The Importance Of Garden Soil Test Kits

It is easy to skip right past the hard work of setting up a well thought out flower bed or garden, but there are many good reasons to use garden soil test kits before you start making expensive purchases and spending hours digging holes. Planning and creating are the best parts of gardening, but there are some steps in between that must be catered to as well.

It's not a good idea to wait until you have a mess of dead or stunted plants before you start looking for a test kit. It's best to get a good sense of how healthy your soil is before you have casualties on your hands.

You will gain valuable information from your kits, even if it comes out you have perfect loamy soil. It's not all about just finding the problems so they can be fixed.

Choosing A Good Garden Tool Set

A good garden tool set is essential for good gardening, but with so many choices out there, how do you know which one to buy?

When it comes to garden tools, you don’t necessarily need the most expensive one either so it pays to know what is in a good quality set. Comfortable grips on the tools are key – this will help relieve hand fatigue and reduce blisters. Plus you’ll be able to dig and rake much longer if the tools are comfortable to hold!

Another thing to think about is the materials the tools are made from. Will it weather well? Will the metal rust? What kinds of tools should you look for in a set?

All these questions and more are answered in this article about gardening tool sets…

The History Of The Gardening Tool

Gardening has been done for centuries and at one point in time gardening tools were considered some of the most important tools in your household, as gardening may have been your main source of food. Many of the gardening tools still used today are the ones that were developed many years ago but the value you place on them has changed. A shovel was once held very highly but today it is fairly common and easy to find.

The gardening tool was a hot commodity for thefts and there are many records of investigations being conducted for stolen gardening tools. Most gardening tools were custom made and very hard to come by. This made them very valuable to the owner and they would go to great lengths to have their property returned to them.

Most tools were created by local craftsmen, such as blacksmiths and cutlers. Gardening tools could also be made by local cottage industries. Many companies would also import tools that could not be made locally and these gardening tools could be quite expensive. Hatchets, trowels and weeding hoes were traditionally imported from East India or Europe. Listings for weeding hoes, spades, sickles and scythes have been listed next to wine and almonds coming out of Buenos Aires.

Flowers For Backyard Gardens

There's so many different types of flowers for backyard gardens, it's hard to know which ones to plant. My old standbys are impatiens and marigolds for annuals and, of course I have the usual tulips, daffodils and iris's for bulbs.

Perhaps my favorite flower is monarda or bee balm. It's a perennial so it comes back every year and has a gorgeous deep red flower that blooms in mid summer. The reason why it's my favorite is that it attracts hummingbirds who love to zip around the flower sticking their long beaks into each and every tube shaped petal.

Here's a video on backyard gardens and garden flowers:

Pansies

I have a neighbor Jane who is an amazing gardener. Every year, Jane's garden is always the brightest in the neighborhood. Beds filled with waves of vibrant colours, while everyone else's roses are still just lumps of thorns. I asked her the other day what her secret is and she told me that she uses pansy flowers.

She must've seen the quizzical look on my face, because she laughed and pointed to the neat rows of multi-coloured flowers. "Those, these are pansies." I asked which ones, there were so many different colours ranging from pastel blues to almost black. She laughed again and told me that all of the flowers out were pansies.

Jane told me that pansies have been bred by gardeners for almost 200 years to create different colours and patterns. She pointed out flowers with dark black lines coming out from the centre and flowers that were solid colour. There were others that she showed me that had two tones and even triple coloured flowers.

Creating Beautiful Backyard Gardens

Your outdoor area is just as important as your indoor area which is why backyard gardens are so important. Not only do gardens help your yard look better, they create a relaxing place for you to enjoy the outdoors. Gardening can be as easy as digging a hole and sticking a plant in making it easy for anyone to have a beautiful outdoor area - even if you have a brown thumb!

When it comes to gardening, the most important thing is to choose flowers for the conditions you will grow them in. Many novice gardeners make the mistake of planting flowers that need full sun in a shady backyard spot. If your yard does not have a lot of sun, there are plenty of shade flowers you can use.

If you want a rain forest feel, they try adding coleus. Coleus plants have oversize leaves in shades of green, yellow and red that grow up to 24 inches in height. If you want color, there are plenty of flowering annuals you can use in the shade. Pansies, begonia and fuscia are great choices for creating bouquets throughout the yard. Additionally, adding Elephant ears for height and a rainbow of greenery is a nice addition.