The organic gardener's mantra is: feed the soil, the soil will feed your plants.

If you continually replenish soil humus by adding compost (or another source of humus such as well-rotted manure), and if you choose plants that are well suited to your soil type, climate, and your growing conditions, you will have fewer problems in the garden.

What is humus exactly?


Quite simply, it's the stuff that makes soil come alive. Basically, it consists of the decayed remains of once living materials, most commonly plant residues and animal manures.

You can make humus in your backyard by composting plant remains, kitchen scraps and fall leaves, or you can buy composted manure or compost at garden centres.

Materials Needed:

• Film Container
• Cotton Balls
• Yarn
• Flower or Vegetable Seeds
• Screw Eye Hook

Instructions:
This works great with the clear containers. Put two-four cotton balls into the container. Tuck in about a few seeds between the cotton balls and the outside of the container, so that you can see them. Large seeds work best. Peas, Cantalope, etc. Add a few drops of water, just until cotton balls are damp, but not soaked and not enough to puddle water on bottom of container.

Use a screw-eye with a medium size eye on it and screw it through the center of the lid. Put the lid on the container tightly.

Braid three pieces of yarn long enough to go around the child's neck and slip over the head. Thread yarn through the screw eye and tie in a circle.

Kids like to wear these necklaces and watch the seeds sprout and grow inside the container. If you time this right, you can plant them into starter pots when they get too big for the container, or outside into the garden.

Few perennials or flowering shrubs give you so many wonderful blooms soon after planting or have as long a period of bloom. And, best of all, hardy roses will come back year after year.

Gardeners the world over are smitten by the allure of roses, but many people think of roses as elegant but demanding, and hard-to-grow garden prima donnas.

Can rose gardening be easy?

Roses come many colors and forms and in range of growth habits, sizes and shapes. Fortunately today, many newer roses are being bred for hardiness and good disease-resistance.

Like most other garden flowers, roses will thrive if you give them what they need:

1. Lots of sun – At least six hours of good strong sunlight daily - less sun and you get fewer flowers.

2. Good soil – Well drained, but able to hold moisture, and enriched with manure and/or compost. Roses are heavy feeders that thrive in rich soil.

3. Timely care – Plenty of water and fertilizer and proper pruning at the right time. Be sure to stay on the lookout so you can nip any rose problems in the bud before they get out of hand.