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Aquaponics is the attempt to create a intertwined biosphere of plant and animal life (primarily fish) that benefits the growth of both. More often than not these systems are used to grow food, however that is not always the case.

I have been researching these systems, looking for the best designs, and noting the pitfalls, so that in the near future, I may have the understanding to build my own system.

In all my digging for the nuggets of knowledge regarding this fairly obscure topic, these are the 5 most useful blogs I have found.

1. Backyard Aquaponics – The premiere information portal for the would be Aquaponaut. This site is the home of the Backyards Aquaponics magazine and has more information in it’s forums than pretty much the rest of the Internet combined. It is a fantastic resource and should not be missed by anyone seriously considering their own system.
2. Snow Camp Aquaponics – This wonderful little blog documents the trials and tribulations of Brian Naess in his quest to develop an aquaponics system on a shoestring budget. He posts only about once a month, but his perseverance through every disaster and his dedication to just making it work gives me hope for my future system and should inspire any would-be aquaponaut.
3. Aquaponics Made Easy – Murray Hallam runs a business that creates a wide variety of products for use in Aquaponics including grow beds and tanks. His blog is full of useful videos, tips, tricks, advice, system designs and installations. This site is a treasure trove of information, and a great resource for buying material if you happen to live in Australia. The videos alone make it a must see.
4. A Thought Adrift – Simon Gemmell was so successful with his own aquaponics system that he launched Capital Aquaponics as a business to design and develop systems for others. His photos give you an idea of the incredible potential of these systems. The growth of both plants and trout is impressive and shows everyone what they should strive for their system to be.
5. Backyard Aquaponics Forum – Yes this is basically just the forum from the first site mentioned, and no it is not a blog. Regardless, it is so important as a resource that it must be given more real estate on this post. The forums are very active with people designing and building their own systems. Some of the larger ones are commercial in scale, and f it were not for the pictures I wouldn’t believe them. I regularly lurk the forums, just trying to gain as much info, from the community, that my brain can absorb.

So there you have it, my top 5 aquaponics Blogs. If anyone has any more suggestions I’d love to hear them. Cheers!

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• Aquaponics Aquaponics, energy efficiency, and an ecosystem approach to food production (slideshare.net)
• Aquaponics: An Efficient Way to Feed Ourselves? (treehugger.com)

Recently my friends have been asking me for a good place to buy organic and heirloom seeds and plants. I thought this was a great topic, so here are my favorite 7 suppliers.

Johnny Seeds Offers a wide selection of seeds and plants. They have heirloom, organic, fruit, herbs and vegetables for your garden. They have OMRI-approved pest and disease controls and fertilizers. This is one of the larger seed suppliers in the world, and they are employee owned.

Miller Nurseries -J.E. Miller, Dept 4102, 5060 West Lake Road, Canadaigua, NY, 14424- They have dozens of strawberries, raspberries, fruit, and shade trees. Over 60 varieties of apples, many old-fashioned “heirloom” apples. Winter hardy blueberries. 39 varieties of grapes, including wine making varieties. They have a wide variety of unique fruits such as Pawpaw, Persimmon, Kiwi, Honeyberry, Asian Pears, Cranberries and more.

Bountiful GardensBountiful Gardens sells untreated open-pollinated seed of heirloom quality for vegetables, herbs, flowers, grains, green manures, compost and carbon crops. Offering Bio-intensive and Grow Biointensive sustainable organic seed. Specialties: Rare and unusual varieties. Medicinal herbs. Super-nutrition varieties. You may be interested to know that Bountiful Gardens is a non-profit organization and a project of Ecology Action which does garden research and publishes many books, information sheets, and research papers, some in other languages. Ecology Action operates a research mini-farm in Willits, CA and promotes the GROW BIOINTENSIVE method of food production which teaches people in 130 countries around the world to grow food and build soil with less work, water, and energy by natural methods. Find out more at www.growbiointensive.org

Fedco Fedco Seeds, is an excellent source for cold-hardy seeds and plants especially adapted to the demanding Northeast climate. Each year they observe hundreds of varieties, selecting only the best for inclusion in their catalogs. Through their product lines and cultural hints, they encourage sustainable growing methods. They offer a large selection of certified organic cultivars and regional heirloom varieties. We buy products from all over the world. Fedco is a cooperative, one of the few seed companies so organized in the United States. Because they do not have an individual owner or beneficiary, profit is not their primary goal. Consumers own 60% of the cooperative and worker members 40%. Consumer and worker members share proportionately in the cooperative’s profits through their annual patronage dividends.

A Few Good Seeds Vegetable seeds,Fruit plants or seeds. Specialties: Heirloom Vegetables. All of their plants and seeds are grown without any chemical inputs. Their goal is to test and adapt vegetables for our regional climate and growing conditions.

Territorial Seed Company Currently they find themselves in good company “capital-O Organics”, excited about taking leadership in advising the evolution of organic agriculture from a movement into a mainstream market. There are 20 full-time and 25 seasonal employees locally, strategic alliances with universities and European plant breeders, and a zillion worms making compost and plant teas. They are experts in Organic and Biodynamic seeds and plants.

Willhite Seed They have over 400 varieties of seeds including watermelon, cataloupe, cucumber, bean, corn, okra, peas, squash etc. They have a wide selection of of unusual Indian seed.

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A nice little introductory video about Aquaponics by the great people at Good magazine. They do a decent job of describing the basics of an Aquaponics system. They actually show several systems in the video, an interesting one is based around aquarium fish tanks. However they use a solids filter and a seperate bio-filterboth of which are unnecessary and are actually diverting nutrients from the plant beds.

Roxy, one of my "kids"

In my case the kids refers to 2 dogs and 2 cats with a taste for house plants. The cats in particular are fond of anything green trying to survive indoors. But not to be outdone Roxy our precocious 3 year old Blue Heeler mix has a thing for my small grove of citrus trees. I find her munching on the leaves regularly. So when I noticed several of the citrus trees infested with spider mites… well lets just say I thought I was faced with a choice of the trees or the kids. And some times that is a tough choice to make.
 
I have grown the little trees from seeds. The seeds all came from the old fashioned method of saving seeds from fruit rather than tossing them out. Everyone told me “They will never grow” or “They will never produce fruit”. The common assumption being fruit is irradiated to kill bugs and such, so the seeds would not be viable.

I have withstood much ribbing and teasing by my spouse and friends, regarding their viability. Much to their chagrin, the seeds did sprout. In fact nearly all of the seeds sprouted and several of the little trees have flourished. These I have protected and pruned. they have become more than the little experiment that I started on.  They are still little more than tiny saplings, and consequently none have flowered, yet. Regardless they have become a symbol, of something bigger. That I was right, and they were wrong.

 Even more than the validation of my idea, they make me feel anything is possible. Very few citrus plants can grown in my region. So these little guys surviving is a symbol of hope, and survival.

The orange Grove winter home

 Attributing so much to these 7 little trees, is a bit much, and setting yourself up for heartbreak, I know. But here I am with all this hope, anticipation and everything.

 Now imagine my horror when I noticed something attacking one of the little trees. It seemed to be sucking the life out of it. Once I noticed, the infestation was quite advanced. Several of the trees were affected, and one was in dire shape indeed.

 I started the way I always do, pruning away the most affected areas. This had a minimal effect.

 So now there I was, my hope infected with mites. Could I disregard my deep sense of dislike for chemicals, to save the “orchard”? Or was there another, better way?

 I always want to use organic methods. Up until that point, I had no real nasty bugs to eliminate. So it had been easy, and I was clueless.

 I didn’t want to make the kids sick. I want to use organic methods, if possible. I want to save the little trees. So, what to do?

 The internet is an amazing tool. After a few minutes of research I found a whole host of solutions, and in that search I located a site that has become a lifeline, Arbico Organics.

 For the past 30 years Arbico Organics has been producing and marketing natural products for organic homes, businesses, lawns, gardens, farms and pets. They had several products that work for the problem I was faced with.

 Since purchasing the  spray for my little trees, I have not noticed any recurrence of spider mites. The trees again look healthy. And none of the kids seems to have had the slightest ill effects. I am hopeful that after 2 or 3 more growing seasons they will finally flower, but if they just survive that long I will be proud. For now they are a nice little edition to our deck in summer, and our guestroom in winter.

About the Author: Christian Hammer is a self proclaimed Serial Entrepreneur, inventor and green advocate. His website, www.mindzle.com is a resource for people who are wanting to live a more sustainable life, but don’t necessarily know how to get started, or are worried about how they can afford it. He tries to lead by example, with a wide variety of projects, ideas and how-to’s.

A Small Kitchen Garden Can Improve Your Finances
By Daniel Gasteiger

A few weeks ago I noticed something at the local grocery store that you can probably find where you shop: higher prices. From my shopping trip one week to my trip the next week, prices on dozens of items increased 20 cents. Among the most astonishingly high prices: produce. It kills me, for example, so see red peppers at $2.99 per pound. That translates to about $1.50 for a single pepper.

I have a hedge against these rising prices: I grow a lot of my own produce. You can grow your own as well, and discover a hobby that can quite possibly reduce your grocery bills by hundreds of dollars a year.

Beat Grocery Store Prices: Basil

For the sake of comparison, a package of fresh basil-that’s a clump of whole plants wrapped in plastic and ready for use-costs about $2.69 in a grocery store. You can buy a package of basil seeds for about $1.59, and a bag of potting soil for $2 or less (off-season, I bought bags of soil for 75 cents apiece). Plant just a few seeds in an empty yogurt container, and you’ll match the grocery store basil in six to eight weeks. (A pack of grocery store basil contains about a dozen plants growing in a 2-in cube of potting soil).

If you plant a yogurt container every two weeks, you’ll have ten or twelve going from one package of seeds, that’s plenty to season many meals, and maybe even make some pesto sauce.

Grocery store basil: $27 for 10 meals. Home-grown from seeds: $3.59 for a year’s supply.

What do you pay for tomatoes?

When on sale, tomatoes in our local grocery store cost $1.99 per pound. Since an average-sized grocery store tomato weighs half a pound, I’d pay one dollar per tomato when they’re on sale. A flat of young tomato plants (six plants that are already growing and ready to transplant into a garden or flower pot) costs around $3 at the beginning of the growing season. Transplant just one of those plants and raise it to maturity and it can produce from 25 to 100 pounds of tomatoes (depends on length of growing season, size of variety of tomatoes grown, amount of water applied, and diligence).

If you have space in your yard for a tomato plant, pessimistically you can harvest $25 worth of tomatoes from that plant. If you grow all six plants from a flat, you could harvest, perhaps, 200 pounds of tomatoes worth $100. Some tomato varieties might produce 100 pounds of tomatoes per plant, so six plants would provide a crop worth $300.

But here’s a sad truth about grocery store produce: Your chances of buying a good tomato in a grocery store are close to zero. Sure, you can buy very nice grocery store tomatoes, but these are distant cousins of good tomatoes. The worst ripe tomato you grow in a home kitchen garden is dramatically juicier, sweeter, tastier, and all-around more enjoyable than the very best grocery store tomato.

Grocery store tomatoes: $60 for 10 weekly tomato salads. Home-grown tomatoes: $3 for a flat of plants.

Start Your Own Home Kitchen Garden

Basil and tomatoes provide an inkling of the savings you can realize by growing your own produce. If you have enough space, you can grow dozens of varieties of vegetables and fruit at similar savings over grocery store prices. In many cases, the things you grow taste dramatically better than what you buy in a store.

Even if you have little space, you can grow some produce at home. One great way to get started is to find and visit with an experienced gardener. Help out, if they’ll allow it, and take what you learn back to your own gardening projects.

If you can’t find someone to work with, buy a good book about how to create and manage a home kitchen garden. There are many good titles–even some focused specifically on your region (methods vary considerably depending on climate). Also, peruse web sites that teach gardening. There are thousands of blogs about gardening, and even whole communities of “garden-bloggers.” One good starting place is This Garden Is Illegal which has an enormous amount of useful information and lists hundreds of gardening blogs to explore. When you find a kitchen gardening site you like, don’t just read what’s already there, ask questions. Most gardening web sites’ owners are happy to help with your gardening problems.

Daniel Gasteiger, the original CitySlipper, blogs to help people grow produce at home. His web site, Home Kitchen Garden teaches about all facets of growing things to eat in your own space. His other web site, Small Kitchen Garden explores vegetable and fruit gardening for people with limited space.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Daniel_Gasteiger
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Fruit Trees For a Small Garden
By John Ingham

November and the months until March are the perfect time to plant fruit trees. Now that the leaves are off the trees, and the ground is not too cold, roots can establish themselves without any burden of feeding the tree. And in northern latitudes fruit trees are all deciduous, they lose their leaves in the winter.

Why plant fruit trees? Apart from the fact that many are very beautiful they are also extremely useful and help us to make our personal contribution to reducing climate change. Fruit, or for that matter vegetables, grown on our own piece of land reduce CO2 emissions. Avoiding delivery from far flung orchards or distant countries means no use of oil and no greenhouse gases.

In my own small garden the fruit tree of most importance is my Bramley apple. This is large enough to sit under in the summer, provide wonderful blossom in spring and a large and reliable crop of cooking apples each autumn. All winter I can watch birds moving onto it and through it to find a seemingly inexhaustible supply of food. What more could anyone ask from a single tree?

The range of fruit trees suitable for a garden is enormous. Most types of fruit, be they apples, pears, cherries, plums, damsons or gages have been grafted onto rootstocks to control their heights. This is a process where the top of the tree, above the graft, is the variety you want for its fruit but the bottom, below the graft, has been chosen for its vigour. The same variety, a Bramley apple for instance, may be available on very dwarf, dwarf, semi dwarf, semi vigorous or vigorous rootstock allowing you to choose the one which suits your garden best. In addition there are trees trained in the nursery to give different shapes such as cordons, espaliers, fans, stepovers and ballerinas. Cordons, fans and espaliers are trained flat to give small trees useful as a hedge or trained on a wall. Stepovers are so low that you can literally edge a garden bed with them and ballerinas give tall thin trees. Whichever form you choose is likely to be available in a huge range of apples. The other fruit, pears etc., are also likely to be available in a considerable number of varieties. So how would you choose the type of fruit to suit you?

This of course is a very personal matter. To consider only apples, there are lots of factors, starting with taste. This is entirely a personal matter but such issues as time of fruiting, ease of growing (some varieties are far more fussy and may need lots of spraying to produce decent crops – anathema to the organic gardener), whether dessert or cooking or both, ease of storage and pollination group should be considered. Get these wrong and you may have plenty of years to regret your mistake.

The best place to start is with a gardening book and one or more catalogues. There are many reliable nurseries with free catalogues of fruit trees which have been developed from ancient times to the present. But before you start looking at them you would be well advised to think about which varieties taste best. Then the finished size of the tree and lastly the pollination group. Some trees are self pollinating but most will need another tree flowering at the same time if they are to produce fruit. Some indeed, such as my Bramley, need two other pollinators flowering at the same time and these would usually have to be within around 100metres of my tree for the bees to travel between them. In towns or near orchards this is rarely a problem but with more remote gardens you may have to plant more than one tree to get decent amounts of fruit. Again a good book and a decent catalogue will help you out here.

After you have planted your tree don’t expect a crop for the first year. If it produces a small one you should probably remove it as soon as you see the fruit set and leave the tree to gather its strength during that first crucial year. Water it well in dry spells during the first couple of summers and get ready to wrestle with the joys of pruning. It is quite possible to get crops without pruning but better crops produced more frequently, ie yearly instead of every two years, are more likely if you learn the beginnings of the art.I would always recommend referring to the Royal Horticultural Society, www.rhs.org.uk, for books and information on the subject.

Fruit tree catalogues in the UK can be obtained from www.frankmatthews.com or www.kenmuir.co.uk. Googling will produce very many more fruit nursery addresses.

The Author, John Ingham, works for Impact Plants providing large trees, hedges and living green screens throughout the UK. He also provides free advice.
Impact Plants can be viewed at http:www.impactplants.co.uk

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Ingham
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8 Allotment and Gardening Tips
By James Middleton

The following allotment and gardening tips are in no particular order. They cover little things that I have discovered along the way that help save time, money, effort and heart-break on my allotment.

1. Utilising damp areas – Build a well

   If you have an area on your allotment garden that, after rain, takes a long time to dry out, why not try this…Take a plastic barrel. Drill holes in the sides of the (about 1 every 2 ins square). Dig a deep hole (3ft x 3ft and 4ft deep) and place the barrel in it. Fill the remaining gaps around the outside of the barrel with pea gravel. Cover barrel will paving slab. The well will drawn dampness from surrounding site.

2. Keeping the slugs aways

   Make a visit to your local coffee shop and ask for the spent coffee grounds. Many cafés such as Starbucks have bins full of the stuff, ready for your garden. Sprinkle the coffee grounds in a 1-3cm thick layer around the bases of a vulnerable plant. Both the scent of the coffee and the texture as it dries puts slugs and snails from crossing onto your plant. The grounds will also slightly raise the acid level in the soil and increase fertility.

3. Raise your soil levels

   Instead of planting and sowing your crops into large open beds, makes lots of smaller raised beds. Excavated paths and put surplus soil onto bed. Use wood, bricks or logs to shore in the raised soil. Although you loose a little more ground with walkways, because the beds are smaller (ie 3ft by 6ft, 8inch high) it is far easier to access all parts without treading on the well cultured soil. You can also get away with planting a lot of plant a little closer together than you would with a larger none- raised bed. Generally, raised beds offer greater productivity despite the loss of growing area.

4. Free compost

   To increase the quality of your soil, its a good idea to try to include as much organic materials as you can. Although making your own compost is an excellent way of utilising unwanted kitchen waste, it is a slow process and very little compost is produced. Contact your local council and ask them if they offer free ‘green waste’ delivery. Many will dump lorry loads of steaming, rich, dark composted organic matter on your allotment for free.

5. Keep your seeds fresh

   If you haven’t used all of the many packets of seeds that you bought for your allotment this year, it’s a good idea to put them in a box and store them in the fridge for next year. This should slow down the natural degradation of the seed, resulting in a better chance of high germination for next year.

6. Keep of the soil!

   Never walk on soil that you wish to grow your crops in. Doing so damages the natural structuring of the soil and compresses it, making it difficult to dig and weed. Good soil should be teaming with bacteria and worms. Trampling on it will reduce the diversity of life in it and in term, affect fertility levels. If you need to cross a patch, use a good plank of wood to distribute your body weight. The soil will compress slightly, but not enough to cause any real harm to your soil.

7. The keyhole composter method

   An excellent way to both increase soil quality and raise good strong growth is to build a keyhole. Out of chicken mesh, form a tube (1-2ft wide, 2-3ft high). Bank up soil around it until the soil reaches the top of the tube. Place bricks around the mound to keep the soil in. Put all of your orangic waste into the tube and plant your crops in the mound. As the organic material rots, liquids will leech out into the mound feeding your plants. As a by-product of this method, you also will be producing good, well drained compost. It is a good idea, when constructing the mound to leave a wedge out (like a slice out of a cake), to allow for easy access, causing the structure to look like a ‘keyhole’.

8. Natural insecticide and weed killer!

   Many of us grow rhubarb and are aware that the leaf part of the plant is very poisonous to humans. You can use the toxic qualities of this garden favourite to produce insecticide. Boil up the leaves in water, add some soap flakes, allow to cool and spray to kill most leaf eating insects. You can also use the fresh leaves to suppress and kill weeds. Cut and lay them on paths – the poisons will leech out and kill weeds, whilst starving them of light. More facts about rhubarb – http://www.rhubarbinfo.com/rhubarb-uses.html

Right! That will keep you going for the time being. Visit again for the next instalment.

James Middleton

http://www.theallotmentgarden.co.uk

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Growing Your Own Vegetables
By Simon Egan-Smith

Growing your own vegetables is a very pleasant pastime, which also has many positive benefits such as: healthier food (you know what chemicals, if any, have been used), exercise, working outdoors etc. Growing your own vegetables is also a great activity for all the family to join in with, as it helps children have a better understanding of how nature works, and where food comes from.

Many people think that growing your own vegetables requires a lot of space. While this is certainly true if you are looking to provide a variety of vegetables for the family every day of the year. It is not true if you are growing your own vegetables to provide some fresh vegetables to supplement your grocery shopping. As an example 4 or so runner bean (Pole Bean) plants in a container on the patio will supply more than enough beans for a family of four for a couple of months.

Another example of how growing your own can be done in a small space would be have two or three cherry tomato plants in a growbag against a South facing wall (North facing if in the Southern Hemisphere). Not only will these provide food to eat but will also add colour to the garden.

However if you are growing your own vegetables to provide fresh produce on a daily basis throughout the year, then you will need to set aside part of your garden for this . If your garden is not large enough to allow you to do this apply for an allotment (UK). This means that you will be able to grow a much wider variety of vegetables and to have the chance of having seasonal vegetables available throughout the year.

When it comes to vegetables every country in the world has different varieties that grow best in their particular climate, indeed in some countries a particular vegetable that grows well in one part, will not grow at all in another as the climate and environment is different. It is here that some of the excitement comes into growing your own, as you can experiment with different varieties of vegetable from different parts of the world to see what you can and can’t grow, it will also need experimentation to create different growing conditions for these unusual varieties for your climate.

In the UK the Victorians were masters of looking a particular plant from another part of the world and the providing a means to create the right growing conditions for that particular plant. These methods include: hotbeds, sunken gardens, walled gardens, raised beds, hothouses and cold houses etc.

I am not suggesting that you have to go to these lengths, but trying to give you a glimpse of the variety of possibilities available to you for growing your own vegetables.

http://www.growingyourownveg.com

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Economic Gardening – Value Your Money
By Ilango Chokalingam

Gardening is considered a hobby for most of us. Planting seeds and growing them is a way to calm you from the pressure and tension of the environment around us.

Keeping a good garden ensures a fresh mind and a happy living. Time has its own value and just for the sake of relaxation, gardening is not entertained in the recent trend.

That is why the concept of this economic gardening came into existence.

It is a method by which economically valuable plants are grown with the space available and make the most out of them. In simpler terms, it is a hobby for those who want it as a hobby and a money yielding business for those who really want to make a living out of it.

To make this type of gardening successful, adequate planning is needed. The interrelationships of plants and their co-existence, shade tolerance, growth conditions, seasons are also considered.
Here are few methods to help have a happy garden.

The Raised Bed

By growing plants in an environment suitable for them to grow and then transplanting them to the field is the best practice that yields the maximum result. This type is usually followed in farming. Nevertheless, it can be used in gardening. Choosing the right plant, for example the onions and tomatoes, they may grow differently. Onion may require stagnant water while tomatoes may need water but not stagnant. Growing them together will degrade the output. Therefore, taking them to grow on beds, which are boxes filled with fertile sand and seeds are planted and grown well. Seeds can be purchased for few dollars but the output is so good that you have the vegetables home before anyone else have them. As the plant saplings reach a height of 10 to 12 inches, they are ready to face the gardening atmosphere. Now transferring them onto fields or green houses will ensure the result is extremely high.

Vertical Gardening

This method is highly successful for smaller gardening space. This involves the use of cages, nets or strings. Some plants like cucumber, tomatoes entwine themselves onto some support to grow. So, using a vertical stick or a cage and planting these plants will make them grow on to the support in a vertical fashion. These may even look prettier to keep as house decorative items. Also they consume lesser space and take less time to maintain.

Interplanting

Planting several types of crops together is interplanting. For example, onions and pepper can be planting together with no diminishing results. In addition, radishes and carrots are planted together. Before carrots mature, radishes can be harvested. This interplanting is usually done by placing alternate rows of plants. Plants like legumes, beans, restore the nutrients to the soil they grow. So plants with high nutrient needs can be grown together with these, preserving the soil fertility as well as saving your money.

Gardening is a way of developing ourselves patience. It calms the mind, brings fresh air and makes body more flexible. By choosing economically valuable crops and growing them, it even makes gardening better way of living. If it is properly done, excessive amount of harvest can yield a subsidiary income to the family. Happy family is all we want. Let the happiness begin from our garden.

With the arrival of spring and summer, many people are ready to shed the winter blues and start planning their garden.

For many this will mean a trip to the local nursery to buy the needed plants. Others will be planting their seeds and growing their own plants.

Visit http://gardening.bignewspool.com for detailed instructions how to plan your garden and much more Information about gardening.

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http://EzineArticles.com/?Economic-Gardening—Value-Your-Money&id=1727186

Container Vegetable Gardening
By John Yazo

Container Vegetable Gardening is an ideal solution when you don’t have a yard to plant a garden and is also a way of gardening to add versatility to your yard.

Container gardening can be done to add accent or dimension to the landscape with the planting of vegetables or flowers. You can create the same effects with vegetables as you would with the planting of flowers. Just arrange the pots or containers that you plant with vegetables as you would if you were planting flowers. There are large varieties of colors and sizes of vegetable plants as there is in flowering plants.

Planters that can be used for container planting are endless. If it is strong enough to hold soil mix and plants you want to grow it can be used. Just make sure there are holes in the base of the container or pot for water to drain from.The most common types of planters that are used are your standard indoor plant pots.They are usually made of clay, ceramic, plastic or wood and are purchased at your local garden center or department store.

Soil mix for container planting should be a light weight mix. Soilless potting mix is the best for container planting because of it’s ability to aerate well and retain moisture. Soilless potting mix is usually a blend of peat, perlite and or vermiculite.

The planting of plants or seeds in containers is done the same way as would be done in a garden. Just follow the instruction that come with the plants or on the seed packet. The location that the containers are placed is also important. Read the instruction for location needed for what you are planting. Some plants need full sun, partial sun or even shade.

Watering of plants in containers needs to be checked on a daily bases. Containers don’t hold the volume of moisture as would be retained in garden soil with a good soil structure. Usually containers need to be watered daily if not every other day. Temperature and rainfall amounts are the two main factors in when watering and how much is needed. Keep the soil in the containers moist at all times.

Nutrients in the soil also need to be monitored regularly. Due to the frequent watering of container planting the nutrients can be easily washed from the soil. A slow release organic fertilizer will add the nutrients needed back in the soil.

A environment friendly and healthy way of gardening. Organic Gardening is away of gardening in harmony with nature. Growing a healthy and productive crop in a way that is healthier for both you and the environment.

John Yazo

http://www.organicheirloomgardening.com

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