Organic gardening is gardening that uses no harmful chemicals. It is healthy and has become a popular trend among gardeners. Growing an organic garden is not as hard as it may seem, and the following tips should help you start and maintain an all natural, healthy flower or vegetable garden.
Three of the most important elements to growing a successful organic garden is mulching and pest control. Mulching helps hold water, reduces weeds and adds essential nutrients. You can either purchase organic mulch, or if the plants require acid, lay a thick bed of pine needles in the fall. Make sure you are not using mulch that has been artificially colored; although the coloring preserves the look of your mulch even after it gets old and dry, it is not organic and may contain chemicals that can contaminate your otherwise pristine mini-ecosystem.
Pests are always a problem in any garden. To hold them at bay in an organic garden you can rotate a spray of soapy water followed by clean water on the infected stems, leaves and buds of the plants. Weeds can be treated with vinegar.
Compost is also important for an organic garden to added essential nutrients. It can be made from almost anything you have on hand including ground up leftovers, leaves and grass.
If you want to plant herbs for organic cooking, they make great landscape plants in the organic garden and don’t need a lot of attention. Mix in some annual flower plants for a creative, colorful blend.
Gardening provides detailed information on Gardening, Organic Gardening, Flower Gardening, Gardening Supplies and more. Gardening is affiliated with Garden D
How do you create flower garden ideas? Let me count the ways.
Take garden tours. There is no substitute for actually seeing gardens in the flesh. I routinely take one or two tours every spring and summer just to see what I don’t like.
Read magazines. These dead-tree monthlies are full of pictures of great gardens. How else do you think they market their products ? 
I go to a bookstore and browse the racks. No, I don’t subscribe to any because (quite frankly) I get most of my raw information from the Net. But I do get some interesting design ideas from magazines.
Check out books. If you flip through pages of garden design books, (while you’re in the bookstore) you’re going to see tons of examples of great gardens. In fact, many of these gardens are unreal they are so perfect but you’ll get great ideas.
Let me quickly tell you that pictures in magazines and books are often “staged”. I mean that the magazines hire professional photographers and crews to “improve” the look of the garden. Extra flowers are brought in and tucked in to make the garden appear fuller. A bit of garden whimsy is added here - a potted plant is tucked there and suddenly.. what was a good garden becomes just a little more special in the eyes of the camera. For the next shot, flowers are moved, statuary adjusted and once again, the look of the garden changes. And you get a great looking garden magazine picture.
The internet is a tough place to find pictures of great looking gardens. I tend to write about individual plants (the how-to of plants) but am moving towards design items (I wrote a paper book on Perennial Garden Design) and incorporating more real pictures in my website. One of the practical problems of course is that most of our garden photography is on slides and it takes a lot of work to transfer these to digital images. But this is about getting you good flower garden ideas not about the problems of garden writers.
Sign up for my newsletter. You’ll find I routinely talk about design or about parts of design in abstract terms. I can’t solve your design problems but I do try to give ideas. Also sign up for my blog at http://doug-greens-gardening.blogspot.com/, you’ll find I talk more about garden design over there as I run into elements of light and space in my own gardens.
|
Doug Green award winning garden author has written 7 books and answers questions in his free gardening newsletter at http://www.simplegiftsfarm.com/gardeningnewsletter.html. |
Whenever you decide to look for a butterfly house for your flower garden, you first have to determine what it is you actually want. A search for butterfly houses will yield two different types. There is the type of butterfly house that contains butterflies and their nectar plants. These type of butterfly houses are actually structures created for the specific reason of providing a safe and enclosed space in which to study the butterflies.
It can vary from a playpen-size for individual study to a medium-sized net-drapped area to large green house-like structure for scientists’ study. We even have large enclosures open for public viewing, education and delight. If you find this a delightful prospect to walk in a large “cage” with hundreds of butterflies surrounding you, consult your local museums and zoos for information. This being the information age, check online too.
As part of your children’s, or your own, education, you may wish to raise some butterflies from caterpillar in a small butterfly house. Live butterfly kits are readily available and come with all you need to raise the caterpillar to a butterfly, usually a Painted Lady. Of course you may be able to collect the eggs from your own garden and raise them in your own home for your education and enjoyment. Please find a proper resource to guide you in this prospect if you should choose to do so.
You may also wish to create your own butterfly house of this type in your own flower garden. This can be done by means of mosquito netting drapped over an easily portable structure such as a light weight greenhouse structure or some type of tall stakes. Just surround whatever flowers are providing the nectar source at the present time. Don’t forget the small puddles as water sources for the butterflies, too.
The second type of butterfly house is actually a hibernation box. It is usually a tall, 6 inch diameter box mounted on a post which is then set into your garden. The front of the box has half inch slots through which the butterflies can enter the house. The front also swings open to allow you to place some twigs or, preferably, some rough bark within the house. This allows the butterflies a good gripping surface.
Place the box near some host plants for the type of butterflies in your area. This will provide incentive for the butterflies to lay eggs on the host plants in your flower garden in the spring.
The top of the butterfly house may be opened so you may observe the hibernating butterflies and record the numbers and types of your hibernating guests. If you are very lucky, on a warm winter’s day, one of your guest may actually step out of the butterfly house. If this occurs, sugar water or home-grown flowers may keep it occupied until the day starts to cool. At which time, the butterfly will make its way back into the butterfly house in your flower garden.
© 2005, Sandra Dinkins-Wilson
Find more butterfly garden articles and gardening tips for Flower Garden Lovers at our informative website.