Showing posts with label gardening. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gardening. Show all posts

Thursday, June 30, 2022

Butterflies

 Every spring the butterflies come back to my garden, not in droves but enough to make me stop what I am doing and watch them flying around the garden. I and I believe many others delight in the beauty of the butterfly/ They are gorgeous creatures, and they can capture your imagination. However, we rarely think about or consider the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty. In fact, many of us use the Butterfly emoji when we text or post. The butterfly emoji represents the butterfly, as well as the symbolism associated with it: positive transformations, hope during a dark time, and new beginnings. Here are some fascinating facts to consider next time you cross a butterfly’s path:

There are more than 17,500 recorded butterfly species around the world, 750 of which can be found in the U.S.

Butterflies and moths are part of the class of insects in the order Lepidoptera. Butterflies are flying insects with large scaly wings. Like all insects, they have six jointed legs and three body parts: the head, the thorax and the abdomen. The wings are attached to the thorax, and they also have a pair of antennae, compound eyes and an exoskeleton.

Monarch butterflies migrate to get away from the cold. However, they are the only insect that migrates an average of 2,500 miles to find a warmer climate. The iconic North American Monarch has been greatly affected by extreme weather events, going through drastic dips and spikes in numbers over the past several decades. The overall pattern continues to point downward, with a 95 percent population decline over the last 20 years, but conservation efforts are helping:

Monarchs are not the only butterfly that migrates. The Painted Lady, American Lady, Red Admiral, Cloudless Sulphur, Skipper, Sachem, Question Mark, Clouded Skipper, Fiery Skipper and Mourning Cloak are among the other butterflies that also migrate, but not as far as the Monarchs.

The Common Buckeye Butterfly is one of the most striking butterflies, with its bold multicoloured eyespots and thick upper-wing bars, all designed to frighten away any birds that might be tempted to chomp on them. If you look under its wings, you’ll find a more abstract profusion of brown, orange and beige. These insects are pretty common all over North and Central America, although you won’t find them in the Pacific Northwest or in the far north of Canada.

The Orange Barred Sulphur Butterfly is one that you can find all over the Americas and the Caribbean. It’s very distinctive, being bright yellow with patches of orange marking both forewings and hindwings. Females tend to be bigger and darker than their male counterparts and unusually, just like the adult butterflies, the caterpillars also have bright yellow bodies segmented by dark stripes.

Speaking of caterpillars, how much do you know about the life cycle of a butterfly? The butterfly starts its life as an egg, laid on a leaf. The caterpillar (larva) hatches from the egg and eats leaves or flowers. It loses its skin many times as it grows, increasing greatly in size. Eventually, it turns into a pupa or chrysalis and finally, a beautiful adult butterfly emerges, and the cycle continues.

An adult butterfly has a very short life: just three to four weeks. However, the entire life cycle of a butterfly can range between 2 and 8 months, depending on the species. Some migratory butterflies, such as the North American Monarch, can live as long as 7 to 8 months in one generation.

The Giant Swallowtail Butterfly, as its name implies, is one of the biggest butterflies, with a wing spread of four to seven inches. The female is once again bigger than the male. It too is found throughout North America and sometimes as far south as South America. These butterflies are called “swallows” because they have long tails on their hind wings that resemble the long, pointed tails of the birds known as swallows.

Be sure to get outside this summer and look around for butterflies and other wildlife in your backyard. If you see a butterfly but aren’t sure about the species, you can consult this handy identification guide

 

 

Thursday, June 23, 2022

Poems about dandelions

Yellow Mayne on a bed of bright green

Welcomes the sun into its bower

Deep taproots aerate the soil unseen

When raindrops fall in heavy showers

A weed, a food a medicine, a drink

Vitamin A, C, and K, along with calcium

It makes one think

As I ponder this apparent axiom

Is this a flower or a weed that in my garden grows?

Lets ask the poets what they know

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The First Dandelion by Walt Whitman

Simple and fresh and fair from winter's close emerging,

As if no artifice of fashion, business, politics, had ever been,

Forth from its sunny nook of shelter'd grass—innocent, golden, calm as the dawn,

The spring's first dandelion shows its trustful face.

Dandelion  by Hilda Conkling

Little soldier with the golden helmet,

O What are you guarding on my lawn?

You with your green gun

And your yellow beard,

Why do you stand so stiff?

There is only the grass to fight!

The Dandelion by Vachel Lindsay

O dandelion, rich and haughty,

King of village flowers!

Each day is coronation time,

You have no humble hours.

I like to see you bring a troop

To beat the blue-grass spears,

To scorn the lawn-mower that would be

Like fate's triumphant shears.

Your yellow heads are cut away,

It seems your reign is o'er.

By noon you raise a sea of stars

More golden than before.

Dandy Dandelion  by Christopher Morley

When Dandy Dandelion wakes

And combs his yellow hair,

The ant his cup of dewdrop takes

And sets his bed to air;

The worm hides in a quilt of dirt

To keep the thrush away,

The beetle dons his pansy shirt—

They know that it is day!

Dandelion by Nellie M. Garabrant

There's a dandy little fellow,

Who dresses all in yellow,

In yellow with an overcoat of green;

With his hair all crisp and curly,

In the springtime bright and early

A-tripping o'er the meadow he is seen.

Through all the bright June weather,

Like a jolly little tramp,

He wanders o'er the hillside, down the road;

Around his yellow feather,

Thy gypsy fireflies camp;

His companions are the wood lark and the toad.

But at last this little fellow

Doffs his dainty coat of yellow,

And very feebly totters o'er the green;

For he very old is growing

And with hair all white and flowing,

A-nodding in the sunlight he is seen.

Oh, poor dandy, once so spandy,

Golden dancer on the lea!

Older growing, white hair flowing,

Poor little baldhead dandy now is he!

Wednesday, June 22, 2022

Things I did not know about dandelions 2

 Dandelions are among the most expensive items in the grocery store. Shops sell dried roots as a no-caffeine coffee substitute – for $31.75 a pound. Dandelions out-price prime rib, swordfish and lobster. They also appear in produce and other sections, and even at the liquor store. You can enjoy a complete meal, from salad greens to dandelion quiche, followed by dandelion ice cream, washed down with dandelion wine. If you over-indulge, a cup of dandelion tea is the perfect remedy since dandelions help the liver flush hangover-inducing toxins from the body.

Herbicides used on lawns to kill dandelions take a terrible toll on wildlife. More than seven million wild birds are estimated to die annually due to the use of lawn pesticides. Lawns make up thirty million acres of the United States, and Americans use an estimated 80 million pounds of pesticides on them annually. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reports that “homeowners use up to ten times more chemical pesticides per acre on their lawns than farmers use on crops.”

But there’s a safer way to have a dandelion-free lawn! Let the grass grow 3 or 4 inches tall to shade out the sun-loving dandelions, or use specialized tools like the Weed Hound to have a thriving, healthy yard that is safe for kids, pets and wildlife.

And at the end of the day, dandelions are just plain fun. The dandelion seems to be the flower earmarked for children: In a park or garden, it’s the only flower a kid can pick without getting into trouble. A child in a field full of dandelions can practically never run out of things to do: Blowing on dandelion puffballs can tell you if it’s time to go home, how many years until you get married, or how many children you’ll have – and of course, if you catch a flying dandelion seed, you can make a wish.

Dandelions require sun and disturbed soil to thrive. That’s why they seem to “look for” human activities: roadsides, construction sites, parking lots – and lawns. Having escaped the herb gardens a few decades ago, they now seem to be on a quest to get back into the yards they once abandoned.

Tuesday, June 21, 2022

Things I ddi not know about the dandelion 1

Although it’s often dismissed as little more than a stubborn lawn weed, dandelions have deep roots in history throughout the ages. Ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans enjoyed the flower, and they have been used in Chinese traditional medicine for over a thousand years. Dandelions probably arrived in North America on the Mayflower – not as stowaways but brought on purpose for their medicinal benefits.

Dandelions were world-famous for their beauty. They were a common and beloved garden flower in Europe and the subject of many poems. In the terrifying New World, the cheerful face of the dandelion was a sweet reminder of home. In Japan, for instance, whole horticultural societies formed to enjoy the beauty of dandelions and to develop exciting new varieties for gardeners.

Dandelions are a green and growing first aid kit. The use of dandelions in the healing arts goes so far back that tracing its history is like trying to catch a dandelion seed as it floats over the grass. For millenniums, people have been using dandelion tonics to help the body’s liver remove toxins from the bloodstream. At one time dandelions were also prescribed for every ailment, from warts to the plague. To this day, herbalists hail the dandelion as the perfect plant medicine: It is a gentle diuretic that provides nutrients and helps the digestive system function at peak efficiency.

Dandelions are more nutritious than most of the vegetables in your garden. They were named after lions because their lion-toothed leaves healed so many ailments, great and small: baldness, dandruff, toothache, sores, fevers, rotting gums, weakness, lethargy and depression. But it wasn’t until the twentieth century was the underlying cause of many of these symptoms realized: vitamin deficiencies. In eras when vitamin pills were unknown, vitamin deficiencies killed millions. In its time, “scurvy” was as dreaded a word as AIDS is today. Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture reveal how dandelions probably helped alleviate many ailments: They have more vitamin A than spinach, more vitamin C than tomatoes, and are a powerhouse of iron, calcium and potassium.

Dandelions are good for your lawn. Their wide-spreading roots loosen hard-packed soil, aerate the earth and help reduce erosion. The deep taproot pulls nutrients such as calcium from deep in the soil and makes them available to other plants. While most think they’re a lawn killer, dandelions actually fertilize the grass.

Dandelions are masters of survival. They can take root in places that seem a little short of miraculous, and then are impossible to get rid of, as homeowners have found. But why is this plant so hard to kill? It’s because they are fast growers. The sunny yellow flowers go from bud to seed in days. Their lifespan is long, too – an individual plant can live for years, so the dandelion lurking in a corner of the playground might be older than the children running past it. The roots sink in deeper over the years and can go down 15 feet. Like the Hydra who sprouted two new heads for everyone that was cut off, the roots clone when divided; a one-inch bit of dandelion root can grow a whole new dandelion. Dandelion leaves can shove their way through gravel and cement, and thrive in barren habitats.

Sunday, February 20, 2022

Gardening in a New Way

Gardening is an excellent hobby. If you have enjoyed gardening for most of your life, you know the delights it can bring to your world. Gardening gives you the chance to work outside and to feel closer to nature by helping make food, herbs, or beautiful flowers where there was nothing but weeds.

For many, the joy of gardening is far more important than any cost savings they might get from growing their own food. If you did the numbers, the food grown at home is not that much less expensive than buying it at the local grocery supermarket. However, to have a garden full of producing plants that give you fresh food is so gratifying. Gratification comes from both growing your own food and harvesting.

Many of us can no longer garden the way we used to garden. Even those who are still living in their own home may find the physical labour of tilling the soil for planting and then tending the garden may be more than they can do at this stage of life. While you may want to get out there and get your hands dirty while planting your favourite flowers or crop-producing plants, you must be mindful of any doctor’s instructions that tell you to take it easy.

Others may have moved out of that house they owned that had a yard where they could create their garden. Maintenance is a concern for any gardener, so you let your kids work with you in the garden. You could also sell your old place and get a condo or apartment that is more manageable.  

Sometimes economy or health concerns play a factor in where you are living and the best place for you right now is an assisted care facility where you can have quality medical care available should you need it. But giving up gardening may be one of the many transitions to a smaller living space that you grieve about losing and missing every spring and summer when you want to be out there in nature enjoying the experience of growing things. 

Where there’s a will, there’s away. And there are new ways you can continue to enjoy the fun of gardening within the constraints of your lifestyle. One way might be to look into getting some window boxes for your apartment. People who want a small indoor flower garden often use these long planting boxes or nurture house planets. But you could get a few of these kinds of growing spaces, solicit some help from the facility maintenance people or your kids to get them installed and filled with good earth and enjoy puttering in those small gardening spaces and see the little plants you picked sprout and grow. With the extra time you have because of retirement, you will do an outstanding job of caring for that little garden.

You can also help your kids learn to garden. By adopting the “sweet but helpful Grandparent” attitude, you may find that your children and their spouses wish they knew your gardening secrets and with a bit of partnering, you could use their muscle and flexibility to set up a nice big garden at their house. Then you can just come over from time to time to tend it as much as you can and “supervise.”

Be there on harvest day so that everyone in the family can enjoy the fresh produce and herbs you grew. And you will get a sense of renewal that you found a new way to garden that lets you keep a treasured pastime and do so within the constraints that retired life brings.


Saturday, May 1, 2021

Spring has sprung!

Get outside and enjoy the invigorating effects Mother Nature has to offer.

In my area Spring has officially arrived, where my daughter lives it is now Fall. In the fall I will post about the joys of the Fall season, but I love spring because it means nicer weather and more daylight hours. As the temperatures rise, many of us are eager to get outdoors. Whether you plan to work in the garden, go walking in your neighbourhood, local park, or trails, getting out helps people of all ages. Those who get out report experiencing relaxing or invigorating effects after enjoying the great outdoors. Here are a few ways to make the most of the Spring weather and reap the health benefits too.

Cultivate health and well-being by gardening.

As the ground thaws and the temperatures rise, gardeners around the country are starting to get busy. They are designing their garden, thinking about timelines to execute their plans, and starting to prepare their seeds indoors. Gardening is not a simple hobby; it is an activity that can have positive impacts on your health and well-being. If you don’t have a garden of your own, many communities have a local garden that provides space for people to work together.

Make walking a regular part of your routine.

If gardening is not your thing, there are other ways to get outside, enjoy the weather, and improve your health and well-being. Did you know that older adults in Canada are more likely than any other age group to live a sedentary lifestyle? Walking has many positives, including improving heart health and physical function, increasing motivation to be more physically active, helping with stroke recovery, and reducing pain. While on your walk, remember to maintain 2 meters from people outside of your household.

Take a stroll through a tree-lined path or a forest.

If you are an avid walker and want to add something fresh to your regular routine, consider trying a new route, such as a safe and well-lit trail through a forested area. Trees are associated with several beneficial effects on both physical and mental health and provide an environment that allows for relaxation and stress reduction.

While we may be tempted to socialize when outdoors, we should be vigilant and maintain 2-meters from people outside of our household.

Thursday, April 8, 2021

Spring planting

Spring is here and there is a growing movement at least at my place, to get out and pay attention to the garden. The Spring sun is tempting as it calls from the clear blue sky for our attention. The call for attention is echoed by the earth under my feet and the trees and shrubs in my life who look like they are longing for my presence. 

Plants can communicate to each other according to some thinking and I believe that from time to time, however sporadic or brief, they'd absolutely adore my undivided attention.

There's something special about waking up with sunshine in the bedroom that makes me want to be outside.

You see, my wife loves gardening and landscaping as it gives her peace and quiet from the world, and I love the results of her work.

I know some of you may resonate with what I am saying, and others might think I'm off my rocker.

Since last year was a bust our hope is that magic is going to happen in our garden this season.

With life grabbing us by the horns last year we are considering changed the way we garden but do so without a plan is not a good idea. Planning is fun and as the garden takes shape, I will post some pictures over the summer so you can see how we have done. I hope that you will get a chance to grow your own garden this year and that it will bring you joy over the summer and fall.

Saturday, April 6, 2019

Planting Season

April showers bring May flowers. Last year we planted our veggie garden a bit late and as result, because of the weather and perhaps poor garden management we did not get as big a crop as we thought. so this year, we are planting early to see if it makes a difference. This got me thinking about when do you plant each type of veggie.  The answer, of course, depends on which Hardiness Zone you are living in. 

Hardiness zones are based on the average annual extreme minimum temperature during a 30-year period in the past, not the lowest temperature that has ever occurred in the past or might occur in the future. Gardeners should keep that in mind when selecting plants, especially if they choose to "push" their hardiness zone by growing plants not rated for their zone. 

For my American friends,  If you aren’t sure what planting zone you are in the USDA has a great interactive map for you. And you can just put in your zip code and it will tell you exactly what planting zone you are in. In Canada and other countries, your Ministry of Agriculture should be able to provide you with the information you need. I live in a Zone called 8b so I need to look for plants that thrive between 15 and 20 degrees Celsius.

So a brief search of the Net I came up with the following visual Garden Org




Here is another chart that I found that was also useful



Monday, March 11, 2019

Spring is here, think about your garden.

It is snowing today and it snowed at the end of the month in the lower mainland of BC, where I live. Although many regions of Canada are still buried under tons of snow, I suspect that gardeners around the country are starting to get busy. I know they are in BC. We are lucky here in my region, the snow will be gone in a few days and the ground will be warming up fast. Many of us are out in the gardening stores looking for inspiration to help us design our gardens and thinking about timelines to execute our plans, and some are about to start their seeds indoors.

Gardening is sometimes considered as a simple hobby, but think again! It is an amazing activity that can have positive effects on health and well-being. You may have heard people mentioning the therapeutic benefits of gardening, whether it is to maintain physical fitness, improve flexibility, coordination and strength, enhance physiological and psychological relaxation, improve self-esteem and depression symptoms, encourage creativity, and create social bonds (and even intergenerational relationships). Well, there is research evidence to support many of these claims!

What the research tells us
McMaster University did a systematic review that identified 22 studies that examined the benefits of gardening for older adults living in the community or in institutions. The majority of studies included in the review revealed that gardening is an activity appreciated by older adults that has positive effects on their physical health, cognitive abilities, nutrition, spirituality and social engagement. Gardening can even improve their level of autonomy and their quality of life.

The review also revealed that gardening allows seniors to reminisce childhood and family memories. It is therefore a comforting activity for older adults who can reconnect with their past, their culture and nature. Gardening activities conducted in a group can also promote social interaction and community support.

While the observed benefits of gardening are promising, they may not be the same for everyone. The review highlighted the need to further explore the effects of gardening on people with dementia and older adults with disabilities.

Getting started
Before taking out your shovels and rakes, take some time to plan your gardening activities:

·       Think about your health and safety: You may have a condition that prevents you from enjoying some gardening activities. You also need to assess your garden and the landscape to identify potential risks for falls, to protect yourself from the sun at all times, and to vary positions when working in the garden.

·       Adapt: The gardening activities, the tools, and the garden itself can be adapted to suit your needs and capacities (for example, installing raised garden beds or using lightweight and ergonomic tools may reduce the physical demand associated with gardening).



·       Socialize: Don’t go at it alone! Take advantage of community or local garden groups to connect with others, and share your passion and knowledge. By sharing gardening tasks with others, you may be able to find tasks that can better suit your needs and capacities (for example, digging, planting, watering, or harvesting fruits, vegetables and flowers). And nothing is better than enjoying the fruits of your labors with others!

Thursday, March 8, 2018

Why (older) men should do housework

Easy answer, it is good for your health, both physical and mental and it can help your relationship. In a new report Why older men should do more housework, published in January 2018 written by Honor Whiteman and fact-checked by Jasmin Collier, researchers have found that every day, older women spend an average of 2 hours more doing household chores than men. But it's not all bad. Older men and women who engage in more housework might have better health. Though if women get too much or too little sleep, the health benefits of housework diminish.
new study which was recently published in the journal BMC Public Health was led by Nicholas Adjei and Tilman Brand, of the University of Bremen in Germany.
The research was designed to get a better idea of how adults spend their time in later life, and how certain day-to-day activities impact their health.
"The percentage of those aged 65 years and above," explains study co-leader Adjei, "is increasing globally due to higher life expectancy. It is important to understand how older adults spend their time in these later years and the possible positive and negative implications for their health."
In the study, the team points out that household activities have become the main "productive work" for older adults following retirement, but little is known about how such activities affect health.
After retirement, elderly men and women allocate more time to housework activities, compared to working-age adults. Nonetheless, sleep constitutes the lengthiest time use activity among the elderly, but there has not been any study on the associations between time spent on housework activities, sleep duration and self-reported health among the older population. This study looks at those issues.
The study found a positive association between time devoted to housework activities, total housework and health status among elderly men and women. Compared to those who spent 1 to 3 hours in total on productive housework, elderly people who spent between 3 and 6 hours a day had higher odds of reporting good health
With regard to the number of hours of sleep a night. Those who slept less than 7 hours and those who slept more than 8 hours reported negative health for both genders. However, the interactive associations between total productive housework, sleep duration, and self-reported health varied among men and women. Among women, long hours of housework combined with either short or long sleep was negatively associated with health.
The study concluded that although time allocation to housework activities may be beneficial to the health among both genders, elderly women have higher odds of reporting poor health when more time is devoted total housework combined with either short or long sleep duration.
For many seniors, if you ask, household activities are part of the daily lives of older people. These activities have become their main “productive work” after retirement. A study by Szinovacz found that retirees devoted more time to housework activities than their working spouses. However, evidence suggests that gender inequality in the division of household labour largely persists in high-income societies even after retirement Most studies confirm that elderly women spend more time on housework activities than men although time allocated to housework activities among men has increased over recent years
Older women typically perform routine, repetitive tasks such washing clothes, cooking and cleaning house, while older men are responsible for occasional tasks such as household repair works, vehicle maintenance and yard work. This inequitable division of housework is one of the factors that contribute to the observed adverse health differences among men and women including psychological distress and depressive symptoms.
The study found that between men and women, there was a positive association between housework activities and self-reported health. However, there were differences in the magnitude of the associations. Time devoted to both routine and repetitive housework activities was significantly associated with good health. We observed that elderly people who spent more than 120 min/day on cleaning, cooking and shopping activities had higher odds of reporting good health compared to those who devoted no time to these activities.
Gardening and maintenance activities were associated with higher odds for good health. Older people who spent more than 120 min/day on these activities were more likely to report good health compared to those who did not allocate any time to these activities. The odds of reporting good health were significantly higher for elderly people who spent more than 120 min/day on childcare activities compared to those who devoted no time to childcare.
This studies findings of the association between routine housework activities (cleaning, cooking and shopping) and health contrast with a recent study conducted in China. The China study found no significant association of cooking, cleaning and grocery shopping and health among older men, but washing clothes and house cleaning were negatively associated with health among women.
Meanwhile, our results corroborate a longitudinal study of 2761 older Americans aged 65 years. That study found productive housework activities such as cooking, shopping and gardening to be associated with lower risk of mortality.

Thursday, February 22, 2018

8 Gardening Blunders and the Ways to Fix Them

We often see fashion blunders on TV. We may even hear ourselves giving opinions about them. But do you actually realize that blunders can even happen right in your front yard? Whether you think that your garden looks good or not, it really doesn't matter. If everything doesn't work, your whole garden will not work. So, here as our last post on gardening for a while, we enumerate some gardening blunders and the ways to fix them:
1.    Grass is not greener. This ranks number 1. Why? Most gardens have lawn, but one may be slightly greener than the other. If your lawn looks more than the soil underneath, it is time to reassess your watering, fertilizing and mowing schedule. Think where you have gone wrong and make the necessary adjustments on the areas mentioned. If nothing happens, replacing your entire lawn is a better alternative. Consider other ground covers such as periwinkle and thyme. Ask your local nursery for a possible option.
2.    Tools and clutter are everywhere. They may be useful objects, but if they are stacked in your garage because you think they are not worth the storage, they don't just look like junk, they are junk. Go over them one by one and determine whether you want to keep them or not. Your criteria when deciding if they deserve the trip to dump or not is simple: Ask yourself, do you specific plans for them?
3.    Your home and garden can be seen from the road. There are several short- and long-term solutions to create some privacy. One quick-fix solution is to build a concrete wall that would separate your garden from the side walk. For a longer, much appealing look, planting fast-growing shrubs is a good idea.
4.    Weeds invasion. Weeds problem can be solved by keeping your lawn regularly maintained. Check for weeds as often as you can. Dig the weeds out by hand and keep the weed from re-growing by seeding the empty areas of your lawn.
5.    Limited space. If your problem is space, then here's one idea that can definitely help you maximize every square inch of your garden: think vertical. Create a sense of lush greenery by using wall space, arbors and trellises to allow plants to climb upwards.
6.    Where's your home? If shrubs have swallowed your home, then a hedge clipper comes in handy. Cut everything that is blocking your way. Seriously, you want a garden, not a house in the middle of the forest. Also, shrubs swallowing your home is a security problem and just invites the bad guys to help themselves.
7.    Dry spell in winter. Most garden plants do not survive the winter temperature. Hence, they die. When planning for a garden, think of the plants that can grow year-round. Or you can always include evergreens and plants with winter interests.

8.    Fences are falling apart. Fences are not just to separate your property from your neighbor's. They also add to the overall look of your garden. Make sure that you maintain the looks of your fences like the way you keep your plants.

Mulching for Free

I’m sure that if you are reading this, you have used some form of mulch during your gardening career. However, you probably didn’t know that there are many other options for organic mulching that you can explore. These days, many gardeners are discovering new sources of free mulch that has been there all along; an untapped resource. These include clippings from a lawn, or woody pruning’s from other plants in your yard. You will be surprised by how beneficial all these things can be, and how often the opportunity arises to use them.

Many gardeners have taken to spreading out their excess grass clippings across the rest of their yard. You may think this will look tacky, with big piles of grass just sitting in your yard as if you were too lazy to rake them up. However, if you spread them out enough then you won’t even be able to tell that there is an excess amount. Leaving the extra grass in the yard acts as a sort of mulch by preventing evaporation and weed growth. With this extra water, you won’t have to water nearly as much to keep your grass green. When I started leaving my grass clippings, I had to adjust the frequency of my sprinkler system because I was worried my yard was getting too much water!

If your garden is in more need of mulching than your yard, it is not unheard of to rake up all the grass and transport it to your garden. By making a small layer in the vicinity of the plant, you’ll apply all the same benefits from leaving it in your yard. My yard is rather green on its own, but I often have trouble with my plants staying green and healthy. So, rather than leave the grass clipping in my yard, I move them all around my plants. It is just a matter of choosing what your highest mulching priority is.

Sometimes, our pruning activities will lead us to have an amazing number of branches and twigs. If this is the case, you should consider renting a wood chipper to put all of those branches to use. After one day of intense pruning, you would be surprised at just how many branches you end up with. Rather than throw these away, you can turn them into a huge amount of mulch for your plants. However, if your pruning has not left you with that big of an amount, you should bundle it all up and save it to add to the next batch. This is because the chipping machines can be slightly expensive to rent, and you want it to be absolutely worth it!

Over time, all organic mulches need to be replenished. This is because they will naturally decompose in the conditions of your yard. Usually, you can tell for yourself just by looking at it, but sometimes it can look perfectly regular but still have problems. If you start to notice any poor plant growth whatsoever, you should replace your mulch. Always keep in mind that during the process of decomposition, your mulch will use up the valuable nitrogen in the soil. Without this, the plants will be missing a key nutrient. There are several types of fertilizers available on the market that are specifically designed to deal with this problem.


The use of mulches in the yard and garden is something everyone should try. Not only can it save lots of time by reducing the amount of garbage you have to transport out, but it increases the healthiness and integrity of your plants by putting that so-called garbage to good use. So, if you think you would be able to save a good amount of branches and twigs for chipping, or if you think that you are ready to stop raking up all your grass clippings, then I think that mulching is for you.

Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Using Gardening to Get in Shape

While gardening is usually thought of as a productive way to grow beautiful plants and obtain tasty fruits and vegetables, few gardeners have ever considered the immense amounts of exercise one can get in the process of gardening. While you can get almost as much muscle (if not more) exercise as you do working out, it is very productive at the same time.

A recent study found that gardening and maintenance activities may increase fitness level and muscle strength because they require some form of physical exertion such as carrying equipment for repair works, lawn mowing, shovelling, digging holes and carrying soil. Previous studies have also stressed the health benefits of gardening for older adults; such benefits include physical health, psychological health, cognitive ability, and low risk of depression. The study recently reported that gardening has a positive effect on the blood lipid profiles, blood pressure and level of inflammatory markers in blood.
You may wonder how gardening could possibly give as much exercise as working out. Just think about all the various facets of preparing a garden. There are holes to be dug, bags and pots to be carried, and weeds to be pulled. Doing all of these things help to work out almost every group of muscles in your body.
My best friend is a fanatic about working out. Almost every time I call his house, I end up interrupting some muscle toning activity. I’ve never really enjoyed working out, though, as it seems that the constant lifting of heavy things just puts a strain on my body with no immediate positive results. But while he is into working out, I am almost equally enthusiastic about gardening. I work outside improving my garden almost every day. I think I definitely surprised my friend when he realized that I am almost as muscular as he is, but I have never lifted a single dumbbell!
Before you go out into your garden, you should always stretch out. Even if your goal isn’t to work out and get exercise, it’s still a good idea. Often gardeners spend long periods of time hunched over or bent over. This can be bad for your back. So not only should you stretch out beforehand, but you should always take frequent breaks if you’re spending long amounts of time in these positions.
Weeding and pruning are some of the best workouts a gardener can get. With the constant crouching and standing, the legs get a great workout. If your weeds are particularly resistant, your arms will become particularly toned just from the effort required to remove them from the ground. If you plan on taking the whole workout think very seriously, you should always be switching arms and positions to spread out the work between different areas of your body.
One of the most obvious ways to get exercise is in the transporting and lifting of bags and pots. Between the nursery and your house, you will have to move the bags multiple times (to the checkout, to your car, to your garden, and then spreading them out accordingly). As long as you remember to lift with your legs and not your back, transporting bags and pots can give you a fairly big workout, even though you probably don’t make those purchases very often.
Mowing your grass can also be a great exercise. If you’ve got an older mower that isn’t self-propelled, just the act of pushing it through the grass will give you more of a workout than going to the gym for a few hours. During the course of mowing the grass, you use your chest, arms, back, and shoulder to keep the mower ahead of you. Your thighs and butt also get worked a lot to propel the mower. Not only do you get an all-around muscle work out, but it can improve your heart’s health. It’s good for you as a cardiovascular activity, as well as a great way to lose weight due to the increased heart rate and heavy breathing.
If you plan on using gardening as a way to get in shape or lose some weight, you can hardly go wrong. Just be sure to stretch out, drink plenty of water, and apply sunscreen. As long as you take steps to prevent the few negative effects such as pulled muscles, dehydration, and sunburn, I think you’ll have a great time and end up being a healthier person because of it.

Monday, February 19, 2018

The Psychology Behind Gardening

I don’t know what it is about a garden that has always drawn humans to them. But they’ve always been very popular, and an integral part of peoples’ lifestyles. Most religions feature gardens as the settings for some of the biggest events According to Christianity, humanity was started in a garden and the son of God was resurrected in a garden. The Buddhist build gardens to allow nature to permeate their surroundings. Almost every major palace and government building has a garden. But what’s so great about them? They’re just a bunch of plants, after all.

Of course, the reasoning is fairly obvious behind why people grow food in gardens. It’s to eat! If you live off the land and actually survive on stuff from your garden, it’s easy to understand the reasoning.

But I’m thinking about those people who plant flower gardens just for the sake of looking nice. There’s no immediate benefit that I can see; you just have a bunch of flowers in your yard! However, after thinking extensively about the motivation behind planting decorative gardens, I’ve conceived several possible theories and please take them with a pinch of salt.

I think one of the reasons people love gardens so much is that while we have a natural desire to progress and industrialize, deep within all of us is a primal love for nature. While this desire might not be as strong as the desire for modernism, it is still strong enough to compel us to create gardens, small outlets of nature, in the midst of all our hustle and bustle. Since being in nature is like regressing to an earlier stage of humanity, we too can regress to a time of comfort and utter happiness.

This is why gardens are so relaxing and calming to be in. This is why gardens are a good place to meditate and do tai chi exercises. A garden is a way to quickly escape from the busy world.

I’ve thought at times that perhaps we as humans feel a sort of guilt driving us to restore nature and care for it. This guilt could stem from the knowledge that we, not personally but as a race, have destroyed so much of nature to get where we are today. It’s the least we can do to build a small garden in remembrance of all the trees we kill every day. It’s my theory that this is the underlying reason for most people to take up gardening as a hobby.

Gardening is definitely a healthy habit though, don’t get me wrong. Any hobby that provides physical exercise, helps the environment, and improve your diet can’t be a negative thing. So, no matter what the underlying psychological cause for gardening is, I think that everyone should continue to do so. In the USA especially, which is dealing with obesity and pollution as its two major problems, I think gardening can only serve to improve the state of the world.


Of course, I’m no psychologist; I’m just a gardener. I often stay up for hours wondering what makes me garden. What is it that makes me go outside for a few hours every day with my gardening tools, and facilitate the small-time growth of plants that would grow naturally on their own? I may never know, but in this case, ignorance truly is bliss.

Sunday, February 18, 2018

The Joys of Gardening

If you are not a gardener, you may wonder why this hobby has become so popular even with people who have the resources to go to the grocery and get food with much less effort. Perhaps much of the joy that comes from gardening originated in the baby boomer values that came from those golden days of the 1960s.  Part of the ethical and moral system of that time in our cultural history was the “back to the land” movement to get back to our roots and away from the alleged sins of modern society.

From this same movement, we got the increased interest in vegetarianism, yoga, natural eating and the environmental movement. So, while we may look back with a bit of chagrin on the idealism and sometimes radical values for the time, that baby boomer history represents, there are some very good lifestyle choices that came from that era of our shared lives. And the love of gardening is one of the good things that many of us kept from that time.
Gardening is a hobby that is unique among pastimes because virtually nothing bad can come of it. Even if you are a total failure at gardening and don’t produce a single morsel of food from your garden, just the act of working with the earth and making something grow is so therapeutic that it’s worth the effort even if you only grow weeds☹.

Some reasons gardening is a wonderful hobby is that it’s simple, inexpensive, and joyful. With gardening, you can keep it simple or you can get as sophisticated and scientific at it as you please. Gardening is like fishing in the way that even if you are terrible at it, it’s entirely worth doing just for the joy of the time you are in your garden. There really is nothing comparable in therapy for going out in the garden in the evening after a stressful day. Working with the soil and spending sometime nurturing and pouring your tender loving care into the garden can make those worries and anxieties of the office melt away. Then when you come in after an hour of gardening, those cares take on their proper perspective so you can deal with them.

Gardening in creativity for the uncreative. When you till your garden and prepare your soil, that is like a master painter preparing his paints to produce that masterpiece. But when you finally open the packages of seeds or take the small plant from its container and you place them just so in that carefully prepared soil, there is a sensation of making something happen that is new life. This feeling happens because you are creating life by the act of planting. This feeling, I believe, refreshes even the most cynical boomer and puts them in touch with themselves and with nature in a way that is hard to match in any other pastime.

Even the simple act of watering has almost a mystical power for you and the time it takes to water your garden can become the best part of your day. But when that day comes that you rush out to your garden and see those young sprouts come up that you so carefully planted and cared for, it’s a little moment of parenting that can bring real joy to your heart.
We understand that we did not create the seed and that we are no more than caregivers that helps the plant sprout and then grow into a plant. By becoming part of the cycle of nature when we care for the plants in our garden, it gives us a feeling of completion. That connection to the eternal cycle of life will lift our spirit.


So, don’t be afraid to put together a small plot of land and begin planning your little garden. Even if you are an apartment dweller, you can organize a garden with planter boxes and grow lights and get many of the same joys from your little garden that the master garden with acres of crops can get.

Saturday, February 17, 2018

Gardening Tips for Beginners

It is the middle of winter, but it is never too early to think about your garden, March will be here in less than two weeks and Spring is not far behind. Over the next few posts I am going to focus on gardening.

If you are just beginning with gardening, don't be afraid for it is not meant to be difficult. In fact, it can be so much fun much more than what you think. If you don't know how to start, there is always an avenue of knowledge for you: your parents to assist you, informational books and magazines to read, and the internet to browse more information.

It used to be that gardening appealed only to the older generation. But nowadays, people of all ages, children, young adults, adults, and old folks alike, they see gardening as a refreshing and rewarding hobby to take. Why not? With all the benefits that you get, being a busy, career person should never be used as a hindrance to starting growing your own plants indoor or outdoor. You will see the big difference when you get to harvest your own fruits of labors.

It doesn't matter what you prefer. Would you like to have a bed of beautiful and colorful flowers, country garden full of wildflowers and shrubs, manicured lawn strategically placed with shrubs and little trees, or just a simple backyard with lots of pots and containers planted with grown plants? It isn't a problem to start one because you can find lots of information on how you can start doing them. You can also ask questions and assistance from the experts.

For a starter, you will need these basic tools: trowel, spade, lawnmower, rake, and plants of your choice to grow. It would help a lot if you have some sort of garden plan based on the space that is available. In this way, it won't be difficult for you to arrange some things like flower beds, lawns, paths, and on your garden bed or space. 

The kinds of plants that you will grow will depend on what you want, the availability, and the climate that your location has. There are plants that grow only for the season but there are others too that can be cultivated to grow year after year. If you consider yourself a hobby gardener like me, then you would want to have plants that do not grow more than two seasons. These are perennial plants that allow you to tend to other things other than mere gardening.

If you don't know what plants to start growing, you can always ask assistance from the local nursery available in your location. The experts from there should know what types would thrive specifically considering the climate in your area. And speaking of the local nursery, it is one avenue to buy plants you want in your garden. It is usually available with packets of seeds or small young plants for the beginners to grow. I prefer the young plants as I find it too much trouble to grow from seed. My brother, however, has a greenhouse and he swears that growing from seed is the only way to garden. You can obtain them whether via online or mail order.


The small young plants are great choice if you want to have an automatic decorative display in your garden. Otherwise, as my brother does, choosing seeds to grow and watching them grow will provide great satisfaction from the accomplishment of having to cultivate and care for them. You can have the seeds planted in pots or containers, or you can plant them onto the pre-designed bed of soil. Gardening is fun and exciting, and of course, rewarding.

Friday, June 13, 2014

Go Natural with Organic Gardening!

Have you noticed that the "organic" section of your grocery store has grown exponentially in the last few years?  

This type of food, as it clearly seems, has ceased to be a fad of hippies and environmental nuts.  Organic foods are everywhere and you can find them alongside other vegetables and fruits in your local stores and markets.  So how about the vegetables and fruits you grow at home?  

Have you made the leap to this source of healthy food yet or do you still have a lot of pesticides on your garden shelf?  Let’s take a look at how you can transform your regular garden into a delight of organic vegetables.  It does not take much and you won’t have as many problems with insects or poor soil as you thought.

Organic gardens are different from regular gardens in the way that the plants are fertilized and in the way that pests are controlled in the garden.  True professionals use only natural products and materials and shy away from any synthetic materials that could be harmful to the environment or to those who consume the produce.  

Just like conventional gardens, and perhaps a bit more so, organic gardens take a great deal of work.  You may need to plan for a few healthy meals when the vegetable or fruit is in season and leave it at that.  On the other hand, an organic farmer may decide to can their vegetables or otherwise store them for when they are longer in season.  Clearly, a bigger garden is in store in that situation.  Make sure your garden has a steady water supply and that the soil drains well into the ground.  

Remember that organic fertilizers and conditioners work more slowly than the synthetic variety so mix up the soil  with your fertilizer at least three weeks before you actually plant.  Make sure you remove any organic materials that haven’t rotted yet and any weeds or unwanted plants.  Fertilizers usually mean using animal manures, plant manures, compost or a mixture of  different types of organic fertilizers.  Some parts of the world rely on human waste but, generally, that’s not recommended. 

Your organic fertilizer will remove the hardness of the soil and improve its overall condition.  The soil will be able to hold both water and nutrients much better after fertilizing it.  In addition, organic fertilizer buffers the soil so it is more stable to extremes of acidity or alkalinity.  In many cases, the microbiology of the soil improves and the added nutrients will gradually release themselves as the plants grow. 

Organic plant fertilizer will add healthy nitrogen to the soil in a process called “nitrification”. Nitrogen is a necessary nutrient for the growth of most gardens—even conventional ones.  Compost piles help organic gardens by improving the usable nitrogen component of the soil. 

Animal manures make for the best type of fertilizer for the average organic garden.  It needs to have been aged for at least 30 days to make the nitrogen more usable.  The manure varies depending on the type of the animal, the way the animal was fed and even the condition of the animal.  After letting the soil rest with the animal manure, you’re ready to plant and grow the healthiest garden possible. 


Thursday, June 13, 2013

The Beauty of Pollination

If you never knew what goes on in the garden when you aren't paying  attention. Watch this - some of the finest photography you will ever see.

This is beautiful.

The hummingbird doing rolls chasing a bug is neat!!! 

Be sure and watch closely (around 2 min 40 sec) and check out the baby bat under its mama.