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Creating an ornamental home garden is a great way to transform your garden into an outdoor living space. An ornamental garden is not grown purely for harvesting like a vegetable garden. They are grown to appeal to your senses. No degree in landscaping is required to create an ornamental garden. Just observe and understand some design principles. Observe Your Garden Spend a sunny day observing your garden. Sun Exposure Note where your garden gets strong afternoon sun, gentle morning sun, and areas that remain shady due to walls, fencing, or large trees. Most flowering ornamental plants require 6+ hours of direct sunlight. Ferns, hostas, or begonias prefer to grow in the shade. Wind & Water Areas with high wind can cause delicate flower petals to dry out. Taller perennials can also be blown over. Low areas may collect water after rainfall. These are perfect for plants that love moisture. However, they can be deadly to plants that are prone to root rot. B...

If you’ve ever gone to a plant nursery and bought 3/4 plants that look beautiful but then start wilting, don’t worry. It isn’t usually your fault, and you certainly don’t have a black thumb. More often than not, when we buy plants, we purchase regular compacted potting soil and place it in a plastic/ceramic pot. In the ground, soil would be aerated and drain well, with lots of good bugs below the surface. But in a pot, the normal soil will become very dense and act like wet concrete. This will suffocate the delicate roots. A few seasons ago, I was losing way too many of my balcony tomatoes and prized hibiscus due to root rot and pesky white bugs. I decided to not use any regular soil. I created my own happy potting mix using 4 ingredients: Light, fluffy soil that will smell of fresh rain and will hold moisture without causing excess water. It will also keep pests away. Let’s find out why! The Fab Four This is similar to creating a healthy loaf of bread. We need ...

Powdery mildew in the Indian home garden is one of the most infuriating problems you are ever likely to experience. One morning your rose bush or bottle gourd vine looks healthy, and the next week it looks as if someone has tossed white talcum powder over the leaves. If ignored, the leaves curl, turn brittle, yellow or brown, and fall off, stunting the growth and destroying your harvest. Luckily, controlling powdery mildew does not require harsh industrial chemicals. With a few kitchen remedies, common-sense precautions, and timely action, you can eliminate it from your plants and keep them healthy through all Indian seasons. What Causes It? Unlike most fungal diseases, which thrive on prolonged rains, powdery mildew thrives on: Days that are dry and warm, but nights that are cool and humid. Hence, October to March (the post-monsoon and winter period) is the most favoured time to witness an outbreak. Poor air circulation due to crowded terrace pots, tight corn...

When you step out on a city rooftop, your brain makes the appropriate preparations for the sensory overload to come: the deep growl of traffic far below, the droning whir of AC units, and a steady breeze carrying the scent of sun-warmed asphalt. But if you venture past a cluster of potted ferns and bamboo planters on a green roof, you may well stumble across something truly amazing that can only be seen five stories above the earth: a quiet, dark pool of water with saucer-sized emerald pads covering it, streaks of living color sliding silently through the depths. The Beauty of a Lily Pond in a Rooftop Garden A lily pond nestled up high in a rooftop garden is one of the most surprising delights in the landscape of the modern city. At the heart of that delight are the multicolored fish, the little swimming gems transforming what could have been nothing more than a still basin of water into something alive and self-sustaining. Colorful Fish That Thrive in Rooftop Ponds To the casual obser...

Few things are as disconcerting in the garden as finding yourself standing on your patio or peering past your windowsill to find your favorite potted plant threatening to burst out of its skin. Maybe a solid plastic nursery pot has developed a rounded, bulbous belly as if it's been pregnant, or a classic terracotta pot has acquired a jagged hairline crack along one side. Pots don't simply warp and split for spite. When a planter becomes deformed or cracked, it means a force within the soil has pressed outward against malleable materials that give or do not bend. Why Planted Pots Bulge and Split A planter acts as a contained microecosystem. When the internal space becomes limited or pushed by external forces, the walls absorb the tension. Root Expansion (The Root Bound Hulk Effect): Although plant roots tend to appear soft and flexible, they exert tremendous pressure as a collective when growing plants are thrust beyond their planter's capacity. A plan...

That fuzzy, velvet, or slick green carpet that's spreading over your potted plant's soil is familiar to indoor and outdoor gardeners. It often appears overnight: one morning your potting soil is a rich, dark earthy brown, and two weeks later, it's a miniature golf course or a swampy patch of pond scum. What Exactly Is That Green Mat? In nearly all cases, that green mat is either algae or moss (and occasionally primitive relatives called liverworts). If the surface is slippery, wet, or jelly-like, and looks like a thin smear of green paint, then soil algae are the culprit. If the green mat looks slightly fuzzy, soft, or velvety, or has tiny leafy shoots poking up, then you're looking at true moss. Moss spores are microscopic and ride the indoor air currents, tap water, or your hands and tools. Neither of these invaders flew in through an open window to attack your plant. Their spores were probably lying quietly in the soil mix from the very beginning, j...

Few things excite as much as watching those little buds swell on your potted lemon fruit tree, your tomato vine, or your dwarf pomegranate. Every morning, as you survey your plants, you imagine the first harvest you'll be able to get in your own house, and then--just as suddenly--you stumble out the front door to find a ring of little baby fruits around your door! Fruit falling off the plants in the pots is one of the most frustrating challenges to terrace gardening, but the good news is: plants rarely shed their fruits without reason. Once you understand their language of distress, you can easily address the problem to save your harvest. Know When To Expect Natural Fruit Drop Before you panic, look closely at the amount of fruit you've lost. Most fruit trees and flowering plants produce a huge number of blooms, far more than they can hope to support. During the last weeks of spring and early summer, many plants experience a natural thinning of the herd ca...