“PLAN”t Your Garden!!

Before creating a Garden, it is very essential that we ask ourselves, what type of Garden do we want? A lot of time things go wrong only because we do not have a definite idea as to which type of Garden we are about to set up.

To decide which type of Garden you want to set up, you’ll have to take into consideration the following aspects:

  • Your likes and preferences
  • Area available for Gardening
  • Climate and Season
  • Availability of Sunlight
  • Amount of time you are willing to dedicate for Maintenance

A type of Garden is important because it tells us:

  • Which type of plants we will be planting
  • Which type of containers will we require to grow these plants

A few examples of different types of Garden are:

  • Aesthetic Garden
  • Kitchen/Vegetable Garden
  • Medicinal Garden
  • Perennial flowering Garden
  • Seasonal flowering Garden
  • Indoor Garden
  • Nocturnal Garden

Every type has further sub-types to it. For example, you decide to set up a vegetable garden. The next question is which type of vegetable garden?

  • Is it going to be leafy vegetables like spinach, fenugreek, Dill, etc or
  • Are you going to set up stem and root veges like potato, onion, radish, carrot, etc  or
  • Will you be having Climbers and Creepers like gourds and peas or
  • All of them.

So the point I am trying to make is, You should have a definite idea as to which Garden are you setting up!

Once you have decided on this, we can go our next segment, i.e Garden Arena!

If you need any help on deciding the type of Your Garden, contact me here.

Here’s How it Works!

Here’s a quick insight into what is in store for you guys from 21st July!

Day 1 : We will discuss about different types of Gardens and factors to consider before choosing your Garden!

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Day 2: We start with Window Grilles! We begin with different types of Gardens that can be created on our Window Grilles!

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Day 3: We’ll discuss other open spaces like Terrace and Balcony!

Day 4:  How to pot Your Plants! (If you’re wondering why do you need to pot your plant, click here)

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Day 5: Vertical Garden and Indoor Gardens!

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Day 6: Not so soon…!!! I am not revealing everything! 😉

 

 

 

Let’s Design Your Garden!

Bored of Gardening Tips?

Want some Action?

Fun Starts 21st July 2017 as we will together Design your Garden!!

Coming Up a 11-Day D-I-Y Series starting 21st July 2017 where we Create, Upgrade, Modify, Design and Redesign Your Garden!!

How Does it Work?

I’ll have a series of Blog Post (1 post a day) where we step by step set up your Garden!

Right from selecting a place to selecting right kind of plants; from Garden Decor right till designing we will be covering everything!

The best thing about this fest, I’ll be available all throughout those 11 days right here and on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google plus for any help or suggestion that you’ll need! We can have live interactive session through Skype and Facebook Video Calls!

So be there as we head into our Gardening Zone and celebrate Life! 🙂

Happy Gardening! 🙂

 

 

Pot Your Own Plant!

One mistake you can never afford is letting someone else (Probably the maali or Gardner) pot your plant. The biggest secret of a long lasting healthy garden is potting your own plant. 

But before I tell you how to pot your plant, let me tell you, why you need to pot your plant. All the plants in the nursery are fed with tons of chemical fertilizers so that they keep blooming constantly, thereby attracting the customers and soaring the sales. Now when the gardener pots your plant he has already made his sale and is least bothered as to what he is putting in the pot. He just adds some stones and gravels in the bottom, places the plant and covers the remaining area with any type soil that is available with him. No wonder, after a few days, your plant first stops blooming, then falls sick and eventually dies.

Potting your Plant will help you ensure your plant receives optimum nutrition and stays healthy.

I’ll be talking about how to Pot your Plant in the upcoming 11 day series of Lets Design Your Garden starting 21st July 2017!

For more on Gardening Like, Share and Follow the Blog!!

Happy Gardening! 🙂

Prune it Babyyy!!

Since Composting has already been taken care of; maintaining plants is only about pruning them. Pruning involves cutting off all the dried leaves,twigs and flowers. Similarly De-weeding involves removal of all the unwanted plants (weeds) that crop up in the pot/soil. Both pruning and de-weeding serve the same purpose of saving and utilizing the nutrients in soil for the growth of plant.

Dried leaves and flowers when not pruned continue to absorb the nutrition from plant thereby leaving less nutrients for the growth of plant. Once they are pruned, all the nutrients are channelized towards the growing or new leaves, flowering and fruition of plant.

Deweeding

Weeds, again, absorb vital nutrients from the soil and thereby leave less nutrients for the plants’ growth. Hence it is a must to De-weed all the pots and containers regularly.

Happy Gardening! 🙂

Fighting Pests

I have a very different approach when it comes to fighting pests. I believe, if your plants are healthy, they have a strong resistance towards pests. However if you have NOT been regular with adding your compost, the plants turn weak due to reduced supply of nutrients; thereby having a lower immunity which makes them vulnerable to attacks by Pests.

So the Golden rule is to keep your plant healthy with regular supply of compost. I believe in curing the infected plant by giving plants additional dose of Compost.

Rule No.2 says don’t have same plants besides each other. Different plants attract different pests. So if the same plants are not positioned next to each other, there is a very rare chance of spreading the pests. So only one of the plant gets infected.

Rule No 3: Wait patiently for the plant to fight the pest on its own. Human intervention is not always required.

Rule No 4: Take special care during change of season. Plants are mostly attacked by pests when there is a change of season. So in the last month of a particular season, add generous quantity of compost than you usually do. This enables plants to fight the stress caused by the changing season and the pests.

Rule No 5: In case you want to use any pesticide, use an organic one! Cow urine, Neem Extract and Sour Buttermilk are great pesticides!!

Potatoes!

I know its not the right season to sow potatoes but this post aims to make you ready well before the season arrives! 🙂

Growing potatoes is pretty different from growing an eggplant or a tomato! So here’s how we do it!

Step 1: Select the potatoes with shoots!

Step 2: You can use the whole of a potato or just cut the portion of the potato with shoot and use it.

Step 3: Fill the soil(mixed with compost) in a bag. There are many Planting Bags or Grow Bags available. If you don’t wish to purchase one, use a gunny sack or a big cloth/plastic bag! There are many advantages of using a bag instead of a container to grow potatoes. The most important one being ease of harvesting. However if you’re not comfortable you can choose to grow your potatoes in a container. Just ensure that the container or pot is big enough.

Grow Bag
Cloth Bag
Gunny Sack

Step 4: Plant the potato with shoots in the bag.

Step 5: Now just regularly water the plant and enjoy them growing

Step 6: Potatoes have very beautiful leaves and act as a great decor

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Step 7: Have a look at the flowers!

Step 8: Potatoes take from 8 weeks to 14 weeks to grow. You can dig in slightly to find out how well they are growing!

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Step 9: Harvest it! Just pick up the bag and empty it! Take out all your potatoes! Many people like small potatoes so they harvest them a bit early. For those of you who like big potatoes harvest them only when they have fully grown!

Note: For all my friends in India: Start around mid-November! You’ll know it instinctively as all the potatoes in basket will start developing shoots! 🙂

HAPPY GARDENING! 🙂

Inexpensive Gardening – Part 3 – Compost

Over a period of time I have spoken a lot about organic composting and even experimented a lot with them. Here’s a quick recap to all the Composting Ideas!

  1. Cow Dung & Cow Urine always stand at number one position when it comes to compost. To read more about application of manure click here.
  2. Dry leaves are the second best option as they are carbon-rich! To know more about how to use dry leaves as manure click here.
  3. Potassium and Phosphorous are the two vital minerals required for flowering and fruiting. Use all the fruit and vegetable peels from your kitchen. You can also add ash if you find it. To know more about plant requirements click here.
  4. To keep them safe from pests keep them well nourished! A well nourished plant has a good resistance towards pests and rarely gets infected.
  5. Another most crucial thing, to keep the plants safe from pest, is to grow them in right season. I’ll soon come up with an article on seasonal and Perennial Plants!
  6. Mulching is the best way to keep the soil hydrated and prevent it from developing cracks and losing nutrients. To know more about mulching click here.