Eight Herbs that Busy People Can Plant in Containers

Herbs are a great addition for every house and for every cook. Fresh herbs are fragrant, tasty and healthy. Fresh herbs hold many more essential nutrients than many vegetables and are also easy to grow. If you think that you might not have the time to grow herbs, think again.

The most commonly used herbs in cooking are also easy to grow. You can just plant them in a container, keep them in a sunny and warm spot and water them regularly and you will end up with fragrant lush green herbs. Growing herbs can be as easy as one-two-three and there are also a variety of easy set up kits that makes it even possible for busy people to grow herbs.

There are herbs that can be planted and used for cooking or just as an ornament by everybody. These herbs include parsley, chives, rosemary, basil, dill, thymes, lavender and sweet marjoram.

Many recipes call for these herbs and once they reach there full grown height you can harvest and prune these herbs all season long.

All of these herbs can be sprouted from seeds in either the pot you want to grow them in or in special peat pellets and starter soil. Garden centers also sell little plastic greenhouses to make your seed sprout faster and guarantee a young plant within a certain amount of time, as long as you water the seeds regularly. When planning on planting any of these eight herbs into containers, make sure that you use good soil. Besides a good soil, regular water and some feed here and there these herbs are very easy to grow and do not need much maintenance and are therefore perfect herbs even for busy people to grow.

These herbs can also be bought with a growing kit. The kit will generally hold everything you need to start the seeds and sprout the plants. This kit usually includes a small plastic greenhouse like container, peat pellets, the seeds for the different herbs included in the package as well as step-by-step directions. To follow the directions and grew herbs with these kits is so easy, that even your children can succeed.

Just as easy as the herb seed kit to grow is the garden in a bag. Gardens in a bag have everything you need already in the bag and the bag can be used as a container for the plants. The bag will have a soil and fertilizer mixture as well as the seeds already in the soil. Just add water and within a short amount of time your herbs will start growing. The herbs than can be kept in the bag and there is not need for buying pots or other containers to grow the herbs. These bags can sit on the counter or hung from certain spots almost like a hanging garden or basket.

If you do not have the time to wait for the seeds to sprout and the plants to grow, there is always the possibility for busy people to buy the fully grown plant at your local garden center. Even supermarkets nowadays offer certain herbs such as Parsley, Chives and basil as a fresh plant in their fresh produce section. Recently there actually appeared a hydroponics version of basil on the market that can be grown in water and does not need to be transferred into soil for weeks.

Therefore, it does not matter how busy you are, you should be able to grow one or more of these eight easy to grow herbs in containers for your everyday joy and cooking.

Your Simple Guide to a Successful Tomato Container Garden

Even if you do not have a big back yard and space for a big vegetable garden you can still grow vegetables such as tomatoes. Tomatoes are a great first vegetable to try in a container garden. Container gardens can be cultivated on balconies, patios, outdoor window sills, along the driveway or even on a roof top. There are a few essential tips to container gardening that you should keep in mind. Read more..

The Ultimate Garden with Gardens in a Bag

For a flower and garden lover, a garden in a bag might sound kind of funny. But have you ever been really busy and not been able to tend to the things you like? Gardening can take up enormous amounts of time. From taking care of the ground, tilling, removing weeds, buying plants and seedlings to actual planting and watering, great amounts of time can be spent in the garden to achieve the perfect look. Read more..

Simple Window Box Gardening Tips for Busy People

Gardening is usually one of those things that people like in theory but don’t really have either the time or resources for in reality. If you are one of those people who would love to have some fresh flowers and plants around your home, but you either don’t have time to tend a real garden, or you don’t have the space to plant one, then window box gardening could be for you. Window box gardening has all of the benefits of traditional gardening, but window boxes are easier to maintain and can be used by anyone. Window boxes also have the added benefit of making the flowers and the plants easier to see from inside the house, which means you don’t have to sit outside to enjoy your handiwork. Read more..

Pretty Container Tips for your Patio or Balcony Area

Container gardens on patios and balconies are a great way of displaying lush greens and great colors. Container gardens also add fragrance and style to your patio. To achieve a great container garden there are a few important tips that can make for a gorgeous container garden on your patio or balcony. Read more..

Frugal Planter Idea – Recycle Old Tires

Are you looking for an easy and fun way to liven up your garden? You can choose colorful and decorative planters to create a dazzling display of blooms, but this will probably cost you hundreds of dollars just in planter costs alone. But there are many ways to make your garden distinct and unique without having to spend so much money. If you have access to old tires, why not recycle them by creating original planter displays? Here are some steps so that you can turn those old eyesores in the backyard into oddly beautiful planter displays. These directions are designed to give you a beautiful flower-shaped tire planter.

Step 1: Locate old, worn tires. The process of converting old tires into feasible planters is much easier with well-worn tires. You will only want to choose flexible old tires. Use your foot to test the tire. If the inside area, near the rim, ‘gives’ a little, that means you have a viable old tire to work with.

Step 2: Clean off the tire before you get started. You will be making chalk marks on the tire, so you want to make sure that your marks will remain clear. Use chalk to draw petal shapes along the outer face of the tire. You can use large plastic cups to make round flower petals. Let your creativity and imagination grow as you use your chalk to draw patterns along the tire.

Step 3: Use a sharp knife to carefully cut along the pattern lines that you have drawn on the tire. You will get the best results by using a very sharp, non-serrated knife. This process can be difficult and trying, especially if you are stuck using a dull knife. Be extremely careful when cutting through rubber with a sharp knife. It can be difficult to get a firm grip and to exercise complete control in this difficult medium, so take care where you cut. Once you have carved out your flower design from the tire, put this section aside.

Step 4: Get ready to turn your tire inside out. Now that you have cut out a flower pattern, whatever is left of the tire should be an artful and unique starburst design. This is the most difficult part of creating a flower-shaped tire planter, but the results are well worth the effort. Begin by pulling on one of the petal-shaped sections of the tire. Use your foot to hold down the tire as you begin to pull the tire inside out. Ideally, you will want to make sure that you are working with an old, worn-out tire that is flexible enough to be turned inside out.

Step 5: Here comes the fun part. Hopefully you have succeeded in turning the tire inside out. Now it’s time to decorate. The easiest way to add color to your new creation is to use spray paint. Let your imagination go wild as you add color and decorative flourishes.

Step 6: Add potting soil. You can use your rubber tire planter with or without soil. Of course, you will want to choose the location of your tire planter before you add soil. Once you have placed the tire planter in the location of your choice, add potting soil and plant away.

Tips for Slicing Through Rubber

The hardest part of designing a tire planter can be slicing through the rubber. The best way to get started is to cut a few inches by sawing through with your knife. Then pull up the rubber as you cut, holding the rubber away from your body as you cut. If you find that it is still too hard to cut through the tire rubber, you would probably be better off with a sharper knife.

Helpful Hints for Easy Container Gardening

Container gardening is a great alternative to have your own homegrown fruits and vegetables if you do not have a big back yard with a patch for the plants. Container gardening can be very easy and successful for you if you follow a few simple, helpful hints.

Fist of all, when you get started with your container garden, pick a few plants, vegetables and fruits that you would like to harvest throughout summer and fall. Of course you cannot grow every vegetable or fruit available on the market in a container, but many vegetable and fruit varieties can be grown in a container. One of the most favorite container plants is the tomato plant.

After you chose a few varieties, make sure that you have big enough containers. A tomato plant for example needs an at least five gallon or bigger container to grow well. Therefore you still have some space considerations when planting a container garden. Besides the container itself, the soil that you put in the container is an important factor for growing healthy plants and vegetables. Not any old dirt will give you the same result as a high quality gardening and potting soil. These soils are specifically designed for containers and the plants that go into the containers. They will for example hold moisture better than regular soil, but also prevent the plant from molding when there is too much water added. Special gardening and planting soils also have a starter amount of fertilizer. Proper nutrients are important for the growth of healthy plants.

After planting the plants, make sure that you water your plants regularly. Keep in mind that containers and pots generally dry out faster than a big garden patch, especially on hot days or long stretches of dry weather. Also important when watering the plant is to get some advice from your local garden center about the watering preferences of the plants. Some plants prefer to be watered close to the soil while others do not have such preferences. If you think that these preferences are not easy to take care of, make sure to ask your garden center employees for the easy to take-care varieties and you will not have to worry about such issues.

Container plants need to be fertilized on regular bases. Containers and pots do not hold very much food for the plants and therefore more food has to be added to the pot. There are many ways that you can fertilize your container. Some of the easier ones are plant stakes. Plant stakes hold all the nutrients a plant needs over a longer period of time. Therefore you do not have to remember to add the fertilizer on weekly or bi weekly schedule, but you might only need to replace the stake every few weeks. There are also easy to use fertilizers that you can add to your water when watering. Other fertilizers are sprinkled on the top, but these fertilizers are harder to apply in the proper amount.

And do not forget the factor sunlight. Many fruit and vegetable plants need a good amount of sunlight throughout the day to grow and produce a crop. Tomatoes for example need a minimum of five to six hours of sunlight a day and the more the better. Therefore you will not be able to grow a container garden anywhere but on the sunny side of your house. Plants that do not get the proper amount of sun will not flourish and might not even produce more than one or two vegetables or fruit on the plant, which in the end might be a waste of money and time for you.

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