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Square Foot Gardening
Square foot gardening is the practice of dividing the growing area into small square sections, each of for example of . The aim is to assist the planning and creating of a Gardening in restricted spaces, small but intensively planted vegetable garden. It results in a simple and orderly gardening system, from which it draws much of its appeal. Mel Bartholomew coined the term "square foot gardening" in his 1981 book of the same name. Description The phrase "square foot gardening" was popularized by Mel Bartholomew in a 1981 Rodale, Inc. book and subsequent PBS television series. Bartholomew, a retired engineer, devised the system. The square foot gardening method recommends using an open-bottom raised bed, square. The square beds are then divided into a grid of sixteen one-foot squares. Each square is planted with a different crop, and based on the plant's mature size either 1, 4, 9 or 16 plants are placed per square. Although beds can be longer than four feet, it is recomm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Living Mulch
In agriculture, a living mulch is a cover crop interplanted or undersown with a main crop, and intended to serve the purposes of a mulch, such as weed suppression and regulation of soil temperature. Living mulches grow for a long time with the main crops, whereas cover crops are incorporated into the soil or killed with herbicides. Other benefits of mulches are slowing the growth of weeds, and protecting soil from water and wind erosion. Some living mulches were found to increase populations of the natural enemies of crop pests.Hartwig N.L., H.. Ammon 2002 Cover crops and living mulches Weed Sci. 50: 688-699 Legumes used as living mulches also provide nitrogen fixation, reducing the need for fertilizer. Benefits When cover crops are turned over into the soil, they contribute nutrients to the main crop so that less chemical fertilizer is required.Brophy L. S., G. H. Heichel and M.P. Russelle. 1987 Nitrogen transfer from forage legumes to grass in a systematic planting design Cro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Books About Gardening
A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, mostly of writing and images. Modern books are typically composed of many pages bound together and protected by a cover, what is known as the ''codex'' format; older formats include the scroll and the tablet. As a conceptual object, a ''book'' often refers to a written work of substantial length by one or more authors, which may also be distributed digitally as an electronic book (ebook). These kinds of works can be broadly classified into fiction (containing invented content, often narratives) and non-fiction (containing content intended as factual truth). But a physical book may not contain a written work: for example, it may contain ''only'' drawings, engravings, photographs, sheet music, puzzles, or removable content like paper dolls. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Raised Bed Gardening
Raised-bed gardening is a form of gardening in which the soil is raised above ground level and usually enclosed in some way. Raised bed structures can be made of wood, rock, concrete or other materials, and can be of any size or shape. The soil is usually enriched with compost. Vegetables are grown in geometric patterns, much closer together than in conventional row gardening. The spacing is such that when the vegetables are fully grown, their leaves just barely touch each other, creating a microclimate in which weed growth is suppressed and moisture is conserved. Overview Raised beds lend themselves to the development of complex agriculture systems that utilize many of the principles and methods of permaculture. They can be used effectively to control erosion and recycle and conserve water and nutrients by building them along contour lines on slopes. This also makes more space available for intensive crop production. They can be created over large areas with the use of several ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Organic Gardening
Organic horticulture is the science and art of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, or ornamental plants by following the essential principles of organic agriculture in soil building and conservation, pest management, and heirloom variety preservation. The Latin words ''hortus'' (garden plant) and ''cultura'' (culture) together form ''horticulture'', classically defined as the culture or growing of garden plants. ''Horticulture'' is also sometimes defined simply as "agriculture minus the plough". Instead of the plough, horticulture makes use of human labour and gardener's hand tools, although some small machine tools like rotary tillers are commonly employed now. General Mulches, cover crops, compost, manures, vermicompost, and mineral supplements are soil-building mainstays that distinguish this type of farming from its conventional counterpart. Through attention to good healthy soil condition, it is expected that insect, fungal, or other problems that sometimes plague pla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French Intensive Gardening
French intensive gardening also known as raised bed, wide bed, or French market gardening is a method of gardening in which plants are grown within a smaller space and with higher yields than other traditional gardening methods. The main principles for success are often listed as soil improvement, raised beds, close spacing, companion planting, succession planting and crop rotation. Originating in France, the practice is very popular among urban gardeners and small for profit farming operations. History Beginning in the 1500s in neighborhoods in and around Paris, market gardens, as they were then known, were lauded for their high yields and high return on investment during seasons that were often bad for typical growers. "Maraîchers" or market gardeners employed techniques of fermenting manure to warm the soil, building stone walls to keep the wind at bay, and planting crops together to produce high yields. The work of two French market gardeners, Moreau and Daverne, who wrote thei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Companion Planting
Companion planting in gardening and agriculture is the planting of different crops in proximity for any of a number of different reasons, including Weed control, weed suppression, pest control, pollination, providing habitat for beneficial insects, maximizing use of space, and to otherwise increase crop productivity. Companion planting is a form of polyculture. Companion planting is used by farmers and gardeners in both industrialized and developing countries for many reasons. Many of the modern principles of companion planting were present many centuries ago in forest gardens in Asia, and thousands of years ago in Mesoamerica. The technique may allow farmers to reduce costly inputs of artificial Fertilizer, fertilisers and pesticides. Traditional practice History Companion planting was practiced in various forms by the indigenous peoples of the Americas prior to the arrival of Europeans. These peoples domesticated Cucurbita pepo, squash 8,000 to 10,000 years ago, then m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vermiculite
Vermiculite is a hydrous phyllosilicate mineral which undergoes significant expansion when heated. Exfoliation occurs when the mineral is heated sufficiently; commercial furnaces can routinely produce this effect. Vermiculite forms by the weathering or hydrothermal alteration of biotite or phlogopite. http://www.mindat.org/min-4170.html Mindat.org Large commercial vermiculite mines exist in the United States, Russia, South Africa, China, and Brazil. Occurrence Vermiculite was first described in 1824 for an occurrence in Millbury, Massachusetts. Its name is from the Latin , "to breed worms", for the manner in which it exfoliates when heated. It typically occurs as an alteration product at the contact between felsic and mafic or ultramafic rocks such as pyroxenites and dunites. It also occurs in carbonatites and metamorphosed magnesium-rich limestone. Associated mineral phases include: corundum, apatite, serpentine, and talc. It occurs interlayered with chlorite, biotite ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coir
Coir (), also called coconut fibre, is a natural fibre extracted from the outer husk of coconut, and used in products such as floor mats, doormats, brushes, and mattresses. Coir is the fibrous material found between the hard, internal shell and the outer coat of a coconut. Other uses of brown coir (made from ripe coconut) are in upholstery padding, sacking and horticulture. White coir, harvested from unripe coconuts, is used for making finer brushes, string, rope and fishing nets. It has the advantage of not sinking, so can be used in long lengths in deep water without the added weight dragging down boats and buoys. Coir must not be confused with coir pith, which is the powdery and spongy material resulting from the processing of the coir fibre. Coir fibre is locally named 'coprah' in some countries, adding to confusion. Pith is chemically similar to coir, but contains much shorter fibers. The name coco peat may refer either to coir or the pith or a mixture, as both have goo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peat Moss
''Sphagnum'' is a genus of approximately 380 accepted species of mosses, commonly known as sphagnum moss, also bog moss and quacker moss (although that term is also sometimes used for peat). Accumulations of ''Sphagnum'' can store water, since both living and dead plants can hold large quantities of water inside their cells; plants may hold 16 to 26 times as much water as their dry weight, depending on the species.Bold, H. C. 1967. Morphology of Plants. second ed. Harper and Row, New York. p. 225–229. The empty cells help retain water in drier conditions. As ''Sphagnum'' moss grows, it can slowly spread into drier conditions, forming larger mires, both raised bogs and blanket bogs. Thus, ''Sphagnum'' can influence the composition of such habitats, with some describing ''Sphagnum'' as 'habitat manipulators' or 'autogenic ecosystem engineers'. These peat accumulations then provide habitat for a wide array of peatland plants, including sedges and ericaceous shrubs, as well as or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Compost
Compost is a mixture of ingredients used as plant fertilizer and to improve soil's physical, chemical, and biological properties. It is commonly prepared by Decomposition, decomposing plant and food waste, recycling organic materials, and manure. The resulting mixture is rich in plant nutrients and beneficial organisms, such as bacteria, protozoa, nematodes, and fungi. Compost improves soil fertility in gardens, landscaping, horticulture, urban agriculture, and organic farming, reducing dependency on commercial chemical fertilizers. The benefits of compost include providing nutrients to crops as fertilizer, acting as a soil conditioner, increasing the humus or Humic acids, humic acid contents of the soil, and introducing beneficial microbes that help to suppress pathogens in the soil and reduce soil-borne diseases. At the simplest level, composting requires gathering a mix of green waste (nitrogen-rich materials such as leaves, grass, and food scraps) and brown waste (woody ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cold Frame
In agriculture and gardening, a cold frame is a transparent-roofed enclosure, built low to the ground, used to protect plants from adverse weather, primarily excessive cold or wet. The transparent top admits sunlight and prevents heat escape via convection that would otherwise occur, particularly at night. Essentially, a cold frame functions as a miniature greenhouse to extend the growing season. Historically, cold frames were built to be used in addition to a heated greenhouse. The name itself exemplifies the distinction between the warm greenhouse and the unheated cold frame. They were frequently built as part of the greenhouse's foundation brickwork along the southern wall (in northern latitudes). This allowed seeds to be germinated in the greenhouse and then easily moved to the attached cold frame to be "hardened-off" before final planting outside. Cold frames are similar to some enclosed hotbeds, also called hotboxes. The difference is in the amount of heat generated inside ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
