Category: Vegetable Gardening

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Vegetable Gardening

How to Grow Spinach At Home in Kitchen Garden

Arid Agriculture | How to Grow Spinach At Home in Kitchen Garden
Young spinach leaves in isolated white background

Introduction

About 25% of world’s population is suffering from anemia: a complication caused by iron deficiency and expressed in terms of loss of work efficiency. Thanks to the loving nature that has gifted us iron rich vegies i.e. spinach.   If you want healthy lifestyle for your family and you have some garden patch, trust me you are such a blessed person. Why not grow spinach at home because there is nothing like freshly grown vegie for your kitchen.

Spinach is a cold weather loving leafy green vegetable, yet some varieties can be grown in summers also. It needs fertile soil rich in nitrogen, well drainage and neutral Ph. Spinach can be started indoors at balcony/terrace or garden using seeds. It requires full sun to partial shade of (may be) taller plants. Soil should be fertilized with animal manure prior to sowing.

Sowing is performed in late fall and spring in mild to cool temperatures at the depth of 1 inch and 1 feet apart. Better chose seeds of disease resistant variety such as ‘Melody’ as spinach is prone to fungal diseases. Regular watering will aid in quick germination of seeds which usually takes 1 to 2 weeks. Spacing of 12 inches in between the rows facilitates well aeration. To avoid animal interference, it’s ideal to grow spinach in fenced location in the garden. Spinach grows very quickly so harvesting can be performed once leaves have reached appropriate size. If plant is harvested just above the crown, there are fair enough chances that it will regrow sending more fresh leaves.

Small baby leaves are absolutely yum once sautéed with butter. Adding to your food menu ‘Palak paneer’ is a very famous sub-continental dish where cottage cheese is served with spinach. Overheating the spinach will lessen its iron content leaving only fiber behind.

Spinach can be an excellent addition to your kitchen garden. Let’s involve our young ones also in kitchen gardening who usually don’t like veges.

Cite this Article in APA Style as:

[box type=”note” align=”aligncenter” ]Rahman, M. A. (2019, March 20). How to Grow Spinach At Home in Kitchen Garden [Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://aridagriculture.com/2019/03/20/how-to-grow-spinach-at-home-in-kitchen-garden/[/box]

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Vegetable Gardening

Square Foot Gardening

Square Foot Gardening | Arid Agriculture
Square Foot Gardening

Introduction

Square Foot Gardening is an innovative and advance technique of planning small but intensively planted gardens at home. Mel Bartholomew is considered as the pioneer to coin the term Square Foot Gardening. The beauty of this farming technique resides in its application of organic farming techniques combined with other innovative methods to get more and better production from a small piece of land especially in vegetable gardens.

Square Foot Gardening  includes the application of organic gardening techniques along with strong emphasis on composting methods, planting the plants closely and intensively, making raised beds and also bio intensive attention to a small yet clearly defined area of garden.   

Square Foot Gardening

Importance of Square Foot Gardening

The success of this technique lies in the fact that this method is quite beneficial in those areas where the gardener is facing the problem of poor quality of soil. By selecting a confined area for gardening, that plot can be modifies according to the desire and best quality of output as well as production can be obtained. This technique is equally beneficial for those who are new to vegetable gardening or backyard gardening. It is also proved to be a recreational activity for the people with disabilities those allowing them to enjoy the leisure time efficiently.

Method of Square Foot Gardening

The basic idea behind this technique is using an open bottomed box that is placed on the soil that contain finite amount of soil. This soil is then divided into various sections according to the desire using grids. To get good quality and quantity of production from vegetable gardening crops each square would be planted with different kind of crop plants. In case of ornamental gardening, the Square Foot gardening is equally beneficial in a sense that spate type of flowers can be grown in each square to increase the aesthetic sense of the garden.   

Square Foot Farming 1 | Arid Agriculture
Square Foot Farming 1

Vegetable Gardening Recommendation for Square Foot Gardening

The Square Foot gardening can be used differently for different types of crops. For instance, a single Tomato plant might consume a full square. Similarly, herbs like Oregano, Mint or Basil also consume a full square. On the other hand, Strawberry plants can be planted four per square. In case of vegetables, sixteen radishes can also be planted and grown per square.

The smaller beds used in square foot gardening are helpful in easy adaptation of the farmer with his/her garden. He can have reach to every single inch of the entire area for gardening practices by avoiding direct stepping on the soil ad making it compact.  

Square Foot Gardening is Effective for Weed Control

Square Foot Gardening  is effective for weed control in a sense that a weed barrier can be made beneath the square foot box. At the bottom of the box, it can be filled with a combination of one third of decayed Sphagnum (peat moss), one third of compost and one third of vermiculture.

Cite this Article in APA Style as:

[box type=”note” align=”aligncenter” ]Rahman, M. A. (2018, March 20). Square Foot Gardening [Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://aridagriculture.com/2018/03/20/square-foot-gardening/ [/box]

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Vegetable Gardening

5 DIY Greenhouse Ideas

DIY Greenhouse | Arid Agriculture
The Geo Dome Greenhouse

Introduction

Greenhouses in home garden have dual purposes. On one hand, they increase the aesthetic sense while on other hand; they provide you with a chance to have fresh and off-season organic food at home. So today, I am going to discuss 5 DIY greenhouse ideas that will add scenic beauty to your home garden.

To have safe and secure vegetable gardening, I always advice my readers to build a greenhouse in the backyard or in a suitable location of home garden. A general confusion present in mind is regarding the size of greenhouse. Yes the size of the greenhouse matters, however if you are planning to build a greenhouse in home garden, the mathematics should be based on your family size. A general rule of thumb is to build a greenhouse that should feed a family of four from 20 square foot i.e. 5 square foot per family member. It should be enough to supply veggies for a whole season.  

A DIY greenhouse allows you to customize your greenhouse as per your requirements. To build a greenhouse, it should be kept in mind that it is quite a laborious task; however building it is fun, skill learning and hence very tactful to create.

Let us now move to the objective of this post. Below is a list of five different DIY greenhouse ideas that one can install easily in their home garden.

List of DIY Greenhouse Ideas

The ‘Barn’ Greenhouse

The first in the list of DIY greenhouse is the ‘Barn Greenhouse’ The Barn greenhouse in the home garden gets its name because of the shape of a barn and the appearance it carries that fit in any residence. It is mostly made with the wooden structure. You can customize it by using plastic sheet or glass for absorbing sunlight. I will prefer to go with plastic sheet. This will not only be cheap in cost, but also in case you plan to move your Barn greenhouse to other place, the cost of transfer will be minimized. Barn Greenhouse is most suitable for growing underground veggies like Carrot, Radish, Turnip, Beet, Sugar Beet etc. The Barn greenhouse usually cost around $500-700.

DIY Greenhouse | Arid Agriculture
The Barn Greenhouse

The Big Greenhouse

Second in the list of DIY greenhouse is the Big Greenhouse. In urban gardening, the big greenhouse is perfect, specifically of the size 10X16 structures. The plan for it is really basic.

It has a simple ‘A’ framed structure and you just have to lay beds inside of it or just plant in the ground. You will have an awesome amount of space to decide how to lay down the structure. Plus you get quite a room to grow your favorite plants and veggies.

DIY Greenhouse | Arid Agriculture
The Big Greenhouse

The ‘Hoop’ Greenhouse

Among several DIY greenhouse ideas, the most easily homemade greenhouse is the hoop greenhouse. It has a round formation and is very simple to build. To build a greenhouse of this type in home garden, few tools are only needed but you must go according to the plan and instructions given.

Most people use it in a cold frame fashion. A glow light can added to enhance its beauty. You can build this in less than $200. This is the perfect in expensive option.

DIY Greenhouse | Arid Agriculture
The Hoop Greenhouse

The 50-Dollar Greenhouse

4th in the list of DIY greenhouse ideas is the 50-Dollar Greenhouse. It is more than greenhouse for home garden. In fact it can e regarded as a small nursery at home. As this greenhouse is mostly built using recycled material, you have plenty of options to mold it according to your needs.

I advise my readers to 50-Dollar greenhouse at their home due to its simple yet resourceful features and options it provides you when it comes to grow organic veggies in home garden. The most important feature of this greenhouse is its less cost. So whenever you plant to build a greenhouse in home garden, go for 50 Dollar greenhouse option.

DIY Greenhouse | Arid Agriculture
50 Dollar Greenhouse

The Geo Dome

Last in the list of DIY greenhouse options is the Geo Dome greenhouse. This nursery type greenhouse helps me to remember some portion of a wilderness rec center I used to play at a recreation center as a child.

It is a roundabout formed nursery and exceptionally fascinating to take a gander at. Since this nursery is a roundabout shape it improves it for withstanding high breezes. The designs and apparatus are accessible. This seems, by all accounts, to be a truly cool nursery. It is said to have the most developing space so you have plenty of options to customize your vegetable cultivation plan.

DIY Greenhouse | Arid Agriculture
The Geo Dome Greenhouse

Cite this Article in APA Style as:

[box type=”note” align=”aligncenter” ]Rahman, M. A. (2017, October 30). 5 DIY Greenhouse Ideas [Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://aridagriculture.com/2017/10/30/5-diy-greenhouse-ideas/ [/box]

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Vegetable Gardening

List of Fruits Best for Container Gardening

List of Fruits | Container Gardening | Home Garden
List of Fruits for Container Gardening

Introduction

For those having interest in urban gardening and love for having fresh fruits and vegetable in every meal, should try new and innovative container gardening ideas at home garden. Trying and Investing in new container gardening ideas requires minimal investment of time and money and can be grown in your backyard or kitchen garden. Believe me, the repay is organic and delicious harvest of fruits and vegetables. Keeping this in view, this article will discuss list of fruits that can be grown in a container of your home garden.

Below is the list of fruits which can be grown quite easily in a container as contradictory to common belief that they need and wide and deep soil to grow and produce fruits. Growing fruits in a container is one of the best container gardening ideas practiced globally.  

Strawberries

Strawberry is the most popular fruit among children and adults due to its attractive heart shape and delicious taste. This makes it on the top of the list of fruits that can be grown in a container of home garden.

Strawberry belongs to a class of herbaceous variety which is highly productive and luscious fruit. As it is one of the most delicate fruit, so it requires extra care and need proper environment, water and soil pH levels to fruits properly.

Strawberries are the best plants to grow in containers and they thrive well indoors so one can have fresh strawberries all year long. They need sufficient sunlight. When kept indoors, the pot can be kept next to a window.

In addition to this, they can grow in alkaline soil which is fertilized prior to planting. Water the strawberries frequently until the plant grow roots and treat the plant with insecticide and fungicide to prevent any kind of infestation and fungal growth.

Watermelons

Watermelons ranks second in the list of fruits that can be grown in containers of home garden. Gurus of gardening, and especially those who practice innovative container gardening ideas astonished millions of people by growing watermelons in a container few years back.  

It is an establish fact now that watermelons are one of the best fruits to plant in containers and they flourish well indoors also. To make the whole process more easy, it’s better to use self-water container, which is the perfect option because after all, watermelons need plenty of water.

As, all types of melons are warm-weather crops. So they need sufficient light and heat source. It should be ensured to provide them sunlight everyday or the container is kept at a spot that is near to the window.

Tomatoes

Tomato is the fruit of every season. If one loves to grow tomato, but doesn’t have plenty of room and want to have a fresh supply all-round the year, then innovative container gardening ideas can solve this problem.

Tomatoes flourish optimally in container. The container should be large enough which is covered by a cage on the outside to provide extra support when the plant gets taller as tomato plant tends to extend vertically.

Growing tomatoes in a container of home garden can be a bit of a challenge as it requires consistent amount of water, just to keep the soil moist but not wet. Also, it’s crucial to feed them fertilizer and keep in sunlight for at least of 6-8 hours, which is the optimum amount of light and heat needed to grow. Tomato has proved a best companion in home garden. This allows it to grab a place in my list of fruits for container gardening.

Bananas

Among many container gardening ideas, growing Bananas in a container is surprising, right!  Well if it is, then you should give it a try, as Bananas are proved good producers of fruit in containers.

The basic requirement for banana in container of your home garden is a large and spacious container. Similarly, it requires tropical environment to grow and is fairly easy to grow among other backyard fruit plants.

On the other hand, it needs proper and consistent climate conditions, a lot of water because of its huge leaves, enough of sunlight and moist soil mixture with an alkaline pH. In addition, banana plant needs to be fertilized at least once a month to get best produce. So if anyone preparing his/her list of fruits for container gardening, Banana should be included.

Pomegranate

Last in my list of fruits for container gardening in home garden is Pomegranate. I reserved my favorite and best fruit for last. When i was thinking about innovative container gardening ideas 2 years back, Pomegranate stroked my head at once. The reason was simple. It is easy to get fruits of Pomegranate in a container because of its shallow root system as compare to other large fruit trees, perhaps it is easier to grow.

From medical perspective, it is rich in iron. In addition to the fruit, its juice is even healthier. It thrives well in plenty of sunlight; require regular water and fertilizer in given every 2 week time. Providing with these pre-requisites will result in scrumptious and succulent fruit.

I hope this list of fruits has sparked several other container gardening ideas in your mind. Don’t forget to share your ideas in comment section below. Cheers.

Cite this Article in APA Style as:

[box type=”note” align=”aligncenter” ]Rahman, M. A. (2017, October 29). List of Fruits Best for Container Gardening [Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://aridagriculture.com/2017/10/29/list-of-fruits-container-gardening/[/box]

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Vegetable Gardening

3 Best Herbs to Grow in Home Garden

Best Herbs to Grow | Growing Herbs | How to Grow Herbs
Best Herbs to Grow in Home Garden

Introduction

Growing herbs is my hobby. There is always dedicated space available in my home garden for growing herbs. In addition to this, there are several herbs that I grow in Mason jar indoors. This is the beauty of growing herbs that they can be cultivated anywhere in open garden, patio, balcony garden in small or large container and pots. So today, I am going to answer two of the biggest question I received frequently from my readers that are; ‘how to grow herbs’ and ‘what are the best herbs to grow’.

Believe me, these two questions seems easy, however when you are faced in practical with these two questions, factor like confusion and confidence occupies the mind that increases the chances of failure. So in this article, I will try to discuss how to grow herbs and the best herbs to grow at home simultaneously to save my reader’s time resource.

Before listing best herbs to grow, I like to highlight the importance of growing herbs, especially for the beginners. Growing herbs at home not only saves few bucks, but also it fulfills your hobby and add flavors to the food cooked. Freshly picked herbs, grown in backyard or pots, add more flavor than the dried ones. Plus, growing herbs at home provides you with the option to add them immediately in daily food items such as soups, salads and stews.

List of Best Herbs to Grow at Home

Before discussing how to grow herbs, let me introduce you with top 3 best herbs to grow at home. These are;

  1. Rosemary
  2. Parsley
  3. Basil

There are several other herbs that can take space in my list of best herbs to grow. However, the above 3 herbs are easy to grow in home garden and for beginners; these herbs provide the learning experience. In addition to this, these 3 herbs can be grown in small places and indoors too. Regarding these herbs, let us now discuss the procedure of how to grow herbs.

Rosemary

Rosemary takes top place in my list of best herbs to be grown in home garden. This is because of its dual property of being used as a food item as well as a pest repellent at homes.  It has powerful property of curing indigestion, bad breath and pain. It is equally beneficial for hairs when use as oil.

Rosemary can also be grown in indoors from seeds. However, I suggest to grow Rosemary from clippings instead of seeds, as germination rate of seeds is low in case of this herb. Below table will help understanding the pre-requisites of growing rosemary at home.

Germination 15-22 days
Light requirements Abundant sunlight or full sun
Soil requirements Well drained soil and light in texture
pH of Soil 6-7
Fertilizer requirement Compost is preferred at the time sowing seed or transplanting. Then again add at the time of next season spring when new signs of growth are visible.
Plant Height Around 60 inch
Spacing between the Plants 22-36 inches
Ready for First Harvest 10-14 weeks.

 

Parsley

In list of best herbs to grow in home garden, Parsley gets the second place. Again it is a great indoor herb that can be grown in pots and containers. From medical perspective, Parsley has great power to act as antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. Thus this makes it a good herb for digestion and detoxification purposes at home. Pregnant women should avoid using Parsley due to its property of inducing uterine contractions that may lead to miscarriage.

It should be grown using the seeds. Once it reaches at the transplantation stage, pick it and transplant in wider spaces. Use mulch to keep optimum moisture. To get healthy foliage, cut the plant down to stem during early fall.

It should be noted during second year of planting; Parsley bear flower and thus become unfit for consumption. You have the option to let it bloom and use the seeds at the end of the season to replant in next season.

Parsley is a good herb to be used in food items like tabbouleh, pesto and salad dressing. Below table will answer further regarding how to grow herbs of Parsley.

Germination 15-28 days
Light requirements Partly Shaded and Sun
Soil requirements Moist and Rich Soil
pH of Soil 5.5 to 6.7
Fertilizer requirement Compost is preferred at the time of planting. Then add high- nitrogen every few weeks.
Plant Height Around 18 inches
Spacing between the Plants 10-15 inches
Ready for First Harvest Within 10 weeks.

 

Basil

Basil herb is famous all around the globe. Thus it is also included in my list of best herbs to grow in home garden. Basil is known for its intense clove-like aroma and anise-like flavor. It is used both as fresh and dried herb in cooking.

From medical perspective, it is used as anti-arthritic, deodorizer, anti-inflammatory, topical antioxidant and also insect repellent. It is rich in Vitamins like A, K and C. In addition to this, it also provides body with Calcium, Iron, Magnesium and Potassium.

Basil can be grown from seeds indoors. The seed should be planted in early spring to get optimum seed germination rate. After 2 weeks, transplants are ready to be transplanted outdoors. To get best production of leaves, it should be ensured that flowers to be removed from the stalks.

Germination 4-8 days
Light requirements Good performance in hot climate with full sun during morning while shade in afternoon
Soil requirements Moist, Rich and well-drained soil
pH of Soil 6-7
Fertilizer requirement Add compost during transplantation stage. Then
high-nitrogen with the ratio of 2:1:1 every two weeks thereafter
Plant Height 20-30 inches
Spacing between the Plants 10-20 inches
Ready for First Harvest

Within 10 weeks.

Cite this Article in APA Style as:

[box type=”note” align=”aligncenter” ]Rahman, M. A. (2017, October 26). 3 Best Herbs to Grow in Home Garden [Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://aridagriculture.com/2017/10/26/best-herbs-to-grow/[/box]

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Vegetable Gardening

List of Fruits Kids Can Grow at Home

List of Fruits | Fruits at home | garden and home
List of Fruits for Kids Farming

Introduction

Growing your own food and especially fruits at home is an adventurous and marvelous activity. It is such kind of activity in garden and home that strengthens the family bond. If practiced by the family members together, then there is no better project that is super-fun as well as entertaining that provides a positive learning of new skills for both kids and adults. I receive many queries daily requesting to provide list of fruits that can be grown easily at home. So I decided to write about it. It should be noted that the harvested fruits at home bring more taste and love as compare to those purchased from shopping malls and markets.

Family farming is idyllic in garden and home. However, most people feel bit nervous at start by the fear of possible procedural complexities that might arise which can result in failure and a daunting experience if their initial attempts are not fruitful. 

Needless to say, learning the skill of growing fruits at home always benefit the families, especially kids for the rest of their lives. This also motivates them to eat more of the good and healthy food rather than fuelling their bodies with all the junk and carbonated food and drink items. At parental end, they should have list of fruits easily grown by kids. This will not only make them busy in a positive and constructive activity but also usage of junk items will be reduced.  

In addition to learn the skills of growing fruits at home, involving kids in garden and home farming is a great tool of excitement. It is also an excellent learning method which teaches kids with a sense of responsibility, cooperative learning, making them calm, patient and inspire them to plant fruits by themselves.

Nevertheless, after doing all the hard and meticulous work by your kids to produce scrumptious and bounty of fresh and organic fruit, you also have the option to preserve them as dried fruits for a yearlong supply of healthy and nutritious food for your children.

This article discusses list of fruits that are easiest to plant and grow in garden and home. This list of fruits also can also be regarded as a benchmark for kid’s family farming activity.

  • Tomatoes

First item in my list of fruits that should be grown in garden and home is Tomatoes. Tomatoes are the easiest to plant and manage even for the kids. The plant grows at a fast pace among all other kinds of fruit plants. This makes it an ideal fruit for kids to grow in garden and home, especially the bush variety such as ‘cherry cascade’ that can be planted in hanging baskets. Even as an adult and hobby, if you are planning to grow fruits at home, tomatoes should be prioritized in the list of fruits.

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Vegetable Gardening

Ultimate Guide to Prepare a Winter Vegetable Garden

Winter vegetable garden | fall vegetable garden | Arid Agriculture
Guide to Prepare a Winter Vegetable Garden

Introduction

As summer takes its final breaths, it’s time to pull ourselves together to prepare for a winter vegetable garden. With the arrival of cool morning breeze, this change in temperature directs us towards getting equip with all the resources needed for preparing a perfect fall vegetable garden. It is the time to welcome new seeds in your vegetable garden. Your autumn garden is all set to accept these new seeds to be sowed for winter vegetable garden.

This article is dedicated to urban dirt lovers to guide them for preparing a perfect winter vegetable garden. This will ensure healthy supply of organic food as meals on their dining tables during cold day lunches, supper and dinner.  

There are certain steps that should be carried out in your winter vegetable garden while preparing to face cold breezes and to have your kitchen basket full of fresh veggies all the season.

Removal of Debris

At the start of autumn garden should be treated as your child who needs to be pampered before the winter comes around. Autumn season is perfect to do all necessary actions to make your garden ready for winter crops.

In addition to this, autumn garden should be tackled in such a way that it strengthens the vegetable garden for the next two season viz., winter and summer.

So, first step to prepare for winter vegetable garden is to make sure that all the dead plants and other debris are removed and cleaned out from the soil. Any deceased plant left, can cause the spread of a disease. A dirty vegetable garden means unhealthy gardening. So start with cleaning the garden.

On the other hand, healthy left over’s of plants or plant debris should be mixed with the compost to make the soil healthy and nutritious. Adding them into the crops of vegetable garden optimize the drainage, expose oxygen, release compaction and enriches the soil.

Adding Strength to the Soil of Winter Vegetable Garden

In my opinion, using chemicals in your soil during preparations of winter vegetable garden will be quite harmful especially when there is another way out. The soil can be enhanced and enriched by adding compost (homemade compost or commercial compost), vermicompost, compost tea, cover crops and animals manure. In case of animal manure, animals should also be fed with the organic feed. This will be less expensive and completely natural.

It should be kept in mind that, your vegetable garden is exhausted producing all those crops during spring and summer, spending so much energy and nutrition.

Amongst the wide range of options available for adding strength to the soil, fall is the season to flourish your fall vegetable garden and make it healthy and refresh all over again.

On the other hand, winter rains carry lots of nutrition which get buried deep underground in the soil. So I suggest tilling vegetable garden soil as it is important if you want to avoid surface run off.

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Vegetable Gardening

How to Dry the Herbs At Home?

The herbs | spices | best herbs | dry herbs
Drying the Herbs

Introduction

Drying the herbs at home to use them as spices in food dishes is an old tradition. However, in the today’s fast pace life, many consider it a hard and time consuming effort. However, home grown dry herbs add more flavor and confidence to your dishes than the herbs you purchase from big stores and markets. In fact, best herbs are those that are grown under your own supervision plus cultivating own herbs at home are is easy and inexpensive. This article will guide you through three easy steps for obtaining dry herbs at home to fill your kitchen spices jar.

Easy and best herbs to grow at home are Tarragon, Bay, Mint, Lemon balm, Lavender, Rosemary and Thyme. This is because these are best air drying herbs as compare to high moisture containing herbs. After drying, the spices of these herbs allow you to enjoy summer flavor all year.

Before Drying the Herbs

As you are drying the herbs to make spices, so before drying, it is vitally important to harvest healthy branches. Harvesting should be done at the right time. Best time to harvest the herbs is before the flower development. Discarding of any damaged leaves is recommended to have best quality dry herbs. I would suggest harvesting on a warm and dry day around mid-day after the morning dew has evaporated.

Let us now just jump right in to discuss the procedure of drying herbs in a step by step and uncomplicated method.

Procedure to Make Spices from Best Herbs

Effective drying of the herbs relies greatly on abundant dry and fresh air rather than on heat or through any heating medium. Idyllic scenario demands for a well-ventilated place out of direct sunlight. If the atmosphere is humid, then the process of drying will be much slower and could result in mold infestation. In that case, i would suggest using a small commercial dehydrator for drying the herbs.  

Step 1: Harvesting and Cleaning the Herbs

Once the harvesting is done, make sure to remove any insects or soil by shaking off the herb stem. If necessary, rinse it with cool water. Then pat dry with paper towels and provide plenty of air circulation for quick drying of water.

Step 2: Clubbing the Stems to Dry Herbs

After cleaning stems of the herbs, remove lower leaves from the stem and then cluster 4-6 stems together for tying them as a bunch. I would suggest using a rubber band here instead of thread. This is because, as the bundle of stems will shrink while drying, it will cause loosening of the thread and eventually the herbs will fall. It is best to periodically check the bundle that it’s not slipping.

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Vegetable Gardening

5 Reasons of crop Failure in Vegetable Garden

Crop Failure | Vegetable Garden | Arid | Agriculture
Crop Failure in Vegetable Garden

Introduction

Vegetable gardening is simple and easy, and can yield successful crops year round. However, vegetable gardening can become quite complicated, especially for beginners, if the required steps are not followed. Besides, it can be challenging at times even for expert gardeners and therefore the produce doesn’t give anticipated results. To make things easy and smooth, I am taking this opportunity to discuss the five most common crop failures that occur in the modern day urban gardening system and how to turn around those failures into successes of growing crops at your home.

1 Seeds Fail to Germinate

It’s heartbreaking when you did everything according to plan and yet the seeds fail to germinate. This is one of the most common vegetable garden failures. Failure in germination of seeds is caused by old seeds, washed away seeds, lack of moisture, extremes of temperature, improper planting depth or seeds being stolen by animals.

It’s vital to plant crops that are suitable for a giving season and climatic conditions. Like for example:  growing tomatoes, when there’s less than 4 hours of sunlight available, planting carrots in clay soils and warm temperatures or growing cabbage in Mediterranean climates, as they are prone to pest infestation.

2 Spindly Plant Seedlings

Young plant seedlings become leggy, when they are growing in an overcrowded container or pot. Needless to say, this occurs because the growing nutrient hungry plants compete for organic nutrients, adequate sunlight. Furthermore, root damage caused by disease or transplanting also result in spindly seedlings.

3 Low Yields

Low yields of crops in vegetable gardening usually results from insufficient watering and using wrong type of fertilizer for a particular type of crop. For example, tomatoes and peppers require high potassium and leafy plants like cabbage grow well in high nitrogen containing soil. Due to overcrowding of plants they compete for nutrients. I would suggest doing soil tests and then add nutrients accordingly to the needs of the crop.

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Vegetable Gardening

4 Natural Bug Repellents in Gardening

Natural Bug Repellents | Pest Control | Bugs in the garden
Natural Bug Repellents

Introduction

The most important thing I have learnt from my 10 years gardening experience so far is the controlling of weeds and bugs in the garden whether it is vegetable garden or flowering garden. I have covered the control of weeds in one of my previous articles. Another query I receive a lot from my readers is regarding what are natural bug repellents in the gardening niche?

Also Read : Five Cheap DIY ways to Kill Home and Kitchen Garden Weeds

In pest control domain, bugs are the mega-annoying creatures that not only hurt darling plants and your feelings, but also their presence in any part of your home is irritating. There are many bug repellents available in the market, but being proponent of organic control of weeds and bugs, I prefer to control bugs through natural bug repellents.

If you are dealing with bugs in the garden, then top notch strategy is to use those plants that have property of being natural bug repellents. This article will discuss 4 natural bug repellents for dirt lovers. Even if you have pest control in mind, that is, controlling bugs in any other part of home, the below list of 4 natural bug repellent plants will be equally beneficial.

1 Basil

In a vegetable garden, utilizing crisp basil as natural bug repellent is a good strategy. To make a creepy crawly repellent shower,  basic formula calls for pouring 4 ounces of bubbling water into a compartment holding 4 to 6 ounces of perfect, new basil leaves (stems can be connected). Giving leaves a chance to soak for a few hours, expelling the leaves and pressing the majority of the leaves’ dampness into the blend will make the solution stronger.

At that point altogether blend 4 ounces of (shoddy!) vodka with the basil-water blend. Store in the icebox and apply as a shower while going outside. Make certain to keep the shower far from your eyes, nose and mouth.

Continue to Next Page Arid | Agriculture | Vegetable Gardening