Niche Gardening
The Pros of Starting a Raised Bed Garden
A raised bed is a mound of prepared soil 6 to 8 inches high. It can be made permanent by edging with wood, stones, logs or bricks. The soil in a raised bed is more porous because no one ever steps into the bed to pack it down. This allows good drainage so that air, water, and fertilizer will penetrate to the roots more easily.
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Niche Gardening
Identifying Common Diseases and Pests in your Household Plants
Hobby gardeners do not limit their enthusiasm simply to the outside, but many have been known to take their passion inside the home as well. With a surge in the popularity of household plants, it is a small wonder that even gardening enthusiasts without a garden are now indulging their passion in the small indoors. Yet no hobby comes without its host of problems, and household plants are no exception.
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Niche Gardening
Guidelines for Transplanting Trees
Transplanting trees is sometimes a necessary process, but it is fraught with difficulties even in the best situation. Understanding how to transplant trees is a necessary step in building the perfect landscaping environment.
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Niche Gardening
Your Guide to Selecting and Growing Hybrid Tea Roses for your Region
Hybrid tea roses are the most popular type of rose and the rose that you see most often in gardens. This is because they have the largest blooms of all the roses. The blooms are borne singly on strong stems and make excellent cut flowers. Colors include pure white and shades of red, lavender, orange, pink, yellow, apricot, crimson, maroon and mauve. Most, but not all, hybrid teas have some fragrance.
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Niche Gardening
Defining the Organic Gardener – The Challenges to Staying Chemical-free
Gardening season is here and you are ready to get your hands dirty and your garden blooming. Perhaps you have decided that this year you will plant your own vegetables. Or maybe there is an herb garden in your future. Unfortunately, you are also very conscious about the plights of the vegetable gardener, namely the bugs, weeds, and stunted growth of some vegetables. You figured you would get all the help you need from the gardening chemicals section at your local garden center; however, your reading of the labels has assured you that killing slugs may also equate your killing off the outdoor cat population of your neighborhood, not to mention your child or dog.
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Niche Gardening
Tips on Composing your Compost Pile
Creating a compost pile is one of the best investments you can make in your garden. Composting is the keystone to a successful, sustainable organic garden. Rather than sending your garden wastes to the landfill and spending upwards of $50 a year on fertilizers, your compost pile allows you to invest your precious plant materials to produce nature’s finest fertilizer. Compost will add organic matter naturally, prevent plant and soil diseases, correct sandy or clay soil structure, make a great mulch or top dressing, provide a variety of nutrients when plants need them, aerate soil, improve drainage, prevent erosion, neutralize toxins, and recycle garden wastes.
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Niche Gardening
Defining the Rain Garden
Rain gardens have only recently caught on as natural landscaping, and frequently, they are touted for their ability to absorb storm water and reduce runoff. A rain garden is a shallow, constructed depression that is planted with deep-rooted native plants and grasses. It is located to receive runoff from hard surfaces such as a roof via a downspout, a sidewalk and driveway. Rain gardens slow down the rush of water from these hard surfaces holds the water for a short period of time and allows it to naturally infiltrate into the ground. A rain garden can be thought of as a personal water quality system because it filters the runoff from your roof and lawn and recharges the groundwater. Rain gardens can be small, formal, homeowner style gardens, large complex bioretention gardens, or anywhere in between.
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Niche Gardening
