants. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
10 Must Have Medicinal Herbs With a strong drive towards a return to a more natural way of living, medicinal herbs are growing in popularity as gardeners come to recognize the true benefits of growing their own medicinal treatments versus relying on over-the-counter or prescription concerns for something that can easily be remedied naturally. For thousands of years medicinal herbs were all that humans had to cure their ailments, which often led to a fair amount of trial and error. The result of all of these years of trial and error is that we now have a solid idea as to what types of medicinal herbs we can take for particular health concerns. Some herbs, such as peppermint, have long been known for their abilities to soothe aching bellies and of course help to freshen breath. You may just be surprised at some of the other types of benefits that can be garnered by growing your own herbs. The History Of Medicinal Herbs New “Survival Herb Bank” Gives You Access to God’s Amazing Medicine Chest
Black Beans and their Sprouts Show Anticancer Activity Photo by Sandi Barr By Case Adams, Naturopath Researchers from Mexico’s prestigious Monterrey Institute of Technology have determined that black bean sprouts are anticarcinogenic against breast cancer, liver cancer and colon cancer cells. The researchers sprouted black beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) and then tested them and their constituents against cancer cell lines of various types of cancers. The researchers found that after three days and five days of germination, the phytonutrient extracts isolated from the sprouts were able to inhibit the growth of all the cancer cells tested. They also tested the same sprout isolates against non-cancerous (healthy) cells as controls, and found no negative impact upon healthy cells. The researchers then isolated some of the constituents of the sprouted beans, and found that the saponins and flavonoids had the greatest inhibition against liver and colon cancer cells. Learn about the scientifically perfect diet. Ranilla LG, Genovese MI, Lajolo FM.
How to Grow Your Own Superfoods Indoors 21th November 2012 By Carolanne Wright Guest Writer for Wake Up World No need to bypass all the health perks of fresh superfoods this season — simply grow them inside on a sunny window ledge. As the weather turns colder in the north hemisphere, now more than ever it is important to fortify the body with nutrient dense foods. What better way than with unprocessed superfoods? An economical and fun undertaking, cultivating a micro-superfood garden is easier than you may think. With food costs skyrocketing this season, consumers are looking for novel ways to stay nourished on a budget. Effortless to grow, these four superfoods are perfect for an indoor garden. Arugula Sometimes referred to as rocket, arugula is a mildly spicy, fast growing superfood. Cilantro Cilantro is an exceptional herb that controls blood sugar, detoxifies heavy metals and possesses strong antibacterial properties. Oregano Watercress Forget ornamental houseplants — cultivate an indoor mini-garden instead. About the author:
Hack your solar garden lights. Solar garden lights.... How on earth do they manage to sell something with a solar panel, rechargeable battery, step-up converter, LED and the plastic and metal casing for a dollar/pound. You can't even buy the bare components for anywhere near that, in fact the solar panel alone would probably cost you five times the cost of the whole light! This project is about hacking your solar lights to make them different colours and potentially increasing the battery life too.Solar lights are great to hack. They're cheap enough not to worry if you mess up, and very gratifying because they are effectively free to run due to being powered by sunlight. Here's the test subject for this project. Inside is a small NiMh cell and a PCB with the LED, a small inductor, a switch and a COB (Chip On Board) which is basically a bare integrated circuit which is stuck to the board, connected and then covered with a blob of black resin. Now put in your new LED noting the polarity (long lead is positive).
25 tipos de caminhos diferentes para o seu jardim - Blog Construir Confesso ter um pouco de inveja quando vejo grandes ou médias propriedades com um grande quintal, afinal, é sempre bom ter algum tipo de contato com a natureza e toda a sua beleza. Bom mesmo é quando você está estressado e sai de casa na tentativa de esvaziar a cabeça, e é onde entra o jardim, um lugar que com certeza acalma qualquer um. Sentir o cheio da grama, das flores, ouvir pássaros cantando é maravilhoso. É claro que quem tem um jardim, tem um caminho por onde passa para não machucar nenhuma planta, certo? 1. 2. 3. 4. Agora vamos para as fotos?! 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. E aí, o que acharam? Até a próxima! Fonte: goodshomedesign Aproveite também para conhecer nossa LOJA VIRTUAL, onde você encontrará vários cursos em DVD com CERTIFICADO reconhecido pela ABED – Associação Brasileira de Educação à Distância. Gabriela Miranda Olá!
Grey Duck Garlic: How to Grow Big Garlic Top Ten Tips for Giant Sized Allium Bulbs! Do you want to grow prize winning garlic? Would you like to raise really large garlic bulbs? Garlic responds well to optimal growing conditions and with a little special care your crop can increase dramatically in size. Right: Tiny but cute Siberian bulb on the left and large elegant German Red bulb on the right. With a little effort and some soil preparation, you can grow huge gourmet garlic for top chefs, high end restaurants, CSA’s, Farmer’s Markets or yourself. Hardneck gourmet garlic can sell for $8-$30 pound (depending on market and quality). 1) Use good quality large seed garlic: If you want the biggest bulbs at the county fair start with good quality seed garlic free from disease. Start with BIG cloves. We have noted that larger cloves are more resistant to adverse conditions and frost. Below right: Romanian Red bulbs typically contain 2-6 extra large cloves. 2) Prepare soil well: Soil should be loose, loamy and easy to dig. References:
Easy Chart on How to Use the Herbs from your Garden…and Spices Too! « Home Grown Edible Landscapes Jun 14 I don’t know about you, but as much as I enjoy growing herbs I admit sometimes I can’t remember the best ways to use them in my kitchen! This chart from might help!