Home And Garden

Love flowers but think your garden doesn't get enough sun? These shade flowers grow happily even without a lot of direct sunlight. Lily of the Valley These tiny white flowers grow well in deep shade, emit an enchanting fragrance in late spring and early summer, and brighten up dark corners. Alpine Forget-Me-Not Add clouds of color to your garden with a patch of tiny azure-blue flowers. They thrive in dry shade, conditions that can be particularly difficult. Jacob's Ladder These bell-shaped, purple perennials adapt well to flower gardens and tolerate both shade and sun. Solomon's Seal Gracefully arching stems support clusters of tubular white flowers and long, bright green leaves. A perfect plant for a shady border. Anemone Blanda Blue Also known as the winter windflower, Anemone Blanda Blue thrives in partial shade. Its purply-blue, daisy-like flowers will add a festive touch to your patch. Lungwort These are good groundcover plants for deep shade, with h...

Here's an A to Z guide to the medicinal herbs that relieve common ailments like indigestion, stress, anxiety, sunburn, headaches, coughs, colds, and more. Basil This medicinal herb can help with flatulence, lack of appetite, cuts, and scrapes. Harvest the young leaves of this annual plant as needed. Chamomile Use the flower heads of this medicinal herb for infusions and salves to relieve indigestion and colic, anxiety and tension, and skin inflammations and irritations. Echinacea If you suffer from a cold or the flu, try this medicinal herb to ease the severity of your symptoms. It also helps provide relief to your immune system. Feverfew Use the leaves and flowers of this medicinal herb for teas; chew leaves to ease headache pain (including migraines). It's also been shown to provide relief for arthritis, and skin conditions. Johnny-jump-up With anti-inflammatory properties, this medicinal herb is good for eczema and skin blemishes as well as to help loose...

Growing herbs at home is a fun, money-saving hobby that also happens to be good for your health. In addition to flavoring up your favorite dishes, herbs are filled with antioxidants and essential nutrients. "Half of the nutritional value of plants is lost within thirty minutes of harvesting," says Brian Hetrich, a naturopathic doctor and gardening expert at the Hippocrates Health Institute, in West Palm Beach, Fla. "When you grow your own herbs you can use what you need at the moment by harvesting small amounts, fresh from the plant." Here we break down 10 of the healthiest herbs, along with recipes and tips for growing them yourself. Rosemary This pretty, aromatic herb contains compounds, such as carnosic acid, that have been shown to fight cancer cells. What's more, the smell of rosemary may even improve your memory. In a recent study from the University of Northumbria, in the UK, people performed better on various memory tasks if rosemary scent was pumpe...

Blanket flowers are wonderfully cheerful, long-blooming plants for hot, sunny gardens. They produce single or double daisy flowers through most of the summer and well into fall. The light brick red ray flowers are tipped with yellow -- the colors of Mexican blankets. Blanket flowers tolerate light frost and are seldom eaten by deer. Deadhead the flowers to keep them blooming consistently through the summer and into fall. Some species tend to be short-lived, especially if the soil is not well drained. how to grow blanket flower Propagation Division Stem Cuttings Light: Sun Type: Perennial Height: 1 to 3 feet Width: 6 inches to 2 feet wide Flower Color: Orange, Red Foliage Color: Chartreuse/Gold Seasonal Features: Fall Bloom, Summer Bloom Problem Solvers: Deer Resistant, Drought Tolerant, Groundcover Special Features: Cut Flowers, Good for Containers, Low Mai...

An eggshell is the exterior covering of an egg. The U.S. food industry accumulates 150,000 tons of eggshell waste every year. Chicken eggshells, which are the primary type of eggshell waste accounted for, are made up of 93 to 97 percent calcium carbonate, in addition to calcium, nitrogen and phosphoric acid. These nutrients make eggshells an ideal choice for garden use. Use these tips to reduce waste and benefit your garden by recycling eggshells in gardening activities. 1-Recycle eggshells to grow seedlings. Eggshells can be used to grow small seedlings indoors. When the seedling is ready to be planted outside, place the shell and seedling directly in the ground. The eggshell will decompose over time and help fertilize the soil. Use large eggshells to start seeds indoors. Poke pin holes in the bottom of half an egg shell. Fill the eggshell half with soil. Place a seed in the soil and cover lightly with soil. Write on the eggshell the type of plant the seedling is. Use a pencil ...

A zen garden is a refuge that can be placed in nearly any space. Some zen gardens are large sweeping creations that encompass acres, while some are tiny desktop gardens that take up no more room than a notebook. It's not difficult to create a constantly changing work of art that is visually pleasing with clean, flowing lines and carefully placed objects. Best of all, a small zen garden is incredibly inexpensive to create! It will also show your unique style of rocks and sand patterns 1-Decide how large you want to make your Zen garden. Assess your available space. Are you going to make a garden that fills up part of your backyard, or are you going to start with a Zen garden to place on your desk? The steps are the same, the scale will just be different. 2Create a mold to contain the sand and/or gravel. Sand or gravel generally form the matrix of a Zen garden, and to keep it looking sharp, you need the matrix to be contained. If you are making a large garden, consider using 2...

When plants are kept in the house as potted plants, their watering needs will differ from those of plants grown in the soil outside. The symptoms of over-watering and under-watering plants are very similar, and improper watering causes more houseplants to die than any other factor. Learn how to water houseplants correctly in the following Steps. 1-Pot plants correctly. The plant container type and size, and the potting soil you use have a lot to do with correct watering. Use a lightweight potting medium instead of a garden soil for indoor plants. Use special potting mixes for plants like orchids and cacti. Research your plants and use the right planting medium. Make sure all pots have drainage holes. Use a pot that isn’t too big. When transplanting, the new pot should not be more than 2” (5cm) wider or deeper than the old one. 2-Re-pot the plant if it is very root bound. The plant becomes root bound when it outgrows its container. You can tell that this has happened when you p...