Flowers Of Happiness

By sulamita berrezi

 Soil primarily had its beginning from rock together with animal and vegetable decay, if you can imagine long stretches or periods of time when great rock masses were crumbling and breaking up. Heat, water action, and friction were largely responsible for this. By friction here is meant the rubbing and grinding of rock mass against rock mass. Think of the huge rocks, a perfect chaos of them, bumping, scraping, settling against one another. What would be the result? Well, I am sure you all could work that out. This is what happened: bits of rock were worn off, a great deal of heat was produced, pieces of rock were pressed together to form new rock masses, some portions becoming dissolved in water. Why, I myself, almost feel the stress and strain of it all. Can you?

Then, too, there were great changes in temperature. First everything was heated to a high temperature, then gradually became cool. Just think of the cracking, the crumbling, the upheavals, that such changes must have caused! You know some of the effects in winter of sudden freezes and thaws. But the little examples of bursting water pipes and broken pitchers are as nothing to what was happening in the world during those days. The water and the gases in the atmosphere helped along this crumbling work.

From all this action of rubbing, which action we call mechanical, it is easy enough to understand how sand was formed. This represents one of the great divisions of soil sandy soil. The sea shores are great masses of pure sand. If soil were nothing but broken rock masses then indeed it would be very poor and unproductive. But the early forms of animal and vegetable life decaying became a part of the rock mass and a better soil resulted. So the soils we speak of as sandy soils have mixed with the sand other matter, sometimes clay, sometimes vegetable matter or humus, and often animal waste.

Clay brings us right to another class of soils clayey soils. It happens that certain portions of rock masses became dissolved when water trickled over them and heat was plenty and abundant. This dissolution took place largely because there is in the air a certain gas called carbon dioxide or carbonic acid gas. This gas attacks and changes certain substances in rocks. Sometimes you see great rocks with portions sticking up looking as if they had been eaten away. Carbonic acid did this. It changed this eaten part into something else which we call clay. A change like this is not mechanical but chemical. The difference in the two kinds of change is just this: in the one case of sand, where a mechanical change went on, you still have just what you started with, save that the size of the mass is smaller. You started with a big rock, and ended with little particles of sand. But you had no different kind of rock in the end. Mechanical action might be illustrated with a piece of lump sugar. Let the sugar represent a big mass of rock. Break up the sugar, and even the smallest bit is sugar. It is just so with the rock mass; but in the case of a chemical change you start with one thing and end with another. You started with a big mass of rock which had in it a portion that became changed by the acid acting on it. It ended in being an entirely different thing which we call clay. So in the case of chemical change a certain something is started with and in the end we have an entirely different thing. The clay soils are often called mud soils because of the amount of water used in their formation.

The third sort of soil which we farm people have to deal with is lime soil. Remember we are thinking of soils from the farm point of view. This soil of course ordinarily was formed from limestone. Just as soon as one thing is mentioned about which we know nothing, another comes up of which we are just as ignorant. And so a whole chain of questions follows. Now you are probably saying within yourselves, how was limestone first formed?

At one time ages ago the lower animal and plant forms picked from the water particles of lime. With the lime they formed skeletons or houses about themselves as protection from larger animals. Coral is representative of this class of skeleton-forming animal.

As the animal died the skeleton remained. Great masses of this living matter pressed all together, after ages, formed limestone. Some limestones are still in such shape that the shelly formation is still visible. Marble, another limestone, is somewhat crystalline in character. Another well-known limestone is chalk. Perhaps you’d like to know a way of always being able to tell limestone. Drop a little of this acid on some lime. See how it bubbles and fizzles. Then drop some on this chalk and on the marble, too. The same bubbling takes place. So lime must be in these three structures. One does not have to buy a special acid for this work, for even the household acids like vinegar will cause the same result.

Then these are the three types of soil with which the farmer has to deal, and which we wish to understand. For one may learn to know his garden soil by studying it, just as one learns a lesson by study.

Sulamita is the developer of Sfondi Immagini, Sulamita also has a video nuoto federica pellegrini.

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The Important Facts on Japanese Knotweed
By rwakefield

 Amongst the most invasive of plants in the UK, the Japanese knotweed is the most desstructive and costly of all weeds, and is hated by gardeners throughout the country.

The problem with the herbaceous knotweed plant is that a completely new weed can grow back from even the smallest of segments a section as small as your fingernail left in the ground is able to grow back fully. Cut stems can readily grow in lawns, soil or even in water. In spring, this plant will emerge and rapidly grow into a plant which is up to three metres high.

Small sections of this plant can be spread widely by soil transportation and also by small pieces being carried in waterways. This plant is such a problem in the UK that any soil removed from an area known to have knotweed present cannot be re-used and is supposed to be buried at a depth greater than five metres. The intentional spread of this plant is now illegal in the UK.

The cut plants can survive for up to three years, and are highly resistant to composting techniques. In fact, one of the worst things that can be done is to cut back your Japanese knotweed plant and then put it into the compost. When you come to use the compost on your garden, you can be sure that you will be fostering a great collection of new knotweed plants.

So, what can be done about japanese knotweed? Over an extended period of time you can repeatedly and harshly cut back and dig out the plant and its root system. Although it is difficult to remove all of the plant, over a number of years it is possible to weaken the plant so much that it becomes less of a problem. You must NOT compost the plant, and should not remove the cut sections to another site. Burning is the most effective way to remove the waste sections, where allowed. You must also ensure that rain water cannot wash away your cut sections or roots because this is seen as an intentional spreading of the weed.

Another method of control is to use a weed killer such as Roundup, which can begin the battle of removing this plant. However, even though this type of weed killer is very powerful, it may take many years to completely eradicate the Japanese knotweed from your garden. If you treat the plants more than once a year, such as at the start and middle of the summer, you will be more likely to remove the problem. Consulting a professional is a good idea, they will know the best course of action.

Do not mow or flail knotweed as the tiny fragments will create more plants. If you cut or remove a plant you must either burn it yourself or carefully remove it to a licenced point for destruction. Do not chip the remnants of your plant the chips themselves may grow back into new plants.

Acting quickly at the first sign of the Japanese knotweed is the best course of action. If you are harsh in your removal of the plant (disposing of it safely) then you can prevent the spread of this invasive plant. Don’t forget that this plant is strong enough to cause structural damage to buildings. It can grow back from the smallest fragment and it is very aggressive in its growth. If in doubt at all, call in an expert company to treat and remove your knotweed.

As the Japanese knotweed spreads throughout the UK, along waterways, roadsides and on abandoned land, vigilance is required to make sure that it does not push out many of the weaker native plant forms. There are a number of sites on the Internet who make it their mission to remove this foreign invader. We must all do our part to remove this weed as much as is possible.

Roger is an author and web designer who represents Japanese Knotweed Solutions Limited, (http://www.jksl.com), who are experts in the total removal of japanese knotweed. This dangerous plant is considered to be weeds in the UK, and is known to cause considerable damage and destruction to lawns, walls and buildings and our natural countryside.

Planting Tulips: Make Sure You Have the Right Soil
By Dave Pipitone

 When you are planting tulips for next spring’s tulip garden, don’t make the same mistake that I did last year. Making a mistake at planting time in the fall is costly. If you make this mistake, you may as well as buy tulips next spring instead of cutting fresh ones for your own tulip bouquet.

Are you sure that you are putting tulip bulbs in the best soil to grow? If you have doubts about growing tulips as you plan your spring garden, consider these gardening tips.

Let me explain. I love tulips, even though the flower stage is only two to three weeks long from mid-March to late May. Last fall, I planted about 60 purple tulip bulbs in my backyard. I eagerly waited for Spring to come so I could savor those beautiful flowers. The winter was long and cold with more snow falls than in previous years. So, I was ready for Spring to come. But I was surprised. Of the 60 flower bulbs I planted, only one tulip flower grew and blossomed. I couldn’t figure it out. Later in the Spring, I planted my impatiens. When I went to dig up my tulip bulbs, I discovered that they were soft and mushy - like pickled onions.

The wet soil was so saturated that the bulbs became sponges, not flowers! Then, I realized that the clay layer under the top soil caused the problem. The clay layer did not let the water drain so my tulip bulbs were sitting in an underground swimming pool!

Tulips grow best in soil that drains best. The origin of tulips is in Turkey, where the soil is very sandy and porous. When traders began to bring the bulbs to plant tulips in Holland, the sandy soil was just right and many fields became like one flower garden after another.

Before you start planning your tulip garden, make sure to dig down about two feet or more to see what the underlying soil is like. If you have a layer of clay near the surface, dig deeper and replace that clay with rich dark top soil. You can buy a 30 pound bag of dirt from a home improvement center for less than two dollars.

So when you plant tulips, check the soil. Porous dirt is good dirt dirt. And be sure that before your tulip bulbs are secure planted, you know the rest of the planting secrets for the best tulip garden design that will please you next Spring.

Dave Pipitone is hopelessly in love with tulips and nourishes them in his Hope Patch. To get your free 32 page report on how to plant a tulip garden, visit http://www.tulipreview.com

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