Make Your Home More Fresh And Green

Herb garden design is not something to be approached in a casual manner. There are so many different things to consider. Herbs can be planted in a formal garden, or interspersed with flowers, or as a theme garden. You can just make a patch of culinary herbs outside your kitchen door or create a medicinal herb garden.

Where your yard is large enough any gardener who has had plenty of experience and fancies a challenge, could try designing and making a formal herb garden. They are made up of a number of small square or rectangular beds laid out in a grid pattern with paths between the beds to provide access to each plot.

A master plan for an ideal formal herb garden would include, rectangular beds of different culinary herbs, interspersed with some smaller square beds containing medicinal herbs. While a formal garden can be laid at ground level the more usual way is to use raised beds, each bed devoted to a single species.

To increase the ambiance of formality, ornamental or flowering herbs should be planted in large clay pots placed at the cross junctions of the paths. There is no need to restrict yourself to just square and rectangular beds. As long as a strict balanced appearance is maintained, triangles and circular beds can be incorporated into the design.

The formal garden was first used by monks in their monastery gardens, and was picked up by wealthy landowners to decorate the outlook from the windows of their mansions. An extension to the basic idea of the formal garden was the knot garden, the feature of Victorian pleasure gardens and of course in gardens of royal palaces and the stately homes of England.

For the knot garden the geometric layout of each bed was emphasised by planting miniature boxwood hedge borders around it. Each bed would be planted with a single species of herb and the plants would be low-growing and compact such as thyme, hyssop, and rosemary, and the plants themselves would be laid out to form a geometric design.

The pathways were often filled colored sand or gravel or even with slabs of a distinctive local stone.

My name is John and I’ve been interested in growing and using herbs for longer than I care to think about. Having carried out a great deal of research on the subject I’ve now compiled a huge amount of knowledge which I want to share. To see more great information about Herb garden design, please visit my website where you will also find there are details of a free herb gardening mini-course that I have prepared for you, at: http://www.herbgardendelights.com

One of the most beautiful signs of spring is the blooming of tulips in all shades of color. But there are some tricks to making sure these delicate flowers continue to bloom year after year.

You should look for an area that is partly shaded with partial sunlight. The soil should be loose and airy, well-drained, and with a high sand content. Peat moss works really well and results in more blooms. If you find yourself with very few blooms, then the soil could be deficient, so add some peat moss.

Once you have decided where you want to begin your tulip garden, then it’s time to plant the bulbs. Usually the best time to plant bulbs is in the fall before the first frost. This allows them time to incubate. If you live in a warmer climate then try refrigerating them for a couple of months first.

Since tulips have a tendency to spread, be sure to leave plenty of space between the bulbs, about 5-6 inches. Start by digging a hole about 6-10 inches deep then leave soil at the base of the hole instead of leaving it loose so water and air will have no problem reaching the bulb. Place the bulb in the hole with the rounded side down and the pointed side up. Ten inches might seem rather deep, but if you plant bulbs too shallow, various rodents love to dig them up and carry them off.

Replace several inches of the dirt that you dug up (about 2-3 inches), loosely over the bulb. To have the most beautiful tulips around, fill the remainder of the hole in with compost or manure and top with firmly-packed mulch. This will not only keep animals from digging up the bulbs, but will also keep moisture in. It will also keep the bulbs from coming unearthed during harsh winter months when the ground tends to heave.

Never put fertilizer directly around the bulb. This can result in fertilizer burn. Always keep a thin layer of soil around the bulb and then add fertilizer or compost to help the plant thrive. One element that bulbs need to flourish is nitrogen. So, make sure that whatever fertilizer you use is rich with it. (However, do not use too much fertilizer once blooms have formed.) Moisten the soil once planting is complete so that roots can begin to form.

Because tulips tend to spread so rapidly, the bulbs must be divided and replaced about every 5-6 years. Many people think that bulbs require little care because they just come up year after year without fanfare. However, they should be watered at least once a month before the flowers bloom, and weekly afterward. Don’t allow water to pool around the plants, but keep the soil well-moistened to keep the bulb healthy.

This may sound like a lot of work, but really bulbs are very easy to maintain year after year. Every spring you can enjoy your tulip garden with very little maintenance. The tulip can represent love, fame, good luck, or passion. Some even think that they represent beautiful souls. Whatever their meaning, these stunning works of nature are an asset to any flower garden.

Fred Myers shares his 20 years of experience about vegetable and herb gardens, greenhouses, lawns and landscaping at GardenersGardening.com. For more detailed information about flower bulbs, be sure to visit his web site.

If you are thinking about making your own compost you need to know what to expect. There are a few basics that need to be followed to successfully have the compost develop correctly. Once you know what to do and how long it takes then making compost is easy.

Depending on how you are curing the compost it may take anywhere from 14 days to a year. The less nitrogen that is in a pile of compost has, the longer it will take to build up enough to heat to break down properly. Weather can also have somewhat of an affect on the compost too, the hotter the weather the better. So be aware of this when expecting your compost to break down fast.

Many different types of organic substances can be used in your pile of composting materials. Here are some things you can begin your pile with: egg shells that have been rinsed off, plants and the pruning scraps from your garden, vegetable scraps including peels, and the grounds of coffee. You can also use the following items: many types of food scraps, clippings of grass from cutting the lawn, a moderate amount of newspaper (be careful with this though due to the ink), ashes from burning wood, leaves especially in the fall, hulls off of peanuts, and dead flower buds and stems.

There are some substances that should not be put into compost though. They are things such as paint, household-type chemicals, human feces and other animal feces, and wood that has been treated. These can be dangerous for your health and will poison your garden. Anything that takes a long time to decompose should not put in there either, things like metal ceramics, glass, and plastics. In fact certain plastics can be quite toxic as they decompose. Oil and grease products can slow down decomposition. Ashes from burned coal also can harm your compost pile. And to keep from attracting rats and other vermin.

If you live out in the country you can have a compost bin where you have to turn the pile every so often. This helps to ensure that the materials break down evenly. It also adds oxygen to the process. You can add some nitrogen to get the composting process started.

But if you live in the city you may think about getting an Urban Compost Tumbler. This is great for small spaces because they are more aesthetically pleasing than a regular compost bin. They also do not take up as much space as the bins do. Also because the tumbler creates even heat any organic materials break down quickly. And this tumbler aids in the materials breakup into smaller pieces through the tumbling action. Doesn’t this device sound easier to use than having to turn a heavy compost pile on a regular basis? These tumblers also come in various sizes for your convenience.

Now that you know the basics on making compost you may consider doing your own. It will save you money over buying the compost offered for sale at the garden centers. Then when your garden blooms bountifully and beautifully, you truly can take all the credit.

Fred Myers shares his 20 years of experience about vegetable and herb gardens, greenhouses, lawns and landscaping at GardenersGardening.com. More tips on organic gardening and composting can be found on his web site.