Category: Gardening

Animal lovers, this time we want to share several ways you can arrange your garden at home so that it suits the turtle’s environment. For those of you who want to keep a turtle for the first time, pay attention to the following things which we will explain.

Get to Know about Turtle

Maybe you are already familiar with what is called a turtle. We will provide a more detailed explanation for you so that you know more about turtles.

Turtles are animals that live in two worlds, have scales, and walk on four legs. Turtles themselves are famous for their strong shells and are known to be able to grow to very large sizes. Apart from that, turtles themselves are believed to be able to survive for hundreds of years, this is because the turtles’ slow lifestyle makes them live long.

Turtles themselves are cold-blooded animals, animals like this cannot regulate their body temperature, so cold-blooded animals like turtles need sunlight and shade so that their body temperature remains stable.

Turtles are also omnivores or eat everything. The main food is meat, vegetables, or even fruit. Included in the oviparous category or animals that reproduce by laying eggs. The body structure itself is divided into a head, neck, shell (body), and tail.

Preparation for Keeping Turtles

There are also several preparations that you have to make to keep turtles because keeping reptiles is not easy to do, so you have to know what preparations you have to make.

Getting ready to care for turtles involves doing a few important things because taking care of reptiles, like turtles, can be a bit tricky. It’s not a simple task, so it’s essential to know what you need to do before bringing a turtle home.

How to Care for Turtles

To keep a turtle, you have to know how to care for it yourself. Many veterinarians also don’t understand turtle care well, which is why you have to find a recommended veterinarian who truly understands turtle life, so you can provide the best care.

1. Food for Turtles

Caring for turtles is a difficult thing because the food for turtles itself must be considered very carefully. You must pay close attention to the nutrition intake of reptiles so that they can grow very healthily.

2. Dry in the Sun Every Few Days

Since it is a cold-blooded animal, you need to dry your turtle regularly. Do this every few days so your turtle can stay warm and not stay in a damp place for too long.

These are some simple preparations that you should at least know before keeping a turtle. Next, we will explain how to make your garden a suitable place for turtle companionship. Here are some things you should do.

Preparing Garden Land

For those of you who want to create a comfortable place for turtles at home, you have to start by preparing the land in your garden. The land is large enough to suit the size of the turtle itself and the number of turtles you will keep.

A spacious place will make the turtle feel more comfortable. This can help turtles avoid stress because the place where they live is large and spacious, and having more than one turtle will allow them to interact with one of their species.

1. Adapt to the Habitat

Indeed, the place where turtles live must also be adapted to the habitat they have. This is very important for you to pay attention to, remembering that turtles are cold-blooded animals that cannot live in places that are too cold.

So, always pay attention to the temperature where the turtle lives and also know what its habitat is like. This is one way to keep your turtle alive and healthy.

2. Preparing Plants

To turn your garden into the perfect place for turtles, you can also add plants to make the place cooler. Don’t add plants that are too shady, because turtles still need sunlight to sunbathe.

So, add plants and arrange them well, so that they don’t block too much sunlight access to the turtle’s place. So, you have to pay careful attention to the layout of these plants.

3. Prepare an Artificial Pond

Yes, to make this turtle’s place even more comfortable for them, you can add an artificial pond to where they live. This is so they can swim and allow their bodies to cool down when the temperature is very hot.

Make a pond that is mini-sized but big enough for the turtle you have. Very suitable for turtles that still have small bodies.

4. Adding Rocks

Rocks are one of the important elements that you must add to the turtle nest that you make. The stones will make their home feel more natural and of course, this will give them a place to relax.

5. Make it in a Place with Good Sunlight

You must also pay attention, that to create a suitable place for turtle companionship, you must choose a spot that has the best quality of sunlight. A good place and good sunlight will allow the turtle to get good sunlight.

So, choose a place in your garden that is best exposed to sunlight, because this will make the turtle’s habitat feel better. Also, it will give the turtle an easy way to get warmth for their body.

This is how you design your garden at home so that it is suitable for tortoise companionship. To get further information regarding this matter, you can visit Reptileclass.com.

Hydroponic is a method to grow a plant without soil that was recently used by people. This method is popular to use because it can be done anywhere without the need for a field to grow the plant. Because it doesn’t need soil, Hydroponic Garden can be created both outdoors and indoors.

What Is Hydroponic Garden

A hydroponic garden is a garden that uses a hydroponic planting system. The idea of the hydroponic garden is to cultivate plants in nutrient-rich water so the root will directly be exposed to the water and receive the nutrients from it.

The term “hydroponic” itself originated from the Greek word “hydro” that is refereeing to water and “phonos” which means labor. By that, the hydroponic garden can be said that hydroponic is an attempt to grow plants in water.

Advantage And Disadvantage Of Hydroponic Garden

There are some advantages and disadvantages to growing plants in a hydroponic garden. There are some advantages and disadvantages of using hydroponic gardens.

Advantages:

1. Faster Growth

Plants in hydroponic gardens are growing faster compared to the plants that grow in traditional soil-based methods. Plants have a faster growth rate in hydroponic gardens because the hydroponic garden prove plants with optimal nutrients and gives better growing conditions. Plants can directly absorb nutrients from the nutrient-reach water so it will help plants grow faster.

2. Water Efficiency

Hydronic garden uses lesser water than traditional soil-based garden because the water is recirculated which reduces water wastage. In the traditional soil-based garden, you need to water your plants by rain the plants and soil with water, but in the hydroponic garden, you don’t have to do that because you cultivate plants in water.

See also : Tips for Growing Low-Maintenance Garden

3. Optimal Nutrient Control

Another advantage of using a hydroponic garden is the nutrient for plants can be controlled. Unlike the traditional soil-based garden, in the hydroponic garden, you can manage how much nutrients that need to be given to plants. Nutrient control can reduce the risk of nutrient deficiency or nutrient excesses.

4. Year-round Cultivation

In the hydroponic garden, you can have year-round cultivation. The cultivation of plants in a traditional soil-base garden is limited to the climates and weather, but in a hydroponic garden especially the indoor hydroponic garden, you can control the condition of temperature and environment for the plant. By that, you can extend the cultivation time for the plant.

5. Higher Yields

The hydroponic garden also has the potential to produce more yield compared to the traditional soil-based garden. With proper management and control, plants in the hydroponic garden can produce better results per unit compared to the plants that grow in traditional soil-based gardens because the optimum nutrients and control make plants healthier.

6. Reduced Pest and Disease risk

The hydroponic garden also minimizes the disease from the soil-borne pest. The minimalize of disease caused by the pest can lead to healthier plants and reduce of pesticide usage resulting in healthier fruits and veggies to be consumed.

7. Space Efficiency

Unlike the traditional soil-based garden, the hydroponic garden can be designed vertically or in compact configurations. The flexibility of hydroponic garden configuration can help you to grow plants even in limited spaces such as in an urban environment.

8. Optimal Oxygen Supply

Plant roots in the hydroponic garden have better access to oxygen compared to planting on the soil. The access to oxygen in a hydroponic garden is not limited or covered by the soil. Better access to oxygen will help to keep the root healthy and enhance nutrient uptake.

9. Less Environment Impact

The last advantage of the hydroponic garden is its impact on the environment and impact on the environment. The traditional soil-based garden can reduce soil nutrients over time, it also depends on the condition of the environment to grow plants. The hydroponic garden has a lesser impact on the environment since the hydroponic garden is not attached to the environment around the garden.

Disadvantages:

1. Initial Setup Costs

The setting for the hydroponic garden might be more expensive compared to the traditional soil-based garden. To make a hydroponic garden you need to buy some specialized equipment and infrastructure.

2. Requires Technical Expertise

Unlike the traditional garden which only needs a farmer that knows the farm, a hydroponic garden needs someone with a certain level of knowledge and expertise to manage and control nutrient levels, pH, and water quality, and maintain the system.

3. Risk of System Failures

Because the hydroponic garden depends on the recirculated water, a malfunction in the system such as a power outage or malfunction on the water pump can put your plant at risk. The malfunctions that are not detected and addressed promptly can cause the rapid plat decline.

4. Dependency of Technology

Creating a hydroponic garden without technology is almost impossible due to the hydroponic garden need system and infrastructure to make water flow and recirculated water. Without technology, it is hard to make natural hydroponic water.

5. Monitoring and Maintenance

The hydroponic garden needs a person to monitor regularly to ensure that the pH, water level, and nutrient is in control and to maintain the condition of the equipment and garden condition. The lack of monitor and maintenance can lead to the problem in hydroponic gardens.

6. Nutrient Imbalances

The imbalance of nutrients can be caused by the incorrect ratio of the nutrients that given to the plants. The imbalance of nutrients can lead to poor plant growth or reduce crop quality.

7. Potential for Disease Spread

Plant disease from the soil-borne pest can be minimized by the hydroponic garden, but the disease that is spread by the water-borne pest can risk your plant if it is not managed properly. The disease from waterborne pests can harm your plant’s roots and kill the plant.

In summary, a hydroponic garden offers many benefits such as better growth rate, better water efficiency, space efficiency, and year-round cultivation, but it also needs lots attention to monitor and maintain the garden condition, required technical expertise, and some initial investment to build the system. To know more about the hydroponic garden, you can visit TopHydroponicGarden.com.

If you have green thumbs, then you might have come to the right place. Wanting to design garden, self-sustainable garden, with low-maintenance garden at your home, then you would love our ideas here. To make sure all of our gardener readers here understand more, and would get you the best DIY ideas on the low-maintenance garden, here are few tips to help you get started.

What Is Considered As Low-Maintenance Garden?

Naturally, we need to always maintain our garden, like watering our garden, getting rid of pest, planting new seeds, harvesting, using fertilizers and etc. Some people however, couldn’t find much time for them to do gardening and have lot of tasks at hand, and therefore would opt for low maintenance garden then. What is exactly low-maintenance garden that could be designed?

Low-maintenance garden is basically a garden that composed of plants and flowers that doesn’t require much maintenance, watering, and they could self-sustain themselves for quite period of time without too much care. This way, you can still take care of your garden when you have time, and without needing to worry that your garden will wilt, and destroyed once you got home.

It is also good recommendation if you are still beginner at gardening, and doesn’t have much ideas about gardening. Low-maintenance garden could help you save time, and would make for better garden overall, depending on your choices of plants.

The Benefits And Features Of Low-Maintenance Garden

One main benefits of the low-maintenance garden design is because it requires less efforts and time to take care of garden, so even if you are busy with your works, and won’t be home by much, then your garden will still be thriving, and with less efforts and maintenance could still be fruitful garden and won’t wilt for quite a long time.

This doesn’t mean that low-maintenance garden doesn’t require any care at all, in facts, you will still need to take care of your garden from time to time, like cutting off weeds, getting rid of pests, watering your plants and many more.

One benefits of low-maintenance garden is that you can make garden works in very limited budget, and limited time, therefore it would make for easier time managing your home garden, and working with easier plants. It is also very easy to maintain, and would be perfect choices for anyone who are looking to learn about gardening basic skills.

How To Make Low-Maintenance Garden At Home

One thing you should take note when taking care of low-maintenance garden, even though it doesn’t require constant care, or as much care as usual garden, you will still need to take care of things or two in the garden, thinking it through, and also choosing for few garden plants and many more. This way, even though you have limited time, you should be able to still taking care of your low maintenance garden as always.

So, here are few tips to make sure you can make some low-maintenance garden.

• Choose your plants carefully

One thing that you should think about when designing for low-maintenance garden is choosing for the plants that are considered as low-maintenance plants. Some example of low-maintenance farm is plants that are native to your region, or plants that are already adapted with your soil conditions, and climate.

If you try to grow some exotic plants, or any plants that are considered as non-native, then it would require more efforts than the native plants.

• Manage your planting areas

What we mean by your planting areas here, are grouping plants that considered as similar water, with soil, or sunlight. Grouping them together would make more efficient and effective works, and would save you quite some time and resources. This is also excellent way of saving time when you are working on your low-maintenance garden.

• Use retain moisture soils and natural mulch

Retain moisture soils could help to suppress weed growth, it is very important to suppress it in the low-maintenance garden model, because you won’t have much time for taking care of your garden, or culling some weeds.

Natural mulch could help in stimulating the growth of your plans, but at the same time they could also act as natural pesticide. See also here in our official articles to know more about how to make natural mulch.

• Consider for drip irrigation system

If you don’t have much time for watering your plants, consider for drip irrigation system that could make you easier time to conserve water, and would save you some time without needing for watering your crops. It took quite amount of money to make, but it is quite worth it, as it acts as automatic watering system.

• Keeps the garden clean of debris

Always keep your garden clean of debris and trash. Debris could invite pests and diseases that would make your work in the garden like hell. They can help in maintaining your garden diseases or pest free, while at the same time would make your works so much easier, as you don’t need much pesticide. This is why you need to clean up your garden.

• Consider hiring garden hands for help

When you are starting your low-maintenance garden, it is best to hire some garden helpers, especially those professional gardeners. You could get some advice on how you could grow crops, and how to maintain your garden. Luckily enough, there are bunch of tutorials that could help you out, and we have already provided one in our official website here.

When you have gardening as a hobby, sometimes you might see pests and diseases in your crops, and sometimes you try to get rid of them.

It is true that disease and pests could ruin your plants, and potentially even ruin your hard work on the garden, this is why the methods of getting rid of pests is typically must know for every gardeners.

There are many ways you can get rid of pests, be its using artificial pesticides, chemical, or by using natural. There are of course, any advantages or disadvantages by using chemical or natural pesticides.

Before we move on to how you can get rid of natural pests, we need to understand why we should do natural pests control and not using the chemical pesticide.

The Comparison Between Natural And Chemical Pesticides For Gardening

First, let’s talk about chemical pesticides. Chemical pesticides are very effective at killing bugs and pests, and it is probably one of the most simple, cheaper and fastest solution for pest infestation in your garden.

It is also easier to find, cheaper, and faster to buy, rather than making for your own natural pesticide, but of course there are few disadvantages too.

Chemical pesticides can sometimes dangerously harm on your garden. Sometimes, making the soil or the water become unstable, and can even make ingesting your crops or produce dangerous. There is also chances that bugs, and diseases would develop immunity to the chemical pesticides, not to mention that it could polute water ways if it is too much on your garden.

In contrast, the natural pesticide is natural way to get rid of pests. It is made from many natural ingredients, and would make it for easier, safer crops produce compared with using chemical pesticides. However, some natural pesticide can take some time to produce, and would make it quite hard to bought too, but if you see our tips here, you can make natural pesticide that are effective to repel bugs faster.

One thing that you should know is, that natural pesticides would be safer choices, as they can repel any bugs in your garden without adding for dangerous chemicals. You can also mix the natural bug repellent with the water, saving you time and money for effective uses of pesticide. To make it simpler, there are also many ways you can naturally get rid of bugs, instead of using chemical pesticide.

How To Naturally Get Rid Of Pests In Your Garden

There are many ways that you can get rid of pests naturally, from simple concoction made from garlic, to the unique way of getting rid of pests, like for example using ducks to eat bugs, introducing natural predators of bugs and pests into your garden. So, if you want to know more about how to maintain your garden bug-free and without the use of chemical, here are 7 tips to naturally get rid of pests in your garden.

• Use natural pesticides mix

There are many mixture of pesticides that are completely natural, and would do no harm to the plants, and safe for people if they are accidentally consume it. Some of the natural pesticide mixes such as mixture of garlic, liquid soap that can be used to suffocate pests, Neem oil mixture that are effective as natural insecticide, and many more.

There is also Diatomaceous earth, a mixture of fine powder that could be spread around the plants, and it can control some soft-bodied pests like slug.

• Encourage natural predators

You can also use tricks by introducing some beneficial natural predators, such as other insects like ladybugs, and lacewings. You can also use ducks, as they are natural predator for bugs, but they can be quite expensive to maintain.

• Handpicking pests

By handpicking pests you can directly control on your garden, getting rid any pests you might see manually, or you can also use pest brush. It is good way that you can get rid of your pests naturally without the use of pesticide, however if you don’t have time, then you might not be able to have time for handpicking pests one by one, and it might be tiresome.

• Use Floating Row Covers

The floating row covers are used as physical barrier and they can use to prevent any pests from reaching plants. This could be installed for smaller to medium plants, but for bigger plants, it might not be suitable for it. See here for more information regarding about how to install the floating row covers.

• Water the plant every morning

By watering the plant every morning you could wash up any insects, slugs, and many pests, as well as handpicking them. Not only it would make sure that the plant could get their water, but they also would wash up any pests on it.

• Keep the garden clean

When you have debris on your garden, the debris could be home for many pests, inviting many things such as pests, lice, slugs, and many more pests that could harm on your plants. Making sure to clean your garden, it could make your garden better and more beautiful too.

• Use companion planting trick

Companion planting tricks are tricks to plant other type of plants that could help deter any pests and insects around the type of plants or crops that you want to protect. For example, like planting marigolds, mints, and basils, could help to deter any pests and insects, due to them can gives natural insecticide pheromones.

Gardening is one of the most popular leisure activities and not only that it would also make for a productive hobby, with many gardening produces at your disposal. Not only that, but gardening could also make for better productive and would make good use of your yards. If you want to make for a better gardener, then you would have come to the right place.

There are also many things that you can do to make yourself better gardening, from how to choose better crops, how to manage water in your garden, how to repel any pests, and so on. In this article, we are going to show you how you can manage water in your gardening, as well as a few fundamental tricks on water conservation for gardening.

Things You Should Know Before Gardening

If you want to get yourself a nice garden, all you need to have is a nice plot of land, but sometimes even if you don’t have a plot of land you can still get yourself a small, potted garden. The basic fundamental of gardening, is a plot of land, seeds, and water supplies. However, there are many things that you need to know, such as how to take care of each seed, choose seeds, and water management.

Now, to better understand gardening, here are a few things you need to know first before starting up your garden.

• Choose the right plants

First thing first, choose the right plants for your garden. You can plant whatever you want, but if you are a beginner gardener, it is recommended to plant simple plants, and plants that require less care, such as plants that are suitable for climate and soil conditions.

• Potted or in a garden plot?

Do you want a potted garden? Or do you have wide enough space to get a garden plot? Either way, both are great ways to make a garden. If you are low on space and money, you can opt for the potted garden, simple potted plants, and flowers.

• Watering

Watering is of course important thing when you are gardening. If you have time, then traditional watering with a watering can always help, however, there are many more creative ways to water your plants, such as drip irrigation and many more. There is also a way to conserve water for gardening, which we will talk about it later.

• Fertilizer to help them grow

Plants need nutrients to help them grow, and fertilizers would help them grow faster and stronger. Not to mention if they are fruit or veggies crops it would yield more harvest.

• Keep it nice, clean out of pests

Keep your garden nice and clean from pests and debris. For example, debris could invite pests such as slugs and lacewings that could harm your plants.

Way To Conserve Water For Gardening

Why we should conserve water for gardening? There are many reasons, such as financial reasons because sometimes water bills can be quite expensive. When you are gardening, sometimes it could take a lot of water to do it, and hence would require a lot of ways to conserve water.

There are many ways to conserve it either by using an irrigation system or by choosing plants that are drought resistant so they would require less water. Either way, conserving water is needed when you are on low water, living in a place where water could be quite hard to come by, or you want to save up money on the water bills.

• Choose drought-resistant plants 

There are many plants that don’t need water too much, and these plants are considered drought-resistant plants. When you are planting your new garden, and you live in quite a low-water area, you can choose drought-resistant plants first.

• Use Mulch

Natural mulch could save up your water by quite an amount, as you can spread a layer of mulch to help the soil to retain some of the moisture.

• Water it deeply and water it in the morning

Water your plants early in the morning before the sun could dry up your water, and it would also save up a bit of water on it. It would also be useful to reduce any fungal diseases in your plants. Make sure to water your plants deeply, through the root, and frequent shallow watering won’t help much with the growth, and therefore always water it deeply.

• Use efficient irrigation

There are a few neat tricks of irrigation that you can use. When you can’t use a watering can, you can always use tricks such as the hose-end sprayer, or drip irrigation system, or you can use rainwater collection to help you irrigate your garden.

• Collect Rainwater

You can install some rain barrels in your house, so you can collect rain water, be re-used it for your garden plants. However, keep it in mind that in some places like the U.S, it is quite illegal to store rainwater.

• Avoid overwatering

Avoid shallow overwatering on your plants. Not only shallow watering would just promote deeper root growth, but overwatering could also lead to root rot, fungal diseases, and many other plant diseases, so you need to be careful not to overwater it.

So overall, conserving water when gardening is a good option when you have quite low on water, and wanted to preserve some water bills in itself. Not only that it would make for lesser costs of gardening, but it would also good for your household too. When conserving water, make sure to not overextend the water conservation or irrigation system.