Here is a great summer salsa recipe full of fresh from the garden ingredients:

5 large ripe tomatoes
1 jalapeno pepper
1 medium onion
1 cucumber
1 bunch cilantro (or to taste)
salt
lemon juice

Start by washing all of your ingredients thoroughly so that you do not get garden soil in your fresh garden salsa.

For this recipe you need to dice the tomatoes up into small chunks, and put them in your salsa bowl. Keep the chunks about dime size, so that you can still taste the tomato, and get a good bite, but have room for other ingredients to mix in as well.

Take your jalapeno pepper and slice it in half. If you want medium salsa, remove the seeds from half of the pepper. If you want mild salsa, remove all of the seed. If you want the salsa to be hot, leave them all in. use a food processor to dice the jalapeno pepper up really small. If you have other peppers in your garden, or want hotter, or different flavor, feel free to substitute whatever peppers you have. Once diced really tiny, stick in on top of the tomatoes.

Peel your cucumber, and dice it up small, larger than the pepper, but smaller than or the same size as the tomato chunks. Stick that in as well.

Peel off the outer layer of your onion, and dice it small. You want to be able to get a good mix of all the ingredients on each chip, so you don’t want anything chunked too big. A food processor makes this job easy, and helps you not to tear up while dicing onion.

Next, slice your cilantro up, stalks and leaves. Make sure you consider your personal taste for cilantro. If you like a lot, put a lot in, if you don’t don’t.

Next, mix all of the ingredients together, add some salt and lemon juice to taste. Then, stick it in your refrigerator in order to let the flavors of the various fresh garden vegetables mingle. Refrigerate at least thirty minutes, then serve with chips, guacamole, etc.

A fresh garden salsa can be refrigerated, and often the flavor is best if you make it one day in advance to give the various foods a chance to mingle. However, after about three days or so the fresh ingredients will start to wilt, and not taste as good. So, make batches based on how much you need for your use that day, rather than giant batches.

Plan ahead and enjoy the best results

Make sure to plan spring, summer and autumn bloomers. I know the months after the grey winter we are drawn outside and are prepared to work out butts of, but with some planning your garden will be an explosion of color and a quick succession of blooming flowers the whole gardening season.

So if you want your garden to look good in spring, summer and autumn, do some planning at the start. If you are going for annuals, choose plants that bloom in all seasons where possible.

Long Bloomers

Choose those with longer blooming seasons over those that only bloom for one or two weeks. Consider all the work you have to put in, plant, water and weed. And the net result is two weeks of bloom. This to me sounds like a waste. If you really adore those short bloomers, then go ahead and put them, but mix in some longer bloomers too.

Mix Annuals and Perennials

If you mix annuals and perennials in the same garden, you can put the perennials into the middle and keep the short annuals for the edges. You could alternate things like mondo grass and pansies for an attractive edging, and then when the pansies are starting to fade off, you still have the mondo grass.

Some tips on Bulb Layering

The Bulb Flowers that announce spring usually don’t last long. There is a nice trick to overcome part of this challenge, plant them on top of each other. Meaning plant them in layers. Plant some really early bloomers like…sneewklokje in layer one and for example daffodils underneath them. Or use layer on for crocusses and the second for tulips

The process of planting the bulbs is simple dig deeper them you are used too. Place the bulbs that are second in line. Cover them with a layer of soil and proceed with the second layer.

Alternatives

Or you could design your garden so that spring, summer and autumn flowers are interspersed throughout. That way there will always be something of interest to look at. If there is a bare spot, pop in something from the nursery that will soon be blooming.

This introduction to a planned flower design was meant as an “aanmoedonging to be creative in your approach. Its fun to plan things like this on the computer. Use some good design software for this purpose.

Popular Flower Plants:

You cannot just plant any flower in your garden. You should select the flower plants that can grow in the climatic conditions of your area. The most popular flower plants are morning-glory, zinnia, cosmos, marigolds and sunflowers. You can also see for the flower plants that are in great demand if you are choosing flower gardening as a profession.

Flower Gardening Tips:

There are many vital factors that should be considered before planting your garden. You should choose appropriate location for your garden with good water sources. The garden should have good quality soil. The most important factor for flower gardens is selecting the plants.

Choosing the Garden Location:

The garden can be planted in your backyard, balcony or window. The only condition is that the place you select for garden should receive sunlight for maximum time of the day. Different plants require different amount of sunlight. The plant nurseries will provide you with the light requirements of the plants you purchase. Choose the location keeping in mind the plant you choose for your garden.

Removing the Weeds:

Remove the existing grass and weeds from the location chosen. The more carefully you do this job, the better results you will see later. Dig out the weeds by hand or use a sod cutter. You can also make use of herbicides for killing the weeds. When using herbicides for killing weeds read the instructions carefully provided on the label.

Soil:

The soil chosen for your this type of garden must be rich in nutrients. Prepare the soil by removing the weeds, rocks, and trash from the garden area. Add compost to the soil to increase the nutrient content. Layer the soil with 2-3 inches of natural mulch to increase water retention and prevent the growth of weeds.

Selecting Flower Plants:

Select the flower plants based on the average, minimum and maximum temperatures in your area. Select the plants with varied blooming period to make the flowers available throughout the year.

Apart from these tips, it is also important to harvest the plants on time. Keep gap in between planting the flower plants in your garden or all the plants will yield flowers at the same time. This will add beauty to your backyard or balcony.

History or the Garden

About 11,000 years ago, the first farmers began to select and cultivate desired food plants in the southwest Asian Fertile Crescent – between the ancient Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Although we believe there was some use of wild cereals before that time, the earliest crops were barley, bitter vetch, chick peas, flax, lentils, peas, emmer, and wheat. About 9,000 years ago, Egyptians began to grow wheat and barley. About the same time, farmers in the Far East began to grow rice, soy, mung, azuki, and taro.

Then, about 7,000 years ago, ancient Sumarians established the first organized agricultural practices that made large-scale farming possible. Of particular note, they established irrigation as a way to nurture crops where none were possible before. Vegetable gardeners today use many of the same techniques established in early history. But today’s vegetable gardeners have millennia of experience behind them. Trial and error today is success or failure at the margins. Failure is not disaster.

Weeds are the enemy to gardens

As in centuries passed, a successful vegetable gardener cultivates the garden before planting for three main reasons: to eliminate weeds, to distribute air and nutrients throughout the soil, and to conserve moisture. Preparation of the soil is the single most important step in assuring abundant harvests.

Weeds are the most powerful enemy of a healthy vegetable garden. Letting them multiply in your vegetable garden will create much work and disappointment through the growing season. And when your vegetables begin to grow, removing weeds can your new vegetable plants beyond repair. Weeds also steal the precious nutrients necessary to produce healthy vegetables.

Rather than sacrificing the new garden to a patch of weeds, the successful vegetable gardener will cultivate the bed often, breaking up the soil to maintain healthy air, moisture, and heat to facilitate desirable chemical processes that produce abundant plant food. Ancient growers learned by trial and error the importance of keeping the soil loose around young plants. Early farmers deposited rotten fish beneath their crops as fertilizer and then used tools of shell and stone to nurture healthy soil and get plentiful air to the roots of their crops.

Water is necessary to a successful garden

As important as air is water, even when the vegetable garden is a promise waiting for new seeds. Consider the process of “capillary attraction” – the ability of a substance to pull another substance into it. When you dip one end of a strip of blotting paper into water, you’ll see that the moisture moves up the invisible channels formed by the paper’s texture. But when you place the side edge of the blotting paper into water, the moisture won’t move upward. In a vegetable garden, capillary attraction describes the attraction of water molecules to soil particles. Well cultivated, loose soil maximizes capillary action, maintaining an even distribution of moisture throughout your vegetable garden soil.

Even so, water stored in soil during rain immediately begins to escape, evaporating into the air. Surface water is the first to vaporize into the atmosphere. With capillary action, sub-surface water moves upward and evaporates. Left to natural processes, your garden will lose its moisture as quickly as if you left sponges in the topsoil. Cultivating your vegetable garden by hoeing the soil around your plants disturbs natural capillary action and slows the loss of water for your vegetables.

Hoeing is vital

It’s important to hoe your vegetable garden often, particularly those areas not shaded, at the very least every other week. If this seems too difficult, using a wheel hoe will reduce your labor and keep your vegetable garden healthy and productive. Looking somewhat like an old-fashioned plow, the wheel hoe allows you to cultivate very close to your healthy plants, maintaining an even depth and destroying new weeds before they get established. With the wheel hoe, you can cultivate as fast as you can walk.

If you wait until weeds are established, you’ll have to pull the weeds by hand, damaging the root systems of your vegetables, depleting the soil of nutrients, and creating a much greater workload for you as gardener. And the work you invest will not be to cultivate a productive crop. It will be to prevent damage that may have already been done. A wheel hoe is essential for a large vegetable garden, but it will also save much time and effort in a small one. However, a simple scuffle hoe is effective in small spaces as well. It takes less storage space and cultivates the soil effectively.

Preparing your vegetable garden properly before you plant vegetables is well worth the investment in time and labor. Keeping your vegetable garden rows free of weeds later on is slow going and difficult.

Here are a few tips for keeping your vegetable garden clean and clear of weeds as your plants mature:

1. Work at the weeds while the ground is soft and/or moist. Soon after a rain is the best time. Weeds will come out by the root easier without breaking off, leaving the unwanted plant to grow again.

2. Just before you weed your vegetable garden, cultivate the rows with your wheel or scuffle hoe very shallow in the topsoil and as close to your vegetable plants as possible. This will loosen the soil and make weeds easy to see. A double-wheel hoe with discs is best for this purpose, especially for large plants.

3. Make sure all of the soil is loosened when you cultivate. Pull all the weeds out carefully, avoiding disturbing the vegetable plants. Your weeder will destroy weed seedlings, but you’ll have to hand-weed near plant bases and where weeds have matured.

4. Use a small hand-weeder near your vegetable plants. It will loosen the soil, making weeds easier to eliminate, and save a lot of wear and tear on your hands and fingers.

5. Practice with your wheel hoe. At first, watch the wheel’s direction and the pressure you put on the handles. The discs or rakes will follow automatically, maintaining an appropriate cultivation depth in your vegetable garden rows.

6. “Hilling” was once a common way to nurture young vegetable plants. This is done by building the soil up around the stems of young vegetable plants, usually the after you’ve hoed your garden two or three times. In wet soils or dry climates, hilling may still be the way to go. But in most areas, level soil is best. It makes it easier to cultivate the soil in the long run, thereby assuring healthy vegetable plants through the growing season.

Rotating Vegetable Crops

Crop rotation, or growing different vegetable crops each time you plant, is an important part of maintaining a healthy, productive vegetable garden. Some Roman texts mention crop rotation, and early Asian and African farmers also found rotation a productive method. During the Muslim Golden Age of Agriculture, engineers and farmers introduced today’s modern crop rotation methods where they alternated winter and summer crops and left fields fallow during some growing seasons. With Chemical Revolution of the mid-20th Century, crop rotation lost some of its appeal. But for home vegetable gardeners, rotation eliminates the risks of using dangerous chemicals and prevents the environmental consequences associated with modern pollutants.

Each different vegetable plant depletes the soil of different nutrients, and each leaves different nutrients as its roots and stems decay. Rotating crops with each planting keeps the soil balanced and rich. Planting the same crop time after time drains it of necessary nutrients, leaving it less productive. Crop rotation also reduces the build-up of pathogens and pests that destroy healthy vegetable gardens. Rotation helps maintain a healthy mix of essential nitrogen in your vegetable garden.

Rotating crops is more important with vegetables like cabbage, but it is a good practice for your vegetable garden generally. Even the hardy onion benefits from rotation, especially if you’ve done a good job of breaking up the old garden soil and mixing the remaining vegetable plants to serve as compost for the following crop.

Here are some basic tips about crop rotation:

1. Do not rotate crops of the same vegetable family, for example turnips and cabbage. Be sure the following crop is a complete different type of vegetable.

2. Deep-rooting crops like carrots or parsnips, should follow vegetables with roots near the surface like onions or lettuce.

3. Follow root crops with vines or leaf crops.

4. Rotate vegetable plants that have long growing seasons with quick-growing crops.

5. Decide on your vegetable garden rotation when you’re constructing your planting plan. Making these decisions in the middle of the growing season will be more difficult and waste time and money.

When it comes to planning out your rose garden, you will have dozens of choices when it comes to flowers and styles. You can mix and match different types of flora and fauna with complementing hues. These combinations will create excellent rose garden designs. You may also want to consider placing in shrubs and borders as well as any type of ornaments or even garden furniture like a gazebo or an ornamental bench.. The best way to get a good idea of how to create a fantastic rose garden is by sketching it out. This will help to give you a physical and visual guide as you plant and see your imagination become a reality.

A great question to ask yourself when it comes to your design is what type of shape do you want in your design. Most of the common shapes that are performed in a garden design are circular and rectangular shapes. Squares are also commonly performed. If you want your garden and entire yard to appear larger than it really is, then you may want to consider a diagonal design. Rose gardens have a sensual look to them. Planting and maintaining a rose garden will bring to your home an entirely new essence. The best part, is now you are the creator of this beauty. You will be able to map out exactly what you want your rose garden to look like and the perfect design.

You can use various types of flowers to enhance your rose garden’s look. Some flower designs that you can use include the cottage flowers and shade flower designs for yards with lot’s of shade. You can design wildflower gardens which wild roses can be used, butterfly garden designs which use flowers that attract butterflies and hummingbird flower designs which include flowers like honeysuckle, rose of Sharon, petunias, delphinium and morning glories.

Your flower design can always change considering which types of flowers you want to use. One of the most beautiful flower designs is the wild flower design with the wild roses as the centerpiece. Nevertheless, you can always mix and match any of the designs with any of the flowers. Something that is crucial to keep in mind is that the flowers need to be planted according to their preferences. Roses need a lot of sunlight so you cannot plant them in a place that has a lot of shade. Also, roses need an excellent drainage system so while you are planting make sure that each flower has its appropriate drainage system.

If your gardening preference extends beyond aesthetic beauty, then maybe a vegetable or fruit garden may be for you. Plants that you can eat gives you the benefit of eating healthy and also saves on costs with the food bill every month. You can use these delicious treats as additions to meals every night, or just as toppings for things such as salads or desserts.

Now it’s one thing to grow these tasty treats during the summer time, but it’s another thing to grow them in the winter months. It can still be done, but you have to take a little more care when growing these plants during the colder months. One plant that you should consider growing is a plant called the Rudbeckia because it is known to grow and thrive throughout all parts of the year.

However if you’re looking to strictly grow your plants during the spring and summer time, then the gardening world is virtually yours. These plants can bring you inspiration and they don’t have to be edible to enjoy them. Beautiful flowers are a great way to enliven your home and add to the curb appeal of your home. Some of the most famous spring and summer plants to grow are tulips, violets, lilies, and roses.

You may want to consider shrubs or grasses when you start gardening your plants. If you have a sidewalk near your home, you may want to go with a type of grass called “monkey grass”. Monkey grass are great for appearance and can act as a fence barrier for your home. Shrubs are delightful and add to the appeal of any home.

With so many options to choose from when gardening your plants, you may be wondering where to begin. You should know that it’s up to you and your decision should be based on the plant that will bring you the most joy. No matter what you choose, your garden will have to be taken care of with proper maintenance so that you can end up with a garden that doesn’t have any life.

Gardening is a favorite past time for many people and if it’s a favorite for you too, then you should get started right away to enjoy this amazing hobby. Never fret about where to begin or how to start as experience is the best teacher. Once you get going, you’ll discover that you have a greener thumb that you thought you did. Your new garden could be the talk of the neighborhood if you design right. Just be sure to follow the tips in this article and you will be well on your way. Good luck!