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

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Weeds and Gardens

Time to start thinking of planting the garden, and getting rid of the weeds, so that every summer when you  wage a war on weeds you win the natural way. The following is from Lifehacker and is an interesting read in the dead of winter. 

Instead of using commercial weed killer to eliminate those pesky weeds, we looked for more eco-friendly and cheap solutions and put them to the test to see which was best. Here are the results.
In this experiment, I tried 3 solutions: boiling water, white vinegar, and vinegar with some salt mixed in, and sprayed these to two areas with different kinds of weeds.
Boiling water worked to cook the tops of the plants but as soon as boiling water hits the giant concrete heat sink, it becomes a refreshing lukewarm bath for the roots. In the case of the crab grass, the dead top resulted in dead roots. Great job! In the case of the black medic, not so much. The cooked part stayed cooked and the uncooked part stayed alive.
In the case of vinegar, it had no effect on the crabgrass because crabgrass is extremely hydrophobic meaning it sheds water. Plain water beads up and rolls off or evaporates before touching the actual plant. If you want your vinegar to touch the plant, it needs to be "wetter" than water. Put a few drops of dish soap or shampoo in the vinegar before spraying. Molasses will work, too. Experiment with the amounts until you see the water/vinegar sticking to the plant instead of beading up. Vinegar should kill any plant it actually touches. If you can find 20% vinegar at a garden nursery, it will kill most plants in 20 minutes. 20% vinegar is fairly dangerous - don't get any in your face/eyes. Fortunately it is so strong you won't want it in your face.
Baking soda will kill crabgrass every time if you apply it right.  WARNING: Most grasses will die with that much baking soda. 
Corn meal, or more appropriately, corn GLUTEN meal, has no weed killing effect on living weeds. I personally believe, after extensive experimentation, that it has no weed prevention effect on weed seeds, either; but the University of Iowa believes otherwise. Corn gluten meal does; however, have an excellent fertilizer effect at a rate of 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. I get it at the feed store in plain brown bags.
Yes, dogs do like the flavor of corn gluten meal, but not that much. After licking it off the ground a few times, they give up.
Source: LifeHacker

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

More on Herb gardening

Perhaps you have been gardening in most of your lifetime yet when it comes to thinking about how you may successfully grow herbs, your heart is not that sure. Definitely, picking gardening as a sort of hobby is both mentally and emotionally rewarding. It tends to relieve you of the stress that you feel after a long day's work. It also never fails to uplift your spirit when you feel down. And most of all, it works best in saving you from boredom. If you are an entrepreneur by nature, you can even be a pro in making profits out of your grown plants. Now, going back to your intentions of growing herbs, you will surely want to know more about the essence of the herb gardening kits.

Garden Kits Explained
Herb gardening is actually very simple for some people but for the beginners it can appear laborious basically because they lack the significant knowledge about the tools to use. A beginner also finds it hard to decipher which seeds to grow at first or how much fertilizer should be used. However, with the garden kits, everything will be made easier. At the same time, guessing will likewise be eliminated.

The Advantages of Using the Herb Garden Kits
Since you have decided to grow herbs indoors, it is a must that you get yourself the appropriate kits to be utilized. As you have acquired the set of kits, it is now time for you to know their advantages.

First of all, you don't necessarily have to make a trip to the garden for some fresh herbs every time you need them.

Then, a kit normally makes it easier for you to preserve the herbs and then harvest them in due time.
There are likewise recipes that come along with the kit together with a couple of pieces of information that will all the more make your herb growing a more wonderful experience to cherish.

Apart from all those ingredients that will be needed for herb growing, the kits available also let you choose a theme. You can take a pick from a wide range of selection such as herbs for medicine, herbs for tea, German herbs, Italian herbs, salsa herbs, international herbs, culinary herbs, and a lot other combinations.

The kits also include the seeds as well as the planters. Other kits come with pellets or soil depending on your choice of where to plant the seeds in. It is then a must for you to decide on which you prefer to work on before you purchase the gardening kits.

What is most important with the herb gardening kits is of course the set of instructions that will serve as your guide as you develop your herbs. Clear enough, a hobby such as gardening will only be fulfilling on your part if you vividly know what you are doing. Doing it indoors is also going to make things even simpler for you. Thus, you can always relieve yourself of uncertainty and become truly successful in your endeavor.