Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Choosing The Right Type Of Gardening For You

Looking for a hobby? Gardening will definitely be one of your top choices. Gardening is practiced for two reasons: (1) to grow crops, to grow vegetables, or to grow fruit; and (2) to grow plants with attractive foliage or to grow flowers for ornamental purposes. Either of these two choices will make you feel not only relaxed but accomplished, too.

Home gardening can take on many forms, but will depend on the over-all theme of your house design. Different types of gardening can be done at the same time to add beauty to your home. What are the types of gardening that you can do?

Typical gardening takes place in an area referred as the garden. But, generally, it can be your front lawn, in an atrium, in a window box, on the patio, or even on the roof. This is called residential gardening.

Water gardening, on the other hand, is growing water-adapted plants such as water lilies in an area of water. A pond will be more aesthetically appealing with the right assembly of water plants. In this type of gardening, there are special considerations that should be taken to keep the water clean and to keep the temperature conducive enough for the plants.

If you have no garden lot to grow your plants in, why not try indoor gardening? There are specific types of plants that can be grown inside homes. These plants will also keep the air pure and clean.

If your home is a condominium unit, which usually has limited space for such activities, you can resort to impact gardening. Impact gardening keeps growing plants together and therefore will save you space but will still provide a touch of nature within your unit.

Container gardening is also an option for small spaces. There are specific plants that can be grown inside pots, baskets or planters and can be hang in a section of the wall. Plants like orchids, for example, are a favorite among homeowners.

Zen gardening is also one of the popular options for space saving. Ikebana or Japanese flower arrangement or bonsai gardening can be one of the Zen gardening options you can choose.

Gardening is not as tiring as woodworking, not demanding as carpentry, not as detailed as making model toys, and not as expensive as collectibles. Plus, it will bring you closer to nature and to yourself.
Hi, I'm Romain Levesque Author of the article and owner of the website :
http://www.details4life.com

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Orchid Home Garden

Orchids are still very popular plants for the home and garden, although many gardeners get overwhelmed with the huge number of orchid species and knowing their particular growing conditions. Here I will summarize the different types of orchids and suggest which ones would be best suited for your orchid home garden. The orchid family has over 30,000 species and more than double this number of cultivars or hybrids. Thus we need to understand a bit of orchid ecology before we select orchids for our home or garden. There are four broad types of orchid, each coming from a different growing environment. There are the climbing epiphytes, whose roots attach to the bark of trees, and the saprophytes which live on decaying matter. Terrestrial orchid plants grow in the soil and lithophytes can survive on rocks with very little soil.

The home gardener therefore needs to choose plants depending where she wants to display them. Fortunately plant breeders have done the selection for us and now days there are many varieties of easy-to-grow orchids that we can raise. The most common orchids found in garden centers are the Cattleya, Dendrobium, Cymbidium, Ondontoglossum, Paphiopedilum, Oncidium and the Phalaenopsis. As an orchid gardener you'll need to decide what is best for your own particular situation - space available, climatic conditions and the color of the orchid blooms which you like the most. I have listed the most popular garden and home orchids to give you an idea what to choose.

Cattleya:
This orchid is also known as the "Queen of Orchids". They are epiphytic orchids from temperate regions.

Dendrobium:
These epiphytic orchid plants produce a generous spay of flowers and there are many different colors found among Dendrobium varieties.

Cymbidium:
Cymbidium orchids originate from South America and are among the most common home and garden orchids found, mainly due to the blooms lasting for months.

Ondontoglossum:
These are cool growing Tiger orchids, originating from the Andes Mountains. Their colorful flowers usually have delicate patterns and markings.

Paphiopedilum:
Originating from East Asia, flowers often are stripped or spotted. Commonly known as the Slipper Orchid, they have broad leaves and prefer indirect sunlight.

Oncidium:
These South American epiphytes prefer a drier potting mix and have distinctive mottled markings.

Phalaenopsis:
Also known as the Moth orchid and their flowers come in a wide variety of colors.
Once you have chosen your orchid plants, you may need further advice and help in caring for your orchids. Come and visit Orchid Care for more orchid care advice.

Jan Wilson is an orchid enthusiast and has her own orchid care website at Orchid-Care.org.

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