Tag Archives: Gardening

Build a Garden Tunnel with Extranet Shade Netting

An easy do it yourself project that you can do at home to enhance the yield of your garden and grow fresh fruits and vegetables all year round is to build a garden tunnel using 1.5m x10m extranet shade netting. This is a simple project that you can do in a weekend. There are several different sizes and styles that you can choose from. A garden tunnel is the perfect start for the amateur or professional gardener who is interested in starting a garden of their own, but may be a little unsure of how to get it started.

It is a simple exercise to start your garden. You just follow the simple instructions to construct your garden tunnel. Add dirt and fertiliser and plant your seeds or seedlings. In no time you will be reaping the benefits of gardening with the protection of a garden tunnel. The garden will need significantly less water than an unprotected garden. Your garden will be much less susceptible to weeds. This makes a difference in the time needed to maintain and care for your garden. Less time spent watering and weeding means more time to enjoy the outdoors relaxing.  

A garden tunnel provides total protection for your garden from a variety of threats all year round. The plants in your garden, especially the new ones, sometimes need a little extra protection until they are strong enough to withstand the full onslaught of nature’s elements on their own. Shade netting is the obvious solution.

The best part is that unlike tunnels constructed from PVC or plastic sheeting, it allows air and some sunlight to pass through. Shade netting gives your plants the exact amount of sunlight needed for them to be healthy and for processes such as photosynthesis and bearing fruits.

Another benefit of having a covered tunnel is the moderate temperatures that can be maintained under the tunnel. It can provide shade from the blazing heat of the sun, the driving force of the rain, windy days, and cold nights. Usually in some climate zones, there is a lot of variation between temperatures in the daytime and night time. The shade netting can help to minimise the difference so that it is not so drastic. These are essential elements for the success of your garden and to produce fresh green fruits and vegetables all year round.

The elements are not the only external threat to your garden. As a gardener, you know that a lot of things in nature, such as birds and insects will find your fruits and vegetables delicious as well. It is important to protect your gardens from hungry pests, or your efforts to grow your own produce will go in vain. There is also the risk of falling debris such as limbs that can fall and break the delicate stems of your seedlings or crush small plants. Extranet Shade Netting will provide the perfect barrier between the weather, pests, debris, and your garden.

To purchase 1.5m x10m extranet shade netting visit the Mega Trade Store.

Learn how to protect your garden from the harsh summer sun.

Lee Elwell works for Mega Garden Store. He is known for his knowledge in the field of gardening equipment. You can add him on Google Plus. Please add him to your circles.


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Miracle-Gro® Kids Terrarium Review!!!

 

Scotts Miracle-Gro sent me a package the other day of their products to review.  The first review that we are doing on the products they sent is the Miracle-Gro Kids Terrarium.  We are big gardeners here and our vegetable garden is in full swing.  I love the idea of the terrarium because it teaches kids how plants grow from seed and then produce fruit when cared for properly.

We headed out to the deck and after unpacking the box and removing all the plastic coverings we got to work.

The first step was to put the pre-measured packages of gro mix in the containers and then add 3 Tablespoons of water and watch it expand.  Then give it a stir with the planting stick.  When all four were done we planted a few of the provided seeds in each container and labeled them and then put them in the terrarium.  We then covered them with the 2 plastic pieces that complete the top.  Now we take care of the little seeds and watch them grow into seedlings.

There was a neat little pyramid included that was an excellent tool for teaching little once the stages of plant growth.  It also explained what is needed for the plants to grow like sun and water.  It was a great springboard for education and you could tailor it to the age of the child and expand the conversation for older children.

All in all this was an easy project that provided a great opportunity to really slow down and concentrate on the planting and growing of vegetables and fruits.  If you have the chance you should try this with your kids.  Let me know if you do. Mommy Ramblings thanks Scotts Miracle-Gro for their support.   Now back to watching our seedlings grow. : )

The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company logo

 


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Gardens Grow With Love!!!

I love when it is time to garden again.  I enjoy having a garden,  tending the garden, photographing the garden, and best of all harvesting the garden.  This is my second season using the two large raised beds my hubby built me last year.  We have had so much rain that it has been hard to get things started but we did get the soil turned over and most of the veggies planted.  I have a few more to put in and some patio tomatoes to plant since I accidentally bought too many tomato plants.  One can never have too many tomatoes so I bought some patio containers and will grow them there.

I also am growing my herbs in containers on the deck.  Last year I had my basil, parsley, peppermint, spearmint and oregano in the garden but this year I put it in pots.  I am still in the process of transplanting the perennial and spreading mint from the garden to the containers because of the rain thwarting my best efforts.  The local nursery did not have the zucchini and yellow squash plants in because of the rain, so I will have to try next weekend for them.  I did manage to plant a variety of tomatoes like big boys, beefsteak, early girls, cherry, yellow heirloom, and probably at least another variety I am forgetting.  I did not plant any hot peppers this year because I did last year and my husband who they were for did not eat them but ate the sweet peppers.  So now I have a great variety of sweet peppers like sweet cherry peppers, sweet banana peppers, and a variety of purple, green and red bell peppers.  I have purple and white eggplants, cucumbers, butternut squash, jack be littles, Howden pumpkins, blue lake green beans and sugar snap peas.

In the herb department I planted rosemary, cilantro, oregano, sweet mint, peppermint, spearmint, basil, thyme, dill, lavender, Italian parsley, and probably a couple of others that I am forgetting right now.

I am planting rhubarb for the first time this year, and we are starting a variety of grapes as well.   We would have everything planted if the rain would stop but we are doing what we can and we are not that behind.

Delicious grapes


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Friday Fragments of My Mind!!!

I finally had a few minutes the other day to quickly go through my new issue of Martha Stewart Living.  It had so many good articles and features, and I loved that she said it was time to start planting.  It also happened to be a very nice sunny day here, albeit with snow still on the ground.  I finally told my husband that I am thinking I would like him to build me another raised bed this season.  He took it pretty well.  Since we both VitaMix so much I want to add a lot more greens like Kale and Swiss Chard so I need more space.  I figure if I brought it up now, he would have a lot of time to get used to it.  In fact it took him no time at all to build me the two large raised beds last year and another one will be a cinch. : )

She had a lot of great recipes I want to try in the issue as well.  She had quite a few pages dedicated to coffee cake and so many decadent varities that I just have to chose one and make it this weekend.  The trouble is choosing because they all look so good.  Maybe I will bake one every weekend until I have tried them all.  We are going to be having some very rainy weather the next few days so baking fits in well.

 

I am antsy to try some kind of craft project too this weekend, but I cannot decide.   I have so many ideas running through my head.  I really want to make some kind of great family message and scheduling center.  I cannot find anything like what I want so I know I will have to make it.  With my big family and all of our crazy schedules it is hard to make something ready made fit.  I have been doing a lot of brainstorming on this and have a lot of ideas.  We will see how quickly I can get it onto paper so I can create this control center that I dream about.

Then I also have to decide what review and give-away I want to do next.   Hmmm, should it be a cleaning product, super fun toy, great cutting and prep boards, closet organizers, the list just goes on.  What would you like to see next?


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Please Don’t Eat The Daises…err Cornflowers!

We have been Bulldog owners since 2008 and we have learned a lot along the way.  We have learned they will eat almost anything.  This includes much more than food items.  It includes cedar porch spindles that I will add have to be hand milled now at $15.00 a piece because we have run through all the extras we had when we built the house.  It also encompasses the weather-stripping of storm doors and that would most likely result in a trip to the vet because the dog had trouble passing the strip, not that I speak from experience or anything.  Obviously the kid’s toys, balls, shoes, UPS packages, and whatever else you would like to add can be included.  When first dealing with this it was a bit frustrating but I guess that is why God made American Bulldogs so darn cute and lovable because even with all this we would not trade them.

Last September I was in the yard with Ethan and Mack our 1.5 year old American Bulldog.  Loyal and true are two great words to describe him   I was taking photographs of them in front of a huge patch of Black Eyed Susans.  Well after a few shots Mack decided to take a taste and I could not resist a few pics.  You see by now I was used to it.  So he does a little pruning here and there, it’s not a big deal.  It also made for some darn cute pictures but when a few short days later we lost our majestic buddy to a severe diaphragmatic hernia it really put everything in perspective.  One of the last things I told my husband as he spent the last few minutes of Mack’s life with him was that I forgave him for everything he had ever eaten which was spoken through my tears.  His death ripped our hearts out and we could not imagine our lives without him.

Since his death we have added two American Bulldogs to our lives and I have to say have had our share of eaten items.  So the other day when after planting most of my new perennials I could not find my purple Cornflowers, I was a bit perplexed until I saw the container and the identification strip leading me to conclude that one of my dears had indeed ingested my lovely Cornflowers.  I had a moment or two of anger, but when I realized it was Echinacea and probably good for their immune system and that I could replace the flowers but never the dogs it put it all in perspective.

So, let them eat the Cornflowers, having since went to the local nursery and buying two more.  I realize my flower beds will never be Martha Stewart worthy.  I realize  there will be trampled flowers and such but that’s why I love perennials because they come back stronger every year and exactly what we need here.  So my flower beds will never be perfect, they will never be photographed in some famous garden magazine.  You know what though, that’s fine with us as we are far from perfect nor are our lives.  We embrace the perfectly imperfect lives we live and try to go with the flow and where it takes us.  We would rather have the chaos our teenagers, toddlers, and pets bring to our lives then to live in a pristine world with no fun.  We are so thankful for the joy that  chaos brings into our lives.  So if you eat the Cornflowers could you try to leave a few?  If you can’t…well, we understand.


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