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Plants growing in soil can be fertilised with any of the plant "foods" on the market. Follow the directions on the packet but do not overdo it. If you feed too often or with too strong a solution, you can cause overfeeding. …

Source: Fine

Bonsai ‘food’ can readily be obtained from a local nursery or gardening section, or purchased online. The most common type contains NPK, nitrogen (N), phosphates (P) and potassium (K). The last is usually in the form of potash, …

Source: Jennifer

Why do good quality triple-pack nutrients come in Grow, Bloom and Boost options? Optimum and Power Gro are both available in two distinct formulations, each with a different ratio of the macro elements. The Grow formulation is designed …

Source: Fine

Question: Will adding phosphate & potash to soil increase fruit yield on my tomatoes?

Source: unknown

Source: "gardening" - Google News

These garden beds were cut into the middle of the lawn. Without edging, they would look like they were floating in the lawn. With edging, they look like destinations.

Source: unknown

Question: I notice that many of my neighbors use tillers, even for small gardens. My plot is under 10 x 10, and a tiller seems expensive for such a small space. Is it better? Can I achieve the same results with manually turning the soil …

Source: unknown

A good nutrient solution should contain a full profile of trace elements, usually known as micro-nutrients in hydroponics. The essential micro-nutrients are iron, manganese, copper, zinc, boron and molybdenum. Some solutions may contain …

Source: Fine

Hi everyone

Welcome to this edition of your Gardening Weekly, today's edition is entitled:

Crop Rotation For Vegetables

QUOTE: This is the real secret of life - to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now.
And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.
- Alan Watts

When growing vegetables in the garden most people tend to grow the same crops year after year.
This is not surprising really, as we grow the crops that we prefer to eat and we also tend to grow the plants that we have the most success growing.

One thing that most gardeners seem to do is grow the same vegetables in the very same place in the garden each year.

You will tend to have a spot for your tomatoes and a spot for your pumpkins and so on.

Website Of Interest. Check out the following:
http://blog.mygardeninghome.com/plants.html

The problem with planting the same crops in the same place each year is the effect it has on the nutrients in the soil.

Plants will extract the nutrients that they need from the soil for their specific requirements each season.  By planting the same crops in the same places you can get nutrient deficiencies.

This is where crop rotation can enhance the value of your soil.  By rotating where you plant your vegetables each season you will be giving the soil the opportunity to produce better results as there won't be the same demands on the nutrients in the soil when there is a different plant growing their from last season.

To improve the soil quality even more, you should dig in the remains of the crops once the season has finished allowing some of those nutrients to be put back into the soil.  In the off-season you can also grow cover crops in the garden.  These are crops that are grown specifically to add nitrogen to the soil.  These crops have high nitrogen value in their roots and when they are ready, you dig them into the soil.

In doing this you can expect a better harvest each year as the new planting of vegetables will have more nutrients to feed them.

Website Of Interest. Check out the following:
http://blog.mygardeninghome.com/plants.html

Thanks,
Annie
My Gardening Home Blog

Hi everyone

Welcome to this edition of your Gardening Weekly, today's edition is entitled:

Understanding Soil

QUOTE: All the flowers of all the tomorrows are in the seeds of today.
- Indian Proverb

Understanding the role that soil plays in the garden is one of the best assets that you can have as a gardener.
It is this knowledge that will allow you to create a healthier environment for your plants and get the maximum benefits from them.

In doing so, you will also make your own life easier, as a garden that is well managed from the soil up, is a garden that is a lot easier to manage, from one day to the next.

A garden that has good soil that has been fed with good nutrition over time will make growing almost anything easy for even the least experienced gardener.

Website Of Interest. Check out the following:
http://blog.mygardeninghome.com/soil.html

So how to you get good soil?

First you need to consider how plants grow and how they get their nutrition and that is through their roots.
Therefore, in order for the plants to grow well, they need to be in soil that allows their roots to get to the nutrition.
Obviously compact ground with little water, little air and poor nutrition will not produce the best plants.

Plants need water and air and this requires soil that has spaces to hold this air and water.
Therefore soil that is aerated will generally produce a better garden.  Once again it is all about balance, as soil that is too crumbly might not hold the nutrients as well, where the water might wash them away.  The soil also needs to be firm enough to support the growth of the plant otherwise it will topple over at the first sign of a wind.

The soil needs to have suitable nutrients and if any of these nutrients are out of balance, the pH scale that measures whether the soil is acidic or alkaline, will show why they are having difficulty absorbing the nutrients.

Website Of Interest. Check out the following:
http://blog.mygardeninghome.com/soil.html

Thanks,
Annie
http://blog.mygardeninghome.com