Tips to Gardening

The Top 7 Benefits of Composting Leaves

It’s Fall again, so it’s time to think about what we will do with our leaves.  If you are serious about your gardening, you should certainly consider composting your leaves.

Composting leaves is very valuable in managing your compost plan.  It often happens that leaves are left scattered all over a yard even while a compost pile sits nearby, sorely needing the absorption, the carbon, and other nutrients that leaves can provide. Following are some of the benefits of composting leaves.

1. Odor control
Dry leaves are a great means of suppressing the smell that may, otherwise, emanate from a compost heap. After you add fresh kitchen scraps to your pile, it would be a good idea not only to mix them into the heap, but to cover it with dry leaves as well.

2. Vermin control
Leaves, when used to cover a freshly supplemented pile of manure or food scraps, are great for preventing flies from infesting your yard. Pile on a two-inch layer of leaves to throw off the scent of the rats and vermin that may be attracted to your compost heap. Composting leaves may be what separates a neat garden from one ruined by all sorts of pests.

3. Carbon-rich source
Composting leaves can give your pile a rich source of carbon. Carbon, along with nitrogen, oxygen, and water does a lot to hasten the decomposition of a compost heap. When you need more green matter to balance you pile and serve as a much-needed catalyst, leaves provide a ready source for you.

4. Absorptive quality
On the other hand, during wet or humid weather when your compost pile tends to retain too much water, the absorptive quality of dry leaves can do a lot to remedy the situation. While water aids decomposition, too much of it will serve as a retardant as well.

5. Managing yard waste
Many yards in America produce more yard waste than they know what to do with – and most of this consists of fallen leaves. Rather than waiting for curbside pickup to take the problem off your hands, composting leaves can turn the problem into a benefit.

6. Cost-efficiency
There is really no reason to throw away something that you can use to improve the production of, say, your vegetable garden. Composting leaves can even mean substantial savings off your fertilizer budget.

7. Yard aesthetics
One of the most unattractive things about gardens is the overwhelming amount of leaves that covers it in the fall. A few leaves can be picturesque. But when it covers your entire lawn, pond or pool, plant nursery or vegetable garden, it can be a real aesthetic problem. Composting leaves is a great solution for a messy yard.

All About Gardening Tools

God made rainy days, so gardeners could get the housework done – Gardening can be that addictive and more so if you have the right tools! Selecting the right gardening tools is also important when taking up a gardening project. Opt for tools that are neither too heavy nor too light. Heavy equipments are difficult to use and quite tiresome while lighter ones are poorly made. Good gardening tools have handles made of high quality wood like ash.

Here are some popular gardening tools -

- Garden rake helps to soothe the soil after it is tilled. This tool is helpful in finishing work when making planting beds or a new lawn.

- Cultivators help in cutting the hard compacted soil. Some of them have broader edges while others have narrow ones. These are useful in making the annual beds for vegetable gardens.

- Edger is another gardening tool that helps the flower gardens and shrubs maintain their shape. Gardens lose their crisp lines over time when grass intrudes in the garden. Using the edger will prevent grass roots taking a firm hold in planting beds.

- Pitchfork is a tool used for aerating compacted soil and preparing garden beds. They are also used for dividing grasses and also to spread mulch in spring.

- Reel Mowers are used to cut grass. They give a cleaner cut as compared to other tools. They do not use gas and hence there is no pollution with reel mowers. These are great for small lawns. It is a lightweight and easy to use tool.

- Hand Pruners are gardening tools used for cutting branches. They give cleaner and precise cuts. They have bypass blades that help in cutting the branches neatly.

- Loppers are just like pruners but are provided with long handles and the ability to cut branches of around 2 inches thickness.

- Compact Pruning Saw is a tool useful for cutting branches. It is small enough to fit into the middle of a shrub to cut the branch.

Gardening tools are essential for maintaining your garden but it is not really necessary to spend a lot on buying garden tools. You need not have all the latest tools to give your garden that perfect look. You can just buy some basic tools to start with. With minimum tools, you too can make your garden attractive.

One of the basic gardening tools is a spading fork. This helps to dig down the soil and break the ground. This is very essential since at some point or the other you will need to open and improve the soil. Hoe is a gardening tool useful for weeding and cultivating the soil. This is done to allow the penetration of nutrients and water into the soil. For larger digging projects you will also require a round ended shovel.

A watering can is also one of the important gardening tools. It has long nozzles and allows water to flow gently. A good bow rake is essential to level the soil and also for removing large clods of earth or rocks from the soil. Having a pair of garden shears known as clippers are essential for cutting, shaping and removing foliage or branches.

Give your garden that perfect look just by using the right gardening tools without spending money on expensive professional gardeners!

Gardening Book

Gardening Books is brought to you by http://gardeners-handbook.info

Are you a gardening enthusiast? Have you ever gone to a book store to
find a particular gardening book only to be bombarded by shelf upon
shelf of books on every type of gardening imaginable except the one
that you really want? How about the internet?

You’ve heard that it’s a good place to find information, so you
laboriously turn on your computer and enter whatever keywords you
have into whatever search engine you fancy, and you’re bombarded
by information. Again.

The solution? Simple really when you come to think about it. No, not
buying out the whole bookstore. Not even finding some willing victim
to trawl through those web pages for you, although that does sound
like a good idea. All you have to do is write your own gardening book!

I know, I know, that sort of defeats the purpose of your trying to
find the information you need for yourself. But just think of all
those lost souls, wandering out there in a daze searching with
mounting despair through the same maze of information that you
yourself searched through only days before.

You probably think that you’re unable to write, but hey, if you can
string two sentences together in a manner pleasing to read, and you
can capture the attention of your audience, then you’ve got it made!

You don’t know enough to write a gardening book? I don’t believe that!
If you’re an honest-to-goodness gardening fanatic, then likely as not,
you’ve been gardening for most of your life. You must remember
digging up your mother’s nice neat flower beds to see exactly
‘how it worked’!

So, you’ve got the requisite experience necessary to write more than
one gardening book.

Now what? Well, now it’s all a matter of finding someone to cook your
meals and remind you to eat regularly while you expound to the world
at large, or in this case, your word processor, your views on
gardening. You won’t need to be reminded to water your garden,
because conscientious gardener that you are, that’ll be the last
thing that you forget. Besides, it wouldn’t look too good to let
your garden wither away while you’re writing a gardening book!

And afterwards what do you do? Well, you could always start on a
sequel, because really you didn’t do justice to all that could be
mentioned in a gardening book. Or, you could just sit back in your
easy chair, a mimosa in your hand, the drink, not the flower, and
reap the benefits of your very own gardening book.

As for that little nugget of information that you were so desperately
searching for in the beginning? Well it turns out that you really knew
more than you thought you did, and it too, is now in your gardening
book.

Tomorrow’s article will be on Gardening Clubs – see you then!

All the Best – Ian Fleming

http://gardeners-handbook.info

Flower Gardening

Flower gardening is brought to you by

http://gardeners-handbook.info

When you think of any kind of gardening, the first thing
that pops
into your mind is flower gardening. Flowers and gardens being
naturally synonymous with each other. And dedicated gardener that
you are, you’ll naturally be doing your own flower gardening this
year.

Flower gardening need not be limited only to summertime. If you
plan carefully and plant ahead of time, your garden can be filled
with an abundance of flowers for most of the year.

If we start by seasons, then for spring flowers, the best thing
you could do would be to plant bulbs. Any nursery will have them,
and if you’re more inclined towards the exotic, and rarer flowering
bulbs, there’s a good chance you can have them ordered specially.

Favorites amongst bulb lovers are early springtime Crocuses, and
cheerful Snowdrops. Tulips though, are by and away the most famous
of bulbs in demand by flower gardeners, and are available in a
variety of shades, including a black-colored one, which is really
more of a deep maroon and one of those rare flowers I was talking
about earlier.

Remember that all spring flowering bulbs should be planted in mid
autumn, as this is the best time for them. Come any closer to winter
and you’re in danger of losing your bulbs altogether.

Moving through to summer, we find that perennials are a firm favorite
for flower gardening as they yield blooms almost continuously
throughout the season, and sometimes beyond. With a little luck and
care, you’ll also find that most of your perennials will last through
to next year, and the year after that, and, well you get the picture
right? You’ll also find that as the years and the seasons wear on,
your perennials will become fuller, and generally will become more
abundant than the first year you planted them.

As autumn gently closes in most flower gardens are left bereft of
anything but a few small hardy plants. If you’re into more dedicated
flower gardening however, that need not be the case for you. Hardy,
drought resistant plants like Asters number among the many types of
fall flowers available, and will look stunning in late summer/early
fall, Generally, autumn plants will grow to a good 3-4 feet in height,
and have vivid colors, as well as the more genteel pastel colors to
choose from. Ornamental grasses are another favorite and will nicely
complement your fall flowers.

To round off the year and your efforts at flower gardening, don’t
despair as there are many winter blooms available. Amaryllis, Hyacinth,
and Narcissus are a few of the more common known flowers and are
available in bulb form. If you want something a little more out of
the ordinary, you could always try Winter Jasmine, or Winter
Honeysuckle.

So, take heart, take plenty of notes, plan, and buy to your heart’s
content. By the end of it all you truly will have a flower for every
season, and your flower gardening efforts will be rewarded most
bountifully

Tomorrow’s article will be on Gardening Books – see you then!

All the Best – Ian Fleming

http://gardeners-handbook.info