The joy of gardening

There is nothing better in the glorious English summer time than going out in your garden and mowing the lawn or tend to your plants. Everybody does it, first sight of sunshine and all the neighbours come out in their shorts mowing the grass ha.

I spend hours in my garden so i like it to look as nice as possible but with as little work as possible to be honest. I like to get the kids involved which they love and is far more constructive than video games!! My little girl would spend all day playing in the mud and digging weeds out our garden. My garden is a busy one with lots of children toys all over the place,paddling pools and sand pits as far as the eye can see but that is what your garden is for at the end of the day.

I grow lots of strawberry in my garden, one plant a friend gave to me two years ago has turned into a giant strawberry bush which produces enough strawberry for the whole street! Next season i will have that many i will have to start selling them to Tesco ! There are lots of different things that are so easy to grow in your garden you really would be missing out if you did not just give it a go. I have tried lots of different types of gardening methods and at the

 I have used an auto pot hydroponics auto feeder to grow a couple of  pepper plants in my green house and I have to say that the results I gained from growing this way have been amazing and cant wait to try this method on other crops I intend to grow this next summer. I have a water collection system in place from the gutters of my garage that I use for watering my plants as this is healthier for the plant and does not contain any heavy metals or man made elements that can be harmful.

Next thing I will be landscaping my garden with is a hot tub and I do not care how many plants I have to cut down to fit it in! I do love my plants and greenery but come on if it is a choice then hot tub will win every time.

The winter garden and indoor growing

After summer has passed and the weather changes we notice a big difference in our garden. The flowers have died off for another year and trees loose their leaves but there are ways to carry on growing through these times, indoor gardening!

I have grown plants indoors for several years and it really is quite easy, all we need is sunshine. You may think this impossible during the winter but you can buy sun in a box today in the form of grow lights. Grow lights are lights designed with the correct colour spectrum in them to grow plants coming in different forms for each stage of your plants growth. High pressure sodium vapour (like flood lights) are an ideal light to flower plants under. I have a few different types that I use, I start with a 250w  blue CFL to grow my cutting or seedlings this is an ideal veg lamp that gives off very little heat so is ideal for fragile young plants. After roots have taken hold I switch light to a 400w metal halide which again has a blue spectrum ideal for veg but gives me more watts of power to really get my plants into overdrive. Once I am happy with the size and structure of my plants I switch lighting again to a 600w high pressure sodium grow light which is full of red spectrum light exactly what your plants love in the flowering phase of their growth.

Most indoor growers tend to just use the high pressure sodium from start to finish and this is a viable option, all I would say to that is that yes your plants will grow this way but no where near as well as plants grown with the different lighting spectrums.

As well as a light you will need an extraction system in place in order to cool down your grow room as grow lights give off heat as well as light and this can be harmful to your plants.

If  you are going to try and grow through winter be sure to do your research and be sure to only buy equipment from reputable shops who know what they are talking about so you know what you are buying is going to work for your situation.