Category archives: Gardening & Farming

Best Way to Water a Vegetable Garden

Some vegetables can crop even in a dry summer, while others need water throughout their growing season or at key stages for worthwhile yields. To cut down on the work and waste, concentrate on watering those crops that will benefit most.

What needs watering?

Vegetables can be divided… Continue Reading…

Best Way to Use Troughs in Your Garden

Troughs are versatile and can be used in many ways on patios, terraces and balconies. They can also be secured to bland walls to create color. Here are a few ways to use them for instant, short-cut effects.

  • Position troughs at the edges of flat roofs. Use a

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Best Way to Use Space Efficiently in Your Vegetable Garden

In a small vegetable plot it is particularly important that you use every space to its best advantage. Try not to leave areas vacant and plan ahead so that when one crop is harvested another can be planted out to reoccupy the space. The five main techniques for using space… Continue Reading…

Best Way to Use Herbs in Your Bedroom

Nosegays or tussie-mussies – posies consisting of aromatic herbs and flowers – were popular from medieval times, not only because of their ability to disguise unlovely smells but also because they were thought to protect the holder from serious diseases. They were also used for declarations of love, since all… Continue Reading…

Best Way to Use Herbs as Ground Cover

Many low-growing herbs can be effective in the ornamental garden as ground cover. Creeping thyme, for example, makes a flat green mat of foliage, and in summer offers its small mauve blooms for extra show. In a border it hugs the ground at the feet of taller plants, suppressing weeds… Continue Reading…

Best Way to Use Essential Oils

Essential oils are usually extracted from plants by a process of steam distillation. This process is difficult to do at home, as it requires specialized equipment, painstaking labour, and huge quantities of plant material. For example, it takes about 200 kg (440 pounds) of fresh lavender flowers to produce 1… Continue Reading…

Best Way to Use Cloches and Frost Protection to Grow Vegetables

A Gardening Which? trial found that soil temperatures could be 2°C higher under a cloche than outside, and this means that crops such as lettuces were about ten days more advanced. Cloches also protect plants and soil from heavy rain and wind.

The two main structures used to protect plants… Continue Reading…

Best Way to Understand the Soil in Your Garden

While almost all soils can be improved to make them suitable for growing vegetables, you need to know what type of soil you have to start with.

Texture

To find out more about your soil, simply dig a couple of holes in the ground and look at the soil that… Continue Reading…

Best Way to Understand the Growing Conditions for Herbs

Success with growing herbs in the garden improves when you plant them in the growing conditions they prefer – that is, the soil and site of their natural habitat. Many herbs prefer well-drained or very well-drained soil. Those such as lavender that are at home in the wild on rocky… Continue Reading…

Best Way to Treat Different Kinds of Skin Problems with Herbs

Rashes and other skin irritations

Various soothing herbs may provide some relief for irritated or itchy skin. Witch hazel is recommended to soothe rashes and other skin irritations: use the bark for tinctures and ointments, and the bark and leaves for an infusion that you can apply as a… Continue Reading…