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Microbes have a bad reputation in the plant world. They’re often considered agents of doom and destruction when growing flowers, fruits and vegetables. But plants need microbes to successfully grow. The right kind of microbes help plants adapt to environmental changes and help them be more productive without additional fertilizer, reduce stress and improve nutrient uptake from the soil. Microbes are part of a dynamic ecosystem that is essential for proper growth.
A bonsai tree is a beautiful plant that requires a fair amount of work. If your bonsai tree has started to wither, change color or slump, it may be in need of help. There are many reasons why a bonsai tree may be in trouble. When the issue is identified, most bonsai trees can be nursed back to health quickly.
Indoor plants are commonly tropical plants that grow outdoors in hot, frost-free climates. It can be a challenge to provide the light levels required for these plants to thrive indoors. Grow lights can provide supplemental light in low-light situations. Many indoor plants thrive in the medium light levels often present inside houses. Medium light levels average between 100 and 200 foot candles.
Zoysiagrass (Zoysia spp.), an extremely popular turf and lawn grass, is generally considered quite low-maintenance. It has a high heat tolerance and grows best in temperate or warm climates, including U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 6 through 10. Zoysiagrass has dark green coloring and a fine-to-medium texture. It can tolerate many soils and planting locations, but it does best with some maintenance.
Cuttings have several advantages over other methods of propagation. Unlike seeds, the new plant is always true to type, so you don't have to worry about growing unexpected hybrids. Plants have an abundant supply of shoot tips for cuttings, even when they are very young, so you aren't limited in the number of new plants as you are with divisions. Tip cuttings are used to propagate a wide range of plants, including alpines, perennials, shrubs and vines.
Dwarf jade requires you to have access to a pot that is about four inches in size. Grow dwarf jade with help from an experienced professional gardener in this free video clip.
The foliage of the coleus plant rivals most flowers in color and beauty. The broad leaves come in shades of pink, yellow, purple and green, with most featuring colored leaf margins or color variegation. Outdoors the coleus grows as a tender annual, but it can survive several years as an indoor potted plant. Coleus requires moist potting soil and doesn't tolerate dry conditions, but too much moisture can cause root rot and eventual plant death if the situation isn't remedied.
Lemon lime dracaena (Warneckii 'Lemon Lime') is a colorful plant with dark green and lime green stripes running the length of the long, sword-shaped leaves. Unlike most brightly colored plants, lemon lime dracaena tolerates low light. It is smaller than most types of dracaena, reaching heights of 24 to 36 inches at maturity. Lemon lime dracaena is a durable, low-maintenance plant that works well in both home and office environments.
A member of the carrot family, parsley is valued for its bright green, ruffled leaves used for salads, flavoring, and as an attractive garnish. Parsley is a nutritious herb that provides iron and vitamins A and C, and it is easy to dry for culinary use year-round. Parsley is easily propagated by planting seeds directly in the garden, or it can be started indoors about six to eight weeks before the last frost of the season.
Euphorbia pseudocactus is a hardy succulent-like annual shrub that is mainly grown in the warmer, drier regions of the United States – including New Mexico and Arizona. The plant generally reaches heights of 2 to 3 feet and spans anywhere from 4 to 6 feet wide. It also features green spiked leaves that form “V” shapes. Provide your Euphorbia pseudocactus with the proper environment, water and substrate to ensure it thrives.
Plumeria "sticks" might appear dead, but they have an amazing ability. Sticks are pruned plumeria branches that, when planted, grow roots and new plants. A tree native to tropical America, plumeria has large waxy leaves and produces heavily scented blooms in a variety of colors. Commonly used for leis, plumeria thrives in U.S. Department of Agriculture hardiness zones 9 to 11. You can grow several new plants from just one plant in a few steps.
Biochar, a charcoal produced by slow-burning plants, enhances the nutrients within soil, creating a rich growing environment. While you can purchase biochar from gardening supply stores, it is not difficult to make from home. Making your own biochar saves you money and allows you to utilize dead plants, rather than throwing them away or piling them in your yard. You must wait for a damp day with no wind for safe burning. Within about 12 hours, you can slow burn plants to make charcoal for use as biochar.
Medium-density fiberboard, or MDF, is a composite material used for a variety of building applications. It can be made more resistant to corrosion than wood, and is stronger than many other composite wood materials such as plywood. This makes MDF an ideal material for home building applications, such as molding and trim around archways.
Contorted filbert (Corylus avellana "Contorta"), also called Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick, is an eye-catching specimen in the garden. The star of the winter garden, contorted filbert’s bare branches twist and turn, corkscrew and spiral in all different directions, like gnarled fingers pointing at the sky. The plant grows to about 10 feet tall and almost as wide. At garden centers and nurseries, the plant is usually grafted onto sturdy rootstock. Growing contorted filbert from cuttings can prove difficult, as the stems do not root readily.
If a person dies and leaves a house and children with no will, some very specific things need to happen. Find out what happens when someone dies, leaves assets with children and no will with help from a practiced attorney in this free video clip.
Killing gnats is tricky business, as you don't want to also harm the pets in your home. Learn what you can use to kill gnats on household plants without harming your pets with help from an expert on green pest control in this free video clip.
Forgetting which plant is which in your garden can be problematic. You may give it the wrong amount of water or fertilizer, or you may pick the wrong herbs for cooking. Plant markers are a safety precaution that every home gardener should take. Instead of using unsightly plastic or wood markers, make markers that will last so you can use them over again for years to come. Creating decorative plant markers out of old spoons is not only practical, but lends a dash of style to your garden.
Cactus are houseplants that are often shrouded in mystery. Because they are very different that the plants a lot of homeowners encounter, even a simple procedure like potting or repotting a cactus can leave a gardener guessing. When it's time to pot your cactus, select a pot that is wider than it is tall and that allows 1 to 2 inches around the cactus for new growth. Provide the cactus with good drainage so it can do well in its new pot.
Indoor vines are versatile houseplants you can grow in their own pot or as accents to fill out pots containing other plants. You can grow them upright on supports or allow them to tumble gracefully over the sides of the pot. Prune vines when they look sparse or leggy, sustain damage or grow out of scale to their surroundings. Pruning also helps encourage bushiness and helps create a full, bountiful-looking pot.
Parsley grows as a biennial, producing its edible foliage the first year and blooming in the second year. Pollination is required for the aromatic parsley seeds, which are used as a culinary herb, to form. Insects generally handle the pollination of parsley, but natural pollination can lead to cross-pollination between different parsley varieties. To avoid cross-pollination, you must grow parsley under cover during the flowering period, and pollinate the flowers by hand.
Growing bonsai is an art form for those with great patience. Even small bonsai trees take years to grow, just like their larger cousins. One of the most important elements of the bonsai art form is growing branches that are arranged in the most aesthetically pleasing form. However, the shape and thickness of the trunk is every bit as important. The trunk often catches the eye before anything else does. Before you try to develop the branches of your bonsai, you must first learn how to get the right thickness for its trunk.
Bougainvillea, native to South America, is a genus of thorny, vinelike plants that produce colorful flowers. Bougainvillea can grow upward of 15 feet high and can be evergreen or deciduous depending on the climate it grows in. Bougainvillea readily grows up an exterior house wall with minor amounts of training to point its vines in the right direction and a suitable foundation to hold onto. Once it takes, bougainvillea typically spreads over the entire wall and creates a brilliant display of color and vegetation.
The fragrant white blossoms of a Selenicereus houseplant only open under cover of darkness. Also called the night-blooming cereus or the Queen of the Night, Selenicereus is a type of tropical cactus that requires darkness and warm temperatures to produce its summer blooms. The plant grows well as a houseplant when provided with proper lighting and warmth. Like most cactus varieties, Selenicereus thrives in clay and terracotta pots because the pots don't retain too much moisture.
The tiny insects that breed in commercial green houses are difficult to see, and often hitch a ride into your home on new houseplants. Plants pick up larger insects when they spend time outdoors. You can manage light infestation by non-chemical methods and a few changes in the way you care for your plants. Heavily infested plants may necessitate the use of insecticides or disposal of the plant if it is easily replaced.
Exterior trim is important but is all too often overlooked when designing the outside of a house. It is a decorative item that when properly chosen can add quite a bit of curb appeal. When done poorly or with inferior materials, the trim can detract from a home's curb appeal, and therefore its overall value. The importance of getting the trim right should not be underestimated.
The bonsai tree, considered an art form by many, is a small-scale replica of a mature tree. The tree's appearance is maintained through pruning and binding techniques. Only select branches are allowed to continue growing, and excessive new growth is pruned away. The tree's main branches are pruned, bound and trained to create the desired visual shape. The shaping of the tree becomes an ongoing process that continues for its entire lifespan.
Having your boyfriend leave the house can be difficult for anyone. Learn how to control your emotions when your boyfriend leaves the house with help from a relationship expert in this free video clip.
Many houses use heat pumps to heat their water. A heat pump will force the transfer of heat from cooler areas to warmer areas. In a lot of cases, the same unit can perform double duty as an air conditioning unit and a water heater. Interior heat pumps have the capability to circulate heat throughout the space of a house and heat your stored water supply, thus reducing your energy bills significantly during the summer months.
Rennet, which is found in many types of cheese, is a source of enzymes that have coagulation properties. Typically, rennet is taken from the stomach of animals, such as calves and goats, and used in the production of dairy products because of the rennet's ability to help separate the solid curds from the liquid parts of the dairy. However, you also can find rennet in certain plants, such as stinging nettle, and you can make the rennet yourself for your own dairy production.
When functioning in home electrical conductors, the transformer transfers power from one circuit to another. A varying electrical current in the primary coil creates a fluctuating magnetic flux, resulting in a varying magnetic field in the secondary coil. This creates the electrical voltage required at any given time. Though this device is necessary for any neighborhood that wants electrical power, transformers are often placed outside, making them an eyesore in carefully manicured lawns. However, it is possible to cover them in order to blend them into outdoor decor.
The Norway pine, or red pine, is a vigorously growing, hardy evergreen that reaches mature heights of more than 80 feet. It develops strong wood that has thick, ridged bark and reddish-brown scales. Its needles are slender and soft, and grow as long as 6 inches. As an indoor plant, the Norway pine becomes a bonsai, requiring timely pruning, generous care and careful watering to maintain its size and health.
A foundation supports and anchors a home in the ground, but part of the foundation typically shows through around the bottom of the building. Stone foundations have a natural texture that can draw the eye. If you want to cover a foundation, a combination of paint and plants can help conceal the stones while unifying the home’s exterior with your landscape.
Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata) is the favorite ivy of the Ivy League. It can be found scrambling up those ancient halls of learning as well as stone and brick homes and walls throughout the U.S. Boston ivy has few disease problems, but can play host to a number of insects. When your Boston ivy develops sticky leaves, you should suspect honeydew-secreting insects such as aphids, scale or whitefly.
Rosemary is a perennial herb, growing for its fragrance and culinary uses. It is often grown outside, but also works as an indoor plant. It is not difficult to grow rosemary, but this plant can be killed with kindness. Overwatering will cause the roots to rot -- wilting leaves are signs of this. However, if the plant has been growing and appears that it can't get enough water, it likely needs repotting.
The simplest way to create a “green” room partition is to place portable planter boxes on top of bookcases, filing cabinets or other useful office or home furniture storage. For greater effect, make large, lightweight permanent planters as essential decor. Fill these with ceiling-high palms, bamboo or other plants that tolerate indoor growing conditions.
Keeping potted plants indoors helps clean the air, produce oxygen and even improve emotional and mental health. Several self-watering systems are available to ensure plants always have enough water. However, instead of paying for such a product, make your own using a scrap piece of PVC pipe. The self-watering pole provides a constant supply of water to the plants. Excessive watering is not a problem because the plant only absorbs as much water as it needs.
When Old Man Winter has overstayed his welcome, the world around you can seem bleak and gray. While you can’t influence Mother Nature to force an early season change, you can create a spring of your own inside. Growing a crocus in a vase can light up the room, as crocuses usher in the promise of a spring garden. Crocus (Iridaceae) is a hardy corm in brilliant hues of purple, white and yellow that can be forced indoors.
Botanical names can be a mouthful, and Gynostemma pentaphyllum is no exception. Thankfully, its common name is sweet tea vine. Native to the forests and thickets of east Asian mountain slopes, this flowering vine grows to 26 feet in length. A tea made from G. pentaphyllum’s leaves is used frequently in traditional Chinese herbal medicine as a treatment to reduce blood sugar and cholesterol levels, to strengthen the immune system and to improve circulation. In cultivation, G. pentaphyllum requires lots of sunshine and moist soil at all times. Start the sweet tea vine’s seeds indoors in late winter.
Just as other flowers are drooping and loosing their blossoms, Mother Nature puts on a brilliant display with garden mums (Dendranthema grandiflora) in the fall. These flowers, also known as chrysanthemums or hardy mums, offer autumnal colors such as red, rust, orange and yellow, as well as lavender, cream and even chartreuse. Landscaping with mums involves planting and raising them under the best conditions for rewarding results in the fall.
Modern cookie-cutter homes tend to be plain and lack any substantial personality when homeowners move in. Typically, the walls are undressed or there are just baseboards. For those who prefer greater detail and personality in their home, it’s time to learn some new techniques and trim out the house.
Bonsai trees were developed in China around 500 to 1,000 BC. From China, this art of growing miniature trees spread to Korea and then on to Japan. "Bonsai" is a Japanese term that means planted in a container. Any species of tree can be made into a bonsai tree using special wiring and pruning techniques. You can grow your own bonsai tree once you know how to properly care for and maintain these dwarf trees.
Plants of the genus Anubias grow best in water, so they are a suitable plant choice for use within aquariums and terrariums. The large, heart-shaped leaves emerge along rhizomes that spread beneath the surface of the soil, so it is a very simple plant to propagate through rhizome division. Each rhizome division roots successfully in just a few weeks, if kept under the same warm, wet conditions as the parent plant. However, they must be harvested using sterilized tools, to minimize the chances of developing a fungal infection.
African wisteria bonsai (Bolusanthus speciosus) is valued for the colorful mix of blooms in shades of blue, pink, white and purple that appear in late spring and early summer. While African wisteria bonsai is a graceful and beautiful shrub, it may not be a good choice for a beginning gardener. Growing an African wisteria bonsai requires dedication and patience, because the first blooms won't make an appearance until the plant is about 10 years old.
You don't have to make room in your garden if you want to grow lettuce. Grow lettuce in a pot in the house with help from the founder of Gardenerd in this free video clip.
Excess moisture near your home’s foundation causes structural damage, and the wrong types of vegetation planted too close to the home will exacerbate the problem, leading to dampness in basements and crawl spaces. Plants that require frequent or heavy watering draw water toward the house while drought-tolerant species help to prevent excess water from seeping into the foundation.
There are several types of cypress bonsai trees, but one variety -- the star cypress -- features small, silvery leaves. Star cypress bonsai trees make eclectic lawn decor as they are miniature versions of the cypresses found in swampy regions. Bonsai trees can be grown in pots in the home or yard and need to be regularly pruned to maintain their sculpted shapes. Cypress bonsai require more water than other types of bonsai trees, and they need plenty of sunlight to thrive.
Aeroponics is a variation of hydroponics. In aeroponics systems, plants are grown with their roots suspended in a dark, closed container. There is no gravel or root support substrate as in hydroponics, so the roots are exposed to high oxygen content at all times. Aeroponics systems aren't watered in the usual sense of gardening. Instead, roots are sprayed or misted with nutrient solution and kept at a constant nearly 100 percent humidity. Intervals of spraying nutrient solution vary, depending on the system being used and the crop being raised. Plants achieve optimal root growth, with resultant high water and nutrient…
The pageant primrose is a variety of English primrose, also called Primula vulgaris or P. acaulis. It was bred in Japan by the Sakata Seed Corporation. Pageant has vividly bright colors that stand out in a shady woodland garden or a rock garden. They can also be grown along pathways or in beds. Pageant does well in pots, and blooms in the early spring, with the flowers lasting two to four weeks. After the blooms fade, transplant your primroses into the garden and they will continue to bloom year after year.
When you head out for an extended vacation, a long business trip or to care for a sick family member, you need to take the necessary measures to protect your home. In 2010, there were 2,923,430 home burglaries in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Justice website. Home security, utility costs and preventing damage to your home while you're gone should be part of your trip planning considerations.
Jade plants (Crassula argentea) are succulents that grow outdoors or indoors when provided appropriate light and care. A jade plant exposed to freezing temperatures for a short time may be salvageable, but jade plants sustaining several hours' exposure to freezing temperatures may not survive. Move your frozen jade plant indoors if possible. Trim away leaves and branches damaged by cold exposure. Observe the plant for a few days to determine its fate.
