Organic Gardening Articles Directory

Builders Service Company is a family owned home improvement business serving the Northwest (USA) since 1973.

The company has been helping people with their home remodeling for over 30 years. They provide home remodeling estimates and a lot of services to their customers.

Their friendly staff help people to select right siding, dors, windows and help to lover heating and cooling bills. Also they can give an advice for people who want to sell their house and would like to increase the re-sale value. Apart from that they offer a roof repair service.

Builders Service Company realy help people to save money. They have trained, full time remodeling professionals who will ensure your home improvement project is executed perfectly every time. They also provide top quality materials from the finest manufacturers in the industry.

If you visit their website, you will see that they also can help with custom replacement windows.

The company offers so called “Premium Preservation Windows” that encompass all of the hallmarks of exceptional window design — great quality, beauty and easy maintenance. These windows help cut heating and cooling costs and make your house more comfortable.

A few days ago I gave an advice about vinyl sliding installation. If you don’t want to do that yourself, than Builders Service Company is the place you need.

Company can help with wide and narrow width vinyl siding, scalloped siding, board and batten, and even Shaker shingle vinyl siding. The decorative possibilities they offer are virtually endless.

Preservation Siding adds an important bonus to your home’s exterior walls – energy efficiency. Our home will be warm and cosy.

The company also offers free consultations on their website, so you can get an estimate for work that has to be done.

So if you plan to renovate your home – visit their website!

Apart from fruits and vegetables a lot of gardeners grow chickens as well. Chickens give meat and eggs and help you to save money. Some of the gardeners would like to have chickens but leave this idea thinking that building a chicken coop is very hard thing to do. It is not true. Chicken coops can be built in one or two days. Chickens don’t require a lot of space so you don’t have to build a huge house if you plan to have 5-6 hens.

I’ve found a very nice tutorial on Youtube, that you might find useful. You may also want to visit backyardchickens.com for free chicken coops plans.

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Today my grandmother made me a wonderful gift: chilli pepper’s tree. With about 50 chilli peppers hanging on it. I wanted to have it for a long time but could not find seeds (in my country they are rare) or plants. My granny was luckier – she found it on the market and bought it straight away knowing that I am searching for one. There was three red ones already, – others are still green.  I cut one and took a small piece of it. It was very spicy.  While I was eating my dinner, I created a spice recipe which I want to share with you.

Chilli spice recipe – my own invention

There are only two components: dried chilly and dried leafs of sage.  Melt them together and… That’s all! I think the flavour will be fantastic and you can use it for pizza, soups, meat and so on. I haven’t tried it yet – first of all I will have to have some more chillies on my tree.

There is also another thing you can do with chilli peppers: take 2-3 of them and add them into 0.5 lit of olive oil. After 1-2 weeks you’ll get spicy olive oil. I used such oil in one Chinese restaurant with prawns soup and it was delicious!

Read also:
Growing peppers

Petunias come in a number of different kinds and combinations. They are one of the best flowers to bright up your garden or area near the house. They are really easy to grow and can be planted in hanging baskets, containers or in the ground. They’ve become popular in the mid 19th century when the Europeans brought them from USA. Petunias grow naturally in the US zones 9 to 11 and they can’t handle freeze at all. If these flowers grow outdoors, they die every winter but you can easily grow them again next season.

Growing petunias from seedlings
Before planting petunias, you need to prepare soil and choose the location.
Try to plant them in the sunny location with 6-8 hours of sun every day. Spread some organic manner (two to three inches thick) and mix it with the soil.  Soil also must drain decently.
Plant petunias only after the last frost, otherwise they may die.
If you bought petunias in the peat pots, then just remove them out of there and gently tease their roots apart with your fingers.
Place them in the soil, cover the root ball and gently firm the soil down.
You have to keep the soil moist until you see a new growth. That shows you the petunias have developed a strong root system.

Growing petunias from seeds
I recommend to start growing petunias indoors. Although it takes about 10-12 weeks before petunias are big enough to plant out, but you can save some money, because garden seeds cost less than petunias seedlings and you can grow more plants.
Prepare clean, damp potting soil or milled sphagnum moss. Sprinkle the seeds on top if it and press them in gently with your fingers before watering.
Cover the container with plastic bag or any other plastic and store it in a bright, warm (70 to 85 degrees F) place. Do not place them under direct sunlight.
Seeds begin to sprout 7-10 days after planting. You’ll have to remove plastic and relocate the container to a cooler place with about 65F during the day and 55-65F during the night.
Plant seedling into individual peat moss or paper pots (use pot maker to make them)  when they have 3 true leaves.
After the last frost, you can plant them outdoors.

Read also:
Four tips for growing lavender

(c)Garden Seeds

1) Lavender needs at least 6 hours of full sun per day.
2) Lavender likes rocky soil and ph between 6.5 and 7. Make sure you add a little bit of organic compost or lime if PH is lower.
3) Water lavender well and let them go dry. Lavender doesn’t like constantly wet soil as they are Mediterranean plants.
4) It’s really important to give a good haircut to small lavender plant. Cut them about 2-4 inches above the wood. Then you’ll have a lot more flowers on the lavender. Repeat that procedure during the next spring.

Read also:
Growing Thyme
Growing basil

Help the world! Use paper pot maker!
(c)Garden Seeds

You can grow Basil outside and inside of the house in containers. All you have to do is to provide plenty of sunshine and water. The technique of planting is the same for outdoors and indoors.
You’ll need watering can, potting soil, seeds or basil seedlings.
First of all, choose a high quality soil mix. I recommend to use organic potting soil. Once you filled the container with soil, you have to water it to give seeds good contact with soil. Water the soil and mix it around. After that sprinkle the garden seeds slightly over the soil. Try to space them up as best as you can. Tap down the soil and then ad some more soil on the top. Cover the seeds up with just about a quarter inch of soil. Water it again with a gentle steam of water. Don’t let the soil to try out until you see the seedlings.
When the seedlings pop up and are about 2-3 inches tall, you need to thin them to 4-6 inches apart. It will give them a plenty of space to grow.

How to make your basil bushy
Basil has so called opposite leaves – they come out on the opposite sides of the stem. They are called setup leaves. When you get 3-4 setup leaves, you can start pruning. You need to pinch off the top part of the plant right above the setup leaves. You’ll get some basil for kitchen use and setup leaves on the main stems will turn into the branches and continue to grow. When they have 3-4 setup leaves, you can pinch off the top of each stem. Buy doing that, you’ll have a plant with 4-8 branches.

How to preserve basil
Don’t put the basil into the refrigerator – it will make it black. Place them in the bottle or glass with water and put it on your window.

Read also:
How to grow herbs indoors

Help the world! Use paper pot maker!
(c)Garden Seeds

Growing peppers is very easy. Like the majority of plants, they require sun and warmth.  Plant them after the last frost as cold will kill them.

How to plant peppers

First of all you need to prepare a place. It should be well-tilled raised garden bed with a plenty of compost or manure.
Most peppers require about 6-12 inch of space between each other. Check the information on the sachet for your ones. If you want to grow Chili peppers, then the space should be about 1-3 inches between.
Make a holes about 0.5-1 inch deep and place one seed in each hole. Then cover them up.
Water the place after planting and keep them well watered aspecially during the time of flowering. Try to keep it weed free as well.
Each sort of peppers have different time of maturity. It can take from 2 to 5 months to get peppers.

Some advanced facts, that may increase your harvest: peppers like a soil Ph of 6.7 to 7, about an inch of water a week, and a dusting of Epsom salts worked into the soil for the magnesium needed to thrive. If the soil is very warm, mulch around the plants to retain moisture. Use a well balanced fertilizer when blooms appear and again a few weeks later.

Read also:
How to plant wild strawberries
How to grow carrots

Help the world! Use paper pot maker!

Today I will write about growing blueberries.  You can grow them outside and in containers – excellent chose for your balcony garden! I will write about growing blueberries in containers.

First of all you have to prepare a soil: mix 1/3 acid based potting soil, 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 medium sized bark. You can also add some organic fertilisers such as cotton seed meal, father meal, fish meal or soil sulfer.  Soil sulfer is a great to use for maintaining PH level in your container though the years. Add just a small amount of fertilisers – just 1-2 table spoons for 10-12 inch containers.  Now you are ready to plant.

Planting blueberries
Chose a container size to suit your plant (1 inch plants n 2-5 gallon containers)
Make sure your container has holes in the bottom for drainage.
Add some prepared soil first, then put a blueberry plant in the container and cover it by the rest of the soil. Press the soil firmly.

Care
Don’t let the container to dry out.
Place pots or containers in sunny location.
Don’t use fertiliser with nitrogen in nitrate form. It can kill blueberry plant.

Read also:
Growing morel mushrooms
How to grow garlic