<![CDATA[Greenbo - Blog]]>Fri, 25 May 2012 11:59:56 +1000Weebly<![CDATA[Railing Planter Box]]>Mon, 21 May 2012 10:30:20 +1000http://www.greenbo.com.au/1/post/2012/05/railing-planter-box.htmlA railing planter box can be your ticket to having the garden you want, even if you don't have available ground space. Everyone loves the idea of having live flowers or fresh herbs for the kitchen, but what do you do if you live somewhere, such as in an apartment, where ground gardening just isn't an option? A railing planter box can be just the answer you've been looking for.

One of the greatest benefits of a railing planter box is its ease of maintenance. Because a railing planter box sits high this makes a railing planter box ideal for the elderly who wish to continue gardening but are not long physically able to handle ground gardens. Of course, one need not have physical limitations to appreciate the ease with which a railing planter box may be maintained.

Railing planter boxes are also especially nice because they are very visible. With a railing planter box you can enjoy beautiful live flowers all day, whenever you pass your balcony, not just when you go outside. This high visibility does more than just showcase your plants, it also provides a handy reminder for those who like gardening but suffer from forgetfulness-induced brown thumbs. It's much easier to remember to water your garden and to see if your plants need special attention, when they are prominently displayed in your balcony.

Of course, the real incentive behind a railing planter box is the ability to garden where you have not been able to before. For many city dwellers and the vast majority of apartment owners, yard gardens are not realistic for the simple reason that they have no yards. Conversely, the immensely satisfying hobby of gardening is available to anyone who has railing (and almost everyone does have at least one) by means of a railing planter box.

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<![CDATA[10 Tips to Grow a Vegetable Garden]]>Mon, 30 Apr 2012 11:50:34 +1000http://www.greenbo.com.au/1/post/2012/04/10-tips-to-grow-a-vegetable-garden.htmlGrowing a vegetable or kitchen garden will bring you many health benefits: eating better food, staying active and reducing stress. It also is good for your pocketbook by saving you a great deal at the grocery store. Here are ten helpful tips on how to grow a vegetable garden:

  1. Know what to plant. To find out what and when to plant in your region, contact the nearest Cooperative Extension office. You can also talk to neighbors who have a garden or visit a plant nursery nearby.  
  2. Use a planting calendar. It's a good idea to make a planting chart that takes into account the seasons and life cycles of the plants. Think about the weather and be prepared for possible problems, such as a dip in temperatures. Knowing when and how to water and fertilize your garden will make it more productive.
  3. Pick the best location. You can grow vegetables in your yard, a community garden, containers or planters in your porch, terrace or balcony, or even in window planters. The most important thing is not to plant your fruits and vegetables in locations that don't get much sun. To get a good harvest, your crops need to be in a sunny and open location.
  4. Build a raised bed. Raised beds can be made by creating low mounds of soil or by building a large frame out of wood. They help you improve the quality of the soil, avoid compacting of the soil and promote better drainage. You should design your raised beds so that you can reach all your crops without having to stand inside the bed. 
  5. Prepare the soil. Buy or make your own organic compost. Another option is manure mixed with compost. Chemical fertilizers should be your last option, since they can burn the crops and be harmful to your health.  
  6. Buy seeds. If this is your first time planting, it's best to plant your seeds ahead of time in seed trays and then transplant them. Buying a few plants may simplify things if this is your first time growing a garden or if it's getting late in the season to plant certain varieties.
  7. Use your space wisely by growing the same type of vegetable at different times. If you plant small numbers of the same fast-growing vegetable throughout the planting season, you'll be able to harvest your crop at different times and it won't compete for space and sun. This way you will enjoy your harvest throughout the growing season. If you plant all crops at once, they will all be ready at the same time.
  8. Rotate your crops to grow fruits and vegetables more than once a year and conserve nutrients and avoid diseases in the soil.  You should plan ahead and learn the basics about vegetable families and how they grow. 
  9. Remember that certain plants don't grow well together and some help each other. You can have the following plants in the same garden, but not next to each other. Avoid these combinations:
Plant

Don't Plan with

Potato

Tomato or squash

Broccoli

Tomato

Beans

Onion

Carrot

Dill

Cucumber

Potato or sage

On the other hand, companion planting can help protect against pests and disease. Try planting some of these plants together:

  • Beans, carrot, celery, corn, eggplant, peas, potato, broccoli, cauliflower, radish, beet, strawberry, cucumber
  • Carrot, beet, garlic, scallion
  • Cucumber, corn, beans, sunflower, radish, dill, nasturtium
  • Lettuce, cabbage, Brussels Sprout, cauliflower, lettuce, radish, spinach, Swiss chard, turnip, beet, carrot, cucumber, onion, strawberry
  • Squash, zucchini, cantaloupe, cucumber, corn, marigold, oregano, nasturtium
  • Tomato, eggplant, okra, pepper, asparagus, beans, carrot, cucumber, onion, basil, marigold
  1. Get ready to work outdoors.  Wear long pants, sunglasses and a hat. Use sunblock, especially between 10 am and 4 pm, and bug repellent if necessary. Protect your hands with gloves and your feet with socks and shoes. On hot days, try to garden early in the morning or late in the afternoon. Drink lots of water, but avoid alcohol and sugary drinks. Take breaks in shady areas. Children under 4, the elderly and those who are not in good health should not be exposed to high temperatures for extended periods of time.
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<![CDATA[Greenbo XL]]>Tue, 24 Apr 2012 12:27:08 +1000http://www.greenbo.com.au/1/post/2012/04/greenbo-xl.html]]><![CDATA[Fun and Food in Home Grown Vegetable Gardening]]>Tue, 24 Apr 2012 12:07:01 +1000http://www.greenbo.com.au/1/post/2012/04/fun-and-food-in-home-grown-vegetable-gardening.htmlPicture
Growing vegetables in your garden can save you money. During harvest time, your own produce becomes part of your meals. Home gardeners feel deep satisfaction in preparing salad or seasoning the casserole with freshly picked plants from their own vegetable gardens. Their feeling of the taste is incomparable. Fresh surplus are distributed to friends and love ones while some are keep frozen.

It doesn't require much space to grow vegetables. Even a container pot or a window box will do the trick. Where space is limited, you can grow a mini-garden indoor or outdoor. If you have a good sun, access to water and enough containers, growing a garden's worth of fruits and vegetables in a limited space is a no-brainer. You can even harvest more than one crop if your choice of plants and planting schemes are all well planned and executed. Windowsills, balconies and doorstep areas can be used, as well as empty packs of milks, pails, plastic buckets and cans.

When planting in containers, proper spacing is very important. One sturdy plant is better than several weak ones. Crowding chokes root systems will slow growth and poor production. With container vegetable garden, you no longer need to worry about poor soil types and bad drainage, or heavy-duty tiller to break up hard clay and rocks. There is no weeding to worry about and you can change the looks of your container placements by simply moving them around anytime to a place you wanted to.

Vegetable gardening offers a change from the monotony of the supermarket. You can grow variety of vegetables that you want. When choosing plants for your vegetable container garden, consider container worthy crops such as beans, carrots, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, eggplants and radish. Other root crops such onions and turnips can also do well in containers, but remember to always take care of these crops by ample fertilizers and water. Also consider grapes and berries. Though some take a while to get established, they bear fruits more each year. Planting for fall crops can be started in early summer, though summer planting can still be done in June in most regions.

One great advantage of growing vegetables and spices in containers involves the advent of the upside-down gardening. Crops with the likes of tomatoes, basil, parsley, rosemary and peppers do well with this approach. The ideas is that the vines will cascade downward instead of growing up a stake. A grow box can be treated by punching perforations through the bottom of a container. The other option is to purchase a device specially designed for this purpose. Upside gardens do not require a great deal of space and is perfect for balconies and patios.

Equally important, seeds and soil must properly be taken cared of in your vegetable container garden. Seeds do not always have to be bought. Reasonably fresh dill, anise, fennel, coriander and other seeds already on the spice rack should grow. If not, they are too old to add much to food anyway and should be replaced. Scoop out seeds from vegetables you've bought, dry them a week or so before planting.

Soil preparation on the other hand is very crucial for good results. Have the soil tested. Every state has a land-grant college that will test soil for a small fee. It will give abundant basic gardening advice, and garden resources tips. Start growing those veggies in your garden and turn your home made meals into something truly special. Take care of your plants to make them productive by keeping them watered and harvested.


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<![CDATA[Garden Designs and Ideas]]>Fri, 06 Apr 2012 08:46:35 +1000http://www.greenbo.com.au/1/post/2012/04/garden-designs-and-ideas.htmlPicture
Even if you only have a patio, a terrace or a balcony, you can create a garden in the center of the city. Not only a garden, but an outdoor room in which you can sit, relax and entertain. Your very own Eden.

If your outdoor area is not getting sunlight, it is more difficult, but you can still turn it into a green area by growing shade-loving plants.  Most of these are moist condition plants so the planting can be combined with creating a water feature. Plant a variety of ferns to give a variety of leaf types and different heights and shapes. The giant holly fern grows to a height of 4 feet, the ostrich feather fern grows to three feet, other British ferns such as the maidenhair and the marginatum group have heights between 18 inches and two feet.They need a slightly acidic soil, so plant them in compost designed for growing rhododendrons or azaleas.

If, however, your terrace garden is flooded with sunlight, you can have not only a garden but a productive garden. Cherry tomatoes, aubergines and peppers both sweet and hot, are all decorative plants that will grow happily in containers. Oriental salad leaves, rocket and baby spinach grow in boxes, beans and peas will cover a trellis with their roots in growbags. Pots of marigolds will bloom throughout the summer and attract bees to help with pollination. Bushes of rosemary and sweet bay and small pots of parsley, coriander and thyme can be massed together in a corner. You could fill a whole salad bowl from your own garden. You can grow an olive tree out of doors in a small southern garden, but move it indoors for the winter, and don't expect to get any olives from it!

Your kitchen garden can become your garden kitchen. Cooking and eating outside on a cool evening, with outdoor heaters, gas barbecues and gel fired firebowls. If you have planted some honeysuckle and evening jasmine, both of which will cover a wall and scent the evening air, you have the perfect romantic setting.

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<![CDATA[What is your colour?]]>Sat, 31 Mar 2012 08:35:21 +1000http://www.greenbo.com.au/1/post/2012/03/what-is-your-colour.html ]]><![CDATA[Greenbo XL - The winner of 2012 RED DOT award]]>Tue, 27 Mar 2012 06:44:46 +1000http://www.greenbo.com.au/1/post/2012/03/greenbo-xl-the-winner-of-2012-red-dot-award.html ]]><![CDATA[Sunny Day in Sydney]]>Sun, 25 Mar 2012 08:51:12 +1000http://www.greenbo.com.au/1/post/2012/03/sunny-day-in-sydney.html
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<![CDATA[Protecting Your Balcony Garden]]>Sun, 11 Mar 2012 08:07:57 +1000http://www.greenbo.com.au/1/post/2012/03/protecting-your-balcony-garden.htmlPicture
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Balcony gardens are more prone to severe conditions as compared to normal gardens as they extend beyond the protect of their building. These balconies are more exposed to severe weather conditions. On heights, biting wind can cause severe damage. Besides, sunlight and winter weather are other factors that cause damage to balcony gardens.

Screening out the Weather

Where summer is hot, scorching heat can cause damage to plants. The plants shrivel up and eventually die. In hot weather it becomes extremely awful to sit in the balcony under the bleaching and weathering results of the sun. Some sort of protection is always necessary to make your balcony comfortable and ideal for plants to grow properly.

Screening is usually set up in the balconies to keep it safe from scorching sun rays and also from the blistering winds. Screening is available in different types and the best type is broken screening, which is more flexible than solid variety and stands firm against storm force gales. In severe hot conditions, dappled shade seems far more attractive and effective than dense gloom.


Overhead Shelter

Overhead shelters can also be used to protect your balcony from cold and wet climates. Permanent roof can be another option for areas with extreme wet and cold conditions. Some of the stylish and attractive sun screens are a large continental-style umbrella, a fabric awning, temporary sheeting or bamboo matting, and overhead trellis or pergola threaded with plants.

Decorative Ideas

You can bring some aesthetic and decorative theme in your available screening forms. These forms can further enhance their looks through the use of different climbing plants. The more common and popular forms of screening are often made of rusted poles or plastic-coated wire, timber, metal mesh or Perspex and bamboo. Seasonal screens such as stretched canvas or sun-proof fabrics can also be used. Even you can decorate your existing balcony with the introduction of timber, climbing plants, and paint. Perspex is a good way to protect your balcony without losing view, because of its transparent nature. You can even use a secondary, more decorative screen in front of a less attractive version, if you are not allowed to make any permanent structural alterations.

Providing Privacy

Screening is not only limited to provide protection to your balcony, rather it has one more vital and practical purpose of providing privacy to you. Balcony is normally a place to relax or escape from congested environment of the room. It is purely a private part of your home and you can introduce railings or a low parapet at the front, if the balcony is high up.

Sometimes you have shared balconies as in case of living in apartments. In that case you need to have some side screens or some above screen to keep your privacy intact. By using special evergreen climbing plants types on these screens you can maintain privacy right through the seasons. Climbing plants are more effective screening devices and serve dual purposes, i.e. providing protection and decorative properties to your balcony at the same time.

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