Involving kids in gardening can be a great experience and educational resource for children. If you do not have the time to have a big garden or the space, there are other options you can use. How about planting a herb garden with your kids?

There are many different possibilities on the market for planting herb gardens. The probably oldest way is to get a pot or container and fill it with potting soil. Then add some seeds that you can buy at many garden centers or even at your local department or grocery store sometimes. Spread only a few seeds per pot and then cover with about one inch of soil. Water carefully; try not to reveal the seeds. From there a consistent watering and some patience will bring up the herbs you are looking for within a couple of weeks.

If you are looking for an even easier way, there are other options available. How about an herb kit? An herb kit generally comes with a small green house made from plastic, special growing pads and all the necessary seeds. The kit also includes easy directions and descriptions of the necessary steps. This is so easy, that your children might even be able to grow the herbs completely themselves with little assistance from you. This kit is generally used to sprout the plants and grow them to a certain size, then the plants need to be transplanted into a small to midsize pot. Generally you should have one plant per small/medium pot. Garden stores also offer special herb pots that have several opening on the sides and the top so that you can grow more than one herb in the pot. Your children will most likely need help for the transplanting process, since the still young plants can snap easily.

Another easy way to grow herbs is to buy one of the gardens in a bag. These gardens in a bag come in many varieties and also include herb gardens. A garden in a bag includes everything necessary and all you have to do is add water to the bag. The bag can be used as a pot for sprouting and then as a pot for growing the herbs. No messy pot filling, no getting your fingers dirty and no potting. Gardens in a bag are available at many gardening stores and online.

If you do not want to sprout your herbs from seeds you can always buy the herb plants already grown. Most garden centers offer herbs all year round and nowadays even supermarket offer a select amount of fresh herb plants. This way all your children have to do is keep the plants in a sunny bright place and water the plants. This is one of the easiest ways of herb gardening available. These wonderful herbs are then used in the daily cooking and enhance the flavor of your dishes.

An herb garden can be an easy garden for your children to take care of and a great addition to your household. Herb gardens disburse great fragrances throughout your house and are beneficial to your diet. Cooks all over the world swear on fresh herbs and dieticians will tell you just how great the nutrients in herbs are for your body’s health. Herbs are fairly easy to grow, as long as they have a good amount of sunlight, water and some plant food herbs will grow nicely almost anywhere were it is warm enough.

Include your children and try to make the experience a fun and educational one and they will thank your for it later in their lives. Gardening, and if it is just an herb in a pot can enrich your child’s life more than you know.

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Are you living the city life, but sometimes wish you had room for a good old-fashioned vegetable garden? Take heart—there are many city dweller who appreciate the work and bounty of vegetable gardening. Who said that apartment living should automatically exclude you from the pleasures of vegetable gardening? Here are a few ideas for successful and easy vegetable garden growing for condo or apartment living.

Container Gardening – Discover the Joys of Growing Your Own Vegetables

Container gardening has opened up a new world of vegetable gardening. No matter what kind of space you are living in, chances are that you can grow your own vegetables. Begin by scouting out the perfect location in your apartment or condo for a vegetable garden. Do you have a sunny patio? How about a roomy (or not so roomy) deck? These are prime locations for your vegetable garden. Other viable locations include a sunny spot near a window, a front porch, a rooftop and a fire escape. The location you choose should get several hours of sun each day, and you should ideally have enough room to move around the perimeter of the garden. That is, you don’t want to plant where you won’t have easy access to all of the vegetables. Make it easy on yourself and choose a spot that makes for easy watering. If you choose a difficult to reach location and it becomes a pain or inconvenience to water the garden, there is a greater chance that you will abandon the project. The easier it is for you to garden, the more likely that you will have fun doing it and that you will lend your garden with enough attention to succeed even in the most trying environment.

Choosing the What to Grow in Your Container Vegetable Garden

One of the most difficult things about starting a container vegetable garden is that it can be confusing to decide what you will be growing. There are so many different varieties of fruits and vegetables, including an ever-growing assortment of tempting and charming-sounding heirloom seeds that it can send even the most determined gardener into a dizzy spell. First, decide what it is that you like to eat. Don’t grow tomatoes just because you’ve heard it’s easy. Grow tomatoes because you love to eat tomatoes and you can use them in a variety of dishes. Basically, you want to grow something that you want to eat, not what you think you should be growing. With care and determination, chances are that you will be able to grow whatever you truly enjoy eating. Also, of course, you want to keep in mind your climate and region. What grows best in your area? If you are not sure, visit your local nursery and ask about vegetables that thrive in containers. Pick a vegetable that is known to thrive in your conditions. If you know that your container will probably receive excessive sun, or perhaps less than average sun, keep these things in mind when you are choosing what to grow.

Start Small and Grow from There

Many first-time gardeners will tend to get overwhelmed by the selection and gardening accessories that are featured at local nurseries, and they tend to go overboard. Your best bet in establishing a successful apartment or condo container garden is to start small. Choose one or two favorite vegetables and start from there. If your initial enthusiasm for a homegrown apartment garden does not wane and you seem to be achieving good results in your location, add more vegetables to your growing repertoire. Also, only grow as much as you can eat. If you do end up with a bounty, give extra fruits and vegetables to friends, family and neighbors.

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This is an easy garden project that can lend your yard with charm and the soothing sound of water. A strawberry pot foundation is a wonderful way to liven up an otherwise drab patio garden area. Many long-time gardeners swear by the idea that a garden is simply not complete with some kind of water fixture to imbue your garden with a sense of peace and serenity. A strawberry pot fountain, besides providing your garden patio with the soothing sounds of trickling water, also doubles as a lovely birdbath.

Why a Strawberry Pot Fountain?

If you are trying to choose a weekend garden project, why should you opt for a strawberry pot fountain? Why not simply head out to your local nursery and purchase a readymade fountain? There is an undeniable sense of accomplishment in creating your very own water garden fountain. One of the reasons that the strawberry pot fountain has become so popular is that it adds life and motion to an otherwise dull garden. The steady trickling sound of water has been described as soothing and very melodious. With a quiet trickle, you don’t have to worry about splashing or damage to a wooden deck, as you would with more powerful fountains.

The Basic Design of the Strawberry Pot Fountain Garden

The basic design of the strawberry pot fountain garden is simple enough. Use a low terra-cotta bowl to form the base of the fountain. This base will be catching the falling water of the fountain. Use a terra cotta azalea pot that is wider than it is taller. You will invert the terra cotta azalea at the bottom of the bowl, and this will support the strawberry pot. This section will also hide the re-circulating pump. The water is pumped through clear tubing that is contained inside of the strawberry pump. Water will flow through the clear tubing and then pumped through the clear tubing inside of the strawberry pot. The water will gurgle out the top and into a saucer, which will then trickle down lightly over the rim of the saucer and into the low bowl.

The Practicalities of Building a Strawberry Fountain Pot

Here are some of the practicalities of building your very own strawberry fountain pot. This time estimate for completing this project is about four hours, but you will also need to let the fountain pot dry for at least two days. The cost of making a strawberry fountain pot is roughly $225. As for tools, you should have handy a paintbrush, a bucket, a sharp pair of shears, a round file and various-sized masonry and drill bits. The basic parts of a strawberry pot fountain are a tapered terra cotta bowl that is about 24 inches wide and 8 inches deep, a terra cotta strawberry pot that is 14 inches wide and about 13 inches in height, a terra cotta azalea pot that is 10 inches wide and 7 inches deep, a terra cotta saucer that is 9 inches wide so that it can sit comfortably on top of your strawberry pot, a plastic saucer, a pump with a flow that is adjustable to two feet, a bag of river rock, clear vinyl tubing, a brass pipe thread adapter, a female brass bell reducer, a brass close nipple, terra cotta vinyl sealer, a waterproof adhesive, silicone sealer and roughly six one-gallon water plants.

Basic Steps for Putting Together Your Strawberry Pot Fountain

Begin by sealing the terra cotta pots, allowing them to dry for at least 24 hours. Drill holes and file down the silt, and then install the brass fittings. Install the saucers and apply some waterproof adhesive to the bottom edge of the plastic saucer. Once you have put together the brass fittings, it is time to assemble all the pieces of your fountain, add the plants and the water.

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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.

First of all, when starting your container garden, whether it is from seed or from a young plant from your local garden center, the soil is essential. Many plants are very sensitive to the soil they are planted in. Unlike weeds, fruit and vegetable bearing plants do not grow everywhere and even if they grow on some minor soils, they might not bring they crop they would on a good soil. So get your pots clean and ready with a good soil recommended for gardening. Also keep in mind, that the container needs to be at least 5 gallons or more to properly support the growth of the plant.

Your second important choice is the plant itself. Tomatoes come in a great variety of sizes, colors and tastes. From cherry and olive tomatoes over plum tomatoes to big size sandwich tomatoes (such as fat boy), it is all available. Besides the size and taste of the tomato the size of the plant falls within this size. Some tomato plant get to a full grown height of only a few feet while others might grow up to 5 feet tall. If your space or height is limited where you are planning to cultivate your container garden, make sure that you pick one of the smaller varieties. A friendly employee at your local garden center should be able to direct you to a good variety such as the bushy types for container gardening.

Even in a container garden it is important to support tomatoes properly. The tomato fruit actually is very heavy for the weak branches of the plant; therefore it is necessary to attach the tomato plant to some kind of a support such as planting stakes, tomatoes cages or small trellises.

Tomatoes generally need 5-6 hours minimum of sun so pick your spot for the container garden appropriately. Do not pick the shade side of the house, too little sun will not ripen your tomatoes in time and also minimizes the chance of a good crop. The more sun the better will your tomato plants grow and most likely the more tomatoes you will harvest.

Tomatoes need to be watered on a daily bases in hot or dry climates. Generally it is better for tomatoes if they are not watered from above, but rather from below. This should be easier achievable in a container garden, since you will generally water fewer plants than in a big backyard vegetable garden. Also keep in mind containers, planting pots and hanging baskets dry out much faster than regular soil in a big garden.

Very important for container gardens besides the regular watering is fertilizing. Container gardens have a small amount of soil compared to the big surrounding of a vegetable garden in the back yard and therefore the amount of food for the plants contained within the container is much smaller. Regular fertilizing is necessary to provide the tomato plant with the essential nutrients to support a big crop and grow properly.

Tomato container gardening is a very possible undertaking for many different occasions. Tomatoes are such a versatile ingredient and can be used in salads, as snack, in soups, salsas, chili’s and much more.

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One of the greatest joys of being a gardener is sharing your bounty. Most gardeners are proud to show off the fruits of their labor, and it can be so much fun putting together your very own homemade, garden-inspired gifts. If you are fortunate enough to have your own thriving herb garden, here are a few inspired gift ideas that will have your lucky recipients enjoying the aromas and flavors straight from your garden.

Design Your Own Herbal-Inspired Garden Candles

Candles are one of those versatile gifts that you can give to close friends and family. They are both practical and luxuriant, providing warmth (literally) and imparting a sense of hearth and home. If you have experience with candle making, this can be a fun and creative way to treat your family and friends to a handmade gift. Use your own herbal garden to infuse your candles with special scents from your garden. Use flowers, herbs and leaves to meld them directly into the wax. You can create stunning results with minimal effort. Even if you have no candle making experience, you can purchase high quality plain candles and add your own herbal touch, directly from your garden.

Create Personal Herbal Satchels

For those family members and friends who love potpourri and all good things nice-smelling, create personal herbal satchels. This is a great way to keep dried flowers and petals that still have plenty of aroma and life left in them. Plunder your old flower arrangements, bouquets and your own blooming garden for dried flowers, herbs and petals. Toss these wonderfully aromatic dried herbs and flowers together and package them in pretty satchels, bowls or jars. It may take a while to determine which herbs and flower scents work well together, but it is usually a pretty safe bet that most recently fresh flower petals will create a delicious aroma. Tie a pretty bow around your satchel, and watch your recipients faces light up. This makes the perfect gift for your favorite romantic or flower-lover in your life.

Bottle Up Your Own Herb Infused Oil Concoctions

Do you have a gourmet cook in the family? If so, here is a perfect gift idea for those appreciate the finer things in life. One of the best ways to preserve fresh herbs is to save them in herbal oils. Use a high quality cooking oil, such as cold-pressed olive oil. Use a decorative kitchen bottle and fill it with high quality oil. Then add a sprig or two of your favorite garden herb. Good choices include fresh rosemary sprigs, thyme or other fresh herbs growing in your garden. Tie a pretty bow on the bottle, and you are set. This makes a great housewarming gift, too. Inform your recipient that your herb-infused oil concoction will be at its prime in two months time.

More Fun and Easy Gift Ideas for the Gourmet on Your List

For those in your life who appreciate good cooking, here are a few more ideas on how to turn your fresh herb garden into wonderful gifts. You can create herbal vinegars that your recipient can use to flavor salads and create their own salad dressings. You can also create spicy and fresh herb seasoning mix packets. This is a great idea if you grow regional herbs and you want to share your area’s flavors with an out-of-towner. If you have a favorite martini-drinker in your family, consider making flavored vodka. You can brew your very own flavored vodka, infused with such fragrant herbs as lavender or rosemary. This is a unique and wonderful hostess or house-warming gift that will surely wow even the most discerning friend or family member.

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Think that your dark and damp basement is good for storing all of those things that you don’t know what to do with and nothing else? Think again! You can make good use of the basement by turning it into your own mushroom garden. The dark and clammy atmosphere that makes you want to stay out of your basement most of the time is the perfect growing environment for mushrooms. Once you set things up, growing mushrooms in your basement couldn’t be easier. Now, when you want to add some fresh vegetables to your table, you won’t have to run out to the store. All you will have to do is run down those basement steps and grab a few mushrooms from your basement garden!

Homeowners tend to worry about the idea of mushrooms growing in their home. After all, seeing mushrooms springing up on their own is a sign of serious damps – which means serious trouble for the structure of the home. The fact of the matter is, however, that basements are naturally damp – a certain amount of dampness in the basement is not a sign of any problems with your home – and you can use this dampness to your benefit by cultivating mushrooms.

Before you start growing your mushrooms, make sure the conditions in your basement are right. A little bit of light won’t hurt your mushroom plants at all, but they will not grow if there is full light in your basement. If your basement is not entirely underground and it gets full light during the day, you will want to close off a dark area for your mushroom plants. Temperature is another factor you will need to manage. You want the temperature to stay between 55°F and 60°F – you can check on this by taking leaving a thermometer in different places in your basement for a few days to see how the temperature fluctuates. Last but not least, you must make sure you basement is not overly drafty or dry. Drafts dry out the air in the basement, which will kill your mushroom plants. If your basement is too dry, you can manage this by watering your plants more frequently or by buying premixed materials that will help keep the soil around your mushroom plants damp.

Once you have controlled for conditions, the easiest way to grow mushrooms in your basement, especially if you are a novice gardener, is to by prepared trays with the proper growing medium and mushroom spawns. These trays will take the guesswork out of the equation when it comes to mixing the growth medium and placing the mushroom spawns correctly in the soil. Each tray is about 16 inches long and they can be placed on benches or hung in a tier system. You will need to add about an inch of topsoil to each tray and water them properly for the conditions in your basement.

Daily watering of prepared trays should be all of the tending your mushroom garden needs, but if your mushrooms start to attract pests like slugs and snails (these creatures love mushroom gardens), leave out some lettuce leafs or cabbage leafs to draw them away. In around four weeks, your mushrooms will begin to peak out of the soil and be ready to eat.

When picking your mushrooms, never pull them out of the tray. This can hurt the mushrooms that have yet to bloom. Instead, cut off the large button mushrooms at their base and repack the soil around where you cut. If your practice this method, your mushroom plants will continue yielding mushrooms for about six months. When they are completely done growing, discard the tray – don’t try to replant in the same soil or reuse the tray for other growing.

Fresh salsa, something many of us love to see on the party table, but how to get fresh salsa is another topic. Most salsas have such ingredients as tomatoes, bell and hot peppers of different kind, onions and garlic. Besides these vegetables, spices, salt and sometimes vinegar are added for flavor. Any of these vegetables can be grown in your back yard and even on your patio, if that is all that you have available.

Growing Tomatoes

Tomatoes are actually very easy to grow as long as you know a few basic rules. First of all, Tomatoes need to grow in a sunny spot. If you choose a spot that is half the day or more in the shade, you will receive your tomatoes a lot later and you will also harvest a lot less. Tomatoes can either be grown from seeds or the plants can be bought at your local supply store in spring. The plants need to be planted after the end of frost. In general, plants need to be spaced at least two feet apart. While tomatoes plants are growing at a steady rate when watered properly it is necessary to support the plants. Support can be provided with plant stakes, tomato cages or trellises to which the tomato plants can be attached. Towards the middle/ end of summer (depending on your region) Small yellow flowers will appear from which your tomatoes will grow. Tomato plants grow tomatoes for several weeks, if not months. So try to keep up with the harvesting and you will be rewarded with more tomatoes. Tomato plants can also be grown in planters and containers on patios and balconies. Of course to get a crop big enough for a salsa batch you need about three to four plants, but if you have the space, this would be a good and healthy use for it.

Growing Peppers

Hot peppers as well as bell peppers are just as easy to grow as tomatoes. The plants need a similar kind of spacing, only a few of the hot peppers are smaller plants and therefore the spacing can be less. Even though the plants do not need as much support as tomatoes plants, it is still recommended to have some kind of support such as a planting stake.

Growing Onions

If you want to grow everything but the spices in your garden, you can even plant your own onions. But onions are generally harder to grow and if the garden is not completely in the sun all day long you will end up with tiny onions. Besides the fact that buying the onion starter plants is fairly expensive, you might not end up with the crop you expected.

Growing Garlic

Also needed for a fresh batch of salsa is garlic. Garlic can be grown in the garden, but similar to onions they are harder to grow in gardens that are in the shade for some small part of the day. Garlic and onions need lots of sun to grow properly. Most often it is recommended to buy the full grown versions at the supermarket. If you buy them from a local farmers market or as an organic version, they will be almost as good as homegrown.

There are many Salsa recipes on the market. From freshly chopped and mixed, ready to serve and eat to preserved versions that can add to your dinners and parties year round. If you have a bigger garden and are able to plant 5-10 tomatoes plants and several pepper and hot pepper plants you should be able to harvest enough vegetable to make 10-20 glasses of salsa and still have fresh vegetables for dinner in harvesting season.

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Heirloom seeds have made a dramatic comeback in recent years. It is said that there are more than 5,000 heirloom tomato varieties alone. But heirloom seeds are much more than tomatoes, each variety has its own life story. Each seed has been sown, cultivated, harvested, saved, and passed on, often for hundreds of years, down through the generations.

Some seeds have mysterious tales. Others have been smuggled out of native countries in the hems of ladies dresses or the inside of shoes, to end up with their owners in a new land. Whatever their story, these precious seeds are now stealing the limelight from their F1 hybrid cousins.

What makes heirloom seeds special?

Heirloom seeds can actually be saved from season to season. They are often ‘true’ to their original ancestor species, having been lovingly planted and cultivated year by year with little or no cross-pollination from other similar varieties.

This is what makes heirloom seeds special – a tiny seed is cast into the soil, weighing no more than a spec of dust, only to emerge 100 days later as a magnificent vegetable weighing more than one thousand times its original weight. Then nature comes full circle and creates seeds that weigh no more than a speck of dust, and the cycle goes on.

There is one dramatic difference between heirloom seeds and F1 hybrids – this cycle of life only pertains to heirloom seeds. Hybrid seeds can only manage one season of growth. The seeds they produce are either sterile (non-germinating seeds) or at best create plants that do not look like their parents or do not bear fruit.

F1 hybrids have been cross pollinated to make ‘super species’ of cultivars – either grown to produce more fruit, or produce early or longer. This modification has come at a price – inferior flavor, weaker plant lines and more susceptibility to disease.

Try something – plant one hybrid and one heirloom seed of the same variety side by side and, provided you supply the correct growing conditions, you’ll see the difference. The F1 hybrid will burst into life with wild abandon, produce an abundance of fruit, then die without a thought of tomorrow. The heirloom however, will grow slowly and steadily. It will take longer to produce a strong framework on which it will bear fruit, and then seed. It is as though the heirloom plant knows it has to pace itself to produce viable seeds for the next season and the continuation of its species. This way of growing produces vegetables and fruits with flavors so divine, like nothing you can buy in a store.

Another distinct advantage of heirloom seeds is that, because they are ‘true’ to their ancestor varieties, they contain more good nutrients than F1 hybrids. They also come in wild shapes and dramatic colors like yellow and purple carrots, deep purple beans, lime green cauliflower and red Brussels sprouts.

Each heirloom seed variety has a life story which is part of its mystique and this story is often handed over along with the seeds.

Unfortunately, over the last 60 years the majority of seed saving has been left to commercial business and it has been reported that one thousand heirloom varieties a year are lost forever. An heirloom gardener will cherish their seeds because they know that they may never find that particular variety again and that one failed crop can wipe out an entire cultivar.

Heirloom seeds are meant for sharing, but you need to take the responsibility seriously, sow and save your seeds with pride, and keep them going for a hundred more years.

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Ahhh…spring has finally arrived and that means the soil is warming up. And this change in temperature is the indicator to plants everywhere that it’s time to sprout up and bloom, bringing forth an abundance of flowers, leaves, and for the gardener in us, home-grown vegetables.

And as experienced gardeners know all too well, the foundation for a bountiful harvest is contained within the underlying soil in which we plant our seeds. To a novice green thumb, soil just looks like like plain old dirt. In fact, good gardening soil is an intermingling of various elements that all function together to produce a healthy, stout plant.

Still, the unfortunate truth is that most gardeners are not blessed with having ideal soil in their designated planting areas. This defect is usually due to having clay or sandy type soils which cause drainage, aeration, and soil structure issues.

The Dirty Facts About Soil

Soils are usually composed of some proportion of sand, clay silt, and organic matter known as humus.

Humus is composed of decayed leaves, dead insects, and decomposed plant and animal materials and it is very beneficial to soil because it holds nutrients and water, buffers the pH, and improves the overall soil structure.

Additionally, good soil is akin to marbles filling a jar. There will be lots of space between particles for water and nutrients to sift through.

Of course, different regions have different soils. This primarily depends on four factors:
The mineral content in the rocks and plant litter that formed the soil, the amount of rainfall a region gets because minerals will eventually wash out of the soil; how intensively plants were grown on the site in the past; how much fertilizer has been applied.

When you scoop up rich, vibrant soil you’ll find a mix of sand, clay and humus. This mixture is also composed of small pores filled with water, oxygen, and dissolved nutrients. This is known as the “soil solution” and the soil’s viability is dependent on the percentage of each component.

You can check your soil by picking up a handful and squeezing it in your palm. If it sticks together in a ball then it is primarily clay. If it will not stick together then it is considered to be sandy.

Clay soil is composed of small particles that are tightly bound together and therefore tends to be clumpy. Clay holds water nicely, but sometimes too much so, which causes it to be a poor drainer, makes it heavy to move around, hard to dig, and inhibits vigorous root movement through the soil.

What makes clay particularly attractive in soil is that its particles are negatively charged and many nutrients are
positively charged so that they effectively bind together making clay soils very fertile.

Sandy soils are very light, drain well and are easy to maneuver your shovel around. But they’re not very fertile
and don’t maintain a solid foundation for your plants to root in.

Good Soil Comes From The Right Mix

The ideal soil type you want to target is a mixture called loam. It is basically the proper proportions of clay and
sandy soil combined with with humus, or organic matter, thrown in to make it especially suitable for plant growth because it holds nutrients, drains adequately, it’s easy to dig and work, and it’s amenable to root penetration.

As noted before, not everyone is so lucky as to have perfect loamy soil, so soil modification is often necessary to compensate for this. To encourage good soil structure, simply add organic matter such as compost or manure before each planting season. Organic matter helps to bind soil particles and ensure the soil solution is just the right density and make up.

Another good practice is to till the soil, ideally with a roto-tiller – but don’t overdo it. Excessive tilling can actually break down the soil structure, making it powdery and less amenable to vigorous, healthy plants and a bountiful harvest. Essentially, what you want is soil that you can form it into a loose ball but also falls apart when you poke it.

Proper pH Is Critical To Nutrient Uptake

Another important feature of good soil is its pH level, or how acidic or alkaline the soil is with 1 being most acidic and 14 being most alkaline, and the ideal level being between 6.0 and 7.5, which is considered neutral and is the level of pure water.

The pH is critical because it plays a major role in how much nutrients are available to plants. Too far along the scale one way or another and your vegetation won’t be able to “take up” nutrients even it they are present in the soil.

Determining the pH of soil is best accomplished by taking a soil sample to the local “extension center”. They’ll conduct a test and give you recommendations on what to do, if anything.

If the soil is too acidic, then an application of lime is required. If it is too alkaline, then sulfur is used. Sometimes this condition is difficult and expensive to rectify, so adaptable plants or raised beds where soil is brought in may be the best solution.

Soil Is Bullish On Manure

Finally, adding organic matter encourages healthy population of worms and microorganisms that break down the soil, releasing nutrients for plants to use. When doing so, add it to the entire planting bed, not just locally to the holes in which you’ve placed your plantings.

Mix the organic matter into the upper 6 inches of the soil if you do it before planting, or lay a 3 inch layer around existing plants and let it work into the bed. The longer this is done before hand, i.e. several months, the more it will have time to decay and work itself into the soil.

Take Care Of Your Soil

So there you have it. Some of the essential basics of soil characteristics and preparation. Paying attention to the requirements and constitution of your planting soil will have a profound effect on your harvest of heirloom tomatoes and large heads of lettuce in your straight-from-the-garden salad.

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Figs are such a versatile and delicious, if not somewhat old fashioned fruit. They originally grew in the hot climates of the desert and are referenced in the bible, and so have been about for some considerable time.

It is only in recent years that we have started to appreciate them again. How come?

Many of us will know of a relative, a grandparent maybe, who had a massive fig tree in their back garden that you climbed up as a youngster and gorged yourself on the delights they produced each year.

These days, figs are grown commercially and there are many varieties available, the most common being Brown Turkey and Adriatic, with others such as Black Genoa, White Genoa and Zavala to name just a few. The fig itself is in fact not a fruit at all, but a flower, and if the birds did not get to feast on them first, and the fruit allowed to split and stretch, you would see a magnificent star shaped “flower” of a fruit.

The fig tree can grow very tall, making it difficult to harvest the fruit from, and so they are now more commonly grown along a fence structure, or espalier.

The structure is approximately 1 meter tall, with two horizontal wires, one half way up, and one along the top. As the young fig tree grows, the tree is bent along the lower wire away from the sunshine. Once tied into place, more shoots will start to grow around the bend, towards the sun. As this growth gets longer and stronger, it too can be tied down in the opposite direction so that you now have a young tree growing that looks like a T shape.
As the tree ages and grows, it will throw more vertical shoots up, which you can tie to the top wire to secure them.

The young tree will fruit after a couple of years, and the fruit will get better as the years move on.

Each autumn, after the leaves have all dropped, it will need to be pruned. Growing the trees in this fashion makes it very easy to prune. Simply take off all the vertical branches back down to the top wire in height, and then thin them out to around 1 meter apart. Very simple. What you are left with it’s a T shaped tree with thin vertical branches at 1 meter intervals tied to the top wire securely.

Growing them and pruning them in this manner means they don’t grow too tall for you to handle, and you can have a great fig tree in your garden along your fence. Now you just have to find all those delicious recipes your grandparents made you and get cooking and preserving them.

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