Gardening Idea Of The Week

Landscaping the pond outside your home will increase the appeal of your home in several ways. But, this requires a lot of planning and you will need accessories to give your pond area a great look, feel and atmosphere. Your pond will contain living and nonliving things and will be the center of attraction when people meet at your home. Here, we talk of a few ways in which you can landscape your pond better.


How large an area do you have for your pond? How are you going to populate it? What are you going to accessorize it with—live rocks, aquatic ferns, pebbles, etc. could be great additions. How will you place your lighting? Do you want a static pond or a pond that has a motorized bubbling system or something similar added to it? There are a lot of designs you could pick up from the Internet itself. Any home improvement magazine could have some good ideas as well. Do not hesitate to visit a local home improvement store and talk to people there, especially if they stock pond landscaping products.


Plants will add an amazing amount of detail to your pond landscape design. They will provide natural food for some of the life-forms in the pond and they will add to the overall esthetic effect. Choose plants with care. If you have your pond in the shade, you could best choose different kinds of water lilies such as Virginia, Texas Dawn, Indiana or Comanche. Some other plants include Cardinal Flower, Corkscrew Rush, taros and certain varieties of mints.


Fencing is important to your pond landscaping for many reasons. It provides safety if there are small children near the pond, as well as privacy. Fences can also come in a wide variety of materials and structural types. A wood fence is great for keeping your pond area natural looking, while stone will add a more integrated look into your landscaping. An ornate metal fence will add elegance and style to the entire backyard.


Pond lighting adds a powerful impact to your pond design. Both perimeter lights and underwater lights can be used to provide a great place to swim at night. There are many decorative lights to choose from and even add color for more appeal.


Pond landscape design is only limited to your imagination. You can design your pond area to include waterfalls, spas, eating areas or recreational items such as slides and basketball nets. Design your pond the way that will fit in with your overall landscape design, as well as the needs of your family.

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Gardening Idea Of The Week

Container gardening is the city dweller's answer to the big backyard garden of yesteryear. You may not have a half acre to plant in flowers and vegetables, but you can get just about the same effect by growing plants in pots. Containers come in a variety of sizes, shapes and materials. What you choose will depend upon the type of plant and the location. A bonsai, for example, usually will be grown in a small container that won't allow a large expanse of roots to develop. A regular tree in a planter along the street will need a large container to allow for development of a larger root system.

You also can use planter boxes of varying sizes to grow vegetables and flowers on balconies and patios. Or fill an old discarded wheelbarrow with soil, poke drain holes in the bottom and use to grow geraniums and cascading petunias.As you think about the size of the container, consider that when filled with moist soil, weight can be a major factor. If you are planning on a large container, mount it on casters so it can be moved easily.


Beware of decorative planters that lack drainage holes. This creates water-logged soil and rotting roots. Research shows that the old practice of placing a layer of gravel in the bottom of the container, to give some room for water to accumulate without saturating the soil, doesn't really work. If you want to use a decorative planter that doesn't have a drain hole, put your plants in a regular flower pot and place it inside the decorative container.


If you build a planter from wood, use a wood that won't rot. Or, line the planter with a water-resistant material. You can use CCA-treated wood or a natural rot-resistant wood, such as redwood. Don't use any wood that has been treated with Penta or Creosote. These materials are toxic to plants. Penta and Creosote no longer are available to the public, but some wood treated with these materials is still around.


Soil to be used in containers should contain plenty of organic matter. A heavy clay soil will hold too much water and will exclude oxygen that roots need for growth. A good brand of potting soil should work well. Fill the container about four-fifths full of the soil mix. When you water the mix, it will settle and you will have enough room between the top of the container and the top of the soil for adequate water to be poured in each time you water the plants.


Because the volume of soil in the container usually is not great, you may need to water every few days. Factors influencing the time between waterings include size of plant within the container, volume of soil to store the water, porosity of the soil mix and porosity of the container. A large plant in a small container will require watering every few days, or maybe every day in sunny, hot, windy weather. Porous containers, such as unglazed clay pots, will let the soil dry out much faster than a container with a sealed outer surface. A sandy soil mix will not hold as much water as a heavier clay type of mix.


The possibilities for container gardening are endless. Apartment dwellers can grow vegetables in containers on balconies. Varieties have been developed specifically for container use. Yellow Canary tomato is a compact 6-inch plant that is designed for growing in pots. Red Robin and Goldie tomatoes work well in hanging baskets. Watermelon plants that grow 3 to 5 feet across, can produce 12 to 14-pound watermelons.


Because the volume of soil in the container usually is not great, you may need to water every few days. Just remember the factors influencing the time between waterings include size of plant within the container, volume of soil to store the water, porosity of the soil mix and porosity of the container. A large plant in a small container will require watering every few days, or maybe every day in sunny, hot, windy weather. Porous containers, such as unglazed clay pots, will let the soil dry out much faster than a container with a sealed outer surface. A sandy soil mix will not hold as much water as a heavier clay type of mix.


The possibilities for container gardening are endless. Apartment dwellers can grow vegetables in containers on balconies. Varieties have been developed specifically for container use. Yellow Canary tomato is a compact 6-inch plant that is designed for growing in pots. Red Robin and Goldie tomatoes work well in hanging baskets. Watermelon plants that grow 3 to 5 feet across, can produce 12 to 14-pound watermelons.


Many folks like to grow tropical plants, such as citrus trees or dwarf bananas, in containers. Because of our short growing season, these can be planted in large containers that can be rolled around. If you have a large south-facing window, place them in front of that window in the winter when the sun is low in the south. Then move them outdoors in the summer. You will not corner the market on citrus fruit production, but a lot of people get a fair amount of production growing this way.

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Serenity Sunday

Gratitude Rocks

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow

The basic idea of a gratitude rock or gratitude stone, is simple. You carry it with you, typically in your pocket or purse. Whenever you touch it, you give thanks for something right at that moment. No matter whether you are stuck in traffic, sitting at your desk at work or school, or anywhere else you might be, simply give thanks for something good in your life at that moment.

You can hold your Gratitude Rock in your hand and think about the people in your life and the incredible experiences you've had as a result of knowing them. When you do this on a consistent basis and start to associate the power of this experience and the feeling of gratitude, you are creating a very formidable base from which everything else will grow.

It doesn't have to be any fancy engraved stone, just a simple stone that catches your eye on a walk through the park will do nicely. You can even set aside a place in your garden for these stones, keep an eye out for stones that strike your fancy and place them in your gratitude garden and watch to see how it grows!





My List:


1.) My kids


2.) My health


3.) Terrific friends


4.) Clear thinking


5.) Herb gardens


6.) Pretty stones


7.) Warmer weather


8.) Mother Earth


9.) Nasal decongestant


10.) Frozen pizza

Time-Out

time-out:

1.) a brief suspension of activity; intermission or break.
2.) a short interruption in a regular period of play during which a referee or other official stops the clock so that the players may rest, deliberate, make substitutions, etc.


Busy days, long hours, noisy offices, unbearable traffic, screaming children, ringing phones... sound familiar? These words describe the day of an average person in America. Stress pervades even the lives of some of the most positive and respected people. Even if your not a well known corporate executive or CEO of a leading sports equipment company...try a time-out to help take the edge off of stress and feel more grounded and centered during your hectic stressful days.

Nature is a wonderful place to take some time out. Cultivate a garden... ...find a place in the countryside or a time of day in a local park when few people are around...  use visualization to create a peaceful, beautiful place in your mind to visit, maybe a garden or a beach or woodland. With practice, it is possible to experience that place... the sounds of the birds... the rustling of the leaves... the feel of breeze on your skin... the various smells. As your skill is developed... that place can be revisited whenever you need a time-out.

Try to keep a regular meditation schedule, at least once a day or maybe even twice a day (once in the morning and once in the evening.) The more regular  your meditation is, the more of an oasis of calm and grounding you can create in a busy life and a hectic world. Regular "me time" provides an opportunity to stop and center yourself, to calm the restless noise and busy thoughts in your head and then to come back and rejoin life afterwards, with a sense of stillness and inner peace. 

Magical Herbs- Rue

Rue is a hardy evergreen perennial. The color of its leaves are a greenish blue, with an almost grayish cast... makes it a useful ornamental plant in today’s gardens. The leaves are rounded lobes of 4-5 spoon shaped segments. If you look at a leaf, you can see that it looks very much like the suit of clubs in playing cards, and is supposedly the inspiration for that symbol. The small, yellow, waxy, star-shaped flowers become attractive seed pods that are long-lasting and make an exceptional decorative accent in dried arrangements. Rue enjoys a sunny but protected site in well drained or poor soil.

Rue has been used as a medicine and a magicical herb for centuries. People have used it to treat almost every kind of sickness. During the Middle Ages, people used rue in a potion to protect themselves from the black plague and to defend against witches. Artists, including Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, thought they could improve their creativity and eyesight by eating rue. Rue is a symbol of regret, sorrow,and repentance. Catholics used sprigs of it to sprinkle holy water on worshippers.

For centuries Rue has been considered one of the foremost protective herbs, especially against the evil eye, a belief that originated in the Middle East and which holds that magical harm can come to people through the glance of an envious onlooker. In Italy, faith in the protective qualities of Rue is so great that a special charm, the Cimaruta or "Sprig of Rue" is worn as a pendant to ward off the evil eye. It is always made of sterling silver (the most common metal for apotropaic charms, due to the metal's symbolic association with the moon, which is thought to protect women and children, (the most frequent victims of the evil eye) and it is most often found in the vicinity of Naples, where generations of artisans have developed a variety of Cimaruta designs.

MAGICAL PROPERTIES:

GENDER: Masculine

PLANET: Mars, Sun

ELEMENT: Fire

DIETIES: Mars, Diana, Aradia

Beltane Is Coming

Beltane, also known as May Eve, May Day, and Walpurgis Night, happens at the beginning of May. It celebrates the height of spring and the flowering of life. The Goddess manifests as the May Queen and Flora. The God emerges as the May King and Jack in the Green. The danced Maypole represents Their unity, with the pole itself being the God and the ribbons that encompass it, the Goddess. Colors are the Rainbow spectrum. Beltane is a festival of flowers, fertility, sensuality, and delight.

Fun Things To Do:

*Prepare a May basket by filling it with flowers and goodwill and then give it to someone in need of healing and caring, such as a shut-in or elderly friend.
*Form a wreath of freshly picked flowers, wear it in your hair, and feel yourself radiating joy and beauty.
*Dress in bright colors.
*Dance the Maypole and feel yourself balancing the Divine Female and Male within.
*Make a wish as you jump a bonfire or candle flame for good luck.
*Welcome in the May at dawn with singing and dancing.

Fried Honeycakes

These cakes are not unlike those made on the night before Beltane by women around the turn of the century. These cakes were left in the garden to please Faery visitors.

*1/2 cup sweet white wine
*2 tablespoons sugar
*1 egg
*1 cup honey
*2/3 cup flour
*1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
*1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
*Oil for frying
*1/8 teaspoon salt

Beat the wine & egg in a medium bowl. Combine the flour, cinnamon, salt & sugar in a small bowl. Stir into the egg mixture. Let stand 30 minutes. Combine the honey & nutmeg in a small bowl. Heat 1/2-inch of the oil in a frying pan until hot, but not smoking. Drop the batter into the oil 1 tablespoon at a time; fry until golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Dip into the honey.

Yield: 1 1/2 Dozen.