Special Plant - Aquatic

Aquatic turtle tank cleaning is a chore and a bore, but if you find a system that works for you then it's just a matter of going through the motions. Water quality is vitally important, not only for the amount of water changes you will have to make, but also for the health of your turtle, to prevent diseases. It is recommended you buy a water quality test kit at your pet store and test for ammonia, nitrates and nitrites and pH levels. You can also test for chlorine and chloramine. You need to make sure you know what is in the water that you choose to use for your tank. Clean the sides of the tank with baking soda. Do not use chemicals to clean your tank - this includes glass cleaner. Some people will tell you that diluted bleach is an option for cleaning, but it's best to steer clear of anything unnatural for the health and safety of your turtle.

Such is the case of Curly-Leaf Pondweed. Introduced into the Great Lakes region in the late 1800s, Potamogeton crispus, was used by hobbyists in aquariums and was later dumped out into tributaries that fed the Great Lakes or into the lakes themselves. Now this plant is causing problems all over the United States. The stem grows from one to three feet long and is reddish brown. This is one of the few plants that lives in cold water and can be seen in late fall and also in early spring. With its ability to live in cold water, curly-leaf pondweed gets a head start on all other aquatic weeds and takes advantage of the open water areas in which it can live. By early July you should no longer see this plant as it will drop to the bottom of the pond. Like other aquatic weeds, Curly-Leaf Pondweed produces turions, overwintering buds that can act as storage organs for the parent plant. This is the main method of reproduction.

Dry fly fishing is so much fun anyway, but during a hatch it's phenomenal. While fly fishing a hatch you become deluded into thinking you're one hell of a fly-fisherman. After all you're taking fish after fish on a dry fly. This is normal. Don't be deluded, however, catching trout during a hatch is easy-if you have the right fly on. The insect emerges (hatches) from his sub aquatic body to an adult insect in the surface film on the top of the water. After mating in the air they deposit their eggs in the water then becoming weak they land back on the water and die. This is called a spinner fall, and it too is sort of a hatch. Also, check your waders at the water line to see if any bugs are on your waders. Many times the hatching insect will grab anything they come into contact with. When you identify what it is the fish are eating, tie on the imitation and have at it.

How To Grow Flowers ?

Lotus, and the motoring world wondered what on earth the maker of the Viva and Cavalier family saloons was going to do with the high performance car maker. They had to wait three years to find out.Designed to take on both Ford and BMW for the British executive saloon market, at the end of its launch year of 1986, the Carlton / Omega range earned itself the industry accolade of European Car of the Year. The Mark 2 Carlton was powered by a straight-6 engine with a 2.6 and 3.0 litre choice. In 1986 the engine had 12-valves, but later models offered a much more powerful 24-valve version in the Carlton GSi which became the basis of the Lotus production car.The samurai warriors used to write poems and dedicated works of art to capturing the essence of the cherry blossom.

In fact in many ways the samurai thought of the cherry blossom as a symbolic of their own life. The cherry blossom comes out early in the year when it is cold. It is very beautiful but also short lived and will soon fall from the tree. So the samurai also believe and felt about their lives they has to live there life everyday like it was their last without any fear of death. Thus many have heard the popular saying that a samurai would wake up in the morning and say to himself quietly today is a good day to die. This was not meant as a death with but as a life wish to live life to the fullest. This has carried into the symbolism of tattooing also and is equally popular along with the koi fish design.The flower starts as a delicate bud down in the bottom muddy part of the water. It slowly pushes to the surface reaching for the sun and then once it hits the top is blossoms into a beautiful flower. This has been symbolic of the journey that every person must go through as they gain enlightenment.

This is a state of existence where suffering does not exist. When one has achieved Nirvana the cycle of rebirth and death ends. The key to achieving that Nirvana is mental discipline and the ability to comprehend and follow the eightfold path.The statues are commonly placed on a base that resembles the stem of a lotus flower. In addition to the lotus symbol of purity it was also the symbolic vehicle that delivered the Buddha up to Nirvana and so has significance in this way as well. The lotus flower has its roots in the muck and mud but arises with beautiful blossoms.While the hands rested gently in the lab the legs are crossed. Left foot is placed on the right by with the ball and heel of the foot exposed and right foot is placed on the left in the same posture.

Bamboo

　　
       The lucky bamboo is not really bamboo, but a Dracaena which is a tropical plant commonly grown for indoor use. Lucky bamboo has quite taken the modern world by storm. It is popular because of its resemblance to bamboo, its associations with good luck, and its low-maintenance requirements. According to feng shui, lucky bamboo is believed to bring sensible luck in terms of affection, health, wealth and harmony and peace of mind to the bearer. It's a logo of positive energy. It is conjointly become a decent gifting plan for several.
　　Although you don't need to spend much time on lucky bamboo, growing it also needs care in terms of sunlight, water and soil.
　　Sunlight- lucky bamboo prefers staying indoors. It despises direct daylight and its leaves flip yellow within the scorching heat. It is suggested to keep in shade at the temperature within the vary of 65-70 degrees.
　　Water– whereas bringing health to your life, lucky bamboo requires health in terms of watering from you. Too less or an excessive amount of water may cause damage to the plant. whereas growing lucky bamboo, weekly watering is good though you want to take into thought the humidity of topmost layer of soil.
　　Soil- lucky bamboo plant grows well in nitrogenous soil. As a result, providing fertilizers once per month as diluted resolution can keep your plant healthy. If you find yellowing or curling of leaves, trim or prune the leaves and change the water levels. After you realize the roots turning red, keep relax! It's the natural color of the roots and you'll enhance its beauty by supporting its suspended roots with enticing pebbles and stones of your selection.

Choosing Plants for Your Garden

  
   Choosing plants for your garden can be quite overwhelming especially if, you have a very small garden and you would love to grow a lot of plants. Like any other activity, it is important that a gardener maintains a framework when selecting the plants he wishes to use in his garden.
   Firstly, observe your garden carefully and evaluate what you parts of it you wish to enhance with more plants. It is often witnessed that gardeners, due to their love for plants and its many varieties, purchase plants on impulse but find that they have no idea on where to position these in their garden.
   Before going to the store or looking at plant catalogue, estimate your gardening budget. Remember to consider soil related amends when estimating your budget. In the case your heart is set on an expensive tree specimen that you feel you must grow, you can always create your garden over a number of phases.
   Then, examine your garden and evaluate the little things that will make a difference in the types of plants you will purchase for your garden. These include how much sunshine and shade your garden receives and whether the soil is waterlogged or well drained. Once you have understood these you are all set to go out to your nearest store and purchase the plant that best suits your garden.
   If the garden area you wish to enhance is exposed to a lot of sunlight, you may want to purchase sun-loving plants and flowers such as Catmint and Marigold. If the area is sheltered, you could consider shade loving plants and flowers such as the Japanese Fatsia and Pansy. Similarly, the gardener can choose drought resistant plants for the dried up areas while looking out for swamp plants that will grow well in poorly drained areas.
   Before you plant your purchased plant to the ground, check the pH level of your garden soil in order to determine the nutrients that you need to add so that your plants will grow well. Most plants prefer soil that is slightly acidic but there are some other plants that grow well on alkaline soil. Although the pH level of the soil is adjustable to make it acidic or alkaline, it is easier to simply purchase plants that can be adapted to the soil of your garden.
   Once you've decided on the soil, you can start planting your purchased plants. Planting groups of the same plant is recommended than planting one of every plant.
   Expert gardening tip: It is often witnessed that grouping plants in sets of odd numbers i.e. three's and five's and seven's look better that grouping plants in sets of even numbers.
   In addition to the above, purchase and group plants according to their different colors and textures. Imagine what these will look like when they bloom. Consider the color of their foliage when you plant these. Make sure to avoid clashes in color. Another very important thing to bear in mind when planting these newly purchased plants is to plant them away from trees. Unlike the roots of plants, the roots of trees do not shy from competition and will absorb all the nutrients and moisture from the soil.

Heading towards my personal intuition

I commented in my post about Grand Designs Live at the lack of horticultural purchasing opportunities but there was a bulb stand.  I hadn’t planned to buy any bulbs as I still have a pile of bulbs to plant out and have spent quite a bit. But……I was completed hooked by this ridiculously large cyclamen corm.  The corm is for Cyclamen cilicium and as you can just about see is 14cm across at its widest point!

The stall holder was advertising them as not needing any water or soil – she said that you just put them in a bowl on the window sill and that was that.  Once it had flowered you could then pot it up or plant it out in the garden.  I am not at all convinced by this and it goes against all my instincts but it was just too much of a challenge to resist.

They also had some Arum cornutum which they advertised as treating in the same way.  Well it would be sad not to give it a go so I weakened and bought one Cyclamen and two Arums for £10.  Unfortunately, I have since realised that the Arum is also the Voodoo Lily so if it does flower it might be a little smelly and be evicted but as I don’t think it will flower it isn’t a worry – yet!

I will put an update on the blog if and when something happens.

The One bulb is never enough

Lights happen to be ruling my personal ideas for two days no longer minimum simply because my personal light bulb purchases showed up regarding many weeks back as well as till 2 times back We hadn’t obtained close to in order to starting the actual containers as well as looking at the actual purchases. Final weekend break We had been sidetracked along with getting lower dangling containers as well as potting upward sensitive vegetation in order to overwinter which means this weekend break had been reserved with regard to growing lights. There is just one issue We couldn’t keep in mind exactly where I'd meant to grow the actual lights I'd purchased.
These days We unpacked the actual containers as well as gathered in the additional totes associated with lights I've purchased. (An additional be aware in order to personal – whenever purchasing lights in the Fall Display have a pencil as well as create about the tote associated with lights exactly what they're this can conserve period when you're battling to determine that are Narcissus Paperwhite as well as that Camassia Alba. )#) Anyhow, when i unpacked the actual containers a number of my personal programs were able to battle back to my personal awareness and so i made the decision to begin with individuals.

Muscari latifolium – I've grown these types of within the entrance backyard among the remove the Alchemilla Mollis that embellish your toes associated with my personal beech hedge. We had been delighted this season along with the way the Alchemilla blossoms acquired the actual youthful leaves from the Beech however I needed some thing to include a little bit of curiosity previously. Ideally the actual Muscari may distribute via this particular region including a few springtime curiosity after which the actual Alchemilla leaves may hide the actual rotting Muscari leaves – we will have.

Camassia Alba – when i likely have stated prior to I'd like a few springtime curiosity about the downward slope however desired just a little elevation then one which wouldn’t drop more than in any way strong gust associated with blowing wind. Ideally these types of Camassia may have the desired effect.

Narcissus Hawera – these types of happen to be grown across the advantage from the tiny rocks route therefore their own fragrance is going to be smelt when you attend the actual fish-pond as well as because this particular region will get complete sunlight within the summer time as well as I realize they like this kind of atmosphere.

Allium hollandicum ‘Purple Sensation’ -- We grown 10 of those within the edge across the front yard to complete of the float that I've been contributing to during the last few years. I've 5 lights remaining however We can’t choose where you can place all of them therefore I’m likely to develop all of them upon within plastic material containers with regard to placing away within the edge after i possess a idea exactly where they ought to proceed.

Narcissus Actaea -- these types of happen to be grown within 2 areas within the entrance backyard, a few through the generate and also the relaxation within the much edge exactly where ideally the actual red-colored from the ‘Pheasants Eye’ is going to be acquired through the red/orange Primulas I've with this edge.

We nevertheless possess tulip glasses in order to grow however it is actually too soon on their behalf, a few Gladiolus communis sssp byzantinus that we can’t for that existence associated with me personally keep in mind exactly where We had been considering growing (as well as you will find 20! )#), the Erythronium dens canis ‘Snowflake’ along with a tote associated with Narcissus Thalia. When i 'm preparing lots of grow shifting within the following little while I'm head wear in order to grow the actual Narcissus as well as Erythronium away however and so i believe that I'll container these types of upward for the moment till my personal reorganising is completed.

I'm right now sensation just a little more happy and never therefore responsible each time We type in the living area and find out the actual containers associated with lights however it had been certainly actively playing upon my personal mind because after i had been preparing with regard to my personal organic artwork course this particular 7 days as well as experienced to generate some thing to consider We required a few Narcissus Actaea lights; in the end these people won’t decay for some time that will provide me personally sufficient time in order to pull all of them. My personal teacher desires me personally to complete an in depth sketching after which utilize the watercolour clean however a minimum of that's 2 much less lights in order to grow away for the time being!

I know I said I don’t grow edibles

I suspect I have caused much merriment and consternation amongst many of my gardening twitter friends over the last week and now no doubt those of you who have read this blog for some time will be amused at my U turn.  I have repeatedly stated that I don’t grow edibles for a variety of reasons: space and time being the main ones.  However, I have had a quietly burning desire to tackle edibles if only I had some practical space to work in.  I know I could give up some of my garden but I need my ornamentals, they are essential for my mental well being.

Anyway, some years back I put my name down for an allotment and then promptly forgot about it.  I knew that there was a waiting list for local sites in addition to which one site needed relocation so the adjacent cemetery could expand!  For I had low expectations that a plot would appear this decade. Time moved on, my interests in ornamentals grew, I started a blog and discovered like minded gardening friends.  I avoided the veg growing blogs/posts as I just couldn’t relate to them but I have had a growing feeling that I am missing out somehow.  I decided a couple of months ago to give over one bed in the garden to soft fruit and in fact only started planting it out two weeks ago. I also started to explore perennial edibles which would be less demanding time wise and fit better into a garden environment.

Bizarrely last week I began to think that someone was trying to point me in a new direction.  On my way back from Arley Arboretum I saw a nursery for lease.  I would love a nursery but I just can’t afford to give up my full time job at the moment to embrace my dreams.  I looked at the details but it was just unrealistic – oh well never mind.  Then two days later a letter arrived from the local council offering me a plot on a new site.  I put the letter on the table thinking ‘well I won’t be doing that’.  But the letter kept winking at me from the dining room, taunting me.  ‘Go on, you know you will regret it…’ ‘You dont have to sort the whole plot in one go….’ ‘You could grow lots of soft fruit…..’ etc etc.  By early Sunday morning I was tittering on the brink of giving in and went off to find the site.

Well the location pushed me over the edge into saying yes.  It is a lovely rural location, surrounded by fields with far reaching views – all good for the soul and therefore good for me.  I finally got more information on Monday morning when the council opened -  I  could choose between a 125sqm plot for £25 p.a. or a 60sqm plot (at a pro rata rate).  I bored my twitter friends rigid with endless questions about the best size and what I should pay etc. Early Tuesday morning saw me back at the site in my suit and wellies choosing between two sites.  The photo at the top of the post shows my new allotment – Plot 38.

I am now completely overwhelmed by the prospect.  The plot is 125sqm in size, we need to measure it properly so I can work out bed sizes etc.  I have again bored twitter friends with what was the best size beds etc etc and they have been very patient and generous with their advice and support.  I hope they realise that I will be pestering them from time to time every time I get to a hurdle!!

So the allotment books are in the post and my dreams are full of soft fruits, courgettes, sweetcorn, new potatoes, mangetout, sweet peas and so much else.

I have been toying with setting up a new blog to record my progress particularly as I have been frustrated that whilst there are lots of blogs etc about growing edibles there isn’t much out there that charts a novice’s progress, well not that I have found.  I still haven’t decided if I will do this or whether I will just do regular up dates on this blog.  But it is a very exciting new project for me and I hope you will enjoy reading about my progress.

Why are grasses so hard to get right?

I’m in a quandary. To be honest I think what it really boils down to is whether I want to my garden to be more designed or whether I want to focus on plants?  A year ago I would have said plants, but reading blogs and magazines has caused me to start being more interested in the overall appearance so now I am in a complete dilemma.  I will never be a slave to design but I am thinking more about the overall impact of putting this plant here or there, which is hopefully a good thing.  However, I am struggling with making the plants I like work together.

Take for example grasses.  I love grasses and admire the big swathes of prairie planting that I see in gardening magazines, although so far I haven’t had the chance to see them in real life. However, I am struggling to get them to work well in my garden. I think that successfully using grasses in gardens is a lot more problematic that people realise.  To me they often look as though they have been plonked in the border as a nod to the latest trend.  But conversely there are times when they can look stunning and I want to try and work out what exactly it is about grasses I like and how I should use them for best effect in my own garden.

Interestingly, I have come across a couple of blog posts this last week which have added to my pondering. The first  was a blog post by Mike over at Hazel Trees.  He refers to Alan Titchmarsh’s comment about prairie planting looking like perpetual autumn and questions whether ornamental grasses should be allowed to dominate.  This resonated with me in a way since I have been contemplating planting more grasses en masse in the garden but whenever I look at photos of such planting there seems, to me, to be something missing.  I know that grasses are renowned for the movement they bring to the garden but I find block after block of grasses, albeit of different heights and hues, boring.  I think I need the contrast of texture such as broad leaved perennials and, yes, flowers.  This feeling was confirmed when I recently visited Arley Arboretum which has a fairly new grass garden which really disappointed me.  The area wasn’t that large and the borders were of an organic shape but it was more a collection of different grasses  than a good design with the plants working together and it made me realise that it can be difficult to get grasses to look fantastic.

As Mike says not many of us have large areas that we can give over to prairie planting.  My garden is I suppose on the small to medium size and I could give it over to grasses but then I would have to restrict my plant palette  and that is just a non-starter but more importantly I think prairie planting not only works best on a larger scale than the suburban garden but it also works best in the right context.  So I can see that the prairie planting at Pensthorpe in Norfolk would be excellent given it is surrounded by arable farmland and there are large skies and great light levels.  After all for me grasses come into their own when the light shines through them – so careful siting is also a consideration.

So how can I make grasses shine in my humble  suburban garden? As a start I have planted a row of Calamigrostis  along the top of the slope in front of the path.  The slope causes me real problems as my garden is prone to a wind blowing through it, which is weird given the amount of trees and shrubs growing along the boundaries! My thinking is that as plants on the slope tend to get blown over and because it is difficult to work on the slope the best approach is for me to use plants that can cope with being blown around a bit therefore grasses are near the top of the  list.  As well as the grasses along the top of the slope I  have planted some shorter grasses in swathes along the lower part of the slope. I am in filling with perennials so far mainly asters and other late summer perennials.  I’m not at all convinced this will look good in the overall scheme.  I wonder how it will fit with the rest of the garden, I wonder if I’m not being daring enough, too conservative?

I had been pondering using more grasses along the top of the wall border as again there is a wind problem here (if you know what I mean!) but I think I might be going for what I saw as an easy option.  Whilst I believe planting with grasses is difficult to pull off well I think grasses provide an excellent ‘glue’ to hold a border together.  I have often looked at borders, including my own, and felt that the planting is disjointed.  I try to contrast textures, leaf size, heights etc but I just don’t have enough experience and plant knowledge to pull it off well.  I did wonder if grasses could be my secret weapon in this quest but I am not so confident now. However, I have been encouraged by Christina’s blog ‘Creating my own garden of the Hesperides’.  Like me Christina has a slope to contend with, though on a much bigger scale, and like me she is turning to grasses to help her out.  Her recent post on Stipas was quite inspiring as she posted a number of photos of Stipas, which self seed all over her garden, growing alongside other perennials and some of the combinations surprised me in how well they worked.


I’m was also surprised when looking at Christina’s photos of how I preferred the young spring growth of the Stipa more than the autumnal browny growth and again this makes me wonder if grasses are the way to go for me.  Interestingly, whilst looking for photos for this post I couldn’t find any which showed grasses looking good mixed with perennials so I obviously haven’t seen any in the gardens I have visited.  I wonder if this is because people are slightly intimidated by grasses, as they are bright flowering perennials, so they tend to stick them in a border together or whether they are going for the whole grass-scape approach which some designers have made popular.


So my conclusion? I have no conclusion!! I think I will continue to look and see how others use grasses and think long and hard about what I like and don’t in planting style and also wait to see if the slope works – so procrastination is the way forward for now!

A Curiosity of The Frozen Leaves

Like the rest of the UK we have been experiencing extremely cold weather the last couple of days.  I don’t know what the temperature went down to last night as I don’t have an outside thermometer (but its going on the Christmas list) but the temperature hasn’t risen above -5 all day.  We have been lucky so far here in Worcestershire with only a dusting of snow yesterday, I am hoping it stays that way.

What has interested me is the way plants have responded to the extreme cold.  The top photo is of a Japanese Holly Fern.  The plant has been in situ for a couple of years and I noticed the other day how lush and healthy it was looking and how it had put on a real spurt of growth. However, this morning I was surprised at the appearance of the leaves.  They were much darker, almost black, and had lost their shine and rigidity, (the shine in the photo is from the camera flash).

Just by the Japanese Holly Fern is a young Sarcococca confusa, or Christmas Box, and this has reacted in exactly the same way.  Both the plants are in a fairly sheltered bed with a 4ft wall behind them and a large Rosemary bush on top of the wall providing some shelter.

Conversely, a Pelargonium that I had completely forgotten about seems to be a lot more resilient to the cold with just a frosting.  I would have expected the leaves to be limp at the least.

This has bemused me all day, the fern and box are perking up a little but not much and the Pelargonium is now safely in the greenhouse.  I am assuming that the reason the fern and box reacted as they have is due to the water in the leaves being frozen and I suppose that as there aren’t that many evergreens around in the garden there is little to compare them with.  But why the Pelargonium didn’t react in the same way I don’t know.  It was perched on top of a wall so maybe the  more open site helped it in some way that is beyond me.

Anyway, it has been interesting to observe and I think some of the studying I have recently been doing about leaf structure etc has probably raised my curiosity and made me more observant of how plants are behaving.  I am hopeful that once the weather warms up the plants will perk up as well.

Rocket & Pink Fir Apple Arrive

I was most excited today on my return from a trip across the Midlands to discover a jiffy bag sitting patiently by the front door.  My youngest and I have been to Leicester today as he had an interview at De Montfort University.  We had a jolly day despite it being absolutely freezing and the journey taking much longer than the ever optimistic google maps predicted!

So what was in my jiffy bag, I’m pleased to say it contained the first instalment of my seed potato order with Thompson & Morgan (plus some shallots).  I haven’t grown potatoes before, apart from a couple of years ago in bags which was not a success due to the amount of water needed and not provided.  As time has ticked on since my late  night online purchase I have begun to wonder when the seed potatoes were going to arrive as the gardening gurus say you should start chitting them 6 weeks before planting.  The T&M website says that they dispatch in time for planting and it was right.

For a newbie edibles grower chitting falls into the same category as crop rotation,  successional showing and catch cropping.  If you read the wrong book the whole thing sounds more mystifying that before you opened the book.  In the case of chitting the idea is that you start the potatoes shooting so they get off to a quick start.  I have got the impression from various gardening magazines and gardening TV programmes that the general  consensus is that it isn’t worth chitting main crop potatoes but it is worth the effort for earlies.  Well who know, certainly not me but it isn’t really any hardship to chit 15 potatoes.

As you can see from the photo above my earlies are Rocket and Pink Fir Apple.  I apologise for the quality of the photo but when you return home in the dark, having left in the dark, good quality photos are somewhat challenging! I went for Pink Fir Apple as I have heard so much about them through all sorts of sources.  My intention with the allotment is to grow things that are expensive to buy in the supermarket or not offered at all.  So I have decided to grow new and salad potatoes which I love and some varieties which I probably won’t encounter in my local supermarket and I am pretty sure this is the case for Pink Fir Apple.  My other new potato is Rocket.  I looked at International Kidney which I understand is the potato used for Jersey New Potatoes but I have heard negative reports whereas friends recommended Rocket so this seemed as good a reason as any other for someone who knows nothing.

I have also ordered a few Charlotte, a second early which is excellent as a new potato.  I have to confess that I am not a huge potato eater but I  could eat new potatoes all year round.  Also Inca Bella, this  is a second early as well and apparently has a nutty flavour and is a good salad potato – sounds delicious  and I am curious to see if different varieties really do have different flavours as this is not something I have noticed before.  Finally, Piccolo Star, another second early new potatoes.

No  main crop potatoes as I don’t really have any where to store them over winter and having had problems with mice in the garage this winter I am not planning on put time and effort into growing potatoes just to support the local mouse population.  I will  be reviewing the potatoes to see how they crop and which my family, including my parents who are busy prepping the allotment for me while I am at work, like best.  Then maybe next year we can try some other varieties.

So its off to locate some egg boxes  to stand the seed potatoes in and to find  somewhere cool and light so they start to develop good strong shoots.  Which means I have about 6 weeks to get the first bed dug over and ready for  them to be planted into!