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Meet our group of hand-picked green thumbs. The Gardenieres are passionate about gardening and have the real life experience to grow just about anywhere.
Many avid gardeners say that you should start your plants from seed. Sprouting your seedlings in a controlled environment can help you reduce the chances of introducing certain diseases into your garden. Wilt, club rot and other root disorders can be harbored in the soil of plants that you buy at your nursery. Sprouting your seeds indoors also helps you to control the environment. You will not have to worry about too much rain or soil temperature.
For potting: Stick the twig in the soil of the pot about halfway down. You'll want to place the pot in a well lighted and warm area, both heat and light should be provided by the sun. Keep the soil moist but not soaked. When you see shoots or leaves appearing the rose has rooted. It isn't ready to transplant yet, though. Leave it in the pot for at least a year, two would be better. As the rose grows you can increase the size of the pot to accommodate it. When your garden supply center points you to a rose in a gallon sized pot, after you ask, 'how do I grow roses from cuttings', he's showing you a rose that was grown from a cutting this way.
A simple way to ensure a larger number of picture-perfect tomatoes is to keep the fruit and foliage up off the ground. Tomato plants are susceptible to fungal diseases that are transmitted when infected soil splashes up onto the foliage during a rainfall. The fruit is more susceptible to slug and insect damage or rot if it is allowed to rest on or near the ground. This problem can be easily remedied by trellising your tomato plants to keep them up off the ground.
Hydroponic plants can also be grown in nurseries and greenhouses as well. The benefit of growing these plants without soil in a sterile medium includes not having to remove weeds or dealing with soil-borne pests and diseases. And since all the nutrients necessary for the plant are readily avaliable to it, the plant is noticeably healthier than the plants grown in soil.
They will also allow you to go to your flower beds without walking through mud. If you choose to take on this project and do it by yourself then you have two ways you can do it. One way is to buy concrete you can mix yourself or you can buy the premade slabs. Most people find the premade slabs very convenient. Pouring them yourself can be very difficult and time consuming and is not recommended if you are at all unsure of what you are doing. For this you will need to make forms out of boards in the size and shape you want, dig the ground up, and probably put gravel down first.
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Another great way optimize your microclimate is to group plants together. You can mix your vegetables with more decorative houseplants to create groupings that are not only beautiful but also functional. Temperature is actually easier to control inside the house, as it is easy to provide more shade by simply drawing the curtains. Just make sure plants are protected from drafts.
Then the soil really needs to be at least somewhat improved, even if that's accomplished by the addition of as little as an inch of compost or sterilized manure from the local box store. And don't forget to work it into what'll become the root zone. Simply leaving it on the soil surface would have much the same effect as a building contractor nailing together a new home on a pile of sand...without a foundation. Just as a structure needs a good foundation, so also do plants.
tastefulnosh9935 Community Member 
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