Dappled Air

Most gardens seem to have one full shade spot where it is hard to grow anything. I have figured out what plants do grow where in my garden, but I could not give you any suggestions. I discovered this website some time ago and enjoy their newsletter info. Then this morning this info showed up → 25 plants that grow well in full shade . Ferns are very easy to grow.

Discover why companion planting helps your plants grow better. Kevin from Gardening Mentor saw this post and sent me this link about companion planting and why you should use it. Here is another link to the secrets of companion planting.

Cinnamon is not just a spice to use in the kitchen, but also very helpful in the garden. It seems that ants and mosquitoes don't like it. Read the rest of the 6 reasons in this post . I would like to hear about experiences of using cinnamon in the garden.  Please, leave a comment below.

A picture says a thousand words and this video fits this category. Rather than trying to figure out how to do it, see how it is done.

How often do you see gardens with tastefully arrange recycled items, but have no idea how to create one yourself? This infographic shows you ideas and also gives you instructions.

carrots and onions Some plants just don't do well together, whereas other protect each other from bugs. Did you know that tomatoes and cucumbers can't stand each other? Check out this helpful post about companion planting today...

I can't tell you which of these 9 tips to kill weeds naturally will actually work, but I would consider giving it a try to see what works best for you. My personal trick is to use my electric kettle from the kitchen, which I don't really use in the kitchen and boil water and then pour it over the weeds. I have used the recipe below and have discovered that there are many more variations on the web. Play around with the mix until you get the result you want. Some adjustment tips use regular salt reduce the amount of salt to 1 cup reduce the amount of Dawn dish soap to 1 TBsp

I came across this very detailed vegetable growing cheat sheet and placed the info here, so I would not misplace it. This is  the link  to the original full-size infographic page.

I had to grow some grass, but was not quite sure how to keep the birds away. Then a neighbour suggested, why don't you put CDs up? So I gave it a try. I marked the perimeter of the area to be seed with bamboo sticks about 3 feet apart and then strung string wrapped around each stick and finally added CDs between the sticks. Now it looks like I have dancing CDs in the garden. All the neighbours stop and wonder what it was for. And the CDs do keep the birds away. I have the birds all over my garden, but not in the freshly seeded area. Nothing happened for quite some time, but after about 2 weeks the first new grass shoots started to appear. So I can highly recommend this way of growing grass. Let me know if you have tried this before and what your experience was.

I am quite happy with my square foot gardening system, but am always open to experiment with others. I am intrigued by these "10 weird intensive gardening methods that really work" from the gardening channel . Tire gardening (gardening in used tires) -  http://www.tiregarden.net/ Mittlieder method (combines soil-based gardening with hydroponic gardening) -  http://growfood.com/ Square foot gardening (planting in a square foot grid) -  http://squarefootgardening.org/square-foot-gardening-method Keyhole gardening (raised garden with a center composting basket) -  http://www.gardeningchannel.com/how-to-make-a-keyhole-garden/   Aquaponics (use fish waste to nourish plants) -  Oregonlive.com Window farms (Plants grow out of the bottle while an air pump circulate liquid nutrients that gently flow down the structure) -  one woman’s window farm initiatives Straw bale gardening (use straw bales to make raised beds) -  http://strawbalegardens.co...