Gardening in a Limited Space for Newbies The Magic of the Small Garden
A couple of years ago, I went to visit a friend on a housewarming party. They had bought a 200 year old house, with style, history, beauty, architectural soundness and best of all, it had plenty of land around it. And then I looked at all the houses in the row. Beautifully designed, and with wonderfully kept lawns. When I asked them where was the garden, they looked at me, and said, is not that lawn enough, we do not need gardens with lots of trees, herbs, shrubs, and plants. Who is going to maintain them…
Unfortunately, coming from a land, where every house has to have a garden or some sort of greenery in order to get one’s fresh source of oxygen, 24/7, even if one is living in a flat, high up in the atmosphere, this outlook was rather bewildering for me. But then, each to his own.
So before you begin reading this book, think why you have bought it. You want to start your own little garden, which does not take up most of your time, adds more greenery to your surroundings, and best of all, you can expand it in the future to grow vegetables, herbs, shrubs, plants, and even trees.
Do you know the reason why so many people living in cities and who are suffering from an oxygen and greenery deprivation find themselves perpetually suffering from respiratory problems? They do not even have a little green plant in their homes, though one is thankful that this trend is changing now, slowly, and the go Green Revolution is extending to homes, balconies, apartments, terraces, offices, and any open space or enclosed space.
This book is going to tell you how you can begin right now, minimal expenditure, so that you don’t have to worry that this is a very expensive hobby. So, all right, you did not have the chance of the opportunity or the inclination or the mood or the wish or the desire to start a new hobby which would, according to you, be very tiresome and messy. You just need to make a mindset, to occupy yourself with some greenery, some way, sometime, somehow, right in your house, indoors, outside in your balcony, on a sunny window sill, or even a corner, where you can get some sun.
Organic Soil and other Plant Growing Mediums
As a newbie, you will need to know all about growing organic soil on your own. Mother Nature has been doing that for millions of years, but she has all the elements of nature at her fingertips, the sun, the air, the water, and other elements which are going to break down all the pieces of natural earth and make them into soil. We are taking a page out of her book.
I found these boxes made up of discarded pieces of wood nailed together and even old furniture shelves. The owner just put some garden mud in them, and they are just waiting to be filled up with seeds, seedlings or plants. These were placed in one corner of his garden, and you can see a glimpse of the organic fertilizer on the top right – compost.
Magic compost organic soil –
This is going to be a step-by-step DIY pictorial. You may not believe it, but in 1996, a farmer asked a government official, who called himself an agricultural expert, how to make compost, and who was promoting the sale of poisonous pesticides, how compost could be made. The official did not know anything about it. Luckily, thanks to the Internet and plenty of sensible knowledge given by really altruistic people all over the world, everybody knows how to make compost.
This organic fertilizer has been made in ordinary sacks, used for transporting cement or grain or any other products, including vegetables. As long as the sack is sturdy, it will do. That seedling growing so merrily away in the compost has been planted by nature’s greatest seed dispersal system, the birds. So no matter how decrepit the bags are, and no matter what material they are made of, as long as they are able to hold future compost, get them together and use them.
Tips for Growing Your Small Garden
When you are growing your plant indoors, remember not to keep moving them in and out of the house, with you thinking that they need some sun, they need some central heating or an air-conditioned artificially controlled ill ventilated atmosphere, depending on your mood. If they have been planted outside and are acclimatized to that weather, don’t make them indoor dainty growers or vice versa.
If you are picking your plant out of a nursery, bringing it into an area with a drastic temperature, sunlight air and other factorial change will traumatize the plant so instead of Flora Flourishing you will have Lily Languish on your hands.
As long as there is a place on which to put your plants, and the sun and the fresh air is easily available there, take full advantage of nature’s bounty.
A friend of mine told me that she did not want to make any sort of compost, because in her enclosed space, it would stink. Compost does not stink. Take it from me. Unless of course, it has been placed in the rain for a goodish while but then anything which has been placed in the rain for very long, including clothes and boots are going to stink!
So why are governments talking about chemical pesticides and fertilizers, and are definitely not encouraging natural traditional ways and means of doing organic gardening? You may be surprised to know that they are not promoting organic farming anywhere, and that is why the price of organic products is exorbitant, in many parts of the world, while in other parts of the world, these same products, grown organically are available to one and all at a very reasonable price and has been done so for millenniums.
Live Long and Prosper!
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