More and more people are now growing their own vegetables. In the media, there is usually news on how plants and vegetable are grown for the mass market. Normally due to profit considerations, optimum care is not always given during the growth process. And various chemicals may be utilised to maximise the economics of the business. The result is the production of food that may not be the best food for human consumption.
Most people don’t touch their garden before the start of summer but in order to have it ready, you will need to do a few things in advance. This means that when summer does come, it is as good as it can be.
Layering is a safe, sure, simple way to increase many types of plants, and particularly the climbers and danglers with which this book is concerned. The first requirement is that the plant have long, lax or drooping stems – which vining plants do. The rest is easy, because the stem is not severed from the parent until the new plant is well rooted and can survive on its own. Humidifying devices, bottom heat, and close protection are seldom called for.
If you have a greenhouse in which you can give cymbidiums cool nights and bright light, you should surely try a plant or two, for they are very handsome orchids. The plants have rounded pseudobulbs about the size of a fist, which bear eight to twelve long, slender leaves. The roots are fleshy and stay within the compost. They are variously called semi-terrestrial and semi-epiphytic. The flower spike arises from the base of the pseudobulb, within the axil of one of the lower leaves, and grows two to three feet tall (sometimes more). It appears in the fall, and the flowers open from December through April, depending on the habit of the particular plant.
Each garden tells a story – It is necessary to think simply and very directly and naturally in order to arrive at such a truly naive result as is sought and intended in Japanese gardening. It is necessary to think in terms of meaning as well as in terms of appearance or looks.
Scented geraniums are bothered by few pests. The most frequent troubles are red spider and white fly. Dipping or spraying with a malathion controls these in the greenhouse, natural insecticides are effective. A weekly spraying with cold water also controls red spider. The force should be hard enough to wash off the mites and webs, but not so hard as to damage the plant. Since red spider favors a warm, dry atmosphere, cool situations arc preferable for the plants. Care in introducing pest-free plants into the house in the first place is helpful.
For sure, one has already witnessed movies, television segments; read journals, magazines; seen photos and even a scenic view of gardens or even visited a flower farm. It remains a mystery on how the beauty of this creation unfolds to the minds of human beings. The exquisiteness of these plants produces an eccentric upshot to the environment most especially to plant and flower lovers or what we call horticulturists.
Frost is in the air in the Middle and Upper South. This is the time to think seriously about planting the hundreds of different kinds of shrubs, trees and fruits, for after the middle of November these plants make their appearance in seed and garden center stores. Balled and burlapped plants are the first to be featured. Then the bare-rooted deciduous shrubs, trees and fruits follow in great quantities. Roses, too, are offered everywhere but don’t be in a hurry to plant them. There is still plenty of time. December and January are also good planting months.
The support you give a vine to climb on may serve, first, a cultural function. But there’s no reason why it can’t be attractive too, no reason why we can’t deviate from the familiar trellis, particularly when the deviation looks more natural and displays the plant to better advantage.
My gardening activities are interesting, I suppose, not only because I have grown some prize-winning chrysanthemums but also because I pack them by the hundreds in a small plot of ground and do it in my spare time. I am a motorcycle patrolman and many people don’t expect a police officer to be so fascinated with growing hardy chrysanthemums and are surprised when they hear of such goings on.