Garden Student

With the health scare at restaurants and retailers earlier this year concerning tomatoes, you might be thinking, why am I not growing my own to enjoy? Good question. Tomatoes are quite easy to grow in many areas of the United States, they are a beautiful addition to any garden, and biting into a juicy tomato, bursting with flavor and goodness, is its own reward for the diligent attention it received while growing. You’ll also notice the taste difference between your backyard garden variety and the store-bought product; yours will taste unbelievably more delicious and satisfying than you had ever imagined they would!

In most areas of the U.S., it is best to start your planting in late spring, unless planting indoors, when temperatures are securely 65 degrees Fahrenheit or above, the necessary temperature for successful germination. Make sure that the spot you pick gets adequate sunlight, around six hours each and every day. Ensuring that the soil is warm and kept nice and moist, as seeds that are planted in this hospitable environment should start to sprout within only a few days. When planting from starts acquired from your local garden store instead of seeds, the same conditions apply, though it is often easier for starts to take hold and prosper sooner than seeds since they are farther along already.

As your plants sprout or your starts take hold, you must make sure to water them adequately, but never too much. Simply make sure to use the H2O from your garden hose reel wisely, allowing the plants to be moist, but not swimming. Plant fertilizer can be most helpful as it can help contribute to whatever nutrients your soil inherently contains, amplifying and augmenting these nutrients for more successful growth and heartiness.

Though it is hard to resist picking your tomatoes early, you must wait until they achieve a deep red color, ensuring they are at their ripest condition. You will be so glad you did as you slice into that very first one. Whether you enjoy it in a deliciously healthy salad, paired with other healthy vegetables from your garden, on a sandwich with your favorite spread, or simply biting into it in your backyard, the reward of growing your own healthy tomatoes will be so deliciously satisfying, you will undoubtedly repeat the process year after year, forever forsaking your local grocer for your beautiful, backyard bounty.

If you are looking for direction on what to plant in that achingly empty plot outside your front door and the thought of watering every day has you retreating to your living room sofa before you can say soil-prep you will not have to look any further.

The City of Austin has excellent recommendations for you. You will be the smartest person on the block with minimal maintenance and delightful results. Writing a smaller check to Austin energy for water consumption helps too.

Earthwise, sustainable plants that are native to or have successfully adapted to Central Texas are the focus of their free picture filled 41-page booklet compiled and sponsored by a joint effort between the City of Austin and a host of their earth conscious partners. The goal is to preserve Austin’s water resources. This not only equates to watering less but using fewer chemicals and fertilizers, if any, to maintain your own piece of paradise.

Austin is sitting at the mouth of the recharge zone and watershed of the Edwards aquifer, which is one of the most prolific artesian aquifers in the world. Austin promotes responsible planting to prevent overall depletion and detrimental runoff into the aquifer and other pristine natural pools such as Barton Springs.

You may be thinking that choosing plants from our native landscape precludes the “exotic and lush rainforest canopy you have always wanted off of your breakfast nook”. It does. What about, “predictable?” you may ask. To this we say, no-siree. You may not be able to transplant the abutilon megapotamicum you adored in Costa Rica but the tremendous variety of native vegetation available enables you to create unexpected and heavenly compositions.

The City of Austin has included non-native but adapted plants for special situations like shady areas, poorly draining soil, deer resistance and due to their unusual beauty. They are selected because of their non-invasive nature and their inability to out-compete local vegetation.

The guide entitled, “Native and Adapted Landscape Plants”, but referred to by most Austinites, as the Grow Green Guide is available at nurseries in town. The plants are placed in categories such as trees, shrubs, perennials, vines, groundcover, etc. They are listed alphabetically under their common names with details on height, spread, light conditions required for growing, color and features, maintenance and other helpful details. The guide makes it easy to select plants from a purely aesthetic standpoint due to very clear and enlarged pictures. As a builder you may receive Green Building credits when plants from the guide are utilized.

If you do not have access to one of the local nurseries the city of Austin site is filled with information. Here you will find the pdf’s of the printed guide and you will find updated information including local partnering nurseries, the least toxic way to deal with bugs and pests and many other issues related to landscaping in Austin and Central Texas.

How much do you spend on food on a day-to-day basis? For most people, the simple answer is too much. It’s not just the extra bag of chips or the impulse trip to the diner. There’s also the cost of gas, electricity, and production time involved in getting food to your table. But saving money on food doesn’t mean going hungry or giving up nutrition. Often, it only takes a few simple tricks. Here are five you can try today.



Make a weekly menu:

A great way to add value to your home is by adding an outdoor living space as an investment in your home and your lifestyle. Adding footage to your house does not have to be under a roof, as patios are growing into full size rooms complete with furniture, fireplaces, and kitchens. Stamped concrete patios blend the materials of your home with the nature around it, which make them a perfect transition from indoor to outdoor.

Any look is possible with stamped concrete. It is, simply, concrete that is patterned or textured to look like brick, stone, wood, tile, slate, or other various materials. It can also follow patterns like herringbone, basketweave, cobblestone, or custom designs like fanning or symbols. When deciding on your patio layout, consider breaking from the normal open, square concrete block. Making a pathway to a gate at the side of the yard or a garden in the back makes your lawn more accessible and utilized. Keep growing tree roots and flourishing plants in mind, as they may interfere with your traffic later.

The process of stamping starts with dying the concrete mix a base color that reflects what the concrete will be imitating, such as reddish brown for clay tile or blue gray for granite. This coloring can be integrated into the concrete mix, or can be applied just after the concrete is poured by throwing color hardener powder over the area and letting it absorb. The second step uses an accent color to bring out the texture of the stamping. Using this color release agent prevents the texture mats from sticking to the wet concrete. It will accentuate the shadows and design of the stamp, but much will wash away after being pressure washed, leaving the primary color to be the most prominent.

Thirdly, the concrete is stamped, using polyurethane or metal stamps shortly after the concrete is poured. Metal stamps were used since the 60’s and could not texturize the concrete well, so the polyurethane was developed to make the exact replica of other materials. When done by an experienced stamper, it is virtually impossible to tell the difference between stamped concrete and the real material just by looking at it.

Stamping concrete has become increasingly popular among homeowners because of the ability to take elements from surroundings and other buildings and apply it to the patio or driveway. No longer is there only a paved blacktop or commercial looking concrete, but now creative features are being taken outside the home and onto the seemingly least artistic parts of the architecture. The outdoors become an extension of the indoor living spaces and provide more room to relax, entertain, and casually unwind.

These luxurious patios become even more well-dressed when accessorized with pieces such as built-in seating, outdoor kitchen stations, a fireplace or hearth, dining areas, water fountains, lantern lighting, flower beds, and decorative accents. Patios are no longer furnished with Adirondacks or wicker. Now there is patio furniture that is as comfortable, stylish, and plush as indoor furniture, made with special fabrics that resist weather damage. Your favorite interior d

If you own or manage any business then you may have already thought of incorporating plants into your decorating scheme. It just makes so much sense. Having some nice potted plants available for your customers or clients to enjoy lightens the mood. Also, having a nice assortment of potted plants reflects positively on you as a person. Remember that having a “green thumb” means that you are a bit of a horticulturist which is a “good thing”.

Your Office Space is Just Like a Desert to Plants

If you have already given potted plants a try in your place then you most likely got to watch them as they died a slow lingering death. Don’t blame yourself however, because air conditioning and heaters will dry the air out, also plants need good sunlight. This unfortunately means that the average office space happens to be the worst environment to keep plants in, because its just like a desert to them.

Todays Artificial Plants Look Amazingly Real

One simple solution that more decorators are using in todays commercial environments is artificial “plants”. However; you may be thinking that you have seen fake plants before and they look good from across the room but up close they look like crap. What you may not know is the artificial plants and flowers have come a long way in recent years and now there are artificial plants that look “perfectly real” even up close.

Its All About the Natural Presentation

Also, it is important to remember that “presentation” goes a long way in an artificial plant arrangements. This means that a good pot and “organic”

ground cover, such as bark or Spanish moss are so important for the “complete” natural effect. Also, artificial plants that are hung up high from the ceiling, such as ferns look fantastic and because they are out of reach, no one can ever touch them to see that they are artificial.

Blending Natural Plants With Artificial Plants

Another trick that decorators use is to augment “thick sturdy” natural plants such as thornless cactus or other plant species that thrive in arid climates with artificial plants. This particularly works great if you want to string light green flowering vines up along a wall or window. People who are seated close to the arrangement will see the the large sturdy natural plant and assume that the vines also “growing” out of the pot are real as well.

A Beautiful Permanent Solution that Looks Perfectly Real

Its important to remember that beautiful natural plants that you will find for sale at your local nursery have been raised in optimal environments.

They grew up in climate and humidity controlled greenhouses and were tended to by experts who do what they do every day of the year. So, if you think that you can bring a fresh bushy natural plant into your “arid” work environment you are sadly mistaken. This is why so many business people have said “screw it” and have found a permanent solution in artificial plants.

Herb gardening is becoming more and more popular every day, and for a good reason. Herbs have practical value, serve a purpose, and with herb gardening you can actually use your plants. When most people think of herb gardening they automatically think of cooking, but herbs are also grown for their pleasant aroma and their beauty.

One important part of herb gardening is drying the herbs for use during the winter months, especially if you plan on cooking with them. First the tops of leafy herbs have to be cut, washed, and hung up for the water to evaporate. Then, tie stems together and hang up in a paper bag to dry. After two to three weeks they must be removed; crumble the leaves, dry them out in the oven, and store in a glass jar.

One of the most common herbs gown in herb gardening is basil. “Dark Opal” and regular green basil are beautiful additions to any garden and often used as decoration. Dark Opal has light pink flowers and dark red leaves. Basil isn’t just used for its looks; it is used for extra flavor in tomato juices and pastes.

Chives are very petite looking and resemble a blade of grass. They are much stronger than they look, however, and will grow well through a drought and a drought. Their toughness and sturdiness makes Chives a perfect plant for herb gardening, especially if the gardener doesn’t want plants that require a lot of hassle. Chives are good used in salads, egg dishes, and many different sauces.

Mint is also very simple to grow and is good to use in mint jelly, mint juleps, lemonade, and any other kind of fruity drink. Mint is also good in herb gardening for its unique minty smell. Two herbs that appear in nearly everyone’s herb garden are thyme and sage. Both of these herb gardening favorites are used for flavoring soups, chicken, turkey, pork, and other sausages. Sage is also grown sometimes for its beautiful blue spiked flowers.

Lavender is probably the best smelling herb in all of herb gardening and is often used in candles, as a perfume scent, and to improve the smell in linen chests. The light purple flowers smell absolutely lovely.

Other types of herbs often grown in herb gardening include borage (used in salads), chervil (used in egg dishes), sweet marjoram (flavors lamb, fish, salad, and soup), sesame (flavors crackers, cookies, and bread), and dill (flavors meats and used in pickles). Herb gardening allows gardeners to use herbs from their own garden for cooking, looks, and smell. Herb gardening will produce much fresher herbs with more flavor than store-bought herbs, and are a lot cheaper.

Fill the hole with topsoil and firm it down then reseed it as if it were a bald patch. In removing the plugs of soil from your lawn this process severs roots, rhizomes and stolons. The affects of this stimulate your grass to produce new shoots and roots that will fill in the holes and increase the density of your lawn. They help aerate the soil, loosen it up, and are more beneficial than a problem. The little mounds will eventually disappear and the holes will fill in.

Manure with a high content of bedding materials may rob more nitrogen from the soil than it provides. A knife-type of tine also can be used to shatter dry soils and create many cracks in the ground that also serve for aerification. Most lawns receive a real benefit from solid, hollow and shatter tine aerification. Lawns like Barry’s, struggling to grow in heavily compacted soil, may fail to thrive or die out no matter how much water and fertilizer you give them.

Winter freezing and thawing cycles and earthworm activity can help loosen slightly compacted soils. If the lawn has a thatch layer in excess of 1/2 inch, then core cultivation can be used as a preventative approach to control excess thatch build up. THATCH REMOVAL In addition to the deeper roots, the plugs of soil that are deposited on top of the ground help decompose thatch – without the risk of turf damage that power dethatchers pose. If you are doing a light fall overseeding on a fescue lawn, the holes left by the aerator make a perfect place for the seeds to fall into and germinate. While spiking will put holes in the turf, it actually compacts the soil rather than removing the core.

Aeration helps to prevent soil compaction and enables oxygen and water to get to the roots of the grass. Soak the food into the soil by watering (see second image below). Feed any new plant with plant food in the spring and fall until it reaches maturity. Because the grass clippings will be pulled into the soil and decomposed by soil organisms, you will need much less fertilizer. It is a myth that grass clippings cause thatch.

Without lawn aeration, grass roots tend to knot into each other instead of growing vertically into the soil. Due to the root’s diminished contact with the soil’s nutrients, lawn grass becomes vulnerable to predators like worms and insects as well as weeds like dandelions or crabgrass. Some professionals prefer to use a blend of 60% compost and 40% coarse sand because it is heavier than pure compost, it will move more easily through the grass to the soil. If the soil is saturated with water or even too dry it may lead to poor results.

Getting started with your vegetable garden is something that is going to take some planning. You need to figure out what you want to plant and how the best way to go about it is. There are special needs of all different plants and you want to make sure that you meet each one so that you are getting the best possible outcome.

Vegetable gardens are a lot of fun if you do it right. Research is the best thing that you can do so that you are giving it one hundred percent. You want to raise healthy plants so that you are better to enjoy the vegetables that you produce. Once you see how rewarding a great garden is you will want to do this year after year.

Thinking about the plants that you want and need is part of your research. What do you like to eat? If you are a beginner what is going to be the easiest for you? There are different answers or each person and it is up to you to find out what is going to be better for your garden.

Digging up the garden is the next part of the process. You should think about digging by hand or with a root tiller. This is a great machine that will give you perfect soil without the backbreaking work of a shovel. You will also be able to start planting sooner with the help of a garden tiller.

Knowing how to use a roto tiller for your garden is a must. You should read the directions on how to use it so that your safety comes first. You do not want to make a mistake and have to pay for it later.

Once you have your garden tilled and ready to plant you will then begin the gardening process. You have to take care of your plants and give them the care that they deserve. You want to make sure that the environment that you create for your vegetables is perfect so that you can have a plentiful harvest of vegetables all year round.

For safe gardening, you require a number of garden tools, however these tools should be selected carefully so that you can enjoy safe gardening. If you are also growing vegetables in your garden, you will require garden tools including seeding and planting tool, harvesting tool and composite equipments generally.

For growing vegetables in your garden you will generally require a number of garden tools and details of these tools is given below.

Lawn edger for gardening:

If you want to draw a line between your lawn and sidewalk driveway, you will need a lawn edger. You need to spend money on latest lawn edger, however a simple and cheap lawn edger is sufficient for drawing a line so that you or other people can easily distinguish the pathways.

Common seeding and planting tools:

You will require seeding and planting tools only if your garden is big enough and you want to either grow vegetables or cover crop. Row seeders are helpful especially for seeding vegetables or corn crops. You can buy a row wheeler with wheels especially if your garden size is large.

These seeders are quite effective in placing seeds at equal distance and these seeders make furrow, place seeds and close furrow and all the job is done in one pass.

If you have a small gardener, hand held seeder will be the best option for you. Broadcast seeders are also available in the market for sowing seeds of cover crops, however for small gardener these are not quite useful.

Composting tools:

You can also make compost bins in your own garden or you can buy the readymade available compost bins from the market. If you find difficulty in making your own composite bins, it is better to get a readymade compost kit including slat sided cylinders.

Cages:

You can get a variety of cages in the market, however for selecting a cage for your garden, you need to look for the material and its quality. You should select a cage, which is made from a heavy-duty material so that it can withstand all seasons including rainy season.

Taking proper care of a lawn is vital to the success of any landscape design. A beautiful, healthy lawn will always add to the aesthetics of the landscape, whereas a poorly maintained lawn will ruin the effect. Here are a few lawn care tips that will assist you in the maintenance of your lawn.

Choosing the Right Grass for Your Lawn

There are many types of lawn grass and these are used according to the purpose of the lawn and the climate. Consider the following points when deciding which grass you need.

What is going to be the use of the lawn? Is it to be purely ornamental or is it a play area for the children?

What budget are you able to afford for the lawn?

Do you have the amount of time required to spend on the maintenance of the lawn you choose?

What are you looking for regarding the appearance of the lawn?
How much sun or shade will your lawn have?

Is the area wet or dry?

What characteristics does your soil have?

Mowing your lawn

It is important that the lawn is regularly mowed to make sure it looks its best. However, there are some things you should consider before you start mowing. Firstly, you should not cut the lawn too severely as it can cause damage to the grass. It is also the case that a lawn that is cut too low will grow faster and in turn require more watering and therefore further maintenance. Follow these tips when mowing your lawn:

* Don’t cut the grass too short. Not only does it damage the grass, it will also allow weed growth.

* The different types of grass require different cut heights, so make sure that you check this with the landscaping company. As a rule of thumb, the best height is 3-4 inches.

* It is not a good idea to remove more that a third of the leaf in one cut.

* Ensure that the mower blades are sharp before each mowing. Having a spare set of blades will help you.

* Maintain your mower, including changing the oil once or twice in the mowing season.

Watering your Lawn

As with most living things, grass is able to adapt to varying conditions. “Stressing” the grass a little, by not watering too much, is a good idea as it promotes deeper and stronger root growth. This stronger root growth will in turn ensure healthier grass growth. Consider the following points:

* Early morning is the ideal time to water your lawn as it will reach the roots before the heat of the day causes it to evaporate. Mid afternoon is not so good as the water will evaporate and if you water at night you increase the chance of diseases developing.

* Water evenly, avoiding “pooling” in areas or missing others.

* For lawns on sloping ground, take care that the water does not simply run off or it may wash down all lawn fertilizer that you might have added. You may need to water this area in shorter, more frequent bursts to be sure that the lawn has enough water.

* During hotter times in summer or in periods of drought you may have to make a decision between more regular watering or allowing the lawn to become dormant. Repeatedly allowing the grass to become dormant is not a good idea as it creates too much stress on the plant.

* A newly planted lawn will require more frequent waterings to ensure that it “beds” down well and that the roots are well established.