This summer, many patio owners will be looking for ways to make their patios shine. What you might find is that any patio design that brings in the garden around it will do the best job of highlighting the patio itself. You might have a very nice patio but if the garden around it looks awful then the patio will not stand out like it should.
photo credit: gailf548

Your patio can be a normal looking patio if the plants, flowers, and hedges surrounding it look spectacular. By working on your backyard and making sure it looks great, you will also be making your patio look better as well. This way, you don’t have to spend a lot on your patio but just put in the time and care to the garden around it.

This coming summer, you will be glad if you take the time right now to think of all the ways you can make your patio more pleasing to the eye. This doesn’t mean that you have to spend a lot of money redoing and remodeling your whole patio. If you take the time to plan your garden you can make your whole patio environment much more enticing. By carefully blending your patio and the garden around it you can make it look like they are meant to fit together.

Many homes that come with a patio, have a plain slab of concrete. While this is sufficient for some, those who have a nice big yard and live in a place where they are going to use their patio a lot for entertaining, will most likely be interested in trying to find some better patio ideas. Anyone can have that slab of concrete for a patio but if you have a carefully thought out garden and patio combination, it will enhance your whole house and even raise it’s value.

If you use your patio a lot, you will probably want to make it as accommodating as possible and have it be a fun place to hang out. This means you might want to be creative in the furniture you pick and how you arrange the surroundings. The more work and thought you put into your patio and the surrounding area, the better your patio will look and the greater your satisfaction will be. You might look in garden and home improvement magazines for all sorts of ideas for your patio remodel.

Technorati Tags: container gardening, diy, patio design, patios, small space garden, thegardenersrake.com

Hydroponics is no longer a subject in mysterious form only known in the confines of a science laboratory. It is an established way of commercial agriculture feeding the world today.
photo credit: joaoa

Research on the nutritional requirements of plants and the hydroponics system were conducted since 1699 until today. By 1925, there were already practical applications of hydroponics established in the greenhouse industry. By the 1930s, there was a huge development in the industry as scientists grown mindful of the bright future of producing crops hydroponically.

In 1930, Gericke developed the first commercial hydroponic unit in the USA. With such model, the American forces even employed this system in the Pacific to produce vegetables during World War II.

Developments continued for the commercial use of hydroponics leading to the spread of the technology worldwide. The momentum finally exploded with the development of a system known as NFT by Dr Alan Cooper in the 1970’s. This improved the nutritional formulations that caused the hydroponic farming of several plants commercially possible. The NFT system is a system of covered plastic channels with the plants growing through holes in the covers while the roots of the plants are based in the nutrient solution.

Since then, the development of automatic control systems with hydroponics system has become accessible as well as digital testing equipment. This has unfolded the field of hydroponics to even the ordinary home gardener.

Nevertheless, hydroponics is still in a developing stage. There are still plenty of range for experimenting with plants and trees. As a home gardener, hydroponics gardening will change your lifestyle by providing you with fresh fruit, vegetables and flowers all year round. Even the banana plants, only found in the tropics, can be cultivated the hydroponics way.

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My gardening season is just beginning but for many of you the season has been underway. I am finalizing my recession garden plans and moving onto my square foot garden designs.
photo credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

The one thing I like about square foot gardening is that you can always add a garden later in the season if you find you have more plants to plant or want to add an additional mini garden. This season a have a small curved straw bale garden, tiered straw bale garden and a straw bale square garden, which is perfect for heavy feeding crops.

But one question I am asked a lot is about roots crops. Normally you do not plant root crops in straw bales. But I do have a straw planting technique for potatoes that is perfect for me. It saves space, time and the backache from digging up potatoes. I love gardening – but I do not like digging root crops!

Planting Potatoes in Straw.

Get your potatoes seeds ready. I cut the potatoes, leaving several eyes on each piece and let them dry for about two days before I plant them. During this time find some decent soil, and a container. I often use a bushel basket for my first crop.

Note: your container can be as large as you want. I usually go for a bushel basket or smaller garbage can. I have used old wood crates (check for stains that could be toxic). Also make sure the container has drainage holes.

Once you have your container place it in the spot you plan to leave it during the growing season. The location you choose should get six to eight hours of sun. Add 6 inches of dirt to the bottom of the container; place the potato seeds in the soil and cover. Water well and go plant more of your garden.

In about a week you will see new growth coming out of the ground. When the growth is about 6 inches tall, cover with straw. Repeat this process during the summer.

The potatoes will set out new roots in the straw and in turn will produce more potatoes. I save time, space and digging using this method. There are two other added benefits. Since the potatoes grow in straw they are dirt free and very clean. The other benefit is that I don’t get potato bugs using this method.

The only problem I had was one year I grow them in the garden with no container and used hay. It was a big mistake. The hay attracted mice looking for seeds and I lost most of the crop.

One other plus to growing potatoes using straw and a container, you always have small potatoes to use and they are very easy to harvest, just pull the straw back and pick them. I also grow a new crop of potatoes mid summer.

Try growing potatoes in straw. I think you will enjoy it. This growing process really saves space and makes growing potatoes fun.

Technorati Tags: container gardening, grow potatoes in straw, potatoes, recession gardening, straw bale gardening, vegetables