GardenersCardiff answers:

Well, its one of those things you learn by experience and a little reading. Generally speaking, most flowering plants love water so keep the soil moist. If you touch the soil and it gets hardish or chalky- like then they need a good watering. Rule of thumb is use good soil- you can buy top soil and composted manure from home depot. Mix it into the top 6-8 inches of soil so your plants can grow good. This gives the roots room to grow too. Check to see how much sun they need too. If you see a picture of a full sun on the plant then that means they need 6-8 hours of full sun a day. If it says partial shade then it needs 4-6 hours of sun a day. Check which zone you live in. The zones vary from Florida to Maine and they change generally about every 300- 600 hundred miles traveling south to north. The lower the zone number the colder your winters are. Zone is important for those plants or trees you want to come back every year these are called perennials. Annuals are generally planted every year thats why they are called annuals. Its not a bad idea to put mulch around plants. You can use anything from grass clippings to red cedar mulch or pine bark. This helps to keep weeds out and water in. Depending where you live if you are in northern canada your grass may be brown by now frost will kill it. Its too late right now to start a new lawn unless you are south of Oaklahoma. If someone ruined the lawn by over feritilizing it they could have burned it to the point of shock- which means it may come back in weeks time or they may have out right killed it. This is highly unusual. I really would seek the help of someone like Lawn Doctor they often will do free analysis of your soil to make sure theres nothing real seriously wrong with the soil and check for other things that may be going on. When you call around ask if they do a free analysis and call a few different companies to see how much they charge to get your lawn up to speed. You may have to tear up your whole lawn and start over by spreading seed and watering it everyday until it grows in again. I also want to suggest that you join one of the gardening groups on yahoo and if you are at the end of your gardening season- like most of us- then you have all winter to read a good gardening book from your local bookstore. I have a good dozen of them and there are some real great gardening books out there! Good Luck!

GardenersCardiff answers:

Water deeply once a week rather than frequent shallow watering. Deeper watering encourages deeper root growth, keeping the lawn green. Shallow watering makes for shallow roots which are intolerant of stress and will brown out quicker.
Or you can ditch the lawn altogether and plant something that is less of a water hog. There are many ground covers that don’t require as much water as lawn and look just as nice, which will save on air pollution from not having to mow with a gas lawn mower.

Edit: Never water your lawn or plants at night. It encourages mildew growth. Very bad for plants. The best time to water is early morning. From around 5am to 7am. You want the water to dry on the lawn and plants before 10 a.m., otherwise the water droplets act like magnifying glasses on the leaves and will burn them.

GardenersCardiff answers:

I would like to believe that home grown foods would have three major advantages:
Save more when you grow your own food
Eat healthier as you wont be using excessive fertilizer that affects the human body
Get fresher garden vegetables and fruits.

Now of course there are other advantages but these I picked up off the Better Homes And Garden.Info Blog. They also have an extensive list of the vegetables that you should grow.
Http://betterhomesandgarden.info/2007/11/15/grow-your-own-food/
As to how healthy it is it would just depend on the seeds, fertilizer and how you care your garden. Soil and plant care have a lot to do with nutrient retention. What was astounding to me was that vegetable soup works wonders on plants. I really don’t mean vegetable soup that we eat but actually the water thats left when we boil or steam vegetables. Any way visit the blog and you should find its much better to grow your own food.

GardenersCardiff answers:

You would need to grow foods suited for your area. Many people presume all food crops are a snap when they are not. [Tomatoes, for example, are very heavy feeders that deplete soils, but also have ridiculous temperature demands (they will not pollinate above 90*F, for example) and are VERY disease prone and attractive to pests.]

I recommend researching local garderner blogs and farms for what is easily grown in your area, then determine what you like from that and plan accordingly. Some plants actually need cold weather to produce (garlic, most berries, all apples/pears, many brassicas, etc.). Others will not grow at all until the temps are above 70*F (melons/squashes, nightshades, etc.)

Composting: Very easy. Humanure composting is not legal in most places, but it can be done safely if you are 100% methodical about it and don’t mind carting and mixing human waste. Otherwise, yes, you can start composting now for future use. This guide is helpful:

Why Make Compost?

Fertilizer: NOT the same thing as compost. You will need to get your soil tested to check for what’s lacking. Compost only adds organic bulk, beneficial microbes, and trace nutrients to plants. It will not supply the phosphorous needed for nightshades (peppers, potates, etc.) on its own. Green manure is a cheap (but lengthy) way to get high, bioavailable nitrogen in your soil.
Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_manure

Water: Consider a rain water collection system. They are afforable and many cities offer serious rebates. A grey water system is possible, too, if you have high water needs, but these are pricier.
Http://rainwaterharvesting.tamu.edu/collection-and-storage/
http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=45756

GardenersCardiff answers:

I’d say taller plants and or bushes and trees. Some are fast growing and give you the added benefit of flowers through the growing season.

Could you get away with strategically placed arbors or panels that plants could climb on? Then you could add climbing roses, clematis, bittersweet (the birds love the berries!) and other plants. We’ve done that in certain areas; our neighbor is a doll but he’s messy and we hide his garage mess with a couple rose arbors made from 4′ x 8′ lattice panels and have climbing roses mixed in with some taller bushes and shrubs. We opted for the PVC lattice because it never needs painting and is easy to work with.

GardenersCardiff answers:

Good for you for wanting to start learning how to cook your own food! As far as expense goes, I think that you will find that just by switching to making your own food instead of buying pre-packaged, frozen dinners, you will save a lot of money. RecipeZaar and many other cooking sites (AOL’s cooking section is another one) have an option to select recipes that use only 5-ingredients or less, so, with a few basic items in your cabinet you can make a variety of meals. Here is the link to that site:

http://www.recipezaar.com/recipes/5-or-less-ingredients

Other tips: Prepare ahead! If you can make, say, enough rice for more than one meal, you have it pre-cooked and can eat it as a side, as fried-rice, use it in soup, etc. The same is true for things like pasta.

Try and use similar ingredients for a few different dishes- this will save you money and cut down on waste, as you rarely need, say, 4 chicken breast for one meal, especially if you are only feeding one person!

Have a good, easy cookbook handy. One I like that has really helped to build my confidence in cooking is called ‘Anyone Can Cook’. I think it is published by Better Homes and Gardens. It is super basic, but with some excellent, easy to follow recipes and a lot of extra reference guides. Here is a link to more info on this book from Amazon.com, but it is pretty easy to find at bookstores as well:

http://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Cook-Better-Homes-Gardens/dp/0696232936

Good luck!

GardenersCardiff answers:

He hasn’t found my still yet!!!!

GardenersCardiff answers:

I’d starve to death, waiting for them to grow.

GardenersCardiff answers:

I grow a vegetable garden as a hobby not because of the small increases in food costs. Same reason I have fruit trees planted.

It’s just me, my wife and 3 cats to feed and I have yet to see anything close to a 24% increase in food costs.

The grain being used to make ethanol isn’t grain thats grown for human consumption, this still is used as feed grain for livestock and there’s more than enough to feed all livestock and still make fuel.

GardenersCardiff answers:

Great question!

Here are my ideas:

1. Freshness and taste. This is the best reason to grow your vegetables and fruits. Have you ever tasted corn on the cob that was picked within an hour of harvesting? You won’t soon forget that experience, trust me.

2. No insecticides if you do organic gardening. Why not grow organically? There are ways to make it even easier than using those UGLY pesticide poisons. Try sheet composting, for example. Buy some hay bales and cover your garden with it at the end of the growing season. At the beginning of the next season the ground under the cover will be fresh and loamy. Keep the mulch on the garden year round and avoid weeding your fingers bloody.

3. Exercise. Gardening is a great way to get your much needed exercise. There are thousands of gardeners who are well into their 80’s and still growing great gardens. Perhaps this gives us a clue why we should too?

4. Price is not the issue. In fact, it is questionable if you can save money growing your own food. You will prbably come out even on a pure price comparison with your local grocer. But so what? The other reasons bury the price argument.

5. It is a lot of fun. We need more fun in our lives.

Go Garden has some great pictures of flowers;
http://www.go-garden.com