Gardening Can Be Fun for Kids!

Gardening is a wonderful hobby for all ages, and all levels of growing skills. One does not have to possess a green thumb to be able to grow a small tomato plant in the backyard. It just takes some patience and diligence. In many ways, children are the same way. There is no magic method to raise children, it just takes a lot of patience and a willingness to learn as you go along. Sharing your interests and passions with children can be an enjoyable experience for everyone.

Since children are naturally inquisitive, bringing them out to the garden with you can be fun. You can point to different plants and talk about it as you weed or water. Kids love to get mud on their hands, and they like to feel involved, so you can just hand over the hose or water pitcher and let them water away as you watch.

Another way you can share your love for gardening is to give them a part of the garden to look over. This will not only make them feel important, but also teach them responsibility. Take the kids to the local hardware store (or anyplace that sells seeds) and let them pick out the plants they want to help grow. You can give them a small plot of dirt in your garden to watch over. Let them dig holes and place the seeds in. You can all chart the growth progress, and watch those seeds become small plants together!

Fun projects are another way to generate interest in gardening. One method is to take a white carnation, cut the stem in half all the way to the flower (but leave the flower intact). Place the stems in two different jars that have different food color in them. You will have a flower that is two different colors. Kids will love seeing that plants take in water through the stems.

When choosing flowers to grow with the kids, make sure they are the kinds that grow quickly. Children have short attention spans, and we can choose plants that are fun to watch as they grow. Cherry tomatoes, strawberries, and sunflowers are all great choices. Cherry tomatoes grow in roughly two months. Sunflowers sprout in a week. Not only that, but the seeds from the flowers can be roasted for snacks, and cherry tomatoes can be washed and eaten right away!

Gardening is a fun, relaxing, and enjoyable hobby. It's a great way to get in some sun, and to release some steam in a healthy way. For children, it can be a productive way to spend their time, and learn new and interesting things about the world around them.

The author invites you to visit http://www.greenthumbdepot.com/ for more information.

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How To Kill Snails

Two of the most common garden pests are slugs and snails, both of which can demolish virtually any vegetable crop over night. Snails just like slugs love damp conditions, and hence just like slugs they love to come out in the evening just after you have watered your vegetables.

Whilst you will see them during the day, in general they tend to come out in large numbers at night when the ground is more likely to be damp. They also seem to have a sixth sense of smell and can seem to track down a newly planted cucumber plant at fifty paces.

The fact that they come out in the evenings means that going out in to your garden after dark is a good time to find them and kill them. I do say kill them as whilst you may choose to throw them in your compost heap or even hurl them some distance down your garden or over your garden fence, they will simply crawl back again using that sixth sense of smell that they have to find your vegetable plants. Simply go out at night with a torch and wearing gloves and find them in the glint of your torchlight and pick them up.

Any snails you "Capture" will need to be crushed or drowned (A solution of strong saltwater or beer is ideal). Do not throw them on your compost heap as they will just thrive in it and use it as a breeding ground.

Whilst you can pour table salt on slugs to kill them, this technique does not work effectively with snails due to their shells.

They are surface creatures and unlike slugs they do not burrow underground to hide, instead they can like damp shady conditions, such as hiding under ivy climbing up a house.

Potted plants can be protected by the use of copper rings around them, which can be easily purchased on the Internet. Just like with slugs the copper reacts with snails and gives them a mild self-created electric shock, and they will not cross over it. Of note though is that using copper rings will only prevent snails from attacking plants and not kill them outright.

The other relatively sure fire method is to use beer bated snail traps, these are effective at killing slugs as well. They work by the beer attracting the snails in and then the snail drowns in the beer - simple, yet highly effective!

Both the use of copper rings and beer baited snail traps provide 100% organic pest control for snails, as is using a torch to "Harvest" them at night.

The only other real solution to kill snails is the liberal application of slug pellets around your vegetable crop. They will kill snails but do not seem to do so as effectively as slugs. You will need to put more slug pellets down every time after it rains. The chemicals from them will be washed in to the soil and hence enter the food chain, so if you use slug pellets to kill snails then you will not be able to class your vegetable crop as organic.

I hope you found these tips on how to kill snails most useful.

If like me you hate slugs then I hope you found this article most useful, and if you did then why not find out How To Kill Slugs as well. If you like growing vegetables then why not visit my site packed with free guides on things such as How To Grow Tomatoes and also see my vegetable calendar giving you month by month advice on what vegetables to plant.

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Growing Jalapeno Peppers: An Overwintering Guide

It's a common misconception that Jalapeno plants and other peppers are annual, which means they only grow for one year. The fact is that chili plants can survive for five, ten or even fifteen years, provided you take care of them when winter approaches. This means you don't have to throw away your old plants and start new pepper seeds each year. When you perform certain precautions and understand how to support your chillies as they go into hibernation, you successfully "winterize", or "overwinter", pepper plants to make sure they keep producing lots of chillies during the next growing season.

When to Overwinter Peppers
Peppers do not have a tolerance for frost, and they can suffer when they are regularly exposed to temperatures under 50 degrees Fahrenheit. The first thing you should do is figure out when the cold weather is coming to your area. Check weather reports to find out when temperatures are going to dip below 50 degrees for more than a few days, or buy a farmer's almanac to get historical weather information for your location.

Perform the Winterizing Process
Ideally, you want to move your chili plants indoors during the colder months. This protects peppers from frost and keeps them safe from outdoor elements, such as rain and snow, that can kill the plant. Before you bring the chillies inside, you want to make sure you don't take in any bugs as well.

First, use a pair of clean shears to cut off all of the leaves and any immature peppers until bare. This allows your chile plants to save their precious energy for next spring. If pepper buds form during the winter months, pinch them off.

Next, change out the soil in your pepper pots to replenish the mix and get rid of any insects in the soil. If your Jalapenos are in the ground, carefully dig them up and plant them in large 5-gallon pots. Water each pot well.

Continue to debug each plant before you place them indoors. Spray an insecticidal soap over all parts of each plant, including the top of the soil, until each part is drenched. After five minutes, spray your chile plants with water to wash them off. Move your pots to an isolated area, such as a patio, and check on your plants the next day to make sure you don't see any bugs. If you do see them, repeat the insecticidal soap process. After a couple of days of no bug activity, you can bring your plants indoors.

Where to Keep Your Indoor Peppers
Winterized chile plants like a temperature range of 60 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit and they require a light source to survive during the winter. Garages, basements and spare rooms are an ideal location for your plants. Keep in mind that bugs can still appear, so put your chillies in a spot that is the least intrusive to your home. If the room does not have a bright window, you can position grow lights or fluorescent bulbs above the plants.

Watering and Fertilizing Your Winterized Chillies
Your hibernating pepper plants don't need as much water as when they are actively growing in the outdoors. You can hydrate your plants once a month or when the soil mix dries out. Fertilizer is not necessary during this time, but if you choose to feed your plants, use 1/2 the dose you normally use when your plants are outside.

Dealing with Insects on Indoor Plants
Bugs, such as aphids, can sometimes show up on your indoor chillies, despite all of the precautions you've taken. If they make an appearance, place your pepper pots in a shower and let the water run over them for a few minutes. This should dislodge them and wash them away. If the insects keep appearing, release ladybugs on your plants.

Placing Pepper Plants Back Outside
When temperatures consistently go back up to 50 degrees Fahrenheit, you can move them outside again. This is generally during the months of March or April, but check the weather reports for your area to be sure.

Once your chili plants are outdoors again, they will grow back their leaves and develop new flowers.

If you enjoyed these tips about growing Jalapeno peppers, please go to http://www.growhotpeppers.com/grow-your-own-jalapenos-and-super-hot-peppers-in-containers-e-book/ for more information.

Dominica Esperanza writes for http://www.growhotpeppers.com/, a site dedicated to the practice and enjoyment of growing hot pepper plants.

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Benefits of Growing Strawberries

Strawberries are a household favourite of many. Unfortunately, we can never have as many of this lovely fruit as we want because often they are not cheap- or at least those strawberries that we buy from the grocery store may not be. Read on.

Strawberries are seen as uncommon to many households despite the love they get from children and adults alike. This makes this fruit appear like they are expensive to grow; hence, the price. Truth is; they're not. With the right knowledge, you can start your own strawberry garden from anywhere in your backyard to inside container growing. But aside from your craving for this berry, why else would you want to grow your own? If you are a certified lover and you'd like to justify your want to grow your own for a family member or for yourself, then this article is for you. Growing these plants is an option that won't just allow you to indulge on your cravings for this fruit, but will also allow you to;

Make your favourite strawberries accessible to you.

No more waiting for the next grocery trip- harvest them from your garden anytime you crave for them. They may be expensive, but they are actually easy to grow. Just find a space from where your plants can live on dirt and mulch, and acquire ample amount sunlight and they're good.

Organically grown.

Grocery bought berries are often chemically treated to meet production requirements and commercial standards. This makes these strawberries an unhealthy option which is ironic because they are meant to be healthy! So make sure to snack on healthy berries- start your own strawberry garden now!

Make growing this fruit your business.

If you are considering growing your own luscious berries, then you are indeed in love with strawberries; and love is a requirement in starting up a business. Not only that; the runners let you grow several strawberries from just a few plants, which means that you can cash in a decent amount of money from a considerably low amount of investment. So make an investment of buying strawberry plants for the same amount as you would buy a pack of strawberries, watch them multiply and supply yourself and your market with fresh strawberries. Eat strawberries and earn from them. It'll definitely feel like heaven!

Enjoy a healthy snack

Strawberries are good for your health. Having access to such a healthy and delicious snack will turn you away from junk food and other unhealthy snack options.

Save money

It's obvious. Growing your own strawberries frees you from the costs of buying the expensive and unhealthy ones in grocery stores.

Enjoy fresh strawberries

If you love frozen strawberries, then you'll love fresh strawberries even more. Many can also attest that home-grown strawberries taste better than their grocery-bought counterparts.

Convinced? If not, groom yourself up and head to the groceries to buy some strawberries. The taste alone should be enough to convince you that strawberries are worth that extra space in your garden. Don't worry. They may be expensive, but they don't really require that much care as the orchids that you grow does.

Good luck!

To learn more about how to grow strawberries and for any other additional information, please visit http://www.howtogrowstrawberry.com/ How to Grow Strawberry are one of the internet's foremost resources on the growing luscious, sweet and bountiful strawberries.

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