Creating A Peaceful Garden In Your Backyard
April 18, 2012 By
Create A Zen Spot In Your Backyard
It’s been a long week at work. You want a place to go to settle in with a good book (or kindle), or just hang out with a cup of coffee. You’d like to have a place where you can listen to the winds of time just flying past you. Why not spend that time in your own garden. Simple easy ideas to transform your yard, or part of your yard into a litte oasis of peace. Don’t have a backyard? That is okay. You can use potted plants and some trinquits to plan your space.
We all need a little zen. We all need a place to go to get chill out, and find some peace, and wouldn’t it be great if you could walk right out your back door and enter a world of peace and tranquility.
Creating a zen garden only takes a little imagination, a few plants, a few decorations and you can spend your summer nights in peaceful surroundings.
Creating Your Garden
The first thing you will want to do is map out the area. You can use a sketch pad. Just simple drawings are going to be fine. It is for you to see it coming together and reference as it goes along. Add x’s for places for garden art, and circles for plants. Squares can be added to mark where the furniture will be placed.
Picking Out Plan
After your map is created, make a list of plants that will grow well in the area you have chosen. If it is sunny, you will need to pick out plants for sun to full sun. If your oasis is going to be more in the shade, then you will look for Hosta’s and other shade loving plants.
With list in hand, visit your local nursery center and pick out your plants. Be sure to read the tags for all care instructions. Also, be careful that it is meant to grow in your zone. Many nurseries sell plants that work as a perennial in one zone, but an annual in another. Periennals will grow every year, while an annual dies at the end of the season. You can add some extra annuals like petunias, and marigolds for color
Pick a Theme
Do you think you would like a theme? What is your theme going to be? Zen? Rustic? Contemporary? Each one will make a beautiful place to hang out with your family and freinds. It will be totally up to your tastes.
Colors can also be incorporated into your theme. Pinks and purples with a splash of white? How about yellows, and reds with a bit of light green foliage. Themes are totally up to you.
Time Well Spent
It will cost you a little time and effort, but when your garden is all put together, and you can sit there and enjoy it, you’ll realize it was all worth it. You’ll have a haven of peace right in your own backyard. Invite friends over, or simply relax in your new zen garden space.
Growing Organic Heirloom Vegetables Which Sometime Come Out Looking Like Alien Vegetables
April 5, 2012 By
What Planet Did These Vegetables Come From?
We grow organic heirloom varieties of vegetables. Heirlooms are the vegetables our ancestors grew, before people decided to hybridize them. They are much more delicious, and more nutritious, and as you can see, grow somewhat irregular.
Over the past few years, we have grown all sorts of vegetables. Carrots, peas, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes…you name it, we’ve probably grown it. We’ve had some cross pollinate. That’s okay, we ate those. The better ones go to the farmers market.
So, as you look at the pictures up above, one may ask what kind of fertilizer we use to grow such alien vegetables. Just for the facts, we use only manure from our rabbits, and chickens, and composting for fertilizer. We are an organic farm after all. We use no chemical or other fertilizers.
I have no idea why they grew as they did. I mean, have you ever in your life seen a radish that looks like that. No, me either. How about a carrot that has tentacles or legs. Nope, didn’t think so. Oh, and that mortgage lifter tomato grew so large, it almost met itself and merged together. And, how about a gigantic carrot. You’ll never see one of those in a store produce aisle. We grew carrots so large, they were a meal by itself. Unbelievable vegetables.
While alien vegetables don’t tend to sell well at the farmers markets because they aren’t very pretty, they taste the same, and are good eatin’.
How Dare I?
June 23, 2009 By
After listening to the Paul Parent Garden Club on Sunday, June 21, I decided to boycott it. I have that right. I am after all, guaranteed free speech by the U.S. Constitution. [Read more...]
