October 2019 - Garden Dust

Succulent Plants – How to Grow and Care for Succulents

October 16, 2019 by Dusty Hands

Succulents plant refer to a wide family and genre of plants with a common characteristic of having stems, roots and leaves consisting of fleshy, water-storing tissue. Leaves are very nice and fat. Succulents are native to warm climates so this is a way to hold on to moisture. Succulents like to be dry.

All cactus are succulents but not all succulents are cactus. The cactus differs in that they have no leaves and the stem contains chlorophyll and functions in place of the leaves.

Succulents come in different colours, shapes and sizes. Some of the spines, they are considered to be modified leaves.

10 Tips How to Grow and Care for Succulents

1. Choose a container with drainage. Basically anything with the hole in the bottom, that way water has a chance to escape and not pool which can cause your plant to rot.

2. Use a soil specifically blended for cactus and succulents because they prefer a soil that’s lighter, faster draining, with more aeration.

3. If you want to start with something really healthy so always buy or pick a healthy succulent which looks very nice in shape and having good color that’s free of insects and doesn’t have dead or dying foliage or soggy foliage.

4. It’s an important tip of planting. Put a little bit of your cactus or succulent soil at the bottom of your container, and then work a little bit of it up around the sides. Gently remove the plant from your nursery container and place on top of the soil. Then add in additional soil around the root ball and then tamp it in making sure that the root ball is nicely packed in.

Tips: – It’s always a good idea to leave a little bit of a lip from the top of the soil surface to the top of the pot. This way, you will never make a mess when you’re watering.

5. Watering to succulent plant is an important art to groom it. Water it until just a little bit water as coming out the bottom of the pot, but if doesn’t have excess to collect in the saucer So make sure to pour it out.

Tips: – The thumb rule is to allow the soil to dry between watering. Depending on your climate and the time of year this can be once a week to every few weeks. If the leaves begin to pucker it’s a good sign that your plant needs water, but if the leaves start to look translucent and soggy, that could mean that the soil is holding too much moisture. Basically, you just want to make it a habit to check on your succulents often to see if they need water.

6. Light is also important for plants. Succulent’s plants require at least four to six hours of morning light in the summertime. You need to protect them from the scorching afternoon heat because many varieties can sunburn easily. But on the flip side, in the wintertime, you may need to provide extra light when the days are shorter and the light is not as intense.

7. Just like all other plants, succulents need food, so they need to fertilize. Fertilize depend on what variety of succulents you are growing accordingly you can feed them but in general you can fertilize once in a month.

8. Take care of your succulents from insects. If you see anything starting affected immediately take care of it.

9. Always keep your plants clear if you see any Insects, diseases, dead and decaying foliage of that will keep them happier and healthier. And they look a whole lot nicer. And as a side note, there are several succulents that produce a really fine powder on their foliage and even though it’s not detrimental to their health, try to refrain from touching that foliage because they look a whole lot better when they’re not marred with a bunch of fingerprints.

10. As it’s a succulent plant and having adapted with different temperature, so always care of it. The majority of succulents cannot handle really cold temperatures, so if you live in a cold climate make sure to bring them inside before the first frost.

Thus you can groom your succulent such as zebra plant, cotton candy succulent, a string of bananas, jelly bean succulent, Echeveria, Bear Paw succulent, kalanchoe and many more to enhance your garden beauty.

You can also read- 7 most important organic gardening tips for Beginners

Everything about Dragon Fruit Plant | Step by Step

October 14, 2019 by Dusty Hands

Dragon fruit plant

Dragon fruit plant is also known as pitaya and they are kinds of cactus. The bloom of this plant makes it different and beautiful. Dragon fruit comes from a climbing vine cactus native to the tropical regions in nature.

As it’s a climbing cactus they need support while they grow.
The flower is the largest flower in the world.
It typically grows up along trees and rocks so it needs a very stable surface.
The dragon fruit prefers heat and about 40 to 60% shade.

Dragon Fruit Plant Propagate from Seeds

Dragon fruit can grow from seeds. Cut the fruit and squeeze it and collect the pulp. Wash the pulp properly and dry it overnight. After this prepare a tray for germination. Put seeds on the top or close to the soil mix and cover it thin soil.

Cover it with plastic cover till germination. After this transplant it to the place where you want to grow.

Propagation from Cuttings

You can get a cutting from a dragon plant which ends dried up so this will help minimize contamination of your dragon fruit cutting from organisms or diseases. So make sure they already have like maybe three to four days dried up before you plant them.

About an inch or two inches just put your dragon fruit there in the soil and cover it up. After planting that just put a little bit of water because this one doesn’t need that much water. It doesn’t have any root yet so doesn’t need a lot of water.

Water it every third or fourth till you get a shoot or a new growth from your dragon fruit cutting. So once new growth comes, do the watering every third day for about two months. The shoot will come out in about four to five weeks.

Dragon Fruit Plant maintenance, Pruning, Flowering and Fruit Covering

Take care of your dragon fruit before the time of harvest. Taking care of dragon fruit is relatively easier compared to other plants. They’re best adapted to hot weather conditions because it can store its own water. Dragon fruit relies on rain for water supply. So there’s no need to water them except during extremely dry seasons.

There is also no need to constantly trim the grass around it this grass acts as a blanket for the dragon fruit against cold weather and against insects that may destroy. its stems and fruits about a month after planting stem.

Pruning can be conducted by checking the stamps of the dragon fruit. Remove the thinner ones and those growing on a direction away from the post constantly. Prune the stems of your dragon fruit to keep it healthy.

After eight months buds will now sprout from the thorns of the dragon fruit. Within two weeks these buds will begin to bloom dragon fruit. Flowers bloom around 6:00 in the evening by 6:00 in the morning. The following day it will already have dried up leaving.

The small fruit behind this small fruit will continue to grow. And the following days when the dragon fruit has grown into size as big as your fist it is ready to be covered with plastic covering. The dragon fruit will protect from insects that can destroy its quality.

Another way of protecting fruits from insects is by placing a bottle covered with attractant near the dragon fruit this will also serve as additional protection. For it can ensnare insects and trap them on it covering the fruits with plastic and placing attractants near it eliminates the need for pesticides and other chemicals. In this form, the dragon fruit remains organic which make it healthier and safer to consume after two weeks.

The unripe dragon fruits will already show a touch of red on it. After another three to four days the dragon fruits are ready for harvest. Dragon fruit farming requires minimal maintenance. This delicious fruit does not demand much in order to maintain its quality and nutritional value after a short amount of time.

Surprising Benefits of Dragon Fruit

Dragon fruit naturally keeps your body hydrated and absorb the water-soluble vitamins while keeping you fully hydrated.

Dragon fruit improve healthy stomach. It helps with diarrhoea prevention.

Dragon fruit helps to reduce constipation, stabilized blood pressure, heals the liver syndrome, and reduces diabetic and cardiac stress.

Dragon fruit rich source of vitamin d which helps you to boost your body make you energetic.

Dragon fruit has antioxidants which help to reduce the aging process and prevent cell damage.

Dragon fruit reduces cancer risks.

If you had amazed by this dragon fruit richness benefit add them into your meals next time and keep your body stay healthy so keep growing dragon fruit in your garden.

You can also read- Growing Wandering Jew Plants – How To Grow Wandering Jew Plants

How to Grow the Coleus Plant | Coleus Plant Care

October 14, 2019 by Dusty Hands

Coleus is the most beautiful colorful leaf plant. The Coleus plant is also known as landscape coleus or Plectranthus scutellarioides. This tropical annual provides interest from its attractive foliage so you don’t have to worry about it going in or out of bloom.

It looks good all the time. Coleus Plant is a beautiful ornamental plant that comes in many species with varying colors of leaves with multiple colors in a single leaf that’s called brightly multi-colored foliage.

Coleus Plant Varieties

Traditionally coleus plants in shade. Nowadays so many varieties come under the sun tolerant and a for shady in variety of leaves and a variety of colors. Some such as the Under the Sea series has fantastically shaped leaves.

In the shade, grow coleus with other shade-loving plants such as begonias and patience and torenia. A newer variety of coleus has been bred to thrive in full sun as well as shade. Big Red Judy is a stunner that can get almost four feet tall and offers red-purple leaves in full sun. Keystone Copper is another newer variety that has unique orange-bronze leaves.

Now we can see how to grow the Coleus plant and how to care coleus plant?

How to grow the Coleus plant?

It can propagate from multiple cuttings. It’s one of the easiest plants to multiply from cuttings. And it’s highly recommended for beginner gardeners to start their hobby of growing from cuttings from coleus plants. It’s really easy to root in 1 to 2 weeks.

Take small cuttings and as usual, trip the leaves towards the lower parts of the cuttings and leave the upper leaves as it is. You can use a rooting hormone to dip the base into it and grow in soil. You can get good results without the use of rooting hormone powder.

Take the cuttings from the tip of the plants. Prepare the well-draining soil in a pot or container. Use is 40 percent coco-peat, 40% garden soil and 10 % compost like vermicompost for potting mix.

It can propagate from cutting in water easily. Take a cutting from plant and put into water container, you will see root come out within 10-days. You can transplant into soil.

Tips– You can also grow in cocopeat alone and once rooting starts you can shift to a potting mix. Use a contrast pot for your coleus to give a beautiful combination.

Coleus plant Care

It’s basically a shade plant, but the best leaf color is achieved with morning sun and some degree of afternoon shade. Many varieties do well in both shade and partial sunlight. Some can take quite a bit of sun as long as they are not allowed to dry out.

Avoid over-watering these plants, which can cause leaf drop and encourage root fungus and death.

To maintain plant form and encourage growth, do usually prune by pinching the tops to discourage flower formation and encourage larger leaf development and growth.

Coleus does well in pots and planters, as long as they are planted in free-draining potting soil.

Avoid windy locations because coleus can be prone to breakage, as their stem is very tender and soft.

How to Grow Coleus plant and add color to your landscape with your favorite annuals such as lantana, petunias, and geraniums is now might be easy.

You Can Also read- How to Grow Hosta? Easy Tips.

Care for String of pearls | How To Grow A String Of Pearls Houseplant

October 7, 2019 by Dusty Hands

If you are looking for hanging plants for making your home more beautiful, then the String of pearls is the best plant. Plant it in a hanging basket so that their stings hang on.

A string of pearls is a creeping perennial of the vine. A string of pearls is known as a rosary string of beads. It is an incredibly unique succulent pearl-like foliage hangs on string-like stems.

How To Grow A String Of Pearls Houseplant?

Growing this string Of Pearls is easy but careful about temperature and watering which is more important for this plant. It’s an ornamental hanging houseplant.

The plant requires a good drainage container for the best result. As it’s a succulent plant it doesn’t need much water in a week once or in a winter days water it once in ten days.

The plant requires indirect sunlight to grow. Direct sunlight burns their leaves. Grow in indoor temperature which will give you the best result.

Care for String of pearls

Hang always away from direct sunlight or window light, direct sunlight will burn the leaves.

Use appropriate sized containers when choosing a container for your string of pearls plant. This is not a case where bigger is better. These plants have small root systems and prefer shallow containers for growing.

Container soil must dry out more quickly. To plant in a hanging basket the hanging tendrils have the tendency to be more fragile than some succulents because of the diminutive stems to prevent them from breaking plant specimens in hanging baskets to allow the tendrils to cascade downwards.

Potting mix geared towards succulents. Succulents prefer their roots to stay fairly dry and not hang out in standing.

Water choose a pot ingress that is geared specifically towards succulents of cacti or mix your own to create a world reddening potting soil for crowd planted just below soil surface one of the most common mistakes with growing string of pearls plants is the crown is placed too far beneath the soil surface increasing the incidence of crown rot when propagating

New plants or repotting established ones ensure the crown is no more than half – 1 beneath the soil surfing.

Plants need bright light place containers in a location that receives two-three hours of bright unfiltered sunlight daily and indirect light the rest of the day. If necessary supplements with 14-16 hours of artificial light daily from a fluorescent growing lamp

Keep a safe distance from windows even though plants need a certain amount of bright sunlight Every day to keep them a few feet away from window panes the glass intensifies. The Rays of the Sun and can scorch exposed plant surfaces

Do not fertilizer heavily, these slow plants air accustomed to not receiving. Regular doses of plant nutrients through fertilizer sources. Too much fertilizer can cause root burn, affecting water and nutrient uptake string of pearls. Plants will suffice with a light feeding in spring and then again in midsummer.

Water sparingly since it is a member of the succulent family. It’s important to let the soil dry out between applications of water. String of pearls plants do not hold as much water in their fleshy stems as other succulents so it is necessary to water them more often than similar species.

Prune to promote full of plants as the plant cycles through growing seasons. It’s important to prune off any dead stems or pearls removing the bygones. If many beans are missing on a stem. It’s best to remove that stem or part of the stem as well this will encourage compact fuller plants.

Tips – It’s a lit bit toxic, so keep away your child or pet far from this plant.

Also, read- Growing Wandering Jew Plants – How To Grow Wandering Jew Plants

Growing Wandering Jew Plants – How To Grow Wandering Jew Plants

October 7, 2019 by Dusty Hands

Growing Wandering Jew Plants: Wandering Jew plants also called Inch-Plant. Wandering Jew with botanical name Tradescantia zebrine. It is a commonly grown ornamental houseplant found worldwide.

It’s called zebrina because of its attractive zebra-patterned leaves. The lower surface of leaves showing purple and the upper surface are with different texture in white and green purple strips that’s making it more beautiful.

It is commonly grown in hanging pots. Also, grow in-ground soil or pot as well as in water. It is a very fast-growing and invasive plant because it regenerates easily and spreads very fast. That is why it’s called Wandering jew or an inch plant.

How To Grow Wandering Jew Plants?

Wandering jew can grow easily in soil, hanging pot and in water. It can be easily propagated from cuttings near joints or nodes.

1. Prepare the moist soil and just insert cutting stems into the soil and it develops fast rooting and the results are almost 100%.

2. Another method you can lay on the cuttings on moist soil and cover their joints or nodes, it will start growing. It’s such an easy to propagate the plant. No need for any rooting hormone or no need to even strip the leaves.

3. The best method is to grow this plant is in water, just put stems in water and within a few days you will see the roots coming out.

Care for Wandering Jew Plant

1. It’s a zero maintenance plant and many of us might already know how easy it is to grow this plant.

2. It prefers bright indirect sunlight. For best growth and foliage colors keep it in a shady area or indirect sunlight.

Tips: Never keep it in direct sunlight, the purplish color fades and become more reddish color which destroys its original beauty.

3. They love to be kept moist all the time and daily watering not required as it easily survives in less water.

Tips: Grow it in water like money plants from cutting; you will see roots coming out within in few days. In water, they grow fast and their leaves look more beautiful and fresh.

4. They grow in any soil and the regular well-draining garden soil is recommended for faster growth.

5. Pruning required if they stop growing or any damaged leaves you to see.

Start growing in your garden and see the beauty of its leaf texture.

Also read- An Introduction of Herb Garden.

10 Easy Tips for Growing Beautiful Roses

October 2, 2019 by Dusty Hands

Roses are the beauty of any garden. It enhances the beauty of the garden in different varieties of colors. Roses are not the easiest plants to grow. It requires a certain amount of care to be successful however practicing a few basic principles in rose care can get even the greenest gardener off to a good.

A single rose plant or many roses are always a beautiful addition to any garden. New gardeners are often intimidated to grow roses for fear that they will require expertise garden knowledge. No worries we will guide you to grow roses to enhance the beauty of your garden.

Tips for Growing Beautiful Roses

1. Buying Rose varieties that are good and Hardy to your area. Also, choose cultivars that are noted for their disease and pest resistance by an only healthy stalk from reliable suppliers.

2. Plant roses in the early spring for best results. Those gardening on the coast or anywhere with mild winters can also plant in the fall.

3. When planting roses be sure to add aged manure and bone meal or a good slow-release fertilizer.

4. Plant your roses in a sunny location a minimum of six hours of sunlight per day. Also, plant rose bushes where they will not be in competition with tree roots.

5. Roses love water. Water your roses well on a regular basis they do not like to dry out and drying out makes them much more susceptible to pests and diseases.

6. If your roses should develop a fit, try just squishing them off the stems and buds rather than using harsh chemical insecticides. It’s really not all that difficult if growing climbing roses give them strong support such as a sturdy trellis arbor or wall. To grow up roses can become very heavy and will pull down a weak trellis and be damaged in the process.

7. Proper pruning roses is essential for climbing roses and specimen shrubs feature roses regularly throughout the growing season

8. Always feed with an organic fertilizer. Organic fertilizer is a heavy feeder for roses. And maybe some time required to be fed three times throughout the season.

9. When watering try to keep the water off the leaves especially on hot sunny days if possible water from the base of your plants with just a little knowledge.

10. If you lose a rose or plan to replace it, don’t plant it back in the same hole find a new location in your garden to plant it.

These are tips to grow or maintain your roses in your garden. We are hoping to make your gardening a little bit easier.

You also read this- Planting Roses: How To Plant Roses For The Beginning Gardener

How to Grow Hosta? Easy Tips.

October 2, 2019 by Dusty Hands

A hosta are a wonderful group of plants although they do flower. They are generally grown for their unusual leaves which come in a wide range of colors, patterns, and sizes. Colors range from light green to dark even blue-green or chartreuse. Some leaves are extremely large, some are waxy or wavy and others have attractive edgings and markings in white or cream.

How to Grow Hosta?

Hosta flowers are white or lavender and some are extremely scented. They look like little bells hanging from a tall stalk. Some gardeners do not care for the tall stalks and cut the flowers off this will not harm the plant but leave the blooms alone and enjoy them when the blooms are spent then cut the stalks down right off at the bottom.

Hostas are not difficult to grow but are site-specific and they require shade or at least part shade. They are vigorous growers but simply cannot handle the direct hot Sun. Sun positions will burn the leaves in a very short time they also require a good rich moist soil. Soil should be well drainage. During the winter months, they really are an ideal plant for woodland gardens and shady corners depending on the cultivar used.

They can be specimens are used as edging. They are also effective when grown in large containers. Hostas are virtually carefree they can grow for years without needing dividing. Leaves will mush down to nothing when you decide to divide your hasta.

It is best done in the spring as soon as you can see the new growth emerging the leaves will break away from the crown to be composted. Leave them alone until the spring when there is very little left to card away before the new growth emerges depending where you live.

Tips:-Slugs and snails can be a problem especially in the spring bear baits so work quite well as does handpick other than that they are pretty much pests and disease-free.

Also read this- How to Build a Compost Bin | The Secret Plan Revealed