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I receive many questions about sick frangipani plants, such as why won’t my flowers open, why are my leaves turning black and falling off. So I decided to summarise all the symptoms, possible causes and solutions. Hopefully your frangipani problem will be listed here!

 

Flowers

Flowers Not Opening

Generally, when a plant flowers, but then the flowers do not open, it is due to prevailing temperatures. This happens most often at the tail end of the flowering season in autumn. Although it may still seem quite warm during the day, if overnight temperatures are too low, the frangipani starts to prepare itself for the winter dormancy period. Those unopened flower buds will eventually drop off.

Frangipani Not Flowering

If your frangipani is otherwise healthy, but not producing flowers, there are 3 most likely causes. The first is that the branch or shoot is too young. When a frangipani is pruned, new branches generally take 2 years to flower. The same goes for a frangipani branch that is propagated after being cut away from the parent tree.

The next cause could be insufficient sunlight. At least 6 hours a day is best. A warm sunny position against a north (in the southern hemisphere or the opposite in the northern hemisphere) or west facing wall is best. Frangipanis in other positions will grow and produce leaves, but not necessarily flowers.

The third possible cause is likely to be insufficient fertiliser, or the wrong type of fertiliser. Most fertilisers contain nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous. It’s the phosphorous component that promotes flower growth, so look for a fertiliser with high levels of phosphorous.

 

Leaves

Leaves Turning Black & Withering, Leaves Droop And/Or Drop Off

Drooping leaves usually mean too much or too little water. Have you had a lot of rain lately, or does the pot sit in a saucer that holds water? If so, then it may be too wet (and yes – frangipanis can be quite dramatic when complaining about too much water!). Alternately, has it been hot, humid and / or windy where you are? Terracotta pots in particular are very free draining, so your plant may just need some water.

Just to be on the safe side though – have a quick check at the underside of the leaves for pests & diseases. Check for orange spots (rust), black spots (mould or scale) or white spots (powdery mildew).

For mould – spray with white oil, and feed the plant with a fertiliser high in potassium or potash which will boost the plant’s natural resistance to diseases.

For rust, remove the affected leaves and place these in a bag and put them in the bin. Don’t compost them, and don’t let the leaves fall onto the soil as this will just spread the fungus spores which cause the rust.

For scale, if there aren’t too many, scrape them off with your fingernail and dab the spot with a bit of rubbing alcohol on a cotton ear-bud; if there are a lot, you can use white oil spray or an insecticide designed for scale, or, for a long term organic solution, try encouraging ladybugs to your garden by planting some daisies, zinnias or zucchini nearby.

Powdery mildew is generally caused by poor air circulation (or high humidity), and can be treated with white oil or a fungicide. If you prefer an organic solution, try mixing a little powdered milk with some detergent and a little water and spray that on the leaves.

Make sure whatever you use you spray late afternoon after the sun has gone off the leaves (to prevent scorching from the sun).

New Leaves Not Opening

This can quite often happen with a new cutting which has not had sufficient time to dry out before planting. If this is a new cutting, remove from the soil, and feel along the length of the cutting checking for soft spots (from the base of the cutting up). If the base of the cutting has started to rot, cut back to the first solid part of cutting, and then leave to dry out for 2 to 3 weeks before repotting.

If this is an established plant, see tips above for leaves dropping off.

Black/Brown Bumps On Leaves (Top Or Underside)

This is scale. If there aren’t too many, scrape them off with your fingernail and dab the spot with a bit of rubbing alcohol on a cotton ear-bud; if there are a lot, you can use white oil spray or an insecticide designed for scale or for a long term organic solution, try encouraging ladybugs to your garden by planting some daisies, zinnias or zucchini nearby.

Top Of Leaves Looks White

This is powdery mildew which is generally caused by poor air circulation (or high humidity), and can be treated with white oil or a fungicide. If you prefer an organic solution, try mixing a little powdered milk with some detergent and a little water and spray that on the leaves. Make sure whatever you use you spray late afternoon after the sun has gone off the leaves (to prevent scorching from the sun).

Dry, Crinkly, Scorched Areas On Leaves

This is caused by watering (or rain) in the middle of the day followed by strong sunlight, which scorches the leaves. Although unsightly, this will not harm your frangipani.

Orange / Yellow / Brown Spots on Underside or Tops of Leaves

This is frangipani rust which is becoming more and more common. For rust, remove the affected leaves and place these in a bag and put them in the bin. Don’t compost them, and don’t let the leaves fall onto the soil as this will just spread the fungus spores which cause the rust.

 

Branches

New shoots drop off and discolouration of bark

Check for mould – this will show as white or black discolouration on the branches and/or leaves. You should treat the mould with a copper based fungicide and white oil.  Always spray late in the afternoon after the sun has gone off the plant (so you don’t scald it). The mould itself will not harm your frangipani, but is very unsightly and can spread to other plants, so it is best to get rid of it ASAP.

If your branches are discoloured with orange, red (or any other colour), then check your soil and/or pot. Some old wine barrels, if not cleaned sufficiently, can leach chemicals into the soil (and therefore your plant). In this situation it is best to discard the soil and repot with new soil into a new container. If it is not too far gone the plant should recover.

Breaking or splitting branches

Frangipani branches rarely split of their own accord. However, if you have a lot of rain at the same time you have a lot of new leaf growth, the weight of the branches could cause them to split. If possible, try to stake up some of the heavier branches (support them from underneath). Once the weather has cooled, you may want to look at some judicious pruning if some branches seem to be too heavily laden.

If the branch has split or broken but it is still quite attached, it depends how deep the break goes. If there is a chance moisture could enter, you’d be better off to cut off the branch completely, leave it to dry for two weeks, then plant it to make a new frangipani. If the break is minor and on the side or underside, you may be able to save it by wrapping an old stocking around it and giving the branch some extra support until it heals over. Just keep an eye on the bark just above the break for any sign of withering – this is a sign that moisture is getting in. You may even be able to use the same method (a ladies’ stocking) to support the branch from above if there is another suitable branch or some way you can stake this to the main trunk (say higher up).

Branch tips turn black

Plumeria Obtusa suffer from a disease called Black Tip Fungus which causes the new leaves to wither and drop off. It will eventually turn the tip of the branch black too. The best way to treat this is with lemon juice – just squeeze a lemon over the tip and give it a bit of a dab in. Black tip is usually caused by high humidity after a cold spell, and is rare in subtropical and tropical climates.

Plant is unstable

Frangipanis have fairly small root balls (for their size) and are not very deep feeders. Therefore planting a large cutting will require some staking until the roots take hold in the soil. The best way to stake a large frangipani cutting is with 2 to 3 stakes placed around the frangipani, and tied to the frangipani with old stockings (these won’t harm the bark).

 

Propagation

Replanting broken branches

If a branch breaks off or splits away don’t despair – just think of it as a new frangipani! Just clean up the break with secateurs or loppers. On the main trunk, make the cut to minimise any water being able to get into the wound. For the broken off piece, remove all leaves and flower spikes and leave it in a cool dry place for 2 – 3 weeks for the end to dry off, then you can place in a pot with some free draining potting mix.

Propagating from cuttings

Frangipanis grow very well from cuttings. Here’s what you need to do: Make sure the edge where the cutting has been taken is a clean cut (if not, cut it again with some sharp secateurs). You need to leave the cutting to dry for a period of time. If it is summer / autumn where you are, remove any flower spikes and leave to dry in a cool dry spot for 2 – 3 weeks. If you are in winter / spring, chances are the branch is already bare, so just leave it for 3 to 4 days to heal over the wound in a cool dry spot. When the wound has healed, place it in a pot with free draining potting mix. Terracotta pots are great because they breathe. Make sure the pot is solid enough to support the weight of the frangipani. Also, frangipani are fairly shallow rooted, so don’t place in a tall thin pot. You may need to stake up at first depending on the size of your cutting. Water it in once, then leave for 2 weeks (unless it is really hot where you are).

Getting your frangipani to seed

I am often asked whether there are male and female frangipani plants and do you need one of each to get seed pods. The answer is no – each frangipani flower contains both male and female parts within it. Frangipanis need a pollinator to produce seed. Their most common pollinator is the sphinx moth, which is fairly hard to come by. It is possible to self pollinate frangipani by hand using some fishing line (enter it into the throat of the flower and try some get some of the pollen onto the female parts). I suspect it’s a bit hit and miss, although I have given it a try myself this summer – I guess I’ll know next year how successful it is!

 

A happy frangipani doesn’t ask for much – a sunny spot, a little water in summer, free draining soil, protection from winds and frost, and some fertiliser during the growing season.  And what a gift you get in return – a heavenly scent and beautiful flowers!

There’s something about fresh fall leaves and their colors that tends to bring out the kid in almost anyone. The exceptions generally lie with those who have to clean them up. Raking is a chore. Blowing is often a futile effort. Using a leaf vacuum, however, can be a dream.

The leaf vacuum design is not necessarily new, but it is a concept that hasn’t caught on 100 percent. The idea behind one of these vacuums is to suck up the leaves into a bin or a bag, rather then blowing or raking them into a neighbor’s yard, a sewer drain or even a pile that likely will scatter again as soon as the first good wind blows.

Although the apparent intent of a leaf vacuum system is to bag up the leaves for garbage disposal, this doesn’t have to be the case. In fact, these handy little reverse leaf blower systems can actually be rather environmentally sound.

The advantages to a leaf vacuum rather than a rake or blower are many. They include:

* Speed. It is simply much faster to clean up a yard of dead, fallen leaves using one of these. While the bag or can might need to be emptied a few times, piled leaves won’t have to be chased back down if a wind blows.

* Composting. The benefits of using a leaf blower to those who like to compost, rather than throw their yard trash away are amazing. Since they are pre-bagged or canned, the leaves can easily be moved from all over the yard to the compost pile. This beats trying to pick them up a barrel full at a time hands down.

* Water preservation. Many people think it is okay to rake or blow their leaves into open sewer gates. Although leaves are organic in compound, they might have pesticides or other chemicals on them. Putting them into a sewer system or storm water drain system can wreak havoc on a waster water treatment plant’s ability to keep up with its incoming flow and disinfection requirements.

While this might seem of little consequence to a home owner or renter, the fact is it can end up costing money down the road if sewer rates have to be raised. One home’s leaves likely aren’t a problem, but 1,000 homes’ messes would be.

* Simplicity. Using a leaf vacuum is about as simple as using a blower or even a wet/dry vac. While raking can be difficult for some people to accomplish, using the vacuum shouldn’t be. This means kids can be brought into help and even those who aren’t advised to undertake strenuous activity.

* Better appearing yard. Some people spend hours raking or blowing only to find the leaves returning back to their yards a few short hours or days later. When a vacuum is used, the leaves are removed permanent – either to the garbage or the compost pile.

Operating like a blower in reverse, a good leaf vacuum can make yard work a much more enjoyable task. When composting comes into play, one of these devices can actually pay off well for the environment, too.

Recycling helps to save forests from depleting, increases the quality of our water and stimulates the economy. For those reasons and many more it is important that everyone does what they can to ensure that they are doing their bit for mother earth. Following is an explanation of how you can get started with recycling and give something back as well as improve your quality of your life and the quality of life for your children and your children’s children. Many people say that they don’t do their bit towards recycling because their effort on their own is not enough to make a difference, however this is simply not true. If everyone had that attitude, where would be?

Organize Your Waste

Rather than sticking your rubbish into one central place, it is important that you categorize waste in order to recycle it. You should place glass in one place, tins/cans in one place, plastics in one place, compost in one place and have another place for cardboard and paper/newspaper.

Find out about Recycling Facilities Where you Live

You should find out about the facilities available in your county. Depending on where you live, you may find it is harder or easier to recycle your waste. Some places will have a dedicated pick-up to come and take your waste away, while other areas will require that you drive a substantial distance in order to drop it off. Either way, it is important that you do your bit for society.

Recycling Tins/Cans

When recycling tins and cans you should firstly remove all the paper from the outside and try to flatten any sharp edges to limit any risk of you being cut. You should then place all tins and cans in a dedicated waste bin.

Plastic

Plastic wrappings and other plastic items should be treated with caution when recycling them. It is best if you take measures to stop any animals being hurt from plastic items. This includes breaking open drinks-cans rings so that an animal cannot get their head trapped in it, as well as ripping open plastic bags so they are just in the form of a single sheet.

Compost

Compost should be used to enrich your soil in your garden. Many people have a compost heap in their garden. Once you have left the compost for a period of a few weeks, it is now ready to treat the soil in your garden. If you do not have a large garden then you could consider asking your neighbors, friends and family members if they could make use of it.

Paper/Newspaper

Paper and newspaper is generally the easiest item to recycle because it is the most sought after item. After you read your old newspapers and magazines you should place them inside a dedicated container so that they can later be recycled. You should be especially careful not to place any other items into this container as it will cause problems for the recycler later on.

Organically grown plants have gotten quite popular in the last few years. Almost every gardening enthusiast is shifting onto the organic method due to the wide spreading awareness about the quality of flowers and vegetables that it results in. Go organic and your flowers will bloom with a new found hue and the vegetables will taste like never before!

With its rising popularity, the organic gardening tips are finding a huge market and almost every other big publishing house is banking upon to opportunity by coming up with guides to help the ever-eager gardeners. Organic gardening is a very relaxing as well as involving hobby. Just with little help, anyone can produce tasty fruits, vegetables and herbs. People can relish them with 100% assurance they are the best that nature can produce in a pesticide, chemical and herbicide free manner.

Garden pests are an inevitable reality. Organic gardening doesn’t mean that they will no longer fancy your gardens. Instead, what will happen is that you will be countering them in the same natural manner like old time farmers used to, before the invention of herbicides and pesticides.

We are outlining here a few organic gardening tips that will be priceless in your endeavor of cultivating vegetables, herbs and fruits that are full of taste, health and economic value. Moreover, you will sleep well with assurance that your children are no longer consuming chemically infected food.

Aphids, as every gardener would know, can cause a lot of damage to the garden. A very good preventive measure one can take is to plant marigolds close to the vegetable garden. This will keep aphids at bay. In case your garden is already doomed with an aphid attack, you can spray diluted soap water followed by clear water on your plants to get rid of them, organically.

Another organic gardening tip you can use is to produce your own compost naturally at home. We all are aware that the market compost contains many harmful chemicals. As an alternative, you can utilize your kitchen and garden waste to produce organic compost at home. It will normally consist of vegetables, coffee grounds, potatoes, dead weeds, rose or other plants pruning, egg shells, carrots etc. that have landed up in the trash bin. Compost enriches the soil by providing good texture, ventilation and structure. Various ingredients in organic compost help to break it down quickly. Overall, it is an excellent way to catalyze the root development process.

Before starting on with organic gardening, you must do good research and analysis to find out the best plants suited for your garden. Following is another organic gardening tip that will help you get rid of weeds quickly and make your soil dryness-free. Pine needles, old newspapers and grass clippings when mixed together, make effective mulch that is potent enough to keep the soil moist and your garden weed-free. Organic Gardening is the new age mantra to attain most optimum levels of chemical free and environment friendly gardening produce, and these organic gardening tips will make that goal much easier to achieve!

Corporate firms far and wide are advising usabout how green they are and how many trees, birds and babies they are saving buy introducing their new “eco” merchandise to us. Whole companies have been created dedicated solely to supplying us with green merchandise, telling us on how to behave, and coincidently selling the green merchandise we must have in order to avoid Armageddon.

It is truly amazing just how many companies are singularly saving us from ourselves and our nasty consumerism, boo, grrr.

Trading on ones green concepts, particularly when there are little is pretty bad form methinks and by my reckoning companies are simply not looking at the big picture when moving from one type of product to another, only caring about marketing themselves as a green, eco company.

One of the popular “earth friendly” products to be marketed in this way are Biodegradable paper coffee cupsold by catering disposables firms, coffee chains and supermarkets.

Polylactic acid is a biodegradable derived from “renewable resources” (I use the term loosely), such as corn starch (in the USA) or sugarcane (Outside the U.S). Although PLA has been known for a while, it has only been of commercial interest in recent years, in light of its biodegradability.

As well as being used to line the inside of paper coffee cups in place of the oil based lining normally used Poly Lactic Acid is in use in plastic cups, plastic cutlery, carrier bags, food packaging, all manner of catering disposables and even diapers.

These new “biodegradable” paper coffee cups are now very much in vogue as we all attempt in our own little way to stop global warming.

One of the biggest problems with this new Biodegradable paper coffee cup on sale at numerous stores and coffee chains all over the planet is that customers are expecting them to biodegrade in their bins when they need to be sent to composting facilities or put in your compost at home, individually plantedand covered by lots of compost. If these paper cups are simply sent to landfill they break down at the same rate as oil based plastic lined paper coffee cups, ie decades

Unless individuals compost their biodegradable paper cups at home (should they even know they have one) there will inevitably be two types of disposable paper cups requiring sorting at waste reclamation centres whereas in the past all waste disposable paper cups could be easily sent for recycling without having to separate them.

Moreover once these Poly Lactic Acid lined disposable cups end up in normal recycling channels (and you cannot tell the difference) it will ruin the entire recycling batch as oil based plastic lining on standard paper cups and the natural lining on the PLA cups does not mix well. You get the oil on water scenario.

Most companies producing, selling or using these products also seem not to have considered what was taken from the earth in order to create crops to make this natural product. Like bio fuels before them land once used for production of foodstuffs is now being used for crops to grow alternatives to plastic and fuels. There are even stories of forests being removed in order to make space to grow the sugar cane crops. This contributes to increases in food prices, the result of which everybody will have noticed over the last 12 months. There could never be enough available space to fully switch over from our reliance on plastic to enable us to move to using this naturally produced alternative, the world would starve.

On the subject of people starving one other point to consider regarding these new  Poly Lactic Acid plastic products is that we have spent considerable time giving subsidies to farmers in Africa to assist them grow crops and stand on their own two feet. Many of the crops these farmers are producing are corn or sugarcane.

Now we are mass producing those same crops for Bio Fuel and alternatives to plastics, lowering the prices, removing their livelihoods.

There are alternatives that given a little more consideration could do many of the jobs these companies hope to achieve through their use of Poly Lactic Acid lined or produced cups. Oxo-biodegradable Plastic (OBP’s) for example are conventional plastics such as polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS) and polyethylene (PE) to which is added a proprietary mixture that accelerates the breakdown of the structure of the plastic.

Oxo-biodegradable Plasticswill degrade, then biodegrade, without the need to compost, at a pre determined rate, leaving no residue, giving off no methane and leaving no harmful fragments.

The residue is then amenable to conversion by micro-organisms, for which these products are food and also into CO2 and H2O; thereby returning otherwise intractable plastics to the ecosystem.

These Oxo-biodegradable Plastics can now have a shelf life, determined at the point of manufacture Using this new technology does not prevent them from being recycled.

Sadly there are many more stories like this, such as the international burger house that dropped its plastic drink stirrers and moved to wooden stirrers in an attempt to be seen as green. Out of fear of being sued for getting wooden splinters in customers lips with their wood stirrers they had the stirrers covered with gelatin (like your prescription pills). Adding this extra process to the production of the stirrers costs a lot of time, energy and expense, to the point where the natural product becomes more energy intensive than simply using plastic. Another classic example of short sighted greening was the banks saving acres of rainforest by switching paperless bank statements, about which I learned on a paper flyer and noticed advertised on billboard advertisements.

Plastic is not “evil” as many would have you think, reducing our use of it is an ok notion however we cannot simply replace all plastics with a seemingly natural alternative without considering all the repercussions, and certainly not just to be seen to be greening your firm

Event Supplies (UK) Ltd

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More and more people are turning to home based business to earn extra cash. Others get lucky; they earn big and make it their only source of income. They start with businesses that do not require too much upkeep, like a few hours a day. Choose trades that will not put additional pressure to your existing job. Since it will be home based, there would be no additional time spent for commuting. Start work when you reach home. Take for example vermiculture.

Vermiculture is the cultivation of earthworms to produce compost for plants. Vermicompost or vermicast is a very potent food for plants. It is a complete fertilizer preferred for organic farming. Utilize it as top dressing to prevent loss of moisture, sprinkle in your lawn as a soil conditioner, or mix in water to form vermi tea. Vermi tea is also used as a soil amendment it is even known to cure some plant diseases like leaf curl and tomato blight. Other vermi tea users add molasses and sea kelp to further increase the amount of beneficial microbes. You can sell this vermicast to gardening enthusiasts or to garden and plant supplies. If you have the capacity to produce more, sell it to organic vegetable farms. The earthworms can be sold also per piece or per kilogram. This could be used as breeders to produce their own vermicast or as high protein animal feed.

To begin your vermiculture project, buy the right type of worms for decomposing. African night crawlers and red wigglers are the type of earthworms for the job. These are not the same type of earthworms that are seen in your lawn. Prepare a bin for your worm. Bins of different types are available in the market. There are stackable bins, towering bins with drains to collect and feed to plants. Build your own worm bin if you like. Make a box out of wood, about 2 feet width by 2 ½ feet length. Install hinges for the wooden lid. Drill small holes around the perimeter 1 ½ inch from the top, this will serve as ventilation for the bin. Drill 2 bigger holes, about ¾ inch diameter along the length and at the bottom of the wall. Drill two more same size holes directly on the opposite side. A PVC pipe of the same diameter should pass through these holes.

Install mesh screen to cover the ¾-inch holes. Drill several small holes on the PVC pipe. The purpose of this pipe is to introduce air from the outside into the bottom of the worm bedding. This will help in the rapid decomposition of the bedding. An alternative way to aerate the bottom pile is to turn it once a week, so that materials at the bottom are placed on the top. Once the bin is done, put bedding materials for the worm. Soak 2-inch strips of newspaper in water, wring, and fluff it. Mix with decomposing leaves or garden cuttings. Add crushed eggshells to neutralize acidity. The worms are now ready to be transferred to the bin. Feed the worms with kitchen scrap, vegetable trimmings, no meat, fruit peelings, but no citrus fruits. Cover each feed with beddings sprinkle a handful of soil to help the worms digest their food. Keep the beddings always moist.

This business is not time consuming, after setting it up feeding and keeping the pile moist will not take much of your time. After several weeks, notice small capsular castings. Scoop and sift it with a wire mesh, vermicast can be stored for a long time. Aside from being a suitable home based business it also provides a way for disposal of your waste.

While wandering around my garden, I muse over the recent rainfall sent from the heavens, restoring my hopes and that of my garden beds. I live in a cool temperate zone and, owing to the effects of 16 years of drought and climate change, our region falls short of average rainfall. If you own a rain gauge, it maybe that you also delight in checking the totals after soaking rains, especially following a dry spell.

So, why do we gardener’s gaze skyward at menacing cumulonimbus thunder heads, and avidly learn to recognize other rain bearing clouds?  I suggest that it could be:

*To dance in the rain, or jump puddles

*Fill buckets or bins with rain water

*Listen to frogs in ponds and wetlands

*Marvel at the rain drops on our fruit & vegetables

*Breathe a sigh of relief, and put down the watering can

Another good reason to get excited at the rain worthy clouds is the potential for millimetres, or in some parts of the world, meters of life giving water. Each rain bearing cloud has the potential for delivering hundreds of litres of water.

Water plays an important role in organic gardening; it is the medium in which the nutrients are transported to the root systems. Water makes nutrients such as *nitrogen, *phosphorous, *potassium, *trace elements, and *minerals available and accessible to all plant life.

It is in these moistened soils that microbial activity can convert nutrients from organic materials and fertilizers into forms that the roots of the plants can absorb.

You’ve probably loosened your soil with a garden fork and turned up worms, slaters and grubs. If you have worms in your composts or garden beds, it is good news! Worms are useful in aerating, oxygenating, and breaking down the organic materials into good bacteria and fungus in soils.

I’m passionate about growing roses, perennials, annuals, native plants and trees, fruit trees, herbs and vegies. Therefore, when growing those tasty, edible plants for your family, it’s vital to use organic methods of cultivation.

Now, in order to achieve the best results and grow the highest quality and maintain good production from your flowering and fruiting plants, it must stem from the ground up. By organic I mean:

*No chemical, toxic pesticides, as they contain residual poisons harmful to beneficial insects, and to human consumption.

*No chemical fertilizers, which can inhibit microbial and worm activity, poisonous to soils and humans.

*Only apply organic fertilizers, either dry powder or pelletized and liquid formulations, which make it readily available to plants.

*If you don’t have space for a composting system, buy good quality ready-made compost.

*Compost should contain fruit and veggie scraps, moistened shredded newspaper for carbon, grass clippings and leaf litter.

If you have an established garden, it’s not too late to improve your soils. By gently loosening the soil below the drip line of the plant’s canopy, incorporate humus or composted soil, liquid and dry fertilizer to slowly break down, covering with soft mulches like lucerne hay and pea straw. Before long, you will notice a huge difference in the health of your plants, and a plethora of flowers, fruit and vegetables to be enjoyed by all!!

Organic farming has started to gain popularity of late and there are for certain a lot of takers for this trend. However, you need to possess some knowledge about making organic gardening supply on your own as it is not a good thing to shell out money for something that you can do on your own with the resources present with you.

Compost is a very important component of an organic garden and you can prepare it just with the leaves that fall from trees. Not just leaves, any sort of vegetative waste in your garden can act as the main ingredient for making compost. You just need to collect them in an organized manner so that they form a significant part of your organic gardening supply.

You can prepare compost in two ways: either by using a garden bin or by digging a hole in the ground to contain the fallen leaves. All you need to do is to collect the fallen leaves in the pit and water them regularly so that they gain some moisture. You should cover the pit with earth once it becomes full. Leave it untouched for a period of 3 months during which the waste item would get transformed to the much needed compost. The end product is what would serve as the ideal fertilizer for your organic farm.

Digging multiple pits is a good practice as you can collect more compost for your garden as the pits get filled one by one. Only be sure to dig them at an obscure part of the garden such that it doesn’t spoil the beauty of a well-maintained garden.

Comfrey is one of the most important and most popular organic fertilizing plants. It is a good idea to grow comfrey along with the other plants, in your garden.

It’s time we started showing some respect and gratitude for the underappreciated earthworm and his boy back-up band, fungi & bacteria. They are the true humble heroes and workhorses who do the necessary dirty work to keep your soil full of nutrients.

Yet, in our home gardens, we’re constantly killing earthworms with synthetic fertilizers. We’re baking them to a crisp with unnatural, high-levels of nitrogen and salts. Worms don’t want to see any neon colored manmade crystals.

Remember, earthworms are garden superstars, but they don’t insist on the center-stage spotlight! They thrive in moisture and dark. All they require is some good old fungi, bacteria, a banana peel or two and yesterday’s sports page to create nature’s best fertilizer in their castings, for free!

5 Dirt Diva Reasons Why Gardeners Should Love Earthworms (Eisenia foetida)

1. Worms help air and water enter and circulate through soil. As they crawl underground they loosen the soil so plant roots have plenty of oxygen and room to spread.

2. They break down organic matter, such as leaves, into nutrients plants can use. Earthworms transport minerals from the subsoil to the topsoil, and they keep the soil’s pH level and organic matter content just right.

3. Worms secrete slime, which contains nitrogen, one of the most important elements for healthy plants. Nitrogen gives the dark green color to plants and increases the growth of leaves and stems.

4. They eat and dump, and leave behind those precious worm castings or pure fertilizer. Their castings are rich in trace minerals, plant nutrients and plant growth enhancers. In fact, a recent study by the Rodale Institute showed that worm castings have growth benefits that exceed even those of plain compost.

5. Castings have a NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorous, potassium) ratio of 3.2-1.1-1.5. These nutrients are readily available to the plants and will never ever burn your plants.

These five dirty diva reasons are exactly why you should build a worm bin for your garden.

How to Create a Worm Bin So Your Flowers Stay Beautiful All Year Long:

1. Get yourself an opaque 10-14 gallon plastic storage bin at least 12 to 16 inches deep, with a tight fitting lid. Drill a dozen pencil sized holes in the top and sides for ventilation.

2. Tear your newspapers into 1inch strips lengthwise for bedding or use your shredded documents that you neglected to show the IRS. No color or glossy paper. Wet the bedding with a garden hose and wring it out like a moist sponge.

3. Buy some red wigglers! You can find it at Suburbanhabitat.com, or check with your local plant nursery. Start with 1 pound. (Eight adult red worms can produce 1500 babies in 6 months!)

4. Fill your bin with the wet newspaper and 2 big handfuls of garden soil. Mix it up and gently add the worms in, covering them in the paper. Add a handful of food scraps under the newspaper. Cover the bin and keep it sheltered from heat or cold. You could keep the bin under your sink or in the garage shed.

5. Feed them fruit, vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, tea bags, eggshells, leaves, grass clippings, yard waste. No meat or dairy. Chop up food items into smaller pieces.

6. Check on your earthworms once a week to make sure the bedding is still damp. Don’t feed them more food till they finish everything on their plate! They will eventually eat the bedding so add more as needed.

7. In 3 months you will have rich crumbly soil-like material. These are worm castings! To harvest, move all of the bedding and castings to one side of the bin. Put fresh bedding and food on the empty side of the bin. Give the worms a few days to move on over to the new side. You can then harvest the old side of the bin. Dig the castings into garden beds or sprinkle them on top of your soil.

For those organic gardeners and divas who don’t have the time, space or guts to build and maintain your own worm bin, products like TerraCycle Worm Poop can become your new best friend. It’s all natural, eco-friendly plant food made from organic garbage.

Fertilize your yard with worm poop each season and I guarantee your flowers will stay healthy all year long. Try it! It’s fun.

A Terex Finlay 790 Trommel has been supplied by Finlay Plant North West – part of the Finlay Group of companies – to compost producers WGR, based in Nantwich, Cheshire.

 

WGR is a family-owned business, set up four years ago by the Rushton family, when they expanded their farming business to include compost production.

 

Led by Oliver Rushton, with support from his parents Hartley and Liz Rushton, the family originally set aside two acres from their 200 acre farm for the venture.

 

Eighteen months ago, this was doubled to four acres, to cope with the expansion of the business.

 

Combining mobility with exceptional processing levels, the Terex Finlay 790 is transforming operations at the site – increasing the screening speed and enabling higher volumes of waste to be processed.

 

Features of the new machinery include a two metre diameter variable Trommel screen, high capacity direct-feed belt feed hopper and a swivel fines discharge conveyor, which is remote-controlled, helping increase stockpiling capability.

 

WGR receives waste from local authorities – through their green bin collections and waste recycling centres – as well as landscape gardeners and waste transfer stations.

 

This material is sorted and shredded and then, after approximately 12 weeks, is fed into the Terex Finlay 790, with the processed product coming from one conveyor as fertiliser. The oversize product is delivered from another conveyor, and is worked down again before being reprocessed.

 

The machinery works to a 10 millimetre grade, as opposed to the more standard measure of 40, in order to produce a finer compost. The large surface area of the 790 barrel enables a higher output at the chosen size.

 

WGR use the compost for their arable land. It dramatically improves soil quality – in both sandy and clay conditions – without the need for PK fertiliser or lime.

 

Oliver Rushton, said: “Our research found the Terex Finlay 790 Trommel to be the largest composting machine on wheels available that suited to our needs. 

 

“We wanted the plant to be mobile, so that we can move the machinery around as the site develops.

 

“The length and surface area of the barrel enables it to give a cleaner product – achieving a better screening efficiency.

 

“This machinery works very well for us and with Finlay Plant North West we are dealing with a local company, offering high levels of service and back-up support.”

 

WGR’s new Terex Finlay 790 features the all new white paintwork that is being progressively introduced by Terex Finlay to replace the previous distinctive orange colour.

 

Neil Partington, of Finlay Plant North West, said: “On this application the Terex Finlay 790 Trommel is used for only composting, but it can be used for processing light demolition debris, aggregates, yard waste and topsoil at high production levels.

 

“This is a really versatile piece of equipment, which makes a significant contribution to processing capability.”

 

ENDS

 

 

Notes To Editors

 

The Finlay Group comprises of eleven stand alone companies offering the most modern and diverse range of material processing equipment available in the marketplace today.

 

With its headquarters in Stafford, the company has a national reach across England and Wales.

 

The Finlay Group acts as dealers for Terex Finlay as well as other brands including Trio, Baioni and Pilot Crushtec.

 

Press release issued by Jane Shepherd, Shepherd PR, T: 01538 308685/308099 M: 07985 129315 E: jane@shepherd-pr.com