You will need:

1. Compost
2. Water
3. Ground Cherry Seeds
4. Planting Pots

Ground Cherry

Steps:

1. First, search for the ground cherries seeds which are mainly available at online suppliers because the cherries are not as popular as they were once.
2. Purchase your ground cherries seeds on early spring or in the late winter so that you will have the time to plant the ground cherries indoor and then when the weather is warm, you can set the plant outside of your house.
3. Before the frost-date for your place happens, plant the ground cherries seeds in pots filled with composts for 60 days.
4. Cover the seeds with the soil shallowly and then press down firmly. Water the seeds thoroughly and place them in a humid location. Until they start to sprout, there is no need for sunlight for the plants. To prevent the young seedlings from drying out, keep the tops of the pots by misting some water on them.
5. You should place the growing seedlings near a sunny window and keep them watered. Turn the tray of pots daily to make the seedlings grow straight if the seedlings seem to stretch towards the sunlight.
6. Once the frost is gone, plant the ground cherries outside your house by taking the seedlings outside in a semi-shaded area for a few hours before returning them the indoors. This step will make the plants get used with the outside environment.
7. Add the length of time and amount of sun per daily for a week gradually until the seedlings become used with the outside condition. Use well-dug soil that has been mixed with animal manures or compost as the medium to plant the seedlings. Plant them in a sunny location and give at least 8 hours of sunlight per day.
8. Water the ground cherries thoroughly before drying out. If you use compost and animal manure, there is no need to use any other fertilizer during the growing phrase. The ground cherries will reach 2 feet high and spread out and make the soil naturally moist.
9. To harvest your ground cherries, check whether the papery husk can be pulled back from the cherry and it has already turned yellow-orange. In some area, you need to allow some of them ripe and fall to the ground and the new ground cherry plants will grow in the next year. You can eat ground cherries fresh in salads and salsa, or cook them for pies or any other desserts.

Image Credit:

Flickr CC

Additional Reading:

Ground Cherries, Husk Tomatoes & Tomatillos

Fruits and Berries for the Home Garden

Planting a Ground Cherry is a post from: DIY Guides

Related posts:

1. Planting Oriental Lilies Seeds
2. Planting Tomatoes in Your Gardenin
3. Planting Green Beans

Fruits and vegetables are fun to part. This is heavily due to the fact that you know you will be getting something in return at the end of that harvestation. Kids love it too as it gives them a chance to plant something from scratch and see the amazing growth of it. They definitely learn something from it.

The Garcinia mangostana (also known as mangosteen plant) is a sweet tropical fruit with a staining purple juice and it grows in ultra-tropical warm humid climates for instance, in countries such as Hawaii, Thailand, Brazil, Malaysia and Indonesia. Below are some of the tips to grow garcinia.

What you need:

1. Water
   
2. Garcinia seed
   
3. Planting pot
   
4. Soil
   
5. Large planting pot with holes beneath
   
6. Well-drain soil
   

Garcinia

Method:

1. Firstly, you need to soak a mangosteen seed into warm water for at least 24 hours before you start to plant it. The seed will only be viable for three to five days once you remove it from the plant. If you are not able to plant it immediately, you have to leave the fruit where it is viable for up to five weeks after ripening.
   
2. The next step is to fill a large planting pot 2/3 of the way with organic, which is a well-drain soil while the pot must have a drainage hole for water to run. Ensure that you use the largest planting pot because Garcinia trees can grow up to 20 feet high.
   
3. Then, insert the seed into the center of your planting pot; cover it with an inch of soil before watering the soil thoroughly until the water runs out of the drainage hole so that the seed has enough moisture to grow.
   
4. The planting pot needs to be placed in an area that has a temperature between 45 and 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Make sure the temperature maintains its level because the tree will not grow at higher or lower temperatures, plus you must also ensure that the humidity remains high for at least 65 percent. The plants also need up to six to eight hours of indirect sunlight every day.
   
5. Make sure to water the Garcinia tree with up to 1 ½ inch of water per week and monitor the soils so that it does not feel dry and when it does, water the plant immediately. The Garcinia tree grows better in a tropical climate that receives at least 60 inches of water per year and you must also follow the rules even though you are planting it on a small scale.
   

Image Credit:

Flickr CC

Additional Reading:

Garcinia

Mangosteen: Garcinia Mangostana L. (Fruits for the Future)

Growing Garcinia is a post from: DIY Guides

Related posts:

1. Growing Pear Trees
2. Growing and Caring for Banana Trees
3. Growing perfect tomatoes

Growing vegetables and fruits will ensure that you will definitely get something or at least more than two things back for your efforts. It\’s even more rewarding when you think that you get to choose what you want to plant, in terms of what you want to eat.

Coming to fruits, they are not that easy to grow. This might be as the criteria to ensure the perfect fruit growth is more complicated. For starters, the right season matters a lot and if you are in a place where that particular season lasts only for a short time.

Although pears are not the typical fruits that most people will choose to plant in their yards or garden, they are not as complicated as apples trees to plant, which require a climate and soil specifically to grow. If you want to plant pears successfully, here are the steps on how to do it.

Pears

You will need:

1. Variety of pear trees that you like
2. Spade
3. Bone meal
4. Gloves

Steps:

• First, choose the type of pear trees that you want to plant. There are many varieties available such as:
  • Barlett
  • Sierra
  • Golden Spice
  • Asian Pears
  • Ure
  • Clapp\’s Favourite
  • Harrow Sweet
  • Concorde
  • Anjou
  • Flemish Beauty
  • Spartlet
  • Gorham
• Then, choose the place to plant the pear trees. Pear trees are mostly grown in nurseries for one to two years until they have developed a few branches and a solid root system. Then, they can be planted outside with a good opportunity of growing if the environment is suitable.
• To plant the pear tree, dig a hole that is slightly bigger than the root of the tree. Use some bone meal and spread them at the bottom of the hole.
• Place the root of the tree into the hole. Replace the soil before securing it firmly around the top of the tree with your gloved hands. This will help to keep the tree in place and gave a good watering process.
• If you are living in British Colombia, plant your pear trees in the fall or spring when the soil is moist. For spring plantings, the pears will mature in August and September.
• According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands of British Colombia, locations with temperatures below 15 degrees Fahrenheit are not the best place to grow pears. Other places which will not help pear trees to grow are places that experience spring frost.
• Plant your pear trees on finely textured soils that contain clay loams or silt loams for best result.

Image Credit:

Flickr CC

Additional Reading:

The Pear and How to Grow it

GROW VEGETABLES (GREEN ESSENTIALS – ORGANIC GUIDES)

Where Are Pears Grown? is a post from: DIY Guides

Related posts:

1. Growing Pear Trees
2. Growing and Caring for Banana Trees
3. Rooting Yams

What you need:

1. Suitable location to plant the tree
   
2. Fertilizer
   
3. Mulch or any vegetative waste
   
4. Water
   

Banana Trees

Method:

1. Determine the suitable area to plant the banana trees so that they can receive the correct amount of sun along with some wind protection. If you are in a hot summer climate, banana trees can grow much better with the help of some afternoon shade that helps to keep its leaves from getting burned. Besides that, it also needs to be protected from strong winds or you can plant it in a much sheltered location.
   
2. During the early days of growing banana trees, you need to always mulch it very well in order for it to conserve water, acidify the surrounding soil, plus also helping any fertilizer to enter its soil more slowly. You can also use old banana leaves as mulch because they are high in potassium which is good for the growth of the trees.
   
3. Always keep them well watered because the large leaf size of a banana tree causes them to lose large amounts of water especially during the hot weather or climate. You must also make sure that the soil must drain very well otherwise the tree may rot from the ground upwards. For soil condition containing clay and holds on to water, you need to add some coarse sand, perlite, pea gravel or some bags of cactus potting soil at least up to 2 feet for improving on its drainage.
   
4. Ensure that you fertilize heavily on regular schedule especially when the tree is actively growing starting with a spread of cup during its first growing season. As the tree grows, add additional cups of fertilizer that has high potassium every two weeks and as the height of the tree increases, the number of fertilizer cups also need to be added.
   
5. Whenever the temperature of your climate reaches below 60 degrees, you must stop fertilizing activity and the tree needs to be protected. You can take a new shoot of banana trees within the area and also the main stem to grow faster. This is a safety precaution that needs to be considered after the winter season is over, some of banana trees may survive.
   

Image Credit:

Flickr CC

Additional Reading:

Replanting the Banana Tree: A Study in Ecologically Sustainable Development

Growing and Caring for Banana Trees is a post from: DIY Guides

Related posts:

1. Growing Pear Trees
2. Planting Citrus Trees in Your Garden
3. Using Leftover Banana Peels

Plant Blueberries in your Backyard Garden

Having blueberry plants in your backyard garden is a good thing because it is a healthy fruit that you can provide for your family and the growing process is lovely as well. Blueberries provide you with high antioxidants and it is delicious even when you eat them on their own or along with other foods like cereal, pancakes and yogurt. Blueberries are really worth planting in your backyard garden as they come with so many advantages for us.

Blueberry cultivation is a difficult but fulfilling hobby. There are many varieties of blueberries to choose from. The type that you can choose depends on the region that you are at as the need for the Blueberry plants. There are three distinct types: High bush, semi-high bush and low bush. Whichever variety you choose, it is recommended that you plant at least two or more varieties that ripe at different times to give you maximum yield over the harvest season. This is especially important for many commercial growers, but can also be implemented in your home garden. In order to grow the plants you will have to go through a very simple process, if you know what you are doing.

What you need:

1. Blueberry plants
   
2. Gardening shovel
   
3. Peat
   
4. Mulch
   
5. Gardening shears
   

Method:

1. By choosing a variety of blueberry plants, it will make your backyard garden even more colorful. There are several types of blueberry plants such as the high-bush type and the half-high bush type. For each of the mature high-bush plant can attribute about 5 to 10 pounds of blueberries, while for the half-high plant provides only 1 to 3 pounds of blueberries.
   
2. Choose a location in your backyard garden which has access to full sunlight and also adequate drainage because if there is too much water, it could kill the blueberry plants. Apart from that, the soil that you want to plant the blueberry should provide a pH level of between 4.0 up to 5.5.
   
3. Blueberry plants can be purchased from your local nursery and remember to plant the blueberry in the spring season because it is the best season and most suitable to plant blueberries.
   
4. Then, dig a hole big enough to hold the blueberry plant\’s roots and should be at least 2 feet wide and between 18 to 24-inches deep.
   
5. Carefully wet through the blueberry plant\’s roots with water before you start to set it in with soil. Place the blueberry plant into the hole and then fill the hole with a combination of moist peat and soil in order to secure the plant before you water the plant straight away.
   
6. Go ahead and plant the plants at least 4 to 6 feet apart from each other and the space half-high varieties of up to 3 to 4 feet.
   
7. Next, you have to spread 3 to 5 inches of mulch on the top of the soil. Then, spread 3 to 5 inches of mulch (like pine needles, wood chips, sawdust or shredded leaves) on top of the soil and around the plant in order to help retain moisture and protect the roots in hot weather.
   

Additional Reading:
http://www.gardening-guides.com/pdf-library/how-to-grow-blueberries.pdf
http://www.ehow.com/how_2059570_plant-blueberries-backyard-garden.html
http://naturalhealthezine.com/how-to-grow-blueberries-in-your-home-garden/
http://ezinearticles.com/?Growing-Delicious-Organic-Blueberries-in-Your-Home-Garden&id=1921145

Image Credit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/meg-z/4674057176/

Planting Blueberries in your Backyard Garden is a post from: DIY Guides

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Protect Blueberry Bushes

When we create a garden for us, we tend to plant the most decorative colors of plants that we can find. Decorative plants are chosen in a way that they are fruitful to us, yes most of the time, they will be fruits.

Blueberry bushes are some of the most decorative colors of plants, and more importantly they are attractive. Blueberry is counted as a plant that we have to take care of and a fruit that we can enjoy. These bushes come colored; it creates a nice decorative factor to our garden.

During the summer season, it is quite enjoyable for you and your family to enjoy fresh blueberries from your garden. In order to enjoy the plants, you need to always be on alert and safe-guard the plants everyday from avian thievery. Birds often see a blueberry bush as their meals so protecting your blueberries from avian thievery is important and high priority.

What you need:

1. Bird netting with ¾-inch mesh
   
2. 6 feet long Garden stakes
   
3. Rubber mallet
   
4. String cut into footlong lengths
   
5. Gallon of water
   
6. Four packets grape Kool-Aid
   
7. Spoon
   
8. Spray bottle
   

Method:

1. You only need to water the blueberry bushes with at least one-inch of water per week. But, be always careful when watering because the tap water can raise the pH level of the surrounding soil and the trace minerals also that could damage blueberry roots.
   
2. In order to maintain soil acidity and conserve moisture, you can use two to three-inch of mulch of wood chips, sawdust, oak leaves, or shredded bark.
   
3. Try to avoid using fertilizers that changes the soil alkaline and also do not use concentrated fertilizers because it also can burn the blueberry bushes roots. Instead, you can use soybean or cottonseed meal, or organic azalea fertilizer.
   
4. Remove all blossoming flowers during its first year blossom to allow the bushes to firmly establish and develop healthier root systems plus become stronger plants overall. By doing this method, it also encourages vegetative growth for developing the canopy needed in supporting heavy harvest in the future.
   
5. Birds are also a biggest threat to blueberries because it likes to eat the entire crops of blueberries if left unprotected. Use bird proof netting by draping the net over each blueberry bushes for some protection. You can add a walk-in blueberry cage which is a light frame built around the blueberry bushes as a support to the bird netting.
   
6. Rabbits and other small rodents also like to eat the young blueberry branches and you can protect them using a simple fence of chicken wire and make sure the fence is tall enough in keeping small animals out when the snow is deep during winter time.
   
7. As for insects and other diseases, you can easily protect the plants by just performing some careful pruning on the blueberry bushes.
   

By now, you have properly learnt how to protect your Blueberry bushes, and keep them healthy as well.

Additional Reading:
http://www.gardening-guides.com/pdf-library/how-to-grow-blueberries.pdf
http://www.gardening-guides.com/fruits/blueberries-care.php
http://www.doityourself.com/stry/protect-your-blueberry-fruit-from-birds
http://www.ehow.com/how_6517627_protect-blueberry-bushes-birds.html

Image Credit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/quacktaculous/2558321055/

Protecting Blueberry Bushes is a post from: DIY Guides

Related posts:

1. Identifying Blueberry Bushes
2. Maintaining Your Blueberry Bushes
3. Selecting a Blueberry Bush

If you are a novice gardener, growing fruit trees can be a complicated task. However, there are few fruit trees that are easy to grow such as pear trees. It requires less maintenance than many other fruit trees, the fruits are sweet and flavorful and can lasts longer in storage. There are many varieties of pear trees that you can grow according to the climates and soil types of the place that you live. Here are the steps on how to grow your own pear trees.

Growing Pear Trees

You will need:

1. Pear seed or young pear trees
2. Damp paper towel
3. Glass container or plastic bag
4. Compost or organic matter
5. Stakes
6. Wire cage

Steps:

1. First, choose whether pear seeds or young pear tree to plant. A new pear tree can begin producing fruits from 8 to 15 years if planted from seed.
2. Pear trees that are planted from seeds also rarely produce the same variety of fruit as the parent plant. However, if the seed fruit is in good quality, the tree will also produce very nice fruits.
3. If you choose to plant using pear seed, you need to provide a period of cold dormancy for the seed germination or cold stratification.
4. The step is by wrapping the seeds in a damp paper towel, place them into a glass container or plastic bag and then into the refrigerator for sixty to ninety days.
5. The germinated seeds can be planted in a light and well drained potting mixture. Keep the soil moist but not soggy until the pear tree seedlings appear.
6. If you are using a young pear tree, choose between two to four feet tall with firm trunks, sturdy and healthy green leaves. As pears are produced by cross pollination, you will need to plant more than just one tree to produce fruits. Plant the young tree during the very early spring or in late winter in warmer climates on a location that receives full sun.
7. The soil should be sandy, well drained and added with compost or organic matter. To help your pear tree root grow healthily, dig a good and deep hole. Before planting, soak the roots with water for thirty minutes. Place the young pear tree in the planting hole and work the soil around the roots to eliminate any air pockets.
8. To prevent strong winds from blowing the pear trees before their roots become strong enough to anchor them, place some stakes as protector. Use weed control to avoid root competition around the young tree. Secure your pear trees from deer and rabbits by placing a wire cage around the trees.

Image Credit:

Flickr CC

Additional Reading:

The Pear and How to Grow it

Prinsted: A Place Where Pears Grow

Growing Pear Trees is a post from: DIY Guides

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2. Planting Citrus Trees in Your Garden
3. Insects on Dwarf Navel Citrus Trees

Identify Blueberry Bushes

When we create a garden for us, we tend to plant the most decorative colors of plants that we can find. Decorative plants are chosen in a way that they are fruitful to us, yes most of the time, they will be fruits. Blueberry bushes certainly have the same vibe around them. Not only are they attractive, they are also fruits that we can make use of. In many ways, it is considered fruitful to have blueberry bushes in our garden as for one; this type of plant doesn\’t exist everywhere in the world. It\’s only the lucky places with the suitable climate can have blueberry bushes grow blissfully. On the plus side, since these bushes come colored, it creates a nice decorative factor to our garden.

Blueberry bushes are normally used to provide a certain kind of attractiveness to your garden or landscape, plus also its berry-like fruits can be eaten directly from the plant or you can even use it to make jams, syrups, pies, pancakes, muffins and other baked goods. Blueberries can be found in North America, Europe and some parts of Asia. Some of the most common blueberry bushes include the highbush, half-high, lowbush and rabbiteye blueberries. It is not difficult grow and harvest blueberry bushes, but one need to learn the steps right so as not to commit any errors when taking care of Blueberry bushes.

What you need:

1. Observe the growth of the blueberry bush
   
2. Observe the plants stems and branches
   
3. Observe the leaves of the plants
   
4. Observe the flowers
   
5. Observe the berries itself
   

Method:

1. Observe the growth of the blueberry bush because there are a few types of blueberry bush and the most commonly used for commercial cultivation are the Highbush varieties which grow higher and produce berries that are easier to harvest. There are also the Lowbush varieties which are known as the wild blueberries.
   
2. In order to identify the plant, you can also observe the stems and branches of the plant. Its branch is normally smooth, with no thorns and comes in light brown color or maybe with darker brown speckles that provides an attractive contrast to the leaves, flowers and fruit.
   
3. You can also identify it through the plant\’s leaves which are smooth, dark green with yellow accents on the veins, plus also along its outside edges. Its leaf clusters are also pinnate and grow in small groupings of at least 6 or lesser. During fall season, the leaf will turn into many shining shades ranging from yellow to bright crimson.
   
4. The blueberries can be identified through its varieties of flowers such as small, bell-shaped, and a pinkish-purplish-white in color.
   
5. Blueberries normally start out with light lilac in color and once they grow, it becomes dark purplish blue. The berries grow in clusters, like very small grapes. You may also notice the shriveled remains of blueberry bush flowers that cling onto the bottom ends of the berries. During a dry spell, you could also notice that the leaves will begin to crack and produce a dark purple juice.
   

Additional Reading:
http://www.ehow.com/how_6673080_identify-different-types-blueberry-bushes.html
http://www.gardenguides.com/93683-identify-blueberry-bushes.html
http://www.gardenguides.com/100640-identify-different-types-blueberry-bushes.html

Image Credit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mistybushell/2304245820/

Identifying Blueberry Bushes is a post from: DIY Guides

Related posts:

1. Protecting Blueberry Bushes
2. Maintaining Your Blueberry Bushes
3. Selecting a Blueberry Bush

Among popular fruits which many people love to grow in their garden during the summer months is the tomatoes. Although tomatoes are easy to grow, still not many of us can successfully grow large bushes and vines covered with lush, big and bright red tomatoes. If you want to know how to grow the perfect tomatoes for your summer salads and salsa, here are the steps.

Things that you need:

1. Tomatoes seeds
   
2. organic matter
   
3. water

Steps:

1. First, you need to find the suitable site for your tomatoes planting. An area with a great coverage of sunlight is the best for planting the tomatoes. They will grow healthier with plenty of sunlight provided.
   
2. Next, make sure that the soil you are going to use is the best and suitable for the plants. Tomatoes grow best in crumbly, very dark loam soil. You can try to treat dry and thick-like soil back to life. However, if you have a good soil, there is nothing much you need such as adding fertilizer to it.
   
3. One beneficial step for your tomatoes planting is adding organic matter to your planting hole. The choice for organic matter that you can use are manure matter. You can also adding Epsom salts to the planting holes as one of the nutrients enhancement trick.
   
4. To add magnesium to the soil for the tomatoes, add one or two tablespoons of Epsom to the planting holes. Plants which lack of calcium tend to be prone to diseases. If you want to avoid this happening to your tomatoes plants, add crushed egg shells for calcium to the soil.
   
5. Make sure that your tomato plants get enough water. For maintenance, look out for blossom-end rot.

Additional Reading:
http://www.ehow.com/how_5080955_grow-perfect-tomatoes.html

Image Credit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/werms/238172698/

Growing perfect tomatoes is a post from: DIY Guides

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1. Planting Tomatoes in Your Gardenin
2. Harvesting and Storing Tomatoes
3. Preparing Tomatoes for Canning Process

Self-watering plant containers are helpful for the environment if you are living in a green lifestyle. This creation is such a brilliant gardening innovation which helps the gardeners not only to save time and effort but also the water source as well. They are excellent tool to reduce the amount of wasted water from over watering and prevent evaporation. However, they can be costly and often made from environmentally damaging petrochemical products. If you still want to create a self-watering container by yourselves, this is an easy project which is made mostly from the recycled materials from your home. You can bring your children to help you out doing this project too. Just be careful not to let them handle the steps where hot and sharp tools used. Here\’s how to do it.

Things that you need:

1. 2 litter empty plastic drink bottle
2. hot wire
3. sharp cutting tool/ sharp knife/ scissors
4. cotton string
5. potting soil
6. plant
7. water
8. clay hydroponics medium

Steps:

1. Make sure to clean and dry your empty soda bottle well. Carefully, use your sharp knife or scissors and cut the top off the bottle. Cut the area just below where the bottle stops sloping.
2. Then, make a small hole in the bottle lid with a hot wire. Be careful when handling with hot wire. Make sure the kids are not playing or standing near you at that time. The size of the hole should be the same size as your string. You have to make sure that the hole is precise. If the hole is too large, you won\’t be able to secure your string. If it\’s too small, your string won\’t pass through.
3. Take a string and pass it through the hole that you made in the lid. It is preferable to use a cotton string than synthetic strings, as the cotton string will wick the water properly. Make a knot on the inside or the underside of the lid to secure the string in place. Then, place the bottle lid back on the part of the bottle that you cut off.
4. Put the lid back on the top section of the bottle. Now, place it in an inverted way in the bottom of the bottle. Fill the top half with your choice of potting soil. Add absorbent materials such as clay hydroponics mediums to the potting soil to provide a better wicking medium.

Finally, plant your plants and water them.

Additional Reading:
http://www.ehow.com/how_4933575_self-watering-plant-container.html

Image Credit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/psyberartist/3646059060/

Creating a self-watering container for your plants is a post from: DIY Guides

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