Eco Gardeners

Blooming Plants to Grow Indoors during Cold Weather Months

Craving some winter flowers? Consider a few of these winter bloomers.

1. Indoor Forcing Bulbs:

• Amaryllis is a favorite holiday season bloomer with big, boldly colored flowers. These can be forced to bloom in time for holiday decorating or a little later during January and February.

• Paperwhites are absolutely the easiest thing to grow, no chilling required, and performing well even if planted in gravel and water.

See below for detailed instructions on how to plant and care for your Amaryllis and Paperwhite bulbs.

2. Houseplant Winter Bloomers:

• Clivia is a rewarding grower with bold orange or yellow blooms. It does best if given a cool, dry period in fall to prime for bloom.

• Christmas cactus is long lived and explodes in wonderful colors including white, fuschia and pink. They may require a short day treatment to set buds.

• Kalanchoe is often sold as a florist plant and can bloom annually.

• Begonia come in popular varieties with patterned foliage as well as sprays of typically soft pink blooms to gently brighten the darkest winter day.

• African Violets are a favorite flowering house plant. There are so many different types you can quickly amass a significant collection. They bloom prolifically on a window sill with indirect light. Serious growers use supplemental lights for peak performance and optimal health.

• Poinsettias are a holiday favorite. They can be easily found in a variety of colors such as white, pink and most popular red.

• Orchids bloom exquisitely throughout the winter. You can usually find prices lower on those that have stopped blooming. Bring them home, revitalize them with an organic feeding to watch them burst with blooms!

All indoor flowering plants thrive from a monthly organic feeding. Try our #1 selling SeaResults Micronutrient Solution with all of your indoor plants and enjoy an abundance of blooms.

3. Outdoor Container Plants Brought Indoors:

• Geraniums will provide a few blooms in winter, although not as heavily as during the summer outdoors since they are sun lovers.

• Impatiens come in double flower or rosebud varieties and will continue to flower once brought indoors. • Miniature Roses require an exceptionally bright window sill or supplemental lighting to bloom well but the extra attention and care are worth the trouble in blooms.

• Violas and pansies simply require a cool windowsill to help them stay compact and blooming indoors.

-published on econewsnetwork.com

Instead of sending Dad on yet another grocery store trip, send him out to the garden to grow and pick his own organic fruits, herbs and veggies with the help of The Happy Gardener’s “Just Add Dirt” Eco-Grow kits!

June is the perfect month for growing vegetables, and these kits are a great gift idea for dads who love to play in the dirt, garden and grow their own produce. The “Just Add Dirt” kits include everything needed for growing organic, nutritious edibles in 100 percent compostable pots. With simple instructions and containers that allow for small-space gardening, even Dads with little experience and little space can reap the benefits of gardening in their own backyard.

The kit also includes organic seeds, SeaResults ™ Organic Plant Food, soil conditioner and water retaining mats, so all Dad really has to do is add dirt!

“Our focus is to help families grow nutritious food while saving money,” says The Happy Gardener’s founder and product developer, Annette Pelliccio. “Growing our own berries, salad mix and a variety of vegetables saves my family of three an average of $380 during the summer months alone,” she says.

With the current economic state, the number of edible gardening projects is expected to rise this year to supplement household food supplies. But saving money isn’t the only reason Dad should start growing his own organic produce. Organically grown fruits and veggies have been shown to retain an increased number of nutrients than those grown commercially.

For more information about the “Just Add Dirt” Eco-Grow kits visit www.thehappygardener.info.

Whether you live in an apartment with only a small deck or you want to add color to the patio of a larger home, growing and maintaining plants in pots offers a way to brighten your immediate outdoor surroundings. And growing flowers, vegetables, herbs or other plants in containers is so simple that even the most novice of gardeners may do it. For experts, the possibilities are endless when it comes to design and the types of plants you may grow in pots.

Edibles, which include fruits, vegetables and herbs, bring beginners satisfaction right from the start. As Annette Pelliccio, founder of the Happy Gardener, a national organic gardening company, pointed out, the rewards of growing edibles often encourage new gardeners to continue year after year.

The Happy Gardener’s Eco- Grow Kits make ‘growing your own’ organics  easy and affordable

According to the Garden Writers Association 2009 Edible Gardening Trends Report 41 million US households grew vegetable gardens last year and 19.5 million grew herb gardens. These numbers of edible gardening projects are expected to rise in 2010 and the main reason is to supplement household food supplies.

The Happy Gardener, Inc has been helping families and communities throughout North America grow healthy, organic vegetables, herbs and fruits since 2006 when they introduced their exclusive line of Happy Naturals ™ organic garden products.

“Just Add Dirt” Eco-Grow Kits are The Happy Gardener’s newest product addition. These kits offer the most eco-friendly grow kit on the market by including everything needed for growing organic, nutritious edibles in 100% compostable pots. Simple instructions make it easy for the most amateur gardener and the containers allow for small space gardening too. Also included in the kit are organic seeds, SeaResults ™ Organic Plant Food, soil conditioner and water retaining mats. Just add your own dirt and get growing.

“We wouldn’t think of having our customers pay for dirt. Doesn’t that just seem wrong?” states The Happy Gardener’s founder and product developer, Annette Pelliccio. “Get the dirt from your backyard or compost pile. Our focus is to help families grow nutritious food while saving money. Growing our own berries, salad mix and a variety of vegetables saves my family of three an average of $380 during the summer months alone.”

Saving money isn’t the only reason to grow your own organic produce. Rutgers University conducted a study comparing the nutritional values of organically grown produce with commercially grown. An example of study findings includes organically grown lettuce containing 55 more grams of calcium and 509 more grams of iron than the commercially grown variety.

Gardening is once again becoming part of our country’s daily lifestyle, creating family balance in today’s technology obsessed world. Pelliccio states, “We would love to help the 80+ million virtual gardeners on Facebook’s Farmville take their knowledge of growing animated produce and get back outside in the fresh air and play in the real dirt.”

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For more information and/or photos for “Just Add Dirt” Eco-Kits and Fundraiser Program, and The Happy Gardener, or to schedule an interview, please contact Annette Pelliccio at 877-798-9280 or annette@thehappygardener.info. The Happy Gardener website is www.thehappygardener.info

Eco-Friendly “Just Add Dirt” from The Happy Gardener

The Happy Gardener recently introduced an eco-friendly “Just Add Dirt” collection of container garden kits. These kits provide the homeowner with everything needed to successfully grow nutritious and organic vegetables and herbs.

Here is a step-by-step “how to guide” for planting and maintaining your homegrown edibles:
1.     Gather enough soil or soil/compost (50/50 mix) and add 1 packet of Happy Naturals  Organic All-Purpose Soil Conditioner to the base soil.
2.    Add 2-3 inches of conditioned soil mix to the bottom of your biodegradable Eco-Pot.
3.    Place 1 Store n’ Feed Mat on top of the soil.  The mat acts as a reservoir and provides plants with water and nutrients for up to 5-7 days.
4.    Fill the pot to the brim with the remaining conditioned soil mix.
5.    Soak your seeds in Organic SeaResults Micronutrient Solution (mix packet into 1 gallon of water) for 15 minutes before planting.
6.    Remove seeds from solution and plant at the recommended depth found on the seed packet.
7.    Place Eco-Pot in a location receiving at least 6 hours of daily sunlight. You may want to place a saucer under the pot to collect excess water.
8.    Spritz top soil every day with plain water until sprouts appear.
9.    Once seedlings have 2-3 leaves, add a layer of Coir Fiber to the top of the soil surrounding seedlings. This coir fiber will help keep the soil cool and retain water.
10.     Feed your plants once a month with Organic SeaResults Micronutrient Solution following the directions on the packet.
11.    Water as needed. Soil should be consistently damp, not wet during the hottest part of the day.

- The Happy Gardener | Organic Gardens

Growing fruit, vegetables and herbs in containers is the perfect solution for those with limited gardening time, space and resources.  Here are a few of our favorite varieties that work very well grown in containers on your deck, patio, balcony or anywhere with at least 6 hours of sunlight. We have also included soil depths for specific plant health and growth.

Herbs: mint, sage, rosemary, basil, thyme, parsley, dill, lemongrass

Vegetables: Potatoes, chard, lettuce, cherry and bush tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, summer squash, Asian greens, pole beans.
Fruits: strawberries, blueberries, goji berries
Planting Depth

• 4-5 inches: chives, lettuce, radishes, other salad greens, basil, coriander

• 6-7 inches: bush beans, garlic, onions, Asian greens, peas, mint, thyme, pole beans, carrots, chard, cucumber, eggplant, fennel, leeks, peppers, spinach, parsley, rosemary

• 8-9 inches: beets, broccoli, okra, potatoes, sweet corn, summer squash, dill, lemongrass