For a quick colour splash to brighten the garden, Fill a few pots with fresh compost and plant the likes of pansies or smaller flowered Viola with a mix of similar coloured Primulas, window boxes, once a fresh liner has been placed in the box again fill with compost and plant these cheerful little plants in the box. These two tasks take the minimal of time and expense and brighten up the place, these plants are not intended to stay in place all year but to fill in a gap until more bedding plants come into season later on. I did purchase some garden lilies but decided to bring them on indoors thinking they may be prone to the colder weather, if they flower on the windowsill indoors there is nothing lost in that we will see. So if you are itching to get out in the garden on some of these sunny days and plant something take my advise and do the above and do not get caught out planting something that cannot cope with the fluctuating weather at this time of year.

Of course if you are lucky enough to have a greenhouse then you may  already be starting  off some of your plants and vegetables as long as these young plants are protected and given the required temperature to germinate this is a great start, there are allot of plants that can be started off in April and reading seed packet instructions will tell you the temperature needed to start these seeds off, as well as any special needs required. The same applies in some cases if you plant seeds outside in the beds, you can protect them with cloches, this keeps the plants at a warmer temperature but cannot be controlled as well, so plant the more hardy type of seeds or plants.

Please take a look at this very interesting Gardening blog to find out what is what in gardening I really like this site Garden Memories there is plenty to keep you occupied on some wet horrible days.

some spring colour

Just add colours that you like, pansies come in loads of different colours shapes and sizes, some have lot’s of tiny flowers while others have great big flowers on them.Once finished with being replaced by later bedding plants do not throw them away plant them in the garden and they will live on to give more colour in the borders next spring.They are very easy to care for just water and light is all they need to give a nice little show when there are not so many flowering plants about early on in the year.

Enjoy your Spring gardening the start of a great gardening year. M.J.

Growing Rhubarb.

Growing  Rhubarb a strange word but one that reminds me straight away of Rhubarb crumble, Rhubarb with custard or cream delicious. Rhubarb is often a plant that gets neglected at the bottom of a plot hidden away somewhere and rarely used, this is a great pity as it has great potential for the ingredients in rather tasty pudding dishes as mentioned above. The plant takes minimal care and can be left to grow unsupervised from one season to the next, all it requires is a good top dressing of compost and manure in early Spring.

To grow Rhubarb it is best to start with tubers rather than from seed as better results are attained. Having prepared a sunny spot by digging over a plot and adding plenty of compost, manure  and some fertilizer place the tubers in the ground just covering them over and firming in with your foot, water in and that is pretty much it, they will grow slowly at first producing more stalks as each year passes. They should produce some fruit if planted in early Spring by March or April the following season. Again all that is needed is that top dressing of rich compost and manure in early Spring each year. A fully grown plant can produce as much as 15 lbs of fruit per season, so two or three plants spread so as to leave about 2feet between them should be enough for anyone. Remember the leaves are poisonous so consign the leaves to the compost bin to rot down out of harms way when you do come to harvest the stalks. After about five years the plant will need splitting so you may give any surplus to a neighbor or friends or add more to your own stock.

To harvest the stalks hold firmly near the base and pull up with a twisting motion, always leave about four stalks behind at each harvest so the plant can continue to grow. Do not harvest after July. You can force a few plants by covering over and excluding light in January which will produce an early crop. Leave for two years before forcing the same plant again.

In the kitchen once harvested and the leaves removed wash the stalks and cut into small pieces add to a pan with a small amount of sugar and stew until tender, You can use Rhubarb in many dishes crumbles,pies jams chutneys or on it’s own with cream, they all taste really good you may think of other uses.

Varieties  Hawke’s Champagne     Deep red stems a reliable early and an old favourite.

 The Sutton  Produces larger stalks than other plants.

Timperley early   Thinner stalks, good for forcing.

Victoria  A later producer for an extended season.     Do think about growing these useful plants and think of those wonderful puddings.

More how to grow ideas soon Regards M.J.

Preparing the land

Soil may sound unimportant but if you want to grow healthy plants, great care should be taken in preparing anyplace that will be used to grow any type of plants. It does not matter if growing flowers vegetables or anything else they all need a combination of humus minerals and some fertilizer. Growing plants in the same place year on year and just putting on fertilizer will after time render the plot unusable, and the elements will leave the plot barren.  Many places across the world have become barren and unable to sustain any plant growth for this reason. Wind and rain just wash and blow away the soil so nothing is left. This is why as gardeners or farmers we should top up the soil each year by producing compost and digging this into the soil replacing some of the elements needed after any crops have been grown in a particular plot. You may notice farmers spreading manure on their fields again having the same effect in replacing minerals to the earth.

If you read any books about gardening in the front couple of pages there is always a section on soil and it’s makeup and preparation. Why would you say it was at the front of the book, well that is because of how important it is to get this right before planting anything. So at the start of the year most gardeners will be starting the season by replenishing their soil. Adding manure or compost and digging in well, now and then adding lime in measured amounts. We also rotate crops around the plot so as different types of plant are not grown in the same plot  over a three year cycle. This is because different types of plant more so vegetables use up different minerals. Cabbages for instance prefer more lime and peas like lot’s of Nitrogen. Really if taking up gardening you should buy a good gardening book and learn these important facts to get  off to a good start growing healthy plants.

Your three year crop rotation     Group 1                       Group 2                                    Group 3                       Group 1  No manure

                                                                  Roots                            Brassicas                                    Others                         Group 2  manure or compost, lime.

                                                                  betroot                         broccoli                                  aubergine                      Group 3 plenty of manure compost.

                                                                  carrot                            Brussels sprout                    celery

                                                                  potato                            cabbage                                   lettuce            (Refer to a gardening book for more plants)

                                                                  parsnip                          swede                                        tomato

Above is an idea of what type of plant should be grown in each plot, be careful you may find some surprises as to which group some plants belong to. Once established this pattern should be followed on a yearly cycle to get the best from your soil and plants.

                                                 Do enjoy growing your plants, and get healthy in your garden. M.J.

Start your vegetable garden from seeds

Well what are seeds, they are package of dna from a parent plant that can produce another plant identical or a variant of it’s parent plant it maybe a small plant or a huge tree. These packages can be very small like poppy seeds you get on top of loafs of bread, or larger like a coconut for example. When in South west France on holiday, surrounded by pine forests, you could hear the large pine cones drop to the floor with a loud thud, this is how these trees propagated themselves, when the cone rotted down the hard seeds inside would be left on the ground and would start to grow into a small copy of it’s parent.

Plants have managed to do this for thousands of years before we where around and they use various ways to disperse their seeds sometimes many miles away from the parent plant. Some use the wind, the seeds being in a shape that when caught in the wind will blow large distances. Some use animals and birds being partially eaten and then left on the ground in animal dropping, so they actually get a good start growing in ready made fertilizer.  Some would have a sticky coating to attach themselves to animals as they traveled past, when the seed then dropped off it could start it’s life many miles away from it’s origin possibly in more favourable conditions. You must remember during the summer months as a child you walk through the countryside wafts of seeds floating through the air on their way to a new place to land and start growing. Perhaps you did not know what they where or their purpose at the time as you waved your arms about to send them of in a different direction to who knows where to start a new colony of plants in some odd place.

What do seeds need, not a great deal really, as long as they start of in some type of soil, they get water and sunshine that is enough for most of them. You must have seen plants in very odd places like on the roofs and growing out of chimney pots on old buildings. Or even growing out of brickwork. You now know how they got there, they need very little encouragement to start growing, and if the conditions are not right they have the ability to stay dormant for years and years until the conditions improve.

Some seeds need to be either be warmed to a certain temperature or be submitted to temperature below freezing to germinate, some alpine plant seeds fall into the latter category. Now that we know these thing it becomes easy to propagate almost any plants we desire using a few items to help us. This is a very cost effective way to grow plants in large numbers for a garden. Also once you have a plants many of them can have cutting taken from them, (a subject for later on) and of course many of your plants will produce seeds that you can collect and the cycle begins again.

What are seeds and what do we do with them, We now know what they are so now what we need to do with them. The main item to start is obviously seeds of the variety you intend growing these can be bought at your garden center or by mail or from friends even. They are very cheap for what is received in return. The seeds you buy are usually the best they will have been checked and be a true copy of the plant you want an they will have been sterilized so no harmful bacteria is there.

To begin you should read instructions on the seed packet, there are slight variants on how each seed has slightly different needs, depth of planting, temperature needed to germinate the plant etc. Get a good potting compost,(this tends to be very fine) and just follow the instruction on the packet, planting the seeds in pots trays or whatever is to hand bowls plastic food containers margarine tubs . Once planted and covered over to the correct depth water in and leave in the light at the recommended temperature. Soon you will have young shoots growing and will find this the most rewarding part of gardening producing your own plants just from a little packet that just wants to grow.I hope this answers what are seeds and what do you do with them.

Do enjoy starting your garden using seeds it is cheap enjoyable and fun. M.J.

Grow healthy salad crops

Growing Healthy Salad crops. Easy Gardens. I have recently put myself on a diet so salads play a big part in what I eat at the moment, there is such a great variety to choose from so it is not boring and having to think about meals is rather interesting. Spending some time looking around the grocery department in my local store has made me realize you can eat sparingly and enjoy the different tastes and you can also make different combinations to go with any meal. Having started this line of thinking I am now looking to produce more of my own salad crops. This is something i have done in the past only on a small scale. If I can grow my own salads it does not need to be packaged, reducing cost and having to throw more items in the garbage, that then has to be gotten rid of. Also I can ensure there are no chemicals added during the growing process leading to a more healthy and green aspect that is also an aim of mine.

Salad crops are easy to grow from seed and as all plants all they need is warmth,light and water and a little bit of care like weeding and thinning. Of course most of these plants are quick growing and can be planted at intervals so there is a progression of plants ready at different times. Lettuce is going to be used in the bulk of my planting as there are many types that taste a little different from each other, they are useful in as they grow you can remove a few leaves from a few different plants to give variety while the plant just produces more leaves. Raddish I have found have a much stronger taste when home grown and can be picked and eaten straight away and do not languish in a shop for ages. Spring onions and salad onions also have the same attributes of a stronger more fresh taste when home grown. Cucumber take a little more care in growing but there are varieties that can be grown outside. Beetroot are easy to grow although there preparation when picked is a little troublesome. They need to be heated in a pan of water to loosen the skin which is then just rubbed of with the fingers. The colouring is like a dye and does your clothes little good should they receive a splash of the juice in error. Tomatoes I have covered in an earlier Easy gardens post that can be found using the search bar.

To proceed and  hoping you have a plot already cultivated to a fine tilth, you can make a start with planting if the weather is warm enough, there are full instructions on each seed packet and should be followed. They will instruct you to make a drill where the seeds are to be planted, try to space out the seeds so as to limit having to thin the plants as they grow. Cover the seeds with soil and water in. All they now need is some warmth watering and a little weeding as needed and you will soon have a crop on it’s way. Plant more seeds every couple of weeks or so to extend the growing season and have crops ready as needed over a longer period. Obviously the onions and beetroot will take longer to grow but you should have some lighter crops in three or four weeks from planting. You can also try growing the likes of peppers or chilli plants  there are plenty of useful plants for a great variety in your meals. The cost of seeds and the care required to grow the crop are minimal. If you do have young children do let them assist in the care and growing of these plants children love playing about in soil and splashing about with a watering can, make it educational and enjoyable, thet may take an interest later on as they grow up which is no bad thing.

Do enjoy growing Healthy salad crops knowing they are chemical free. M.J.

PS   If you think conditions are difficult  where you live take a look at this site. AlaskaGardening.net  Could you grow crops when temperatures drop to-65 or how would you cope if it were dark for six months of the year. There are some great Ideas and problem solving techniques on this site. Learn more and take a look I recommend this site it is well worth a visit.

                                                                                                                     Regards MJ.

Contrasts

Where is my broadband

Gardeningtipbooks,  (Hey where has my broadband gone?) I had thought to myself I would spend my day off on Saturday just pottering around after a hectic week at work. Just have a tidy up and relax and catch up with my internet stuff that seems to have got itself in a bit of a tangle. You know catch up with emails Facebook and the other bits floating about that you ought to have dealt with days ago.

So there I am doing the tidy up bit on my computer when a message arrives that I have run out out of data allowance on my broadband, not to worry just use my other dongle that should have plenty of allowance on it, a quick swop around and that should be it (what) no data for 11 days,(you are joking me right) That is when the panic sets in eleven whole days no Internet I cannot really! Then trying to compose myself and thinking logically just reload the dongle it must have got it all wrong. No it seems like life has come to a shuddering halt and I am back in the dark ages no broadband. Agrrrrr. I sit and look at all the icons on my desktop mmm what can I use here music right let’s have that on. Anything else, hardly a damn thing let me tell you, calculator perhaps. So the idea now is off out to town and visit the shop where I was sold this broadband so I would become hooked on it just like a drug, and if they cannot give me my allowance of broadband that they have gotten me hooked on I may have to torch the place so no others can be induced to purchase this life changing drug called broadband.

After a few hours later having explained my predicament to the shop keeper I left £10 lighter clutching a top up for my dongle and life seemed a little more bearable, I made it more so by having a look around some second hand book shops and purchasing two books, one on Victorian Gardens the other about herbal remedies. After collecting some food provisions I hastened home to apply my top up and restore my internet connection (at last.) What do you mean no sim card detected. Another frantic battle ensued getting the thing to work but I won over in the end. While I had some time with no internet I also managed to get my phone set up for taking photographs uploaded some apps for it and also changed the wiper blades on my car none of which I had found time to do prior to the fact that I realize I do not have enough time to do the things that I need to do let alone the many things I would like to do. Maybe it is time to evaluate what is really needed in my life and what is not. Is all this technology improving my life at all I don’t know! Right I am switching off my computer and going to read my new book on  Victorian gardens while I have a cup off tea and some ginger nut biscuits, Bah who needs technology.

Happy surfing M.J

Herbaceous Border

Gardening tip books, Victorian Flower Gardens. Since the introduction of various new plants from around the world brought by Victorian adventurers and botanists alike , the gardens of the  gentry evolved to encompass these new findings that would complement their already vast collections of  flowers, vegetables, trees, and shrubs to use around their large homes and to decorate inside them. The Victorians were also very fond of ferns and a great variety of them where grown and displayed around the home, even to the extent of having large glass houses built to contain these wondrous plants. Of course the responsibility of cultivation of so many varieties of plant came under the auspices of the head gardener. With the introduction of bedding out plants that could only stand the more mild months of the British climate but provided a great show of colour during the summer months needed to be grown on a garden market scale to provide the amount of plants to fill the need of a large estate. Although beds had been used in the past these more colourful additions from the likes of America were displayed in intricate interwoven circles and had to take account of  blending the right plants to the best effect. Often you may still see the like of  these beds in public parks and gardens and are by no means an easy  task and the people who are lucky enough to posses the knowledge how to make these borders so wonderful are very blessed.

I am very lucky to live near such a park that contains, a large mansion house and the remains of a walled garden that is still maintained by the local council and is a valuable reminder of gardens from the late 18th early 19th century. As you walk down the wide drive toward the house you find large trees lining the route planted during these earlier times and where common place in the planning to the entrance to these fine homes. Near to the house there is a collection of buildings that would have been used as what looks like to be a farm which would be essential to make the land pay for itself on these large estates. Further on nearer the house you follow a smaller path to a large open space with  large beds of  the earlier mentioned plants that give an amazing picture of properly planned out walkways in between the most colourful displays of plants. To the rear of this space is a long herbaceous border running the full length of the  garden space, behind that is a huge greenhouse that contains many of the the plants grown as they would have been in the earlier centuries and is like taking a step back in time. Having left the warmth of the heated greenhouse you may enter the walled section of the once heart of the head gardeners world. Unfortunately vegetables are no longer in production there but there are many plants trees shrubs and beds full of herbaceous perennial that remind one of yesteryear and the many men who had striven so hard to cultivate this place. On leaving the walled garden and walking away from the house along the driveway one comes across a huge herbaceous border some 150ft in length backed by a tall beech hedge, the array of plants is a wonderful sight, the front of the the border showing small bedding plants and the further you look back the taller the plants some up to 8ft in height, and just a mass of colours and textures. There are even small twigs placed in the ground to assist the larger plants to stay upright as they grow.  I visit this place often to see how it looks at different times of the year and to borrow some Ideas for my own garden. Toward the latter end of the year sometimes you can be left alone to walk around the gardens and almost believe you have gone back in time some hundred or so years and realize what a different world it was.

Apart from the cultivation of bedding plants the head gardener and his companions would be required to produce cut flowers for the house and as there where no market gardens as such all the flowers for weddings and funerals alike. This would need large flower beds as well as greenhouses to produce vast amounts of plants for use right through the year for all the special events as well as daily requirements  for flower displays in the house. If you watch period dramas like Downton Abbey or the like take note of the flower displays shown, and the dining tables that have large displays of fruit, vegetables and flowers and you realize what a task the provision of all these plants would mean to a head gardener and the need for these Victorian flower gardens.

Fortunately many books and prints hold vital information about the growing of all these plants for us to attempt in are own gardens and are an enjoyable read. Take time to look around where you live and you will always find evidence of the Victorian flower gardens influence. There is a place called Port Sunlight where the Lever brothers built a whole village for the people they employed in the factories. The Village is well planned out for the times (not the usual back to back houses) the layout has large green open spaces, the houses have gardens and is very picturesque, maybe you have something similar  where you live so go and take a look.

During Victorian times all plants had meaning and one had to be careful when presenting them to someone in case you should offend them, the ladies and gentlemen of the times would know this but alas these meanings are almost lost. Again we have some insight to these meanings in the books left us by our ancestors, it is most unfortunate we forget such things and the loss detrimental to our being.

Auricula (scarlet) Avarice                                               Pansy  You occupy my thoughts

Bluebell   Constance                                                            Phlox Our souls are united

Carnation   Womans Love                                                 Rose  (deep red)  Bashful love

Chrysanthemum (red)  I love                                          Rose (white bud) Ignorance of love

Chrysanthemum (white)  Truth                                      Rose (yellow) Declining love

Crocus  Gladness                                                                   Sweetpea  Departure

Daisy  I share your sentiments                                        Tulip  (red) Declaration of love

Geranium (ivy) I engage you for the next dance     Violet (blue)  Faithfulness in love

Lilac   purity                                                                            Violet (white) Innocence, modesty

Lilly of the valley  Promise of happiness                     Zinnia Thoughts

So take care my friends when presenting such flowers to the person in your life. MJ.

If you need free backlinks or traffic we also have links to the top Traffic Exchanges and places to get your free Backlinks, Free stuff is best and there is plenty of it on this site so take your time to look around bookmark this site and take all the free stuff you need.

Regards MJ. Gardeningtipbooks.com   Famousstores.net    Enjoy your free stuff.

Enjoy the Christmas holidays.

Wonderful Herbs

Gardeningtip books (review) I was lucky enough to stumble across a book recently while browsing through a second hand book shop, (another of my favourite pastimes) Brevertons Complete Herbal based on Culpepers, The English Physitian and Complete Herbal of 1653.

The book has been very well written indeed and is just short of four hundred pages of excellently formatted material, which Terry Breverton has put together to give a very informative book  of plants and their uses through the centuries. I very much like the format and well researched material. The a to z contents section promises interest for some of the plants I have not heard of before despite all my readings of the subject. The Introduction again informs us of the extensive material gained over many centuries regarding the uses of plants and herbs during times when there where no such thing as painkillers. There follows an a to z of plants and there uses, Terry has split this up into sections, 1  Title the names family and Latin name. 2 Other names the plant maybe known by. 3 A full description. 4 Properties and uses. 5 History of the plant. and 6 A hint from the past useful  tip. This altogether informs and interests the reader, thank you Terry for a wonderful informative read.

Should you wish to make a love potion to attract a man, Jim Long suggests, mix equal parts of dried lavender, bachelors buttons and clary sage, with a pinch of valerian and sassafras leaf place in a small sachet and wear close to the person. I hope this helps should you want a man, if you are not sure of some of the ingredients you should have to buy this excellent book printed by Querus in hard back. Or a least we now have the internet to find out, How did they find these things out such a long time ago, must have been trial and error I suppose. Please take care should you use some of the recipes in this book some sound rather terrible and the complaint being less to bare than cure.

Gardeningtip books review hope to add some more good reads soon. Regards MJ. Gardeningtipbooks.com

Neat Rows

Victorian gardens (The head gardeners Empire) The life of the head gardener was truly an example of a life time of dedication to the mass production of all matters relating to the upkeep of his employers gardens and the grounds surrounding his home. Often the head gardener would reside in a house close to his work inside the grounds of the main home of his master, this so he would be near all he was employed to care for. This amounted to a vast array of duties that years of learning had brought him to his small empire over which he would reside.

The main duties would be to provide large amounts of food, flowers fruit, and vegetables and to maintain the grounds to a very high standard. To help him achieve his endevours he would have numerous men and boys employed for this purpose as this was a most serious of duties. The main purpose was to grow fruit and vegetables for his employers large extensive home including a large family, servants and most important guests. Not to hard a task you may think, but it was not just a staple diet of the masses but fruit and vegetables that may not be in season or more exotic fruits not normally grown in this country this all had to be catered for on demand It went rather like this, the lady of the house would supply the cook with a large menu for some special occasion to which numberless visitors had been invited, then the cook would inform the head gardener what would be required and he would have to make sure everything was to hand at the correct time and be of the best condition possible. For an instance, if plums and necterines where required they would have to arrive at table as though they had just been picked from the tree the look and texture would have to be perfect as with  all else placed on the dining table in front of important guests.

Again to assist in these tasks their would be a large walled garden, this running to a couple of acres so as to encompass all the buildings greenhouses , hot houses, and rows and rows of vegetable and flower beds. The list goes on and on plus many gadgets of new and old invention all in the employment of growing thousands of plants in the best conditions possible.

Of course all was governed by the head gardener from his estate office which I am sure was a hive of activity from dawn to the last remnants of light that  filtered away and gave respite to all who had to toil many a long hour in this secret world that very few  people would ever get to see. It is most unfortunate that many of these gardens are no longer used and have filled with brambles and nettles, all need for them drained away and the loss of the skills of the men who cultivated them are far and few between. I think now that things are getting strained even in the once better off countries we may return to cultivating our own food even if on a smaller scale and maybe a few more of us will relearn some of the skills once mastered by these great gardeners of the late 1800s and early 1900s who cared for these great Victorian gardens.

Learn something every day then master it. Regards MJ. Gardeningtipbooks.com