Southern Garden
Houston is a unique year round southern garden
Houston is a unique style of the southern garden because of our location to the Gulf coast. Our climate is a mixture of the hot humid south and the tropics of Mexico. This gives us rich year round possibilities for gardening. Even in the Carolinas were gardening might be 9 months out of the year, Houston is 12 months out of year gardening with freeze possibilities only lasting from January 15-February 15th. Once you address the problems of compacted soils and poor drainage, Houston can truly inspire the year round southern garden. Were else can you have your favorite beverage on the porch during Thanksgiving or Christmas in shorts?
Designing the Southern Garden
I find it so interesting how the pace of life, hobbies and interests, home styles and the way we use our homes vary in different parts of the country. As hot and miserable as Houston can be in the summer months, there are opportunities for outdoor living just about every month of the year. The key to creating a landscape design in your garden is to plan for hot humid weather so you can enjoy the garden year round. Deck and patio areas for entertaining need to have shade. Patio covers, awnings or large trees can extend the use of patios through June. If there is no way around having a full sun patio due to the orientation of your house, create multiple outdoor rooms for sitting. Use lawn areas in the shade to enjoy a hot summer beverage. With careful planning and landscape design to accommodate 100 degree weather your garden can be a place of retreat even in the heat of the summer.
Plants for the Southern Garden
In creating your southern garden landscape design, decide if want to create a formal patio with azalea hedges, camellias and flowering crepe myrtles or an informal woodland garden of pines, ornamental red buds, azalea specimens, ferns with drifts of caladiums and begonias. Be sure you have excellent drainage systems and irrigation systems as well as proper bed preparation as southern garden plants require lots of feeding, healthy soils and excellent drainage. Add in tropical flavor were you feel it is appropriate or to your liking. Maybe your traditional garden has all azalea, boxwood, camellia and holly trees with color plants comprising the tropical portion. In creating the year round color garden the traditional southern garden plants bloom in Houston starting with azaleas and spireas around February, spring includes red buds, star jasmines and Carolina jasmines and camellias. As summer continues to heat us around June, tropical plants can really help to provide variety and color through the hot summer months: Bottle brush, plumbago, Ruessellia, Katie Ruellia, bulbine, salvias, knock out and nearly wild roses. Below are some must have southern garden plants as well as exotic tropicals for Houston.
Houston Southern Plantings
Trees: Live Oak, Shummard Red Oak, Nealy Stevens Holly, Japanese Blueberry Tree, Tuscarora Crepe Myrtle, Japanese Maple, Bottle Brush, Angel Trumpet, Japanese Yew, Saucer Magnolia
Shrubs: Camelia, Azalea, Viburnum, Philodendron, Gingers, Boxwoods, nearly wild roses, knock out roses.
Perennials and Flowering Plants: Buddlea, Russelia, Angelonia, Coleus, Mealy Sage, Plumbago, Bottle Brush, Salvia Coccinea, Cross Vine, Star Jasmine
Groundcovers: holly fern, foxtail fern, Mondo Grass, Asian Jasmine, Ardisia, Agapanthus, Bulbine, Ajuga
Seasonal Color: snap dragons, pansies, petunias, geraniums, begonias, caladiums, cyclamen, pentas
Tropicals: Meditteranean Fan Palm, Canary Palm, Medjool Palm, Bottle brush, Pineapple guava, Philodendrons, Gingers, Ixora, plumbago, asparagus fern, lantana, Australian Tree Fern, Angel Trumpet, Bamboo, Foxtail Fern, Leopard Plant.
Accent Plants: Saw Palmetto, Flax, Agave, Yucca, Bird of Paradise, Dianella, Century Plant, Crinum Lily, Crotons.
Mood
Your southern garden is about creating a link to the horticultural past will creating use of spaces for today spiced with the tropics. In addition to creating stunning southern beauty, the Houston tropics can add fun and visual coolness during the hot summer months. In creating your southern garden be sure to include year round colors, textures, and scents from both the southern garden traditions and the hot tropics.
Basic Indoor hydroponics Gardening Guide – Benefits and Types of Indoor Hydroponic Systems
Efficiency in comparison to traditional soil growing systems would be one of the major advantages. Commercial production and just plain hobbyists would find that moving from regular soil growing methods to the modern Indoor Hydroponic systems to be more beneficial. Freedom from uncontrollable variables such as the weather, climate and time of day would be the most important factor over traditional growing methods. Farmers in Middle East countries would be able to grow plants such as vegetables only previously grown in tropical countries. Light and amount of growth nutrients to be absorbed by the plants could be optimized for best results without wasting any resources. Plant care could be individualized as to the amount of nutrients and light they receive at any time of the day. Plants grown in pots or plots tend to reach a growth plateau, wherein they become root bound and transplanting them is the best solution. This may present the individual with a sense of frustration and could be messy. Expert advice and appropriate planning beforehand could eliminate such unwarranted difficulties experienced with soil based planting.
Expenses made at the start of the project can be offset by the advantages in the long run. Fertilizers with their ever rocketing cost are major source of expenses in plant cultivation. Plants only take the nutrients they can absorb so maximum nutrient absorption without the risk of putting too much fertilizers is eliminated. But the risk of putting too much nutrients which leads to root damage remains, so proper nutrient feeding is advised.
All in all, the hydroponic system of growing plants increases plant production and quality of the crops. Nutrients essential for plant growth are readily available, proper ratio and distribution is assured resulting to better efficiency. Pesticides and plant diseases can be avoided as no soil is needed. Soil is an ideal medium for infection and disease, so harm to both plant and the individuals are reduced. Expenses are also reduced as pesticides are eliminated so overall; cost effectiveness is enhanced and make hydroponics a more economical way of growing plants.
For the environmentalist, the hydroponic system of growing plants also presents a more desirable and alternative way of plant production. The effects of growing plants through this new system has proven to be less polluting as it totally removes the need for pesticides and leaves the soil free from contaminants. Scientifically tests also show that plants grown through the hydroponic system contain more vitamins and minerals compared to those grown through fields.
Productivity is also increased with the use of Indoor hydroponic systems. Limited spaces for plant cultivation are maximized because smaller pots are used. Indoor hydroponic systems utilize different types of automated watering systems like drip, pumps and other means, allowing for a low maintenance operation. Spaces not available for plant growing can be utilized and together with regular soil gardens or fields, maximize each growing season.
Types of Indoor Hydroponic Systems
Wick or NFT
The system most often used, operated and maintained with the outmost ease. It requires very little setup and maintenance. This is done by simply cutting a hole in the bottom of the pot and a wick is inserted. The wick’s other end connects to the water reservoir below the pot.
Reservoir or Ebb and Flow System
A growing medium is directly placed into a pan filled with water and nutrients. It is easy to maintain, the pans contents needs only to be replaced every few days in order to maintain an effective system. Root adsorption is maximized with root surface in contact with the water, oxygen and nutrients are readily absorbed.
Drip Systems
The most common of all systems, drip systems are the most likely choice of hobbyists and professionals alike. The nutrient solution is kept in a container below the plants and is distributed by a pump to each plant thru a drip irrigation system. One type would be the Recovery type system; excess nutrients are recycled and channeled back into the reservoir. Another would be the Non-recovery type where excess system is not funneled back into the system, one advantage of this is that is a low maintenance system. Ph and nutrient concentration remains stable but is not as economical as the recovery type system.
Aeroponic System
Technically, the aeroponic system is the most advance of the three. Plants are suspended either without a growth rock or growing mediums. This permits the plant to breathe more air through the roots. Nutrients and water are introduced by timed misting. Root health is maintained by a timer and is set at intervals of a few minutes.
Top 6 UK Parks and Gardens!
Article from: My Family UK
It’s amazing just how many brilliant places there are to take the family for a day in the fresh air. In the UK there are 13 National Parks and 40 Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty – not to mention the hundreds of National Trust estates and acres of forest.
1) Lake District National Park
www.lake-district.gov.uk
Spectacular landscapes of fells and tarns within this mountainous territory take the breath away – as does walking around them. But it’s a tranquil getaway if you want it to be, with gorgeous lakes to sit beside and historic villages. The area is endlessly explorable – just because Wordsworth and Wainwright were there before you doesn’t mean the family can’t discover something new for themselves.
2) Clumber Park, Nottinghamshire
www.nationaltrust.org.uk
This beautiful family-focused National Trust Park has 3,800 acres of woods, open-heath and rolling farmland and the longest double avenue of lime trees in Europe – a gorgeous day out. With 20 miles of cycle path (plus a link to the legendary Sherwood Forest), a nine-trail orienteering course, two “Family-Tracker Packs”, exploring the Kitchen Gardens and World War history, and lots of other things to do, you won’t be bored at all.
3) The National Forest, Derbyshire
www.nationalforest.org
There’s over 700 miles of woodland paths to explore, but that’s only half the story. The National Forest is different because it’s “a forest in the making”. This fun family destination is also a giant environmental project that aims to tackle climate change by creating 200 square miles of new woodland. The creation of this brand new habitat means it’s the ideal place for green families to go and spend the day wildlife watching.
4) The Trentham Estate, Staffordshire
www.trentham.co.uk
Something for everyone is here: squidge through Britain’s only barefoot walk adventure trail, get lost in floral labyrinths and mazes, rest in the Italian Gardens or get the your thrills on the Arial Extreme rope course! Then take a cruise or row-boat out on the lake, or perhaps ride the miniature railway around it. Indulge at the chalet-style Shopping Village or Garden Centre. There’s also a Monkey Forest where your little monkeys can enjoy walking amongst 140 Barbary Macaques!
5) Isles of Scilly: Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
www.ios-aonb.info
This archipelago off the Cornish coast may have a silly name but it does make sense to visit. White sands, emerald shallows and sub-tropical gardens provide a distinctly un-British feel to the landscape while heather-clad inland plateaux and the Western Rocks (the “Dogs of Scilly”) are places of dynamic beauty. The seas have claimed as many ships as they have hearts, so the area is steeped in history. And as only half the main islands are inhabited, it really can feel like the family has arrived in the wilderness.
6) Devil’s Dyke
www.nationaltrust.org.uk
Legend has it that the Devil dug this valley to drown local parishioners, but the stunning surroundings beg to differ. As it carves its way through the chalk grasslands there are spectacular views of rolling hills and wide plains to be admired, and acres of meadowy-slopes full of wild flowers and plants. The strange lumps and bumps in the ground hints at the mysterious, ancient inhabitants’ forts and farming communities. A fun place to explore and learn about.
Further Information
Further information and more tips on great family getaways are available at www.myfamilyuk.com. With hundreds of articles to choose from, covering every aspect of parenting, there will be something for you here. We’ve got reviews and recommendations for loads of family holidays and destinations, along with helpful guidance about what will suit your child’s holiday taste the best. So log on now!