Posts Tagged ‘Better’

Product Description
Every room in your home serves a purpose: a room to relax, a room to gather with loved ones, a room to retreat from the world. The Room To Breathe collection features six fragrances, each one keyed to a different room of the home, to help set the background and create the atmosphere that makes each room of your home special. The invigorating notes of garden mint, intermingled with zesty splashes of lime and velvety eucalyptus leaves, bring to mind refreshing, leisur… More >>
Eucalyptus Mint – Oil Diffuser, As Seen In “Better Homes and Gardens” Magazine, by Chesapeake Bay Candle 6.6 Oz.

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The Better Homes test kitchen has been hard at work, testing and perfecting over 1,400 mouthwatering recipes for this esteemed cookbook’s 14th edition. With its new format and all-new “20-Minute” chapter, this is a reference you simply can’t cook without…. More >>
Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook

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Envy your neighbors yards and gardens? This book takes you behind the scenes and shows you how it’s done step by step. It also has a descriptive and colorful plant guide that explains in detail all the best perennials, ferns and ornamental grasses you can use to enhance the color and and fragrance of your new design!… More >>
Better Homes and Gardens Step By Step Ultimate Yard and Garden

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Completely revised and updated with a fresh new design. More than 1,400 recipes—tested and perfected in the Better Homes and Gardens Test Kitchen–including 400+ quick and easy ones. All-new 20-Minute chapter, which includes more than 45 fast meal solutions. More recipes on your favorite topics: Cookies, Desserts, Grilling and Slow Cooker. Plus, the Grilling chapter now features recipes for the turkey fryer and more recipes for the smoke cooke… More >>
Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book

Offering The Complete Health Guide To Self Healing, HomeMadeMedicine.com Shows You How To Treat Any Disease, With Herbs, Herbal.
Home Remedies For Better Health.

Herb garden plants are probably one of the more useful plants a gardener can grow in his or her garden.

Whether indoor or outdoor, herbs are relatively easy to raise, if one knows how. There are many types of herb garden plants to consider if one wants to get into herb gardening.

Each type has their own special needs, some may be similar to each other, and others may be radically different. To maximize the chances for your herbs to flourish, one must read and learn all about the specific herbs he or she wishes to grow.

The most basic classifications of herbs are annuals, perennials and biennials. Annuals, like basil, summer savory and cilantro will never survive in a frost. These type of herbs need to be planted via seed or sapling every year.

Perennials on the other hand, like sage and winter savory are hardier to winter conditions and will return year after year. As for biennials, these plants first form their leaves in the first growing season, and in their second season, flowers and seeds, then wither and die.

Biennial herbs should be planted directly into the garden during late spring.

To prepare the soil for biennial herb garden plants, you should first work the soil into a fine texture and wet it slightly. Place the seeds in shallow rows then pat the soil solid on top of them.

Some of the more fine seeds can be planted in a soil mixture of sand to help them spread more evenly.

During germination, it is recommended to cover the bed with a wet burlap bag or paper bag to keep the soil moist. Types of biennial herbs include parsley, angelica and caraway.

Another categorization of herb garden plants is how they are used.

Probably the most useful types of herb garden plants are culinary herbs. As the name implies, these herbs are used for cooking and these include thyme, basil, sage, savory and marjoram.

These herbs are known for their strong flavors. Parsley, however, is more commonly used as a garnish for dishes.

Then there are the aromatic herbs.

Known for the pleasant smell of their flowers and leaves, aromatic herbs are used in toilet water, perfumes, colognes and their various scents. These types include loyage, mint and rosemary.
These can also be used to scent clothing and linens, as well as dried up and made into potpourri. Lavender and lemon verbenas are great herbs to use for potpourri.

Then there are the herbs used for medicinal purposes.

Believed for many centuries for their healing properties, the present knowledge of their medicinal properties are mostly overrated, though some are indeed effective, so it is best to use extreme caution when attempting to use these herbs to heal the sick.

Some can be dangerous to eat so it is best to consult a doctor first.

Herb garden plants are not all just used for cooking, scenting and as medicine, some herbs are also used for their aesthetic qualities.

Called ornamental herbs, these usually have bright colored foliage and flowers, with many having whitish or lightly colored flowers like valerian, with crimson blossoms, and borage and chicory, which blossom beautiful blue flowers.

Given these categories, some herbs are not restricted to their classifications since some have multiple uses.

One example is mint, which not only is used for cooking, but is effective as well for pest control. Whatever herb you decide to use for herb gardening, you will find that these plants are one of the more useful plants you will raise.

Choose which type of herb you most likely will be using, and learn how they are taken care of. Herb garden plants are one of the more fulfilling plants a gardener can grow.

Nancy takes you on a tour inside her antiques shop Better with Age Antiques Interiors at Renningers Antiques Center Mt. Dora, Florida. You will see her flair for display and some of the great finds she has for sale.

How to Build a Bigger & Better Hydroponic Garden for Less Than $20

A popular topic among the agriculture specialists and home gardeners these days is the furor on organic fertilizer vs. chemical fertilizer. Now each fertilizer certainly has its pros and their cons, but before we delve in deeper into that, let us first make a few definitions.

What is organic fertilizer?

Organic fertilizers are substances containing nutrients derived from the remains or by-product of an organism. Examples of organic fertilizers are cottonseed meal, blood meal, fish emulsion, and manure and sewage sludge.

Organic fertilizers are naturally rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, the three major nutrients needed in plant growth. Organic fertilizers depend on microorganisms found in soil to break them down and release the nutrients.

What is chemical fertilizer?

Chemical fertilizers are synthetically produced plant nutrients from inorganic materials. Because they are artificially made, many chemical fertilizers contain acids that can be harmful to the soil’s population of microorganisms. In this aspect, chemical fertilizers have the potential to stunt plant growth.

Chemical fertilizer vs. organic fertilizer

Fertilizers are created to target soil nutrient deficiency, which is a prevalent problem among home garden owners. One distinct advantage chemical fertilizers have over organic fertilizers is the fact that they contain all three of the major nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium). Organic fertilizers can only either have high content levels of one of these three or have all three nutrients in low levels.

For its part, organic fertilizers are a much cheaper and cost-effective alternative to chemical fertilizers. Any home gardener can create his own brand of organic fertilizer by composting or mixing cow, sheep, or poultry manure with other organic matters. Chemical fertilizers on the other hand will have to be bought from a gardening store or horticulturists.

A noted aspect of organic fertilizer is its slow-release capability. This slow release of nutrients in organic fertilizers can be both beneficial and potentially harmful to plants. Slow release of nutrients means that there is less risk of over-fertilization. However, this could also mean that if the need for immediate supply of nutrients arises, organic fertilizers would not be able to provide the needed supply. In contrast, chemical fertilizers can prove plants with an immediate supply of nutrients when the situation calls for it.

Several chemical fertilizers have high acid content. Acids in chemical fertilizers, like sulfuric acid and hydrochloric acid, lead to high soil acidity which would in turn result in the destruction of nitrogen-fixing bacteria, the microorganism that plays a key role in supplying a growing plant’s nitrogen needs.

Plants certainly do not recognize the difference between organic fertilizers and chemical fertilizers. Their tiny root hairs will absorb those microscopic nutrients, regardless of where they come from or how they were manufactured. But even so, with today’s growing environmental concerns, some people debate over the wisdom of using chemical fertilizers as a nutrient source.