RELATED ARTICLESHow to Attract Butterflies to Your Garden
The flittering of the butterfly through your garden is no accident if you planned your garden carefully. The adult butterfly flitters from flower to flower - sipping nectar from many flowers in your gardens, while other adult butterflies search for areas to lay their larvae. It is good to take note that the butterfly garden is going to differ from other areas of your garden. Your natural instincts will be to kill off pests, larvae and creatures in the garden, but in the butterfly garden your best results are noticed when you use organic gardening: Which means no chemicals at all.
Outdoor Living Cleanses The Mind, Body, and Spirit
Through the use of various mediums pertaining to the outdoors, like hot tubs and patio furniture, one can relax and enjoy nature. Don't stay confined to four walls and a roof, breathe and inhale the free, fresh air only the beautiful outdoors can provide. Use your outdoor space as an extension of home, with all the added comforts. Suppose you do not have an outdoor space to relax on wicker and eat on a simple yet classy teak table. What do you do?
Agio Patio Furniture
The fresh air of the early spring solstice and the celebration song of the earth call us to leave the safety and comfort of our indoor winter haven. We venture forth to explore the new life that is springing up all around us, and habitually look for a place to relax and absorb the sounds and smells swirling through the air. Agio Patio Furniture may be just the answer to true enjoyment of the new season's arrival.
Greenhouse Calamities ? Thoughts from a Novice Gardener
Greenhouses are a great addition to anyone's garden. They come in all different sizes and you can nestle them right where you want them and with smaller versions of greenhouses you can move them quite easily. That said, as great as they look and of course smell, there should be some type of manual to buy when you are first setting up shop in there. There are many things no one bothers to tell you and if you don't know, you don't ask. Here are five things I learned by plodding along on my own:
A Rose is a Rose?
There are many varied definitions of what each color of rose symbolizes. Florists and floral experts alike will agree that flowers hold the meaning we give them and the feeling with which they are given.
With So Many Choices For Patio Furniture, Finding The Perfect Set To Complement Your Yard Is Easy
There is nothing more relaxing than kicking back with a cold drink on a hot summer day. Or unwinding with a big backyard barbeque with all of your neighbors. When the weather heats up and the days get longer, you need the perfect patio furniture in your yard or on your deck in order to relax and enjoy the beautiful summer weather.
Letting Nature Grow Your Garden
It is wisest to let Nature have Her way. Nature has her own agenda, and your life as a gardener will be easier if you bow to Her desires. Better to dance with the fairies than struggle with eliminating "weeds". What herbs already grow around you that you can use as teas and seasonings? Most areas are rich in such plants, both native and introduced. Many of them will be happy to grace your garden with very little effort on your part. Some will appear; others may want to be transplanted. Still others are simply there, waiting for you to notice.
Easy to Grow Roses
There are many different types of roses. If you are new to rose gardening, then it is wise to choose varieties of easy to grow roses to begin your rose garden. Some roses require constant attention and caring for while others require none. Roses come in varieties of high maintenance to no maintenance. Most roses, though, do require a certain amount of time to get started and to care for adequately. Minimal care roses that produce maximum results are ideal for beginners or those still somewhat new to rose gardening. Not only will it teach you the basics without working you to death, it will also encourage your gardening experience, perhaps leading you to take on other rose types that are a little more challenging to care for.
The Perfect Garden Sundial
Is it possible for a garden sundial to tell perfect
time?
Adirondack Chairs - The Proper Way to Care for Them
The Adirondack chair is unlike any other chair every made. First designed by Thomas Lee in the early 1900s, this chair is amazingly comfortable, very affordable, and a chair that could easily be used for indoor furniture or outdoors by the pool or perhaps on the deck or patio. The overall design of this chair is so unique and interesting. Although there are many great aspects of the Adirondack chair, the favorites include the deep seat, curved back that wraps around the body, and the wide armrests, perfects for holding a favorite drink or providing a place to set a book.
22 Fun Things To Do With Your Dozen Rose Gift
Your dozen rose gift doesn't only have to decorate your favorite room. Roses are about romance and enjoying the moment they are given and received. I've discovered some fun ways to use roses to create a stimulating day or night.
Wildlife Gardener
Gardening for wildlife has become quite a passion for me, although I only have a small urban garden I have still managed to fit a fair amount of bird and insect friendly flowers and plants in.
Gardening Vertically: Fad, Emerging Frontier or Long-Overlooked Art Form
Sure, it makes sense that there's a buzz about vertical gardening?there are lots more of us to feed these days with much less productive land. "Let's make the best use of our diminishing resources," many are saying. And likely there are also those who dismiss vertical gardening as a fad. Mostly, though, I hear talk about increased yields. However, I suspect there are vertical gardeners like myself who have been surprised by another aspect we hadn't expected.
10 Tips for Successful Rose Planting
Planting roses isn't actually complicated, as long as you have some good advice and tips to start with...
Gardening is Good Therapy
Many of us garden just for the sheer joy of it. But did you know that all over the country the healing aspects of gardening are being used as therapy or as an adjunct to therapy?
Although this might sound like a new concept, garden therapy has been around for decades. For example, the Garden Therapy Program at Central State Hospital in Milledgeville, and in regional hospitals in Atlanta, Augusta, Columbus, Rome, Thomasville and Savannah, has been helping people for over 40 years through gardening activities known as social and therapeutic horticulture.
So what exactly is social and therapeutic horticulture (or garden therapy)?
According to the article "Your future starts here: practitioners determine the way ahead" from Growth Point (1999) volume 79, pages 4-5, horticultural therapy is the use of plants by a trained professional as a medium through which certain clinically defined goals may be met. "?Therapeutic horticulture is the process by which individuals may develop well-being using plans and horticulture. This is achieved by active or passive involvement."
Although the physical benefits of garden therapy have not yet been fully realized through research, the overall benefits are almost overwhelming. For starters, gardening therapy programs result in increased elf-esteem and self-confidence for all participants.
Social and therapeutic horticulture also develops social and work skills, literacy and numeric skills, an increased sense of general well-being and the opportunity for social interaction and the development of independence. In some instances it can also lead to employment or further training or education. Obviously different groups will achieve different results.
Groups recovering from major illness or injury, those with physical disabilities, learning disabilities and mental health problems, older people, offenders and those who misuse drugs or alcohol, can all benefit from the therapeutic aspects of gardening as presented through specific therapy related programs. In most cases, those that experience the biggest impact are vulnerable or socially excluded individuals or groups, including the ill, the elderly, and those kept in secure locations, such as hospitals or prisons.
One important benefit to using social and therapeutic horticulture is that traditional forms of communication aren't always required. This is particularly important for stroke patients, car accident victims, those with cerebral palsy, aphasia or other illnesses or accidents that hinder verbal communication. Gardening activities lend themselves easily to communicative disabled individuals. This in turn builds teamwork, self-esteem and self-confidence, while encouraging social interaction.
Another group that clearly benefits from social and therapeutic horticulture are those that misuse alcohol or substances and those in prison. Teaching horticulture not only becomes a life skill for these individuals, but also develops a wide range of additional benefits.
Social and therapeutic horticultures gives these individuals a chance to participate in a meaningful activity, which produces food, in addition to creating skills relating to responsibility, social skills and work ethic.
The same is true for juvenile offenders. Gardening therapy, as vocational horticulture curriculum, can be a tool to improve social bonding in addition to developing improved attitudes about personal success and a new awareness of personal job preparedness.
The mental benefits don't end there. Increased abilities in decision-making and self-control are common themes reported by staff in secure psychiatric hospitals. Reports of increased confidence, self-esteem and hope are also common in this environment.
Prison staff have also noticed that gardening therapy improves the social interaction of the inmates, in addition to improving mutual understanding between project staff and prisoners who shared outdoor conditions of work.
It's interesting that studies in both hospitals and prisons consistently list improving relationships between participants, integrating with the community, life skills and ownership as being some of the real benefits to participants.
But in addition to creating a myriad of emotional and social benefits, the health benefits of being outdoors, breathing in fresh air and doing physical work cannot be overlooked. In most studies, participants noted that fresh air, fitness and weight control where prime benefits that couldn't be overlooked.
Although unable to pin down a solid reason, studies have shown that human being posses an innate attraction to nature. What we do know, is that being outdoors creates feelings of appreciation, tranquility, spirituality and peace. So it would seem, that just being in a garden setting is in itself restorative. Active gardening only heightens those feelings.
With so many positive benefits to gardening, isn't it time you got outside and started tending to your garden? Next time you are kneeling in fresh dirt to pull weeds or plant a new variety of a vegetable or flower, think about the tranquility you feel while being outdoors in your garden. Let the act of gardening sooth and revitalize you. Soak up the positive benefits of tending to your own garden.
If you have someone in your life that could benefit from garden therapy, contact your local health unit to find out more about programs in your area. Not only will the enjoyment of gardening help bond you together, but it will also create numerous positive mental and physical benefits for both of you.
So get gardening today for both your physical and mental health. You'll enjoy the experience so much that you'll immediately thank yourself.
Mint: The Herb of Hospitality
The Mentha species or mints as they are commonly called include many varieties that flavour everything from appetizers to desserts. The best-known species in North American are peppermint (M. x piperita) and spearmint (M. spicata), which are highly valued for commercial use. Mint symbolises "hospitality" and can be grown in pots and containers indoors and out. In the garden, mint should be grown with a barrier around the roots, as it can be extremely invasive. Most mints do not come true from seed so it is best to purchase plants from a nursery or garden centre. Fresh mints are a source of Vitamin C and pro-vitamin A.
Pressure Washing Decks
A beautiful wooden deck, properly maintained, can add
greatly to the aesthetic and resale values of a home.
Mix Perennials into Your Garden for Staying Power
Perennial plants and flowers stay around for more than just one gardening season. Some of them bloom again for only about 3 years, while others will continue to bloom for many years to come.
How to Grow Snow Peas
Snow peas may have been named because in bright sunlight their light green pods look as if they might be tinged with frost. One of the oldest vegetables, the earliest recorded pea was grown in 9750 BC on the Thai-Burma border. Since snow peas are a favorite addition to Asian dishes, this pea might very well have been a snow pea ancestor.
No Dig Gardens - How to Build One
The no dig garden is exactly what it describes...a fertile garden bed with no digging at all. It involves layering clean, organic materials that will literally compost around your plants as they grow.
