Archive for the ‘Grow Garden’ Category
HOW TO GROW A COTTAGE GARDEN
Cottage gardens are traditionally thought of as English gardens, lushly planted with colorful jumbles of flowers and shrubs, and grown in areas with mild winters and cool summers. Unfortunately, most places in the U.S. outside of the Pacific Northwest do not have the proper climate for an English garden.Luckily, American cottage gardens are just as beautiful and better adapted to our climate. Still based on the lovely informal array of flowers and shrubs, they are perfectly suited to most informal suburban homes or country lots without the need for a huge English manor garden space that few of us have.American cottage gardening encompasses using more drought tolerant and native plants, plants that are hardier for cold winter climates, and plants that tolerate and even thrive on the sunshine. The style tends to look natural and free flowing without any plan or design, however does indeed usually have a backbone plan to bring out the best in plant color combinations and textures that compliment each other. That being said, cottage gardens are also places where self seeded plants may be allowed to pop up as they will, and the garden is always a surprise from one season to the next! Flowers, .. more »
THE REASONS PEOPLE GROW VEGETABLES
I began vegetable gardening at a very young age many many years ago thanks to my dad. He showed me everything I needed to know and I instantly loved it. Sure it was hard work (still is), but vegetable gardening is one of those hobbies where your hard work pays off in the form of something you can eat.In my dad's garden it was always about radishes, tomatoes and corn, and today in my own garden, the tomatoes still reign king followed by squash and peppers.More and more people today are growing their own vegetables then every before. In fact the National Gardening Association, a non profit group based out of South Burlington, VT estimates that 48 million people grew a vegetable garden this past year, an increase of almost twelve percent from the previous year.What may take you by surprise are the reasons as to why many are growing their own food. Off the top of your head you would think it would be the economy, but only 34% of people cited the slowing economy as the reason why.Ranking tops on the list for reasons why people grow their own food was, for better taste. Fact is when you .. more »