Small Light Garden

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy: They are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.-- Marcel Proust (1871 - 1922)_________________________________________________________________

Did you know it is so easy to set up a small light garden in your home for house plants? All you need are two flourescent tubes and the reflector unit that holds them. Although special bulbs have been touted as the last word in light-garden technology, they are relatively costly.


Instead, many weekend gardeners have found that the light spectrum that most plants need can be produced inexpensively by using a cool light or daylight flourescent tube, together with a warm light tube, either 20 or 40 watts each.

Economical two-tube units and bulbs can be found at hardware stores, but be sure to measure your window space so you know what size to buy.Position the light unit so that the plants are no closer to the tube than about two inches, and no further away than about 10 inches. A typical "day" for plants growing under lights is 14 to 16 hours, and many weekenders use a timer to automate sunrise and sunset.

Why not give this a try this week, especially since it's winter and you'd like a project to fill your gardening 'down' time!

My Blueberry Hill

You know by now how much I love blueberries as my fruit of choice for busy weekenders like us.

But did you know that many mail order nurseries ship plants that can be two or three years old?

Yet it takes some plants 4 to 6 years before the plants are mature enough to flower.That's why a neighbor of mine was dissapointed when he didn't get his blueberry bush to thrive right away even though it got a good 5 hours of sunlight a day.

Highbush blueberries need company to bear fruit too. Even after your bush starts blooming, it won't start fruiting in earnest until you plant a differentvariety, one that blooms at about the same time, within bee-flying distance.

Intersting huh?

These varieties bear flowers in more or less overlapping order, from earliest tolatest:

* "Bluetta"

* "Earliblue"

* "Northland"

* "Patriot"

* "Blueray"

* "Ivanhoe"

* "Bluecrop"

* "Berkeley"

* "Jersey"

* "Herbert"

* "Corville"

So check for how mature your plants are from mail-order nurseries before ordering and plant these varieties in groups of at least two which will assure growth!

"Being world-weary just means your heart is dying by degree. To awaken joy just pretend your 10 years old again." - Victor K. Pryles

I love words and I love to write. Here's an open invitation to join me at The Authors Den.It's where readers and authors meet-up. My site is http://www.authorsden.com/victorkpryles And please visit all of the very fine authors/readers that make this their home!