Build Your Own Greenhouse
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A selection of ferns for you.
The Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides, 15-18 in.) with rich dark glossy leaves, is one of the sturdiest and most dependable. Last year’s fronds are still green as this year’s new ones emerge. You can easily recognize the Christmas fern for each pinna is shaped like a long Christmas stocking, foot and all (foot against the stem). Light brown scales also cling to the stalk. One plant for years remains one plant. It spreads by spores alone, not by underground runners or by division of clumps.
The evergreen wood-fern, leather wood-fern or marginal shield fern (Dryopteris marginalise 2-3 ft.) weathers almost any winter and is found among snowy boulders in thickly forested areas. It is common, easy to grow, and spreads very slowly, remaining a single plant for some time. You will recognize this fern by fruit dots located on the margins of the pinnae, the chestnut brown scales on the stems, and its habit in the growing season of erupting its roots several inches up out of the ground!
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The same process is used in organic gardening whether it be for indoor garden or outside garden. There’s a lot more to organic gardening than just getting rid of dangerous chemicals and unnatural substances from the products you use every day to help your plants grow. It’s the entire process of providing healthy food products to your plants and keeping them free of pests, not with chemicals, but by using other “good” pests to eliminate the “bad” pests. It’s similar to the farmer who puts a scarecrow in the garden to repel the crows. It’s a matter of utilizing products that are on hand, and making use of our resources to combat the problems during indoor organic gardening.
With your indoor garden, it’s even more vital that you exercise indoor organic gardening techniques than with your outdoor garden. It’s not something we like to think about, but the fact is, you’re putting your family in danger if you you use pesticides or other harsh chemicals on the plants you grow in your home. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t care just as much if you’re growing things outdoors, but outdoors, oftentimes the natural elements in the air will eliminate many of the toxins that might otherwise become a part of the plants themselves, but when you grow things indoors, you do not have the potential for that to happen. Thus, it’s more important to practice indoor organic gardening for the safety of your family and those who may enter the building where your plants are housed.
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The idea of organic gardening pest control is not a new theory, and in fact is as old as agriculture. Unfortunately, since World War II, synthetic pesticides have supplanted organic pest control in technologically advanced countries. These pesticides harm both the environment and those who consume the plants on which they are sprayed. More and more people today are doing organic gardening and prefer not to use pesticides. There are varying beliefs on the use of these products, with some people opposing their use only on food crops, whereas others simply try to reduce their use as much as possible.
Many different reasons make logical sense for utilize organic gardening pest control methods. Most importantly, if pesty insects are left alone, free of pesticides, they ae less likely to become resistant “super bugs”. organic methods tend to be less polluting and blend into the ecosystem around it instead of disrupting it. In addition, because many of the pesticides that are available are derivatives of petrochemicals, their costs are higher, thus making alternatives more attractive. Whatever the reasons may be for avoiding their use, the organic gardener has to be prepared to work in order to make up for the loss of those chemical products that he chooses to abstain from using.
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Grow Your Own Flower Hybrids
Producing your own hybrids can be profitable. Your first step will be to take pollen from one flower and place it on the stigma of another. The best time is when the blossom has been expanded at least 3 days. The pollinated flower will drop off, and you will notice the formation of a half-sphere—this is the seed capsule, within the calyx. Seeds ripen in 6 to 8 weeks when the capsule splits. Clip the capsule to keep the seeds from falling onto the soil. Remove and store in a cool dry place. Vitality of seeds diminishes with age.
There are endless possibilities in gloxinia hybridization. Most of the species will cross successfully with hybrid forms. And since the species have a richness and flexibility of foliage that is lacking in modern forms, they should be good material for you to use in your hybridizing program.
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