The management of water and the maintenance of its quality is the most crucial element in successful water gardening. A garden pond is an almost self-contained ecosystem which only interacts with the atmosphere for the exchange of gases such as oxygen and carbon dioxide. The toxic wastes that are released into the water have to be broken down otherwise they soon reach levels which are harmful to fish and other aquatic creatures. There is a naturally occurring process called the nitrogen cycle which copes with all this, although it is a wise precaution to monitor the levels of key chemicals regularly.

It depends upon the size of the pond, and also the temperature, as to how easy it is to maintain water quality naturally. Still water becomes thermally stratified during the heat of the day, because the sun’s warmth is absorbed near the surface and cannot penetrate the depths. Small, shallow ponds may stratify when the day is warm, but return to a uniform temperature at night as the surface layers cool and mix with the lower layers. Such rapid changes can cause problems both with oxygen and the development of algal blooms.

With deep ponds changes are more likely to be seasonal than daily. In early spring a distinction develops between the warm upper layer and the cold layer near the floor of the pond. Between these layers there is a transitional zone. These all have an influence upon aquatic life, as the layers do not mix. The bottom layer at the pond floor receives no oxygen, but does benefit from organic debris which scatters into it from the upper layer. On the other hand, the uppermost layer receives none of the results of decay and by the end of the summer is nutrient deficient.

This can affect plants like floating aquatics which only live in that zone, one of the reasons why, in larger expanses of water, floating plants sometimes go into decline towards the end of the summer. These distinct zones remain until the turbulence created by fall winds mixes the various layers and they cool down.

With acidity and alkalinity, there can be considerable changes, depending upon the activities of pond life. In a pond, many chemicals dissolve into the water, and all these have an influence upon pH, which should ideally be monitored by periodic testing with a pH test kit. A pH value of between 7.0 and 8.0 is ideal for pond fish, although anywhere between 6.0 and 8.5 is acceptable. If the pH falls outside this range, pH adjusters should be used to stabilize it at a suitable level, and steps should be taken to find the cause.

One of the greatest influences upon pH can be the presence of algae, the pH value changing by as much as 3.0 between morning and evening. The reason for this is because algae uses carbon dioxide and removes carbonic acid from the water during the day, thereby raising the pH. At night algae ceases photosynthesising and produces carbonic acid, thus lowering the pH. So eliminating algae can have a considerable effect upon stabilizing pond acidity or alkalinity.

Philip Swindells has over 40 years gardening experience. A former botanical garden curator and an international horticultural consultant, he has worked extensively in the UK, North America, the Middle East and Australia. The Author of more than 50 gardening books, he has been awarded a Quill and Trowel Award by the Garden Writers’ Association of America. He is also a former UK Garden Writer of the Year. He is currently editor of http://www.internationalwatergardener.com

Gardening has always taken a great part in human life, either as the need for body sustenance, or for spiritual uplifting. Growing plants makes the connection with nature stronger and is considered a mild therapy by many psychologists. Organic gardening in its specificity reinforces the strongest binds with Mother Nature, as it is a true to life way to grow vegetables and fruits, using only the materials provided by nature.

Nowadays many people prefer organic gardening as it has many advantages over other ways of producing plants.

First of all, organic gardening requires your personal involvement in the whole process. The plants need you to supply the soil with fruitful compost. The natural compost is made of kitchen and garden waste, with no chemical pesticides in it.

Chemicals are the second issue solved by organic gardening. When you grow the plants organic, you need not add any artificial substances in the soil. Pesticides are made of toxins that kill every living thing in the natural environment. They can be extremely harmful for the human body, as well. Organic gardening contains no risk for any living creature, and saves the life balance in the surroundings.

The above-mentioned reveals the third advantage of organic gardening: it is harmless for the environment. You can try it and preserve nature. In that way you get two great extras: eating healthy food without being a monster to the living habitat around you. Trees and plants have produced their harvest for millions of years without being propped up with chemical substances. By organic gardening we let nature do something for us, and feed us, as it had feeded our ancestors with delicious food, long before pesticides came into fashion.

By trying organic gardening, you help your children grow up healthy. Many research works show that a child ingests four to five times more cancer-causing pesticides from food than a full-grown adult. The necessity of healthy food for children is not a myth, but a scientifically proven truth.

The last thing that makes organic gardening utterly irresistible for the practical people, is that it is CHEAPER. Pesticides and artificial supplements DO cost a lot of money indeed. But this doesn’t mean that organic gardeners leave things go their own unpredictable way. A devoted gardener always comes up with smart ideas like making cheap compost of coffee grounds. If you want to get rid of aphids, a typical organic gardening tip would be to plant marigolds nearby. There are many do-it-yourself practical advice for making your plants grow stronger. Take mulch, for example. Mulch is done by mixing pine needles and grass clippings. It helps keeping the soil moist and the weeds off. There are many recipes for producing cheap substances to fight against garden pests. The most inexpensive way to make a quart of garden pest spray is by mixing water with one spoon of dishwashing soap and one cup of cooking oil.

When taking up organic gardening, you start to feel that you are really doing something useful for the environment and for your health, and the satisfaction is rewarding. Saving money is the other great privilege that an organic gardening practitioner feels over the others.

Article by Robbie Darmona – an article author who writes on a wide variety of subjects. For more information click Organic Gardening

Breathe. Relax. Be nice.

When I walk I notice:

* Trees are cool. Literally. The temperature drops noticeably between treeless areas downtown, even areas shaded by buildings, and the leafy East side. That’s like nearly free air conditioning.

* Plants like water. Believe it or not, a lot of people neglect to water, and plants die. Plants are particularly vulnerable early in the season. Sometimes the weather report promises rain, and doesn’t deliver, so check on them, Stick your fingers down into the soil if you need to.

* Overwatering is bad though. A mature tree is fine with about an inch of rain or watering a week. Even a vegetable garden in peak season requires only about 2 inches a week. A slightly dry plant will bounce back, but a waterlogged one will probably die. Don’t water the sidewalk, deck or other hardscaping, or create runoff.

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The secrets to a beautiful flower garden are knowing what flowers you are planting and when and where you are planting them. If you are new to planting, it is best to start small to guarantee success.

When you select your plants (20 to 30 to start), choose mostly annuals (flowers that are planted every year) and a few perennials (plants that will keep coming back). Make sure you know how much sun you need and choose a site with good soil. You can purchase a soil testing kit. Don’t plant near trees, as they compete for water.

Dig down into the ground at least eight inches and remove all rocks and debris. Level the ground with a rake and fertilize with compost or manure. These can be purchased at any gardening shop or greenhouse. Add peat moss or grass cuttings to increase water capacity and lime is the soil has too much acid. Using a rake, level the bed.

Plant seeds or plants according to directions, smaller plants in the front, and larger plants in the rear of the garden. Water the area thoroughly, and watch your garden grow. There are a great number of garden supply stores both online and in your neighborhood, as gardening is an age-old tradition that is not going away. These stores usually have everything you need. But mix and match your sources for plants, since you will probably want your garden to be unique. Make your garden a thing of your own imagination, and consider it an art form.

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Vegetable gardening can be one of the most rewarding experiences in life. Eating your own fresh vegetables picked straight off the plant or fresh from the ground with the real taste still intact beats store brought produce every time.

I grew up in Auckland, New Zealand and gardening on the slopes of One Tree Hill, an extinct volcano, with perfect dark volcanic soil, it was merely a matter of chucking some seeds onto the ground, raking it over with soil and coming back and harvesting the bounty. With very regular rainfall there was little need to irrigate, abit of pest control to keep down the snails and abit of weeding was about it.

What a shock to come to the Gold Coast, Queensland and attempt to create a vegetable garden here. The soil is poor and solid clay with a rock not far below with little or no top soil.

Clay is one of the most difficult mediums to grow plants in. The particular mix is so fine that oxygen and water have a hard time getting to the roots of any plant. Hard as concrete in the dry and waterlogged in the rainy season. Without special preparation you will be lucky to even get weeds to grow.

As you can see in the picture above success can be achieved but work is required.

To prepare the garden a maddock was used to break up the clay into smaller pieces. It is actually better to do this when the clay is dry, rather than waterlogged. Its just heavier when wet and sticks to the maddock. This is time consuming back breaking work. But take a small patch at a time and come back after a rest. Take several days to complete the vegetable patch, gardening is to help build the muscles, not destroy them. Whilst doing this task many times rock was hit, however most rock on the Gold Coast shatters when hit and breaks into smaller pieces. While many of these were removed pieces smaller than half the size of your fist were left in on the advice of garden manuals. Why? It is said that small rocks help drainage and add minerals to the soil over time. So long as the don’t make up more than 5%-10% of the soil, leave them in. Eventually a base of the patch was layed out.

To further soften and break up the clay store brought clay breakers were added. Easily available at your gardening or hardware store they are added to water and sprayed on the garden though they work best over a period of time.

Next Gypsum was added. This comes in large bags and is easy to spread out by hand, mix in with the clay and it too will further help ‘relax’ the clay.

Some would say, why not just buy a bunch of topsoil and dump it down. Well for a couple of reasons, firstly I have yet to find a good provider of topsoil in Queensland. Most just provide sand with a minimum of organic material mixed in – just enough to darken the sand. The sand is actually poor draining because it is much too fine. Some argue that you can help clay soil by adding sand. But unless the sand is a fine to small gravel I believe you are wasting your time. Sand that is too fine, acts just like a clay soil, it repells short spells of rain or irrigation or becomes waterlogged during a tropical downpoor or solid irrigation. The second reaason why I don’t just buy the topsoil is because if the topsoil is not mixed in and bound to the subsoil it will just wash away.

To really bring the clay soil up to grade you need to add bio matter. Quality top soil is made of plant and animal materials decomposed or in the state of decomposing. Compost made of of shredded leaves, wood, grass clippings and vegetable/food rubbish is good. But the best material I had available for this garden was straw and chicken waste. With a pen of twenty chickens plenty of nitrogen rich matter was produced. Every three months the coup was cleaned out, the straw smelling strongly of ammonia. However once put on the garden the smell quickly went and the straw and its ‘added’ contents quickly broke down into the soil. I can reccommend nothing better to add to the soil. If you must add something else to quickly create a topsoil and can’t wait for compost or have no chickens then I recommend products such as worm castings or 6 in one products (includes blood and bone, fish compost, etc), they come in 20kg plus bags and range in price between $5 and $15. Several of these, or if your budget handles it 10-20 of these really help to condition the soil.

Now the garden is ready for sowing. In the garden pictured above sweet corn, snow peas, peas, beans, garlic, tomatoes, pumpkins, potatoes, beatroot, lettuce, cabbage and much more were grown in such abundance it meet our needs. A small vege patch with good soil, well planned can add to massively to your diet.

Unfortunately this garden no longer exists as we moved on from my parents lifestyle block. But as testament to the quality of the soil and the work put into it this small area needed mowing twice as much as the rest of the lawn with quality, healthy, green grass growing quicker with more water in the soil than the rest of the lawn. Showing the truth in Queensland and hard clay soils that if the effort is put in the results will live on for years and decades. Poor soil in Australia is just an excuse for laziness. Yes with have drought conditions at times. But if we prepare the soil well we need less water. If we work with our environment, keeping back water in the times of plenty and molding the environment correctly wonderful results can be achieved.

Poor soil should not hold you back, it merely presents a challenge.

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A Water Garden Feature without doubt is the cherry on the cake giving the ultimate finish to enhance the beauty of a garden or patio – but unfortunately some gardeners are put off because of the work involved with the installation and maintenance of having a water feature. Cost can also hamper the decision of adding a water garden in your courtyard etc.

Expense may not be an issue if you decide on doing the work your self. If you have a good manual at your side when you take on the task then that is the first step in the right direction – follow the instructions accordingly and all should be okay. By chance if you are not DIY minded then you need not worry because Water Garden Features come in all different shapes and sizes thus cutting costs to meet your budget – where you can have an expert fit the fixture.

Small water garden features not only will save on the pennies but will save on the labour also when it comes to the cleaning. And with what you save you can buy different garden novelties.

Combining a fish pond with a water garden has to be carefully planned if plants like the lotus and lily are used; you need to have access to these. Your water garden needs to be approx 16 to 18 inches deep. This is good depth for plants to flourish. Young plants are not dependant on deep water.

How you ornate your water garden feature is entirely up to you but we do not want is to over do it, to much can spoil the appearance.

Water Gardens that host too many plants and shrubs can lose the effect of what you want to inject from the whole project and that is beauty. Shelving is best kept to a minimum if the feature is small – plants can be elevated on to rocks. Shelving is a good idea – it keeps the fish happy providing them with cover from the rays of the hot sun.

Nature comes to the fore from your Water Garden Feature with uninvited guests – what you have to remember water will always attract aquatic life and also children so be careful. Frogs toads and newts will enjoy your water garden feature just as much as you, if not more – so be prepared. There will be the upkeep of the pond/waterfall you have installed – the work involved with the maintenance will not be heavy work if you keep on top.

Installing a water garden feature is not a complicated mission unless you make it one by not having the right tools for the job. Be sure to obtain a good book with details on how to erect and to find the best place to locate the feature. Also do some research on what flowers and plants are suitable? How to clean and maintain a water garden are all important issues you need to know about and last but not least find out what you have to do to meet with the fishes needs and requirements if there is to be any marine life in your pond or pool.

Safety Tip – When next at the garden store purchase your self some netting or mesh so that the Water Garden Feature can be covered in your absence. This is a safety measure for when – CHILDREN ARE AROUND AND YOU ARE NOT.

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