Nadia Knows Gardens » Garden Projects

Wine Cork Garden Tags

nadiaqh — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 01:25:34 +0000

Recycle and Re-use wine corks from the holidays for your herb and vegetable garden!

Hang them or skewer them! A great way to label home grown produce.

www.nadiaknows.com

Put some garden in your holiday cheer!

Happy New Year 2012

Chicweed- Dig It!

nadiaqh — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 04:21:31 +0000

Chicweed in Solana Beach, CA is AMAZING! This outdoor garden shop on Cedros Street is a succulent lover’s paradise and a designers inspiration. Potted succulents and landscape design are their specialty with the potted succulents made on site at the outdoor potting bench. Look around and you will find living Christmas ornaments, outdoor rugs, bistro tables and outdoor showers made with mosaic tiles. The following photos will tell it all… check this place out and then have lunch or dinner down the street at the Wild Note Cafe, I promise you will not be disappointed!

Plant and Gift Shed

Living Ornaments are this seasons Hot Seller!

French Furniture, Vintage Containers and accessories adorn the store

Outdoor mosaic shower

On Site Potting Bench with owner at work

Chicweed - 240 Cedros Ave, Solana Beach CA 92075

Succulents and Seashells

nadiaqh — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 02:48:53 +0000

♥ At the Encinitas Fall Fair this past weekend a few vendors got clever with succulents and seashells. These were created by “Plant Kreations”.

Echeveria in an abalone shell

Hanging seashells and succulent display

creative shark planter: To order any of these gifts call: Kim at #562-608-6577. She did not have a website.

Vertical Gardens Indoors and Out

nadiaqh — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 01:12:40 +0000

The benefits of vertical gardens can be limitless. Indoors it can be the ultimate organic wallpaper, or a way to infuse more oxygen in a closed environment. Outdoors, a vertical wall adds more square footage for growing greens or simply creates a living wall. These are some of my favorite photos from the web and garden tours around San Diego. One of the most popular methods of creating vertical greenery on a wall is with : Woollypocket.com This web site has everything you need to get started on this project.

Vertical Garden - google image. Large and leafy plants give this patio "Life".

google images for vertical landscaping outdoors

beautiful indoor vertical spaces *google image*

aria ecoscpes vertical indoor garden ideas

wall planters * google image

Using unique containers for wall planters * photo from the San Diego Fair Garden Exhibit

succulent living wall * San Diego Fair Photo

I am continually inspired by plants and the unique ways that they can add to your life

www.nadiaknows.com

Thanks for visiting!

Blog Surfing: www.urbangardensweb.com

nadiaqh — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 04:15:49 +0000

I found this blog today and wanted to share it, so here it is completely cut and pasted into my blog site.

It’s good to Blog surf- I’m inspired daily by garden blogs and garden creativity on the world wide web!

Full Credit/ REPRINT OF BLOG FROM: Urban Gardens Web

Urban Citizen’s Traffic Island Garden

September 20, 2011

Last May, when New York City workers were planting a tree on the traffic island in front of the salon where he’s employed, Victor Rueda asked them if he could contribute his own plants, including some sunflowers, to the small plot of land. They agreed. Ever since, Rueda has cultivated the garden as if it were his own, protecting the tall sunflowers from the recent hurricane by tying them with nylon thread to keep them from blowing over.

The tree planting effort is part of New York City’s Greenstreets program, launched in 1996 as a partnership between the Department of Parks & Recreation and the Department of Transportation. The citywide program’s goal is to convert paved, vacant traffic islands and medians into green spaces filled with shade trees, flowering trees, shrubs, and groundcover.

In April 2007, Mayor Bloomberg announced PlaNYC, a blueprint for New York City to attain sustainable growth and improve the quality of city life. PlaNYC includes a number of groundbreaking greening initiatives, including planting street trees in all possible locations, creating 800 new greenstreets, and reforesting 2,000 acres of parkland. Mayor Bloomberg has dedicated $391 million over ten years for these initiatives, and also funded an additional 156 staff and $4.6 million in new forestry and horticulture maintenance funds to support these greening efforts. The city’s plan did not include citizen gardeners like Rueda: he’s just doing it out of the goodness of his heart.

Garden Lanterns Votives

nadiaqh — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 22:40:25 +0000

♥ Garden Lanterns and Votives can add a bit of charm to any garden or patio area and they are easy to make.

Table top or hanging, here are some creative ideas I found on several DIY Blogs.

Any of these can be created to enhance holiday decorating too or given as gifts.

Halloween Votives: DIY BLOG directions

Basic Garden Pots with candles: Image from Google images.

* Use transparent stickers and glitter glue to decorate a re-used food jar or mason jar.

Frosted glass on mason jars: Follow directions on how to create these by following this link: DIY Lanterns.

These lanterns look great during the day too:

Photo credit to : http://hearttheday.blogspot.com

Mason Jar Lantern Votive

Blog Sharing: Liventhingsup

nadiaqh — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 23:29:14 +0000

Garden Feature Today:

→ Liventhingsup.blogspot.com

Sharing another blog link that featured my succulent gardening and landscaping.

This blogger’s mission is about ” Sharing her passion for design, interiors, art, travel and photography.”

Thank you for the “shout out” and for sharing the beauty of drought tolerant landscaping

www.nadiaknows.com

Garden Pests: The Aphid and The Ant

nadiaqh — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 17:11:07 +0000

image from: www.ent.uga.edu

Once upon a time in a backyard garden that knew only harmony and abundance came two unwelcomed pests, the Aphid and the Ant…

Now what? A garden that has been invaded by Aphids and Ants is not a happy garden. Instead of using pesticides to solve the problem how about trying some organic methods for defense? I switch up my arsenal depending on the garden location and plants being attacked and the organic way has worked well.

According to gardening book expert Barbara Damrosch in The Garden Primer: “If you see a lot of ants in your rose blossoms, they are herding aphids- literally farming them so that they will secrete a honey-like substance the ants love to eat. Wipe out the ants by wiping out the aphids.”

* Spray Roses with strong blasts of water daily until the aphids are flushed out. Sometimes using the most simple method first will take care of the problem.

* Citrus fruit works as a natural pesticide to keep ants away by steeping a peel from 1 orange in 2 Cups of Hot Water. Let it steep for 24 hours, discard the peels and add a few drops of liquid dish detergent. Use as a spray.

* Diatomaceous earth works great. Purchase at your local garden store or online. This also helps with other soil pests like snails and pill bugs.

* Household Vinegar poured down an anthill.

* Companion Planting: Plant Mint, Peppermint, Sage and Chives around the garden- ants are repelled by these plants.

* Sprinkle Baking Soda around plants in a thin line

* Spray Bottle Mixture with Vinegar: 1 part Vinegar + 1 Part Water

* Coffee Grounds on an ant hill or around affected area

* Cornmeal sprinkles in a line or problem areas

* Spray Mixture with Soap : 2 Parts water to 1 Part Dish Soap

* Spray Mixture with Oil: 1 Cup Vegetable Oil + 1 1/2 Cup Water + 2 teaspoons of Dish Soap

* Use Garlic: Crush a garlic bulb and 1 minced onion and add to 1 Quart of water. Now add 1 teaspoon of Cayenne Pepper and let it sit for an hour. Strain into a sprayer. (Tip from Soil Mates)

* Ladybugs: Purchase in containers and release in the evening to affected area. This works very well for Rose Bushes.

* Worm castings and worm tea. Use often as a garden bed base.

Note: Use these methods continuously for best results.

Happy Gardening!

DIY “Do it Yourself” Garden Labels-Plant Tags-Garden Signs

nadiaqh — Mon, 09 May 2011 16:33:51 +0000

Plant Labels, Plant Tags, Plant Markers, Garden Signs:

Latin and Common Name Labels

Do It Yourself- Look around and see if you can find rocks, bottles, flagstone pieces, bricks and anything else that can be used to recycle for creating Garden Plant Labels. I use various colors of spray paint and glossy paint for a base coat and then top it off with clear furniture varnish to protect them from sun and water exposure. The Latin names of plants are fun too as a mix in-between the regular “tomato” and “pea” signs.

Metal Alphabet Stamps

Alphabet metal stamps are a great tool for stamping out garden labels. Painting over it makes the letters easier to read.

Previously used as a salad dressing bottle: now a tomato label.

Typical Plant Marker painted over with Bright Green Paint.

Painted Rock

A previously used Paint-Stir-Stick from Home Depot repainted and labeled.

Recycled Brick with Red Spray Paint and Hand Painted White Labeling.

Garden decoration from Ikea that I bought for $1.00 a few summers ago made a unique label for my Plumerias

Flower Label with left over paint from a previous garden project

APRIL FLOWERS

nadiaqh — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 20:00:03 +0000

“The Earth Laughs in Flowers.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

♥ Growing a garden is completely rewarding, but when you start to add flowers to the garden then you have paradise! I’ve had the best luck with Renee’s Flower Seeds and Botanical Interests Seeds, here’s a listing of the seeds that seem (for me) the simplest to sow and grow. ♥

Agrostemma-Purple Queen and Pink Contessa

→ For an exotic flower that dries well try NIGELLA: ‘Love in a Mist’ or “White Bridal Veil”

→ For a container of great color and beauty try: DAHLIA: ‘watercolors’ -

→ For a surprising old-fashioned amazing scent : CARNATIONS

Flowers can be started indoors and transplanted into the garden

→ This is the ‘garden fun’ summer flower : SUNFLOWER

Sunflowers growing in the vegetable garden

→ For keeping the pests away and adding color: MARIGOLD

Marigold planted near lettuce - an organic way to keep pests away

→ For feeding pet lizards and landscaping a large area with color: NASTURTIUM

→ A few more great flowers to plant: Forget Me Not, African Daisy, Zinnia, Passion Vine, and Lavendar.

Lavender- A 'year-round' plant in the garden

HAPPY PLANTING!