Many people may not be aware that gardening can actually harm the environment.  A large amount of carbon dioxide can be released through tilling the soil.  This contributes to global warming.  When you cultivating and compacting the soil, destroys good fungi.  Fertilizers like nitrogen and manure often leach out of the soil and pollute the water you drink.

Global warming

Did you know that the earth’s soil gives out carbon dioxide in the atmosphere 10 times more than all human activity?  This comes from the pill bugs, microbes, fungi and worms when they breathe, digest food and then die. Although in the past plants have been capable of absorbing carbon dioxide caused by small-scale tillages, this isn’t the case nowadays. 
The increase of the globe’s average temperature is because of the carbon dioxide the soil emits when tilled. The good news is that tilling can be minimized by mulching or sheet composting.

Good Fungi

In untilled soil, there is beneficial fungi known as the vesicular-arbuscular-mycorrhizae or VAM for short. VAM actually forms a symbiotic relationship with plants.  Their filaments increase root hairs and provide nutrients to the plant.  They give out zinc, copper, potassium and phosphorus.  Plants provide carbohydrates for the fungi in return.  It is possible to grow a garden without tilling the soil at all by mulching heavily until the soil is soft and friable.

Surplus Nitrogen

Many gardeners waste nitrogen and manures; farmers do otherwise. Farmers only need a quarter to a third of nitrogen to mix with an inch of compost, horse, or cow manure.  Kate Burroughs of Sebastopol California, uses the same rule for her home-grown lettuce and sweet corns. When it comes to broccoli and pear trees, farmers only need a small amount.  Notice that gardeners apply larger amounts of compost and manure than farmers. Obviously, they are not only wasting their fertilizer but also their money. 

The best gardening advice that can be given to those concerned is to do all things with moderation. Keep in mind that too little and too much of something is not healthy. This is the most valuable advice one can have in gardening.

We have picked out 4 great gardening e-books for you and then slashed the price to less than most places charge for just one.

As you can see from the picture above we are offering the following titles

Gardening Tips That Really Work

1. 155 pages of tips, and information to help you plan and cultivate the perfect garden including .
2. Situation and laying out your garden Chapter 1
3. How to make the best of Greenhouses and Hotbeds Chapter 2
4. Growing vegetables and herbs Chapter 4
5. Fruit growing, from planting to picking Chapter 5
6. Flower gardens, and ornamental gardening ideas

Also includes tips for fencing and soil preparation to help you make the most of your garden area.

Your Perfect Lawn

The ultimate guide to acheiving perfect trouble free lawns. Discover how to:

1. Choose the correct grass seed to start your lawn off the right way
2. How to lay turf for a faster start to a great looking lawn.
3. How to keep your lawn in shape throughout the hot summer months.

And much much more….

Your Garden

Your garden is a handy companion to the above books covering subjects as diverse as

1. Improving the soil to encourage growth of your plants
2. Water features from ponds to water gardens
3. Repairing tree damage before it becomes a dangerous eyesore

And more..

Growing Greenhouses

Your guide to growing plants in your own greenhouse. Learn the experts secrets to keeping your greenhouse plants in tip top condition….

1. Discover the different types of greenhouse, and how they work to trap heat
2. Find out what tools you will need to run a successful greenhouse

And many other tips for the greenhouse gardener.

Any one of the above e-books on their own will sell for $10 and above (at least one has been selling for as much as $27 on its own) meaning this package has a value of over $40 but we aren’t going to ask you to pay $40 or even $27 not even for the whole set, in fact this four pack gardening e-books set can be yours today for just

Order now through Paypal

If you are currently trying to plant trees in order to shade your garden, you will probably want something that grows very fast and provides plenty of shade. With the many types of trees available, you will have no problem finding a variety that will grow extremely fast and provide all the shade that your garden needs to survive. There are also many things you can do to speed up the growth of trees.

Generally trees are separated into two categories: long lived and short lived. If you are just looking for some temporary shade for your garden, you should stick to a short lived tree. But if you plan on keeping it for years, go for a long lived tree.

If you decide on a short lived plant, you are probably looking for something with speedy growth. This means the root system will be particularly aggressive, so be sure not to place it near any septic tanks or other deep rooted plants. If the roots have plenty of area to grow, then they will shoot out extremely fast and your tree will take off in growth. Your placement should also be based on the tree’s relative position to the area you are wanting to shade. You should keep it to the western or southern sides for maximum shading.

Preparing your soil well for the shade trees can be the best way to enhance the plant growth speed. The bigger hole you dig for the root ball, the better. Also when you dig out the soil from the hole, you should work it over well before you replace it. This will allow the roots to penetrate through the soil better. If you mix in all your fertilizer and nutrients to the soil before you replace it, you will end up with a superior tree. Also try to use organic materials as mulch. Bark and any branches or twigs work well for this, and will encourage the quick growth.

When you buy your shade tree, it will usually come with the root ball balled up and in a burlap bag. It might also be grown in a container or simply with bare roots. If you get a tree in a burlap bag, you should plant it anywhere between fall and early spring. Trees grown in containers are ok to plant at almost any time of the year. If the tree just has bare roots, then the ideal planting time is anytime in winter and early spring. If you buy a tree that has been grown in a container, make sure that the roots are not constricted by the container. This will usually cause the roots to go in circles underground after you plant it. After you buy the tree and before you plant it, be sure to constantly add moisture to it.

The ideal planting process would include putting it in the ground at the proper depth, and replacing the soil without compressing it too much. Immediately after planting, you should give the tree its first watering before putting the layer of mulch on. You should always use organic mulch, and have a 2 or 3 inch layer of it at the base of your tree.

You should always use nitrogen fertilizer during the first segment of the tree’s life. Simply follow the instructions on the label in order to find out exactly how much to apply and when to apply it. Never apply too much fertilizer while the tree is young. You should usually wait until it has been established for about a year. The fertilizer that you do add should be sufficiently watered down.

If you are trying to grow a tree speedily, there are many more things that you need to consider. However, with proper planning you can create the perfect environment for the tree to spring right up and provide you with plenty of shade within months.

If you’re thinking about starting a garden, the first thing you need to consider is what type of garden you will have. There are many different choices and often it can be hard to pick just one, but hopefully you can narrow it down. But by narrowing it down, you’ll make the gardening experience easier on yourself and the plants. If all your plants are similar, then it shouldn’t be very hard to care for them all. So here are some of the main garden ideas for you to choose from.

If you’re just looking for something to look nice in your yard, you’ll want a flower garden. These are usually filled with perennial flower. Perennial flowers are flowers which stay healthy year-round. They’re basically weeds because of their hardiness, only nice looking. Different areas and climates have different flowers which are considered perennials. If you do a quick internet search for your area, you can probably find a list of flowers that will bring your flower garden to life. These usually only require work in the planting stage - after that, the flower take care of themselves. The only downside to this is that you don’t have any product to show for it.

Another choice for your garden is to have a vegetable garden. These usually require a little more work and research than a flower garden, but can be much more rewarding. No matter what time of the year it is, you can usually find one vegetable that is still prospering. That way you can have your garden be giving you produce almost every day of the year! When starting a vegetable garden, you should build it with the thought in mind that you will be adding more types of veggies in later. This will help your expandability. Once all your current crops are out of season, you won’t be stuck with almost nowhere to put the new crops. A vegetable garden is ideal for someone who wants some produce, but doesn’t want to devote every waking hour to perfecting their garden (see below.)

One of the more difficult types of gardens to manage is a fruit garden. It’s definitely the most high-maintenance. When growing fruits, many more pests will be attracted due to the sweetness. You not only have to deal with having just the right dirt and fertilizer, you have to deal with choosing a pesticide that won’t kill whoever eats the fruits. Your fruit garden will probably not produce year-round. The soil needs to be just right for the plants to grow, and putting in another crop during its off-season could be disastrous to its growth process. If you’re willing to put lots of work into maintaining a garden, then a fruit garden could be a good choice for you.

So now that I’ve outlined some of the main garden types that people choose, I hope you can make a good decision. Basically, the garden type comes down to what kind of product you want, and how much work you want to put into it. If you’re looking for no product with no work, go with a flower garden. If you want lots of delicious product, but you are willing to spend hours in your garden each day, then go for a fruit garden. Just make sure you don’t get into something you can’t handle!

If you have a problem with birds, you have probably tried many solutions. Some of the most popular include plastic animals, scarecrows, wind chimes, or highly reflective tape. All of these things can do a great job of reducing bird problems. I have quite a few cherry trees in my backyard, and I used to struggle a lot with birds. After I applied all of these solutions, my problem went almost completely away. Unfortunately, the solution only lasted a few months.

Apparently, birds have a natural tendency to get bolder as time goes by. While at first my scarecrow scared them senseless, now I look outside and see them sitting on his shoulder. And munching on cherries from my tree. Those insolent little fiends! I’m not saying I mind birds. I love having them around my yard. But you see, I’ve already designated one tree specifically for allowing birds to eat off of. But it seems that birds can’t be content with what they’re given. They always feel the need to go over to my own trees when there is a tree just for them that doesn’t have any scary things around it.

I saw many gardening stores marketing a type of bird netting. I decided to use it. Bird netting is basically a giant net that you throw over the entire tree. The holes are about one half of an inch wide. I purchased enough of this to cover one whole tree. It was quite a hassle to install, but it definitely worked after that. I didn’t have any more problems with birds taking cherries from that tree. But one day I woke up and made my daily rounds. On that day, I found 2 birds caught in the netting that had been choked to death. I felt absolutely terrible. I buried the birds and immediately took down that netting. I didn’t want to protect my tree at the cost of the birds’ lives! Sure, I’ll kill off a few bugs, but birds are a little too nice for me.

For a while I felt too guilty to prevent the birds from eating any more. I thought that I would make it up to them by letting them feast on my cherries. I even took down my scarecrow. But a few months later I saw something in a fabric store that made me rethink my generosity. Almost every fabric store sells a material called “tulle”. It is very fine netting with holes too small for any bird to fit its beak or head into. While it is easy to find, it is also extremely cheap. Buying enough to cover one tree ended up costing less than half of what it cost for the lethal bird netting.

I installed the tulle onto my tree (I’ll admit it was a lot harder to install than the bird netting was. I had to attach several large pieces together at the seams) and watched it for a day. I wanted to keep an eye on it every second, so that if a bird got caught I could quickly help it out. Fortunately, no bird ever got caught. Tulle is a much safer and cheaper alternative to bird netting, and I suggest it if you have any problems with birds. Just remember to let them have at least one tree for themselves! Sharing with birds is an essential part of being a good gardener.

Healthy hands are the Gardener’s Best Tools

Here are the major reasons why one should consider getting a pair of trusty gardening gloves:

Gloves protect your hands from blisters, thorns and cuts while doing rough work like digging or pruning in the garden. Investing in one or more pairs of quality gloves is a good decision.

Here are some tips on how to choose the pair that will suit you best:  
1. Look for quality leather gloves with a cloth back; this will let the gloves breathe and keep your hands dry, cool and comfortable.

2. If mud bothers you, select rubber gloves with cotton lining.

3. When spraying pesticides or chemicals choose gloves that are made from neoprene. Gloves made from latex or any type of plastic may not offer the best protection.

4. When pruning roses, use gloves that reach up to the arms.

5. If you usually operate large garden machinery, buy gloves in brown instead of red as the latter may dye your hands.

6. Light cotton or even fingerless gloves may be useful for transplanting seedlings. They will allow more dexterity and so help to prevent the tiny roots from being crushed.

7. And of course, make sure that the gloves you buy actually fit your hands. If you have small hands, try the children’s gardening section. there’s nothing worse than trying to garden is gloves that are too big.

Your gloves must be comfortable as well as give protection to best serve your gardening needs.

Growing Organic Berries

Growing organic berries is a very popular choice for most organic gardeners, especially in climates with good rainfall. Berries are mostly hardy and will grow without need of pesticides or chemical fertilizers, making them a great choice for the larger organic garden.

To suit the spirit of the organic garden, choose berries that are native to your country or a similar climate, and keep as close as possible to the wild variety. Many cultivated varieties have been hybridized to produce large crops of heavy, watery fruit which means more profits for the large-scale grower but has very little of the flavor of the wild fruit. Stay away from these commercial varieties where you can.

Blackberry

Thorny wild blackberry bushes grow so well in the right climate that many people struggle to keep brambles out of their gardens. This is a very invasive plant and once introduced it is hard to control, with long trailing branches and far-spreading suckers.

The cultivated blackberry is almost thornless and non-invasive but the fruit does not have the same sharp sweet flavor.

Blueberry

Choose your variety carefully - there are many of them, and some are much more flavorsome than others. The two main strains of blueberry are Highbush (growing to about 6 ft tall) and Rabbiteye, but within each of those categories there are several different varieties. Highbush types will do better in cooler climates with regular frosts. Rabbiteye can handle hotter drier summers and heavier, less acid soil.

You can expect a small crop from the second year, steadily increasing until year five onward when the bush is mature. At that time it will start to need annual pruning.

Blueberries can also produce a wonderful display of fall colors. Take this into account when you are selecting your site.

Cranberry

The cranberry is a very nutritious, sour-tasting fruit with well-documented health benefits especially for urinary tract infections.  It needs acidic, peaty soil. Like strawberries, cranberries grow close to the ground. The fruit makes good jelly, and you can also add it to juices, smoothies and desserts.

Chilean Cranberry

Despite its name, this plant is not related to the cranberry. It grows as an evergreen shrub producing a good crop of small sweet red berries with a flavor similar to strawberries. It is hardy, surviving frost well. It could make a very productive, delicious and unusual addition to your organic garden. Planting several bushes in a row will create a decorative low hedge.

The Chilean cranberry has many different common names including uni, murta and murtilla in Chile (its native country), New Zealand cranberry or tazziberry in Australasia, and Chilean guava. Look for the botanical names Ugni molinae, Myrtus ugni and Eugenia ugni.

Currants

Black currants, red currants and white currants all grow as bushes. They are very nutritious fruit with black currants in particular containing high levels of vitamin C.

Black currant bushes are not attractive and do not respond well to pruning, but the fruit has a stronger taste. Red and white currants can be pruned, even into a shaped topiary display, although topiary could look a little out of place in an organic garden.

The long sprigs of red fruit make the red currant very attractive at harvest time. White currants are more unusual. If you have enough space, mix red and white currant bushes, or even all three. The resulting fruit will make a delicious, healthy and very attractive mixture of berries.

Gooseberry

Gooseberry bushes were once a popular feature of many gardens in England but with the increase in other sweeter imported berries they are becoming less common. They can be an acid fruit unless picked very ripe, so home-grown gooseberries that you can eat right away are much better than store-bought. They are usually green but some varieties are almost yellow when ripe. There is also a red variety.

Raspberry

Raspberries are grown on canes and require a lot of care but will pay you back well with large crops of delicious fruit. There are several varieties, each suited to a different climate, so take advice on what is best for your garden. Expect to spend time tying branches, dealing with suckers, mulching, watering and getting scratched.

Raspberries will not flourish near plants of the nightshade family (potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants or peppers) or in soil where those plants have been grown in the last couple years.

Strawberry

The wild strawberry is a tiny fruit with a strong, intensely sweet flavor that can grow well in sunny, rocky, well-drained sites, for example between the stones of a path.

Cultivated strawberries require more work but can produce a lot of fruit. For an organic garden you will probably want an old variety such as Captain Cook with medium to small sized flavorsome berries, closer to wild strawberries than the huge watery fruit that we often find in stores.

Managing Berries In Your Garden

Birds love most varieties of berries and will steal them before they ripen so if you want a good crop, you will have to cover your bushes with net while the berries are ripening. Strawberries are especially vulnerable and you may want to enclose them in a bird-proof cage.

When planting, choose your sites with care. Most berries prefer a sunny spot to ripen and develop their fullest flavor. You will want a place that is sheltered without being in constant shade. Do not plant bushes too close to a fence or hedge - you will need to be able to get all around them to harvest your growing organic berries, without being scratched to pieces!

Even in the tiniest backyard, roof garden, paved patio or even a balcony, you can create a beautiful natural space with organic container gardening. People who have a bigger yard also use containers for sensitive plants that need to be brought indoors in the winter. Container gardens are for most everybody!

Containers have the advantage that they protect the plants from many ground-based pests. Slugs who would be all over your flowers in the garden beds are much less likely to climb up into your container to reach them. Pests that attack the roots are not likely to be found in your container either, if you use organic potting soil. This is recommended because it is better aerated than garden soil and has all the nutrients that container plants need.

When using organic fertilizer and plant food on your organic container plants, be careful not to use too much. It tends to remain more concentrated in a container and it can burn the roots if overused.

Another advantage of container planting is that you can move your plants around. Young plants can be kept in sheltered spots and moved to a more exposed part of the yard when they are stronger. You may find that different parts of your garden catch the sun at different times of year, and you can rearrange your container garden accordingly.

You can also move plants around to provide a good display visible from your windows at all times of year, and to create a garden that is always well arranged with bigger plants at the back. You will not have the problem of something that you planted overshadowing everything else because it grew bigger than you expected!

You can operate a container garden on a shoestring budget. Plants will grow in anything that can contain soil and has drainage holes in the base. This can include wooden buckets and tubs that you can drill holes in, barrels, rain water tubs, and even old kitchen sinks, basins and bathtubs.

To keep your garden organic, you need to consider the material that the containers are made from. Avoid the types of plastic that may leak chemicals into the soil. Be sure that wooden containers have not been weatherproofed with non-organic treatments.

It is important to choose the right size of container for each plant. A container should be about the same width as the full-grown plant, and slightly taller than the length of its roots. You can grow most vegetables in containers and also many fruits including strawberries and tomatoes.

Plants in containers need more water than those that are planted out in the garden. This is because they cannot draw water up from deep in the ground. If you are away on vacation in summer, it is best to have someone come and water your containers every day.

Many people like to use hanging containers too. This is great if you have an overhanging outdoor porch, or if you can fix extending hooks onto your walls. Hanging baskets provide excellent drainage and the plants will get plenty of air to the roots. Summer-flowering annuals with trailing flowers are ideally suited to baskets.

If you are limited for space or want the flexibility that containers offer for your organic vegetables, fruits and flowers, organic container gardening is the perfect choice.

Any reliable seed house can be depended upon for good seeds; but even so, there is a great risk in seeds. A seed may to all appearances be all right and yet not have within it vitality enough, or power, to produce a hardy plant.

If you save seed from your own plants you are able to choose carefully. Suppose you are saving seed of aster plants. What blossoms shall you decide upon? Now it is not the blossom only which you must consider, but the entire plant. Why? Because a weak, straggly plant may produce one fine blossom. Looking at that one blossom so really beautiful you think of the numberless equally lovely plants you are going to have from the seeds. But just as likely as not the seeds will produce plants like the parent plant.

So in seed selection the entire plant is to be considered. Is it sturdy, strong, well shaped and symmetrical; does it have a goodly number of fine blossoms? These are questions to ask in seed selection.

If you should happen to have the opportunity to visit a seedsman’s garden, you will see here and there a blossom with a string tied around it. These are blossoms chosen for seed. If you look at the whole plant with care you will be able to see the points which the gardener held in mind when he did his work of selection.

 In seed selection size is another point to hold in mind. Now we know no way of telling anything about the plants from which this special collection of seeds came. So we must give our entire thought to the seeds themselves. It is quite evident that there is some choice; some are much larger than the others; some far plumper, too. By all means choose the largest and fullest seed. The reason is this: When you break open a bean and this is very evident, too, in the peanut you see what appears to be a little plant. So it is. Under just the right conditions for development this ‘little chap’ grows into the bean plant you know so well.

This little plant must depend for its early growth on the nourishment stored up in the two halves of the bean seed. For this purpose the food is stored. Beans are not full of food and goodness for you and me to eat, but for the little baby bean plant to feed upon. And so if we choose a large seed, we have chosen a greater amount of food for the plantlet. This little plantlet feeds upon this stored food until its roots are prepared to do their work. So if the seed is small and thin, the first food supply insufficient, there is a possibility of losing the little plant.

You may care to know the name of this pantry of food. It is called a cotyledon if there is but one portion, cotyledons if two. Thus we are aided in the classification of plants. A few plants that bear cones like the pines have several cotyledons. But most plants have either one or two cotyledons.

 From large seeds come the strongest plantlets. That is the reason why it is better and safer to choose the large seed. It is the same case exactly as that of weak children. 

There is often another trouble in seeds that we buy. The trouble is impurity. Seeds are sometimes mixed with other seeds so like them in appearance that it is impossible to detect the fraud. Pretty poor business, is it not? The seeds may be unclean. Bits of foreign matter in with large seed are very easy to discover. One can merely pick the seed over and make it clean. By clean is meant freedom from foreign matter. But if small seed are unclean, it is very difficult, well nigh impossible, to make them clean.

The third thing to look out for in seed is viability. We know from our testings that seeds which look to the eye to be all right may not develop at all. There are reasons. Seeds may have been picked before they were ripe or mature; they may have been frozen; and they may be too old. Seeds retain their viability or germ developing power, a given number of years and are then useless. There is a viability limit in years which differs for different seeds. 

From the test of seeds we find out the germination percentage of seeds. Now if this percentage is low, don’t waste time planting such seed unless it be small seed. Immediately you question that statement. Why does the size of the seed make a difference? This is the reason. When small seed is planted it is usually sown in drills. Most amateurs sprinkle the seed in very thickly. So a great quantity of seed is planted. And enough seed germinates and comes up from such close planting. So quantity makes up for quality.

But take the case of large seed, like corn for example. Corn is planted just so far apart and a few seeds in a place. With such a method of planting the matter of per cent, of germination is most important indeed.

Small seeds that germinate at fifty per cent. may be used but this is too low a per cent. for the large seed. Suppose we test beans. The percentage is seventy. If low-vitality seeds were planted, we could not be absolutely certain of the seventy per cent coming up. But if the seeds are lettuce go ahead with the planting.

There is nothing nicer than receiving a gift relating to one’s passion. If your loved one’s passion is gardening, then show your thoughtfulness by giving a gift that will be truly appreciated.
There are so many great gardening gifts that the only constraint is your own budget.

If your budget is small, go for things like gloves, kneepads or even a shady hat. A pretty pot (or a watering-can) filled with a small bag of potting mix, a packet of bulbs, some gloves and a small trowel or other tool will be received with delight by most gardeners. There are many hand tools at hardware stores that are reasonably priced.

If you feel that is too ordinary, how about a subscription to a gardening magazine? A tiny bit more expensive perhaps, but it will give twelve full months of delight. A book on gardening is another idea, but make sure your recipient does not already have the one you choose. Books are often heavily discounted at Christmas time, so you may get a bargain.

On the other hand, a pot that contains a flowering plant is usually a welcomed gift. Be sure to choose a plant that is suited to your climate. Sometimes plants are sent from tropical to temperate zones and kept in artificial conditions in the store. These plants will not do well once taken from their environment. Shrub roses are hardy and attractive and grow in many climates. Tulips do best in the cooler climate.

If your budget is strong, a more expensive tool may be appropriate. A pull-trolley is easier to use than a wheelbarrow and, like some electric tools, is still not terribly expensive. Small electric tools such as whipper-snippers can retail for as little as $20.00. Or if your friend has a hose but not a hose reel, then that would be a more useful gift that he would truly appreciate.

Automatic lawn mowers, electric cultivators, hedge trimmers and brush cutters are in the more expensive price range and you are the only one who can decide whether that is an appropriate gift. However, when the recipient realizes you have given a gift that complements his passion, expensive or not, it will certainly become the best gift
your friend has ever received.