Gardening Soil

Gardening Soil by neil parnham

The perfect soil does not exist and most gardeners have to make do with whatever nature or the house builder has left them. The soil itself ultimately governs which plants will grow well and anyone who doubts this should try to grow rhododendrons on chalk or lime. This plant and an alkaline soil are quite incompatible. Soils in Britain vary enormously between heavy clays and light sands. A child can tell the different between muddy clods of clay and dry sandy grains and these physical differences matter to the garden.



Clay is made up of tiny particles so small that they cling together and will not easily allow even water to pass between them. They have the same effect on a spade or the root of a plant. Sand, on the other hand, is made of comparatively enormous grains. They are so large that water washes easily through them and incidentally drains away a lot of nutritional material. They are so loose that sand will pour off a spade and give little support to a root system.



There is a definition of the two extremes and the particle size ranges between them but the gardener can usually tell at a glance or a prod. Science can tell the gardener the chemical constituents of a soil in minute detail but all that most people know whether soil is acid or alkaline. Some plants show a marked preference for one or the other so a simple testing kid from the garden store or centre can save the gardener a lot of frustrated efforts.



Testing is simply a matter of mixing a sample of soil with a chemical to obtain a colour code reading. Acidity or alkalinity is usually expressed as the Ph number. Seven is neutral. Any number down from seven is increasingly acidic and any number above seven is progressively alkaline. Most plants like the soil to be Ph6.5 that is just on the acid side of neutral.



Your Garden Soil Needs Food



The gardener calls it compost. It can be almost any organic matter and, except in Fenland-type soil where the earth is made of half-rotted vegetation, it will always benefit the garden. Thrown out kitchen vegetables (not root vegetables), horse or farmyard manure, straw, hope, or even woollen waste, together with the obvious greenery from the garden, will rot down to form compost.



It is the cheapest way of keeping a healthy fertile soil. Compost heaps will differ in construction and contents but they all need air and water, If they are too dry, waterlogged or airless, they do not rot or heat up enough to destroy the seeds of weeds or crops and may encourage disease.



Two or three square bins about forty inches wide are useful size for the average garden. One full for spreading, another rotting and the third being filled is an ideal routine. If the bins are made of wood, half inch gaps between each spank will ensure an air supply and a solid or polythene cover will stop the compost getting too wet. As each layer of refuse is dropped on to the heap a sprinkling of nitro-chalk or commercially produced rotting agent will help bacteria to break down the vegetation.



A light dusting of lime should be applied every few layers to prevent acid build-up which can prevent the complete breakdown of vegetation. Quick decay is helped by moisture and warmth, April to October are the best months.



Garden Mulching & Liming



The garden can be improved and capping prevented by mulching or throwing a layer of loose organic material on the soil. Bulky organic matter like straw, peat, lawn mowings or even soft green hedge clipping, just scattered on the soil will prevent the surface becoming compacted, slow down evaporation by holding moisture, smother weeds before they grow and slowly rot into the soil.



It sounds almost too good to be true, but there are possible snags. As always in the garden a balance has to be kept and while increasing bacterial activity in a mulch on the surface, a gardener can be robbing soil below of nitrogen. So a quick acting nitrogen fertiliser added ten days to a fortnight after mulching will correct the condition.



Mulching may look untidy, particularly with straw, but the benefits are considerable and many gardeners feel that a mulch spread between rows of vegetables like peas and sprouts helps prevent their own feet trampling the top soil solid.



The last main problem of mulching is that when vegetable material breaks down it creates acids. These are not necessarily harmful but they do slow down plant growth by interacting with materials like calcium. Excessive acidity is corrected by adding lime to the soul in one of the following forms:



1 Quicklime as the name implies acts fast. It can often generate enough heat on reacting with damp soil to serve as an insecticide.



2 Hydrated lime works at almost the same speed as quicklime but it can be handled more pleasantly.



3 White chalk or finely ground limestone has to be used in greater quantities than quicklime to achieve the same results.



Written by DIY Conservatories



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Lawn Care Advice - Easy Steps To Lawn Care Success

By: Martin Haworth

So, when you are wistfully looking out over next doors green and pleasant land, it's time to take some lawn care advice and find out just what you can do, easily, to get that verdant pasture you desire.

It's All In The Watering

Water is vital in getting a beautiful green lawn. These days, when temperatures are rising with the climatic effects that we are experiencing around the world, and rainfall is erratic, the best lawn care advice you can have is to get your watering just right.

If you get this right, you will find that you neither waste water, nor do you undersell your lawn either.

If you water early in the day or late, these are the right times. If you try it on in the heat of the day, you will waste water as much of it will evaporate off before it's had the chance to do good. And, what make matters worse, some grass types will scorch if watered in this way as well.

It's also to water in the right conditions for your lawn as well. the best lawn care advice would suggest that you water when the lawn needs it and not before.

Saturating the lawn can cause other problems as well as encouraging weeds to grow with a lawn that is under water for too long.

If you think about how well a lawn copes with the natural pattern of rainfall, you will start to appreciate how an irregular pattern of watering will be the best to develop good strong root systems (which like a little thirst!), without drowning the lawn and suffering other diseases.

Mow Your Lawn Carefully

Important lawn care advice is continued with the simple rules for mowing your lawn properly and in the best manner to encourage strong and healthy growth.

By ensuring that you mow in such a way as to cut at the higher end of the recommended grass height (as advised by your grass grower or other lawn care advisor - often found at your local garden center), you will increase the proportion of green surface area.

This will enable a strong plant. A bit of grass length is also good to hold back weeds that are trying their best to force their way through.

Taking proper care of your mower is also good lawn care advice. Make sure that your mower blades are sharp; a sharp blade will cut cleanly and prevent damage to your grass, which will also inhibit growth.

Take your blades to be sharpened by a professional each year. The small expense will be worth it as your summer progresses.

Thatch Control

Thatch is the material that comes from dead grass and other materials laying on the ground and inhibiting growth rather than decomposing.

Good lawn care advice means recommending that you do your best to fight thatch. This is more a project to be handled yearly rather than week by week.

Cutting grass at the recommended height for your type of grass will help reduce thatch, as will aeration of your lawn in the spring and fall.

By following this and other good lawn care advice, you'll be able to have a lush lawn that you can be proud of.

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(c) 2007 Lawn Care Guidelines. All you need to know to make the right decisions to get a great looking lawn. There's all the information you could ask for, at Martin Haworth's website, www.LawnCareGuidelines.com

UN Appeals For More Trees

By: Roger Munns

The UN has launched a campaign to plant a billion new trees, which is being welcomed by environmentalists, but with a warning by some that in certain regions it could do more harm than good.While the campaign claims that each tree uses up 26 pounds of co2 emissions and in return produces enough oxygen for a family of four, planting the right trees is important to help the world improve her ecological and environment balance.In areas that historically have suffered from a lack of rain, and in areas where global warming could potentially produce deserts, new trees that use a lot of water could have a serious affect on their biodiversity.Eucalyptus trees can consume two thousand litres of water a day, and planting new ones in Africa would be a catalyst to disaster, and local campaigners for planting trees are urged to consider their area needs and decide carefully before deciding on which type of tree to plant.As well as individuals planting a tree, it is hoped that businesses will do the same and encourage employees to do the same, with government and civil servants also being asked to take active participation to reach the target of a billion trees by the end of this year.The patron of the campaign is Prince Albert of Monaco. Prince Albert has been campaigning for the environment since becoming Monaco's Sovereign two years ago, and one of his first acts was to sign the Kyoto Protocol. Previously, along with Australia and the USA, Monaco was one of a handful of countries not to ratify the treaty.Prince Albert's father, Prince Rainier, was Europe's longest reigning Monarch until his death in April 2005. Known affectionately as the 'builder prince' he transformed Monaco into the world's favourite tax haven and ensured the Monaco Grand Prix became one of the best known annual sporting events. The Principality Albert succeeded to was a country known throughout the world for money and glamour, and the Monte Carlo casino only added to its legendary status.Albert has continued in his father's footsteps with a plan to develop an island off Monte Carlo, and like his father with the reclaimed land in Fontvieille the map of Monaco will change again.In keeping with his stance on the environment, it is thought that a successful bid to build the island will need to be seen to be environmentally friendly, with the possibility of lower rise buildings than some parts of Monaco have endured to create more living space.Monte Carlo has long been associated with glamour, heightened throughout the world in 1956 when Prince Albert's father married his mother, US actress Grace Kelly.Speculation was rife earlier this year that Prince Albert would be announcing his own engagement to South African swimmer Charlene Wittstock.'Things have gone quiet recently on the Charlene front', comment a Monaco travel guide, 'Monaco is all about glitz and glamour and perhaps a surprise announcement will be made soon. But it's possible that Albert is more interested in environmental affairs than affairs of the heart'.Monaco has been making the news recently as Monte Carlo real estate prices have escalated, and are on a level with London and New York.Even the cheapest studios are edging towards the million Euro level according to Monaco property specialists.'Increasing taxes elsewhere in Europe, especially in the UK, have seen inquiries increase significantly over the last twelve months,' they say, 'and it's not the weather in Monte Carlo that's drawing buyers, but the income tax free status of being a resident, and the security that goes with living in Monaco. There's one policeman for every one hundred residents and has to be the safest country to live in Europe'.

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For more information about Monaco including the Columbus Hotel Monaco and Prince Albert of Monaco visit YourMonaco.com

Easy Chicken Breast Recipes - Quick & Delicious

By: Shannon N Jefferson

Quick chicken breast casserole is very popular in European & Asian countries. These 3 recipes below, by only reading it, will make your mouth watered and a strong will to start cooking that easy chicken breast casserole.

Chicken Breast Casserole Recipe

Ingredients:
~6 skinned and boned chicken
~Garlic
~Salt
~Pepper
~3 eggs
~1 packet of bread crumbs
~1 cup of milk
~Butter
~2 small cans of mushrooms
~1 lb of mozzarella cheese

Chicken Breast Casserole Instructions:

Mix up the milk and eggs and let chicken in the mixture. Put them in the refrigerator for about 25-35 minutes .After that put the cover the chicken pieces with the bread crumbs accompanied with the seasonings and parmesan cheese.

Heat the butter on fire until brownish color .Paste butter in the casserole from top to bottom. Place the chicken in layers covered with cheese and mushrooms.

Keep filling it with layers until the dish is full .Let it bakes uncovered at 200 degrees for an average of 25 to 30 minutes.

Tips: prepare the dish one night before for better taste and let it until cook, this will flavor it.

Serve: 6 people

Vidalia Sweet Onion Chicken Breast Casserole recipe

Ingredients:
~1 large piece of chicken breast
~2 tablespoon of vegetable oil
~2 medium-sized potatoes sliced and peeled
~2 medium-sized Vidalia sweet onions, sliced and peeled
~1 (10 3/4 Oz) can of cream of mushroom soup,(undiluted in paprika)

Vidalia Sweet Onion Chicken Breast Casserole instructions:

cook the breast in oil until brownish and remove the excess oil on the chicken by a piece of paper towel .In a 1 1/2 guard casserole put some oil .Place the potatoes at the bottom then layer onion and at the top of the mushroom soup.

Smoothly place the chicken breast on the soup and shower it with paprika .Tightly cover and bake between 340 and 355 degree for one hour.

Serves: 2 people

Fried Chicken Breast

Ingredients:
1 Egg white (beaten lightly)
1/2 teaspoon of Salt
4 Chicken breasts (skinned)
1/2 teaspoon of Onion powder
1 cup of Bread crumbs
1 teaspoon of Parsley
1/4 cup of Non fat yogurt
1/2 teaspoon of Garlic powder
1/4 cup of Flour
1/2 teaspoon of seasoning salt

In a pie plate, mix all the dry ingredients then put the flour, yogurt and eggs white in a separate pie plate.Drop the chicken in the yogurt then in flour the in egg white. then roll the piece of chicken in the bread crumbs and please verify that all part are well covered .put on the baking pan sprayed with pam. Bake the whole at about 390 degree and 420 degree for a maximum time of 1 hour.

Serve: 1 people.

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Shannon N. Jefferson gets her recipes from quickrecipesdy.info/" so be sure to stop by and check for new updates. She also loves to eat awesome restaurant recipes at: secretrecipesdy.info/

The Miracle Tree - The Malungguy Tree

By: NipaHutGardens

What makes this tree a miracle tree? The first time I heard about this plant I was fascinated. Since my wife is Filipino, she wanted one for the yard, since it was a nice looking tree I did not mind. Everyone kept asking about the tree and its unique shape, pods and look, I started to look further into its history and medicinal touts.

This tree is a slender, deciduous tree about 20-30 feet tall. If left un-pruned it grows tall and slender, with drooping branches. The branches themselves are brittle with a cork looking bark. The leaves tend to be pale green, compound, tip innate leaves about 3-5 inches long. They have fragrant flowers that are an off white color that are borne in sprays. They lead to pods that are 3-10 inches with 20 or more seeds inside. The seeds have a papery look that could be thought of as wings. The trunk is thick. Here in Florida they fruit year round. We cut ours back to be bushy instead of tall so we can reach the fruit.

They grow best in subtropical and tropical conditions; however they can be grown in pots for colder climates and brought in during cold weather. It seems to thrive in almost any soil conditions. It seems that every part of this tree is used in some way for food or medicinal value. The seeds are eaten like peanuts or cooked with oil and garlic. The root has the taste of horseradish, which leads to the name Horseradish Tree, in the USA. The leaves are so rich in potassium a small handful gives you more then a banana, People also eat them in salads, curries and as seasoning. They leaves also serve as cleaning items when pounded into a paste. The wood can be used as a blue dye. Often these trees are planted as a living fence for livestock. Folklore has these trees planted on graves to keep away hyenas and the branches used as charms against witchcraft.

Part of Plant - Medicinal Use

Flowers - Tumors

Leaves - Poultice to sores

Roots - Dropsy, tonic for body and lungs, stimulant in paralytic afflictions, epilepsy and hysteria.

Seeds - Abdominal Tumors

Bark - Promotes digestion, antiscorbic, used for diarrhea

Oil - Dangerous if taken internally, but applied to skin for diseases.

Vitamin Content - Protein 42%, Calcium 125%, Magnesium 61%, Potassium 41%, Iron 71%, Vitamin A 272%, Vitamin C 22%

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Peter Dixon Owner of Nipa Hut Gardens and Gifts offers a wide array of Free Gardend Ebooks and Garden Articles as well asproducts for the whole family, which are usually not found in the large retail stores and include, rare fruit trees, plants, vines, flowers, Free Garden Ebooks, Free Business Ebooks, Digital books, Digital programs and more. Visit his website at www.nipahutgardens.com

Passive Solar Energy - Is It Right For Your Home?

Passive Solar Energy - Is It Right For Your Home?

By: Kevin Rockwell

Every exposed part of a structure's walls, floors, windows, roofs' absorbs and stores or reflects away the heat radiated by the sun. Passive solar systems do this without any mechanical means (pumps or fans); they rely purely on design and positioning to work, which may include shutters or thermal curtains, dampers and vents, or other simple mechanisms.

While passive solar setups are rarely used as bulk collection units, the concepts behind passive solar have changed the way many architects and engineers approach designs. They are beginning to make profitable use of the sun's free energy by using to their advantage one or more of these principles: conduction (heat flows from molecule to molecule in solids; this explains why the handle of your tea cup will eventually be warmed by the hot tea in the bowl), convection (heat also flows through liquids and gases; this explains why you might swelter in the attic and shiver in the basement heat rises), radiation (warm objects radiate heat away to cooler objects, which absorb it, reflect it, or transmit it along), and capacitance (this is a measure of how much heat a material will retain over time, and is a function of thermal mass).

Passive solar systems are used for space heating more often than active systems (see below). The most heat gains (in the northern hemisphere) come from windows oriented due south, but any window within 30 degrees of that will show significant gains. The challenge, of course, it to avoid overheating a space, a problem that can easily occur in rooms with substantial glass surface area facing south. The contained heat can be redistributed relatively easily with ceiling or other fans, or by making use of the blower and duct systems (with the heating elements off) of a standard furnace. Installing flooring with high thermal mass such as stone or tile can also absorb and store the heat to be radiated later when the ambient temperature becomes cooler than the floor. A well-constructed, well-insulated building with high-performance, airtight windows can generally meet up to a quarter of its own heating needs using passive solar strategies. That, along with its next-to-nothing operating cost, clean operation, and simple maintenance makes it a natural for any structure.

Passive solar power cooling
This is more about reducing heat build-up than about taking it away. The obvious technology involved has been used for thousands of years: shading. You can do this with shutters, awnings, special smart windows(discussed later), curtains, and landscaping. Cross-ventilation will distribute the heat more evenly.

Building considerations
Even minor application of these basic principles can make a big difference in the overall climate control of a structure. Imagine that you have a room with large windows facing south. If you are in the northern hemisphere, that would mean that sunlight would shine into it all day. The windows are old clear glass, single-pane windows, which allow 80 to 90 percent of the heat to pass directly into the room. Now imagine that the sun coming in strikes a dark floor; this absorbs 40 to 95 percent of the heat. Obviously, that room will become extremely hot during the day. Depending on its intended use, this may be a good thing. The heat will flow from there, slowly but surely, into adjacent cooler spaces a process that can be accelerated, of course, with fan systems. Remember, though, that since the heat does travel to cooler areas, at night it may leak back out those same inefficient windows to the outside unless you block the windows with some sort of thermal barrier.

Windows today are far different from those drafty single-pane versions in our grandparents houses. Most new windows are constructed with two or even three panes (that is, they are double- or tripled-glazed), with insulating spacers and or inert gases between the panes, and have low-e (low-emittance) coatings of metal or metallic oxides that that reflect back much of the sun's heat without significantly reducing the light allowed in.

Additionally, there are also so-called smart windows, which use varying technologies (electrochromic, suspended particles, liquid crystal) to alter a window's transmissive properties. Since these are operated electronically, one could debate whether they are active or passive, but that's just semantics; the point is, they exist, and they work.

In addition to optimal window placement, another way engineers, architects and even homeowners can use passive solar to greater advantage is through window pitch. Most windows are installed so that their surfaces and exactly vertical. It is possible, however, to calculate a different angle that will allow a more desirable amount of heat and light to penetrate; since this calculation concerns the position of the sun throughout various times of the day and year, the angle would of course be specific to particular locations.

The siting of a building plays a large role in its passive solar properties; builders generally take the sunlight into consideration when determining the size and orientation of a given facade, using the angle of a building to enhance or reduce the amount of sunlight that penetrates. The structure's overall shape, as well as how it fits into the landscape substantial portions of a structure may be fully or partially below ground, for example' also makes a difference in how passive solar can be used to advantage. Architects and builders have been aided in recent years by the development of new materials designed to absorb or reflect varying amounts of radiated heat.

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