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of pests means a healthier

growing environment.

In your garden

Pest management can be one of the greatest challenges to

the home gardener. Yard pests include weeds, insects,

diseases, and some species of wildlife. Weeds are plants

that are growing out of place. Insect pests include an enormous

number of species from tiny thrips, that are nearly invisible to

the naked eye, to the large larvae of the tomato hornworm.

Diseases are caused by fungi, bacteria, viruses, and other

organisms, some of which are only now being classified. Poor

plant nutrition and misuse of pesticides also can cause injury to

plants. Slugs, mites, and many species of wildlife such as rabbits,

deer, and crows can be extremely destructive.

Identify the problem

Careful identification of the problem is essential before control

practices can be used. Some insect damage may appear to be

a disease, especially if no visible insects are present. Nutrient

problems may also mimic diseases. Herbicide damage resulting

from misapplication of chemicals also can be mistaken for other

problems.

What to look for

Insects and mites All insects have six legs, but other than that

they are extremely variable. They include such organisms as

beetles, flies, bees, ants, moths, and butterflies. Mites and spiders

have eight legs– they are not insects. But for the purposes of this

article, they will be considered as insects.

is a cooperative project of:

Pest Management BARD

Insects damage plants in several ways. The most visible damage is

chewed plant leaves and flowers. Many pests are visible and can be

readily identified, including the Japanese beetle, Colorado potato

beetle, and numerous species of caterpillars such as tent caterpillars

and tomato hornworms. Other chewing insects, however, such as

cutworms (which are caterpillars) come out at night to eat, and burrow

into the soil during the day. These are much harder to identify but

should be considered if young plants seem to disappear overnight

or are found cut off at ground level. Sucking insects are extremely

common and can be very damaging. These insects insert their mouth

parts into the plant tissues and suck out the plant juices. They also

may carry diseases that they spread from plant to plant as they move

about the yard. You may suspect that these insects are present if you

notice misshapen plant leaves or flower petals. Often the younger leaves

will appear curled or puckered. Flowers developing from the buds may

only partially develop. Look on the underside of the leaves as that is

where many species tend to gather. Common sucking insects include l

eafhoppers, aphids, mealy bugs, thrips and mites. Other insects cause

damage by boring into stems, fruits, and leaves. They may disrupt the

plant’s ability to transport water. They also create opportunities for

disease organisms to attack the plants. You may suspect the presence

of boring insects if you see small accumulations of sawdust like material

on plant stems or fruits. Common examples of boring insects include

squash vine borers and corn borers.

Diseases

Plant disease identification is extremely difficult. In some cases,

only laboratory analysis can conclusively identify diseases. Disease

organisms injure plants in several ways. Some attack leaf surfaces

and limit the plant’s ability to carry on photosynthesis. Other organisms

produce substances that clog plant tissues that transport water and

nutrients. Other disease organisms produce toxins that kill the plant or

replace plant tissue with their own. Symptoms associated with plant

diseases may include the presence of mushroom-like growths on trunks

of trees; leaves with a grayish mildewy appearance; spots on leaves,

flowers, and fruits; sudden wilting or death of a plant or branch; sap

exuding from branches or trunks of trees; and stunted growth.

Misapplication of pesticides and nutrients, air pollutants, and other

environmental conditions such as flooding and freezing can also mimic

some disease problems. Yellowing or reddening of leaves and stunted

growth may indicate a nutritional problem.At first glance, blossom end

rot of tomato, in which the bottom of the tomato turns black, might

appear to be a disease caused by some pathogen. It is actually caused

by the plant’s inability to take up calcium quickly enough during periods

of rapid growth. Prevent this problem with adequate moisture–adding

more calcium is of no benefit! Leaf curling or misshapen growth may be

a result of herbicide application.

Pest management practices

Preventing pests should be your first goal. But it’s unlikely you will be

able to avoid all pest problems, since some plant seeds and disease

organisms lay dormant in the soil for years. Diseases need three elements

to become established: the disease organism, a susceptible species,

and the proper environmental conditions. Some disease organisms can

live in the soil for years; other organisms are carried in infected plant

material that falls to the ground. Some disease organisms are carried

by insects. Good sanitation will help limit some problems. Planting

resistant varieties of plants prevents many diseases. Rotating annual

crops in a garden also prevents some diseases. You will likely have the

most opportunity to alter the environment in favor of the plant and not

the disease. Healthy, vigorous garden plants have a higher resistance

to pests. Plants that have adequate, but not excessive, nutrients are

better able to resist attacks from both diseases and insects. Excessive

rates of nitrogen often result in extremely succulent vegetative growth

and can make plants more susceptible to insect and disease problems,

as well as decrease their winter hardiness. Proper watering and spacing

of plants limits the spread of some diseases. Some disease species

require free standing water in which to spread, while other species just

need high humidity. Proper spacing provides good aeration around plants.

Trickle irrigation where water is applied to the soil and not the plant

leaves may be helpful. Barriers may be effective to exclude some pests.

Mulching is effective against weeds. Fences can limit damage from

rabbits. Row covers may prevent insect damage on young vegetable

plants. Netting can be applied to small fruit trees and berries to limit

damage from birds.

Integrated Pest Management (IPM)

It is difficult, if not impossible, to prevent all pest problems every year.

If your best prevention efforts have not been entirely successful, you

may need to use some control methods. Integrated Pest Management

(IPM) relies on several techniques to keep pests at acceptable population

levels without excessive use of chemical controls. The basic principles

of IPM include monitoring (scouting), determining tolerable injury levels

(thresholds), and applying appropriate strategies and tactics. Unlike

other methods of pest control where pesticides are applied on a rigid

schedule, IPM applies only those controls that are needed, when

they are needed, to control pests that will cause more than a tolerable

level of damage to the plant. Monitoring is essential for a successful

IPM program. Check your plants regularly. Look for signs of damage

from insects and diseases as well as indications of adequate fertility

and moisture. Early identification of potential problems is essential.

There are thousands of insects in the garden, many of which are

harmless or even beneficial. Proper identification is needed before

control strategies can be adopted. It is important to recognize the

different stages of insect development for several reasons.

The caterpillar eating your plants may be the larvae of the butterfly

you were trying to attract. The small larvae with six spots on its

back is probably the young of the ladybug, a very beneficial insect.

Some control practices are most effective on young insects. Different

stages may also be more damaging than others. This is where the

concept of thresholds comes in. The economic threshold is the point

where the damage caused by the pest exceeds the cost of control.

In a home garden, this can be difficult to determine. What you are

growing and how you intend to use it will determine how much damage

you are willing to tolerate. Remember that larger plants, especially those

close to harvest, can tolerate more damage than a tiny seedling. A few

flea beetles on a radish seedling may warrant control whereas numerous

Japanese beetles eating the leaves of beans close to harvest may not.

If the threshold level for control has been exceeded, you may need to

employ control strategies. Strategies can be discussed with the

Cooperative Extension Service, garden centers, or nurseries.

Control strategies

Mechanical/physical controls

Insects–

Many insects can be removed by hand. This method is preferable if a

few, large insects are causing the problem. Simply remove the insect

from the plant and drop it into a container of soapy water or vegetable

oil. Caution: some insects have spines or excrete oily substances

that can cause injury to humans. Use caution when handling unfamiliar

insects. Wear gloves or remove insects with tweezers. Many insects can

be removed from plants by spraying water from a hose or sprayer. Small

vacuums can be used to suck up insects. Traps can be used effectively

for some insects. These come in a variety of styles depending on the

insect to be caught. Many traps rely on the use of pheromones–naturally

occurring chemicals produced by the insects and used to attract the

opposite sex during mating. They are extremely specific for each species

and, therefore, will not harm beneficial species. One caution with traps is

that they may actually draw more insects into your yard. You should

not place them directly in the garden. Other traps are more generic

and will attract numerous species. These include such things as yellow

and blue sticky cards. Different insects are attracted to different colors.

Sticky cards can also be used effectively to monitor insect pests.

Weeds–

Hoeing, pulling, and mulching are the most effective physical control

methods for weeds. Weeding is most important while plants are small.

Well established plants can often tolerate competition from weeds.

Diseases–

Removal of diseased material limits the spread of some diseases. Clean

up litter dropped from diseased plants. Prune diseased branches on

trees and shrubs. When pruning diseased trees and shrubs, disinfect

your pruners between cuts with a solution of chlorine bleach to avoid

spreading the disease from plant to plant. Control insects known to

spread plant diseases.

Other pests–

Fences, netting, and tree trunk guards can be extremely successful

in limiting damage from small mammals and birds. Numerous traps

are also available to catch or kill some animals. (Caution: In many states

it is illegal to move wildlife, including squirrels. Traps may also catch

animals other than the ones targeted. Check local regulations before

trapping.)

Diatomaceous earth, a powder-like dust made of tiny marine

organisms called diatoms, can be used to reduce damage from

soft-bodied insects and slugs. Spread this material on the soil–

it is sharp and cuts or irritates these soft organisms. It is harmless

to other organisms. Shallow dishes of beer can be used to trap slugs.

Biological controls

Biological controls are nature’s way of regulating populations. Biological

controls rely on predators and parasites to keep organisms under control.

Many of our present pest problems result from the loss of predator

species. Other biological controls include birds and bats that eat insects.

A single bat can eat up to 600 mosquitoes an hour. Many bird species eat

insect pests on trees and in the garden. Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is a

bacteria that specifically attacks larvae of some insect pests including

white grubs in the lawn and Japanese beetles. This bacteria is harmless

to desirable species.

Chemical controls

When using chemical controls, be very careful with pesticides. Most

common pesticides are broad spectrum in that they kill a wide variety

of organisms. Spray applications of insecticides are likely to kill

numerous beneficial insects as well as the pests. Herbicides applied

to weed species may drift in the wind or vaporize in the heat of the day

and injure non-targeted plants. Runoff of pesticides can pollute water.

Many pesticides are toxic to humans as well as pets and small animals

that may enter your yard. Some common, non-toxic household

substances are as effective as many more toxic compounds. A few

drops of dishwashing detergent mixed with water and sprayed on plants

is extremely effective in controlling many soft-bodied insects such as

aphids and whiteflies. Crushed garlic mixed with water may control

certain insects. A baking soda solution has been shown to help control

some fungal diseases on roses.

When using pesticides, follow label directions carefully. Altering the

rate of application or increasing the frequency of application can injure

desirable plant and animal species. Spot applications of the pesticide to

the targeted pest can reduce the amount used and help reduce the

risk of injury to non-targeted species. Do not apply on windy days.

Read the label for information on other environmental conditions such

as temperature and rain that may influence the pesticide’s effectiveness.

Be aware that many so-called “organic” pesticides may be just astoxic as

the synthetic or chemical products.

]]> http://piemoney.com/garden_articles/pest-management-in-the-garden/feed http://piemoney.com/garden_articles/nutrient-management-in-the-garden http://piemoney.com/garden_articles/nutrient-management-in-the-garden#comments Wed, 16 Jul 2008 01:25:04 +0000 Cheryl20772 http://piemoney.com/?p=23 Apply only the nutrients

plants can use.

In your garden

Twenty nutrients have been identified that are required by plants.

Of these, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium are required in

relatively large amounts. Nitrogen is associated with lush vegetative

growth, adequate phosphorus is required for flowering and fruiting,

and potassium is necessary for durability and disease resistance.

Calcium, sulfur, and magnesium are also required in comparatively

large quantities. These six nutrients are referred to as macronutrients.

The other nutrients, referred to as micronutrients, are required in

very small amounts. These include such elements as copper, zinc,

iron, and boron. While both macro and micronutrients are required

for good plant growth, over-application can be as detrimental as a

deficiency. Over-application of plant nutrients not only may impair plant

growth, but may contaminate groundwater by leaching through the soil

or pollute surface waters by washing away.

Soil testing

Testing your soil for nutrients and pH is important to provide your

plants with the proper balance of nutrients while avoiding over-

application. If you are establishing a new garden , a soil test is

strongly recommended. The cost of soil testing is minor in comparison

to the cost of plant materials and labor. Correcting a problem before

planting is much simpler and cheaper than afterwards. Once your garden

is established, continue to take periodic soil samples. While many people

routinely lime their gardens , this can result in raising the pH too high.

However, since many fertilizers tend to lower the pH, the pH may drop

below desirable levels after several years, depending on fertilization and

other soil factors. Home tests for pH, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium

are available from garden centers. While these may give you a general

idea of the nutrients in your soil, they are not as reliable as tests performed

by the Cooperative Extension Service at land grant universities. University

and other commercial testing services will provide more detail and you can

request special tests for micronutrients if you suspect a problem. In addition

to the analysis of nutrients in your soil, they often provide recommendations

for the application of nutrients or on adjusting the pH. The test for soil pH

is very simple– pH is a measure of how acidic or alkaline your soil is.

A pH of 7 is considered neutral. Below 7 is acidic and above 7 is alkaline.

Since pH greatly influences plant nutrients, adjusting the pH will often

correct a nutrient problem. At a high pH, several of the micronutrients

become less available for plant uptake. Iron deficiency is a common

problem even at a neutral pH on such plants as rhododendrons and

blueberries. At very low pH, other micronutrients may be too available,

resulting in a plant toxicity. Phosphorus and potassium are tested

regularly by commercial testing labs. While there are soil tests for

nitrogen, these may be less reliable. Nitrogen is present in the soil in

several forms and the forms can change rapidly. Therefore, a precise

analysis of nitrogen is more difficult to obtain. Most university soil test

labs do not routinely test for nitrogen. Home testing kits often contain a

test for nitrogen which may give you a general idea of the presence of

nitrogen, but again, due to the various transformations of nitrogen, the

reading may not be reliable. Organic matter is often part of a soil

test. Soil organic matter is highly desirable. Organic matter has a large

influence on soil structure. Good soil structure improves aeration and

water movement and retention. This encourages increased microbial

activity and root growth, both of which influence the availability of

nutrients for plant growth. Soil organic matter also affects the availability

of plant nutrients and how pesticides react in the soil. Soils high

in organic matter tend to have a greater supply of plant nutrients

compared to many soils low in organic matter. Organic matter tends

to bind up some soil pesticides, reducing their effectiveness. Tests for

micronutrients are usually not performed unless there is reason

to suspect a problem. Certain plants have greater requirements for

specific micronutrients and may show deficiency symptoms. Iron

deficiency is common on blueberries, unless the soil is quite acidic. On

these plants, the younger leaves will usually show signs of the deficiency

first. The areas between the veins will be yellowish while the veins remain

green. Other plants growing in the same soil will show no signs of a

deficiency. In this case, altering the pH will often correct the problem.

Taking a soil test

1. If you intend to send your sample to the land grant university in your

state, contact the local Cooperative Extension Service for information

and sample bags. If you intend to send your sample to a private testing

lab, contact them for specific details about submitting a sample.

2. Follow the directions carefully for submitting the sample. The

following are general guidelines for taking a soil sample.

a. Sample when the soil is moist but not wet.

b. For each acre of land to be tested, 10 to 15 sub-samples are

recommended. Areas that appear different or that have been used

differently should be sampled separately. For example, a separate

sample should be submitted for an area that has been in a garden

and one that has been lawn.

c. Obtain a clean pail or similar container.

d. Clear away the surface litter or grass.

e. With a spade or soil auger, dig a small amount of soil to a depth

of 6 inches.

f. Place the soil in the clean pail.

g. Repeat steps d through f until the required number of samples

have been collected.

h. Mix the samples together thoroughly.

i. From the mixture, take the sample that will be sent for analysis.

j. Send immediately. Do not dry before sending.

3. If you are using a home soil testing kit, follow the above steps for

taking your sample. Follow the directions in the test kit carefully.

Fertilizers and soil amendments

Once you have the results of the soil test, you can add nutrients or soil

amendments such as lime, as needed. If you need to raise the pH, use

lime. Lime is most effective when it is mixed into the soil, therefore it is

best to apply before planting. For large areas, rototilling is most effective.

For small areas or around plants, working the lime into the soil with a

spade or cultivator is preferable. When working around plants, be

careful not to dig too deeply or so roughly that you damage plant roots.

Depending on the form of lime and the soil conditions, the change in pH

may be gradual. It may take several months before a significant change

is noted. Soils high in organic matter and clay tend to take larger amounts

of lime to change the pH than do sandy soils. If you need to lower the pH

significantly, , you can use aluminum sulfate. Other commercially available

fertilizers will also help lower the pH. In all cases, follow the soil test or

manufacturer’s recommended rates of application. Again, mixing well into

the soil is recommended. There are numerous choices for providing

nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. If your soil is of adequate fertility,

applying compost may be the best method of applying additional nutrients.

While compost is relatively low in nutrients compared to commercial

fertilizers, it is especially beneficial in improving the condition of the soil.

By keeping the soil loose, compost allows plant roots to grow well throughout

the soil, allowing them to extract nutrients from a larger area. A loose soil

enriched with compost is also an excellent habitat for earthworms and

other beneficial soil microorganisms that are essential for releasing

nutrients for plant use. The nutrients from compost are also released slowly

so there is no concern for “burning” the plant with an over-application.

Manure is also an excellent source of plant nutrients and organic matter.

Manure should be composted before applying. Fresh manure may be too

strong and can injure plants. Be careful when composting manure. If left

in the open, exposed to rain, nutrients may leach out of the manure

and the runoff can contaminate waterways. Make sure the manure is

stored in a location away from wells and any waterways, and that any

runoff is confined or slowly released into a vegetated area. Improperly

applied manure also can be a source of pollution. For best results, work

composted manure into the soil. If preparing a bed before planting,

compost and manure may be worked into the soil to a depth of 8 to 12

inches. If adding to existing plants, work carefully around plants.

Green manures are another source of organic matter and plant nutrients.

Green manures are crops that are grown and then tilled into the soil.

As they break down, nitrogen and other plant nutrients become available.

Green manures may also provide additional benefits of reducing soil

erosion. Green manures such as rye and oats are often planted in the

fall after the crops have been harvested. In the spring, these are tilled

under before planting. With all organic sources of nitrogen, whether

compost or manure, the nitrogen must be changed to an inorganic

form before the plants can use it. Therefore, it is important to have

well-drained, aerated soils that provide the favorable habitat for the soil

microorganisms responsible for these conversions. There are numerous

sources of commercial fertilizers that supply nitrogen, phosphorus,

and potassium. The first number on the fertilizer analysis is the percentage

of nitrogen, the second number is phosphorus, and the third number is

the potassium content. A fertilizer like 10-20-10 has twice as much of each

of the nutrients as a 5-10-5. How much of each nutrient you need depends

on your soil test results and the plants you are fertilizing. As was mentioned

before, nitrogen stimulates vegetative growth while phosphorus stimulates

flowering. Too much nitrogen can inhibit flowering and fruit production.

For many vegetables, a fertilizer higher in phosphorus than nitrogen is

preferred such as a 5-10-5.

Fertilizer application

Commercial fertilizers are normally applied as a dry granular material, or

mixed with water and watered onto the garden. If using granular materials,

avoid spilling on sidewalks and driveways. These materials are water

soluble and can cause pollution problems if rinsed into storm sewers.

Granular fertilizers are a type of salt, and if applied too heavily on

plants, they can burn the plants. If using a liquid fertilizer, apply directly

to or around the base of the plant. For the most efficient use and to

decrease the potential for pollution, fertilizer should be applied when

the plants have the greatest need for the nutrients. Plants that are not

actively growing do not have a high requirement for nutrients. Therefore,

applications of nutrients to dormant plants, or plants growing slowly due

to cool temperatures, are more likely to be wasted. Generally, nitrogen

fertilizers should not be applied to most plants in the fall in regions of the

country that experience cold winters. Since nitrogen encourages vegetative

growth, if it is applied in the fall it may reduce the plant’s ability to harden

for winter. In some gardens, fertilizer use can be reduced by applying it

around the individual plants rather than broadcasting across the entire

garden. In the case of phosphorus, much of the fertilizer phosphorus

becomes unavailable to the plants once spread on the soil. For better

plant uptake, apply the fertilizer in a band near the plant. Do not apply

directly to the plant or in contact with the roots.

___________________________________________________________

This is from a Backyard Conservation Tip Sheet published by the

Natural Resources Conservation Service.

“If you think people

are born with

a green thumb
..
THINK AGAIN!”

“I used to have a brown thumb. I tried raising all sorts of plants, and no matter what type of plant it was they ALWAYS died!”

I tried planting rose bushes, and before the beauties could even bloom the bushes had become dried sticks without a touch of green.

I tried planting corn, squash, beans and all sorts of vegetables and my garden didn’t even produce a single kernel. Not even enough food to feed an ant. Believe me, I am sure that the ants and bees were laughing their heads off at me as they searched for food elsewhere. They sure weren’t finding anything to eat in MY YARD!

I figured maybe because I was living in Georgia, where red clay was a problem then I would try potted plants instead. I tried flowers, and they died. A friend suggested that I try growing a cactus, so I did, the cactus died. HOW CAN YOU KILL A CACTUS???

Someone else suggested that I try an Aloe Plant, because these things were indestructible. A friend gave me an aloe plant and the poor thing was dead within 3 months. Needless to say my friends quit suggesting things for me to grow. One even told me that if I got a fake plastic plant, with my luck, it would probably die too!

I so desperately wanted to see a little lively green plant growing happily in my home. I wanted fresh vegetables for my table. All I found instead was bad luck, wasted money, and a lot of ceremonies where I would go outside, and somberly say goodbye to yet another dead plant.

Then one day I discovered air plants!

I was at a craft show, and a lady there was selling air plants that were OH SO BEAUTIFUL!

She said NO ONE could kill these plants. She told me that all they needed was to be hung in the bathroom, and the steam from the shower would provide all the nutrients they needed. NO DIRT! NO FERTILIZER! They needed nothing except a moist environment that is provided in any bathroom.

I was as happy as an ant on a hill of honey when I got home with my new plants. I purchased 3 beautiful air plants, hung them neatly in my bathrooms and basked in the joy of FINALLY seeing a thing of beauty growing in my home.

That is until they died.

All three of them, yes all three, died. Within a month they were gone, dried up, dead, 3 more somber ceremonies. So much for my green thumb.

By this time even I myself was too scared to get a plastic plant. It would probably dry out and die on me too then I would probably have to cut both of my thumbs off!

I gave up on growing plants for years after that. The air plants were my last attempt, and I had given up for good. I swore to myself I would NEVER again try to grow another plant for as long as I live.

Then one day I was searching the internet for information about knitting. I stumbled across a gardening forum where ladies were knitting plant pot covers. One of the ladies had a picture of the most beautiful tree I had ever seen in my life! A dark red Japanese Maple tree that had a breath taking beauty that I had never seen before in my life.

I HAD to have one!!

This tree was so beautiful, I found myself craving one for my own yard. I wanted one so badly that I spent months researching Japanese Maples and how to grow them successfully.

Japanese Maples, I found, are very expensive. I wanted to learn all I could about them before I purchased my own, because I wanted to MAKE SURE that my Japanese Maple would not die!

Yes, silly me decided to try again, and this time not on a plant that costs just a few dollars. I was getting brave and preparing myself to try and grow a plant that costs over $200 dollars for the large ones.

I read forums, looked up gardening articles, and tried to find as much information as I could about Japanese Maples online.

Sadly, the information I located dealt mostly with maintaining them once they were already established and growing successfully. I needed information on how to keep one from DYING before it got established in my yard and I could not locate this information ANYWHERE!

I checked out books in the local library, and had no luck. I searched for days, hours at a time, and could not find the information I needed.

I decided to look for older gardening books, and THAT is when my search was over! I found a slew of old gardening books written in the 1800’s that answered EVERY question I had about growing trees, fruits, vegetables and flowers that I could dream of.

The American Gardener is one of those books, and the main one that helped me in learning everything I need to know about growing any plant I can dream of under the sun!

The American Gardner was written in 1854 by William Cobbett. It is now in the public domain and has been converted into electronic format for your enjoyment.

The American Gardener provides over 150 pages of helpful gardening how to information, and tips that will help you grow plants with ease without them dying like they did on me!

Even if you’re a professional gardener, you’ll find many tips to help better your growing success!

Here’s What You’ll Find In The American Gardener:

• Choosing the right location on your property for growing plants. You’ll find in depth information on slope of your land, and what spot is best for growing successfully.
• Preparing the soil properly to provide nutrition for healthy plants.
• Fencing techniques for your garden. I LOVE this section. The author provides humorous techniques for using hawthorn trees as fencing, to keep troublesome lads from stealing their fruits and vegetables! You do not need to spend hundreds for a chain link, wooden or brick fence. Use hawthorn trees and with a little love and time you’ll have a fence that will make your neighbors green with envy!
• Designing, or laying out, your garden so that it’s pleasing to the eye yet functional as well.
• You’ll learn how to make hotbeds, so that you can start your vegetables earlier in the season and have edible produce as many as 15 days earlier than normal! This can be a moneymaker if you sell produce. Be the first in your neighborhood to have fresh green tomatoes and watermelons!
• Learn the benefits of operating a hobby greenhouse, and how it can be beneficially to your household.
• Learn about true seeds and the soundness of seed. You’ll learn how to test seed before you plant them, to determine if you have good seed or bad. Some seed will not grow if it’s bad, and by using a simple technique you can throw out the bad instead of laboring with planting them only to find no lovely sprouts growing where they were sowed.
• Learn proper methods for saving and preserving seed. I find this the most fun of gardening! I now save seed regularly and have a yard full of beautiful blooms from seeds I have saved and sown.
• Learn proper sowing methods to improve your seeds germination rate, and to ensure healthy plants. Proper spacing and depth can mean success or failure in the garden!
• American Gardener provides proper transplanting methods, to ensure your plants survival when moving from one area to another. This is the chapter that covers the information I was looking for, to ensure my Japanese Maples survival. I now have two Japanese Maples growing successfully in my yard, and what beauty they both bring!
• Cultivating your garden properly and methods for tilling, trenching and sowing to ensure your gardens success.
• Learn propagating methods so that you can grow many more plants form just one stock plant. Learn propagating from cuttings, by grafting, by using stock tress, by budding and by layering. All of these are easy and fun methods that you and your family are sure to enjoy!
• There is a nice section on growing grapes in minimum space while producing so many grapes that it’ll make your mouth water!
• Learn how to successfully grow 81 different vegetables and herbs, 26 tasty fruits and nuts and the most popular flowers and shrubs with the most gorgeous blooms!

You are sure to love the information, guidance and tips provided in American Gardener!

I have used this information for myself, and now have a yard full of beautiful trees, flowers and plants instead of a mass plant graveyard!

This type of information has helped me in so many ways. I now have 5 rose bushes growing successfully in my yard including the coveted Don Juan rose that now grows below a beautiful catalpa tree.

This past spring I planted a successful vegetable garden that provided enough produce to feed 5 families for 2 months and provide many bags for our freezers! My second fall garden was planted just last week and is already sprouting many tiny plants for a second harvest. All this was planted on a piece of plot that measures not more than 20 feet by 40 feet!

I had so many cucumbers growing that I could not even can them all I had to give them away! My zucchini’s were so huge that they had to be shared with my in laws and my mother, because we could not eat them as fast as they grew.

My flowerbed has lavender, dianthus, clematis, daisies and many odd plants growing beautifully.

My verbena has taken over our drive; it’s outgrown its bed!

I now have 2 Japanese Maples growing successfully. One a glowing embers the other the coveted bloodgood (the most beautiful tree on the planet in my opinion).

I have hundreds of boxwood that I propagated from cuttings, growing successfully beside my cuttings beds. My Azaleas are rooting successfully now, and they are LIVING!

I have come a long way from where I could not even keep an air plant alive, the where I am now growing plants with no roots in just a box of peat moss and sand!

My success is thanks to books like the American Gardener.

All the information you’ll need to get started is provided in the American Gardener, no matter what type of growing success you have had in the past you’ll find tips and techniques to improve your growing success in this manual!

You too can grow successfully as I have, by increasing your knowledge and putting these methods into practice today!

SAY NO to dying plants and SAY YES to success now!

Download YOUR copy for just $.99,
and get started TODAY!

_______________________________

100% Satisfaction Guarantee Download ‘American Gardener‘ today and if it doesn’t live up to everything we’ve said - for ANY reason - simply contact us within 30 days for a full refund!

_______________________________

Download YOUR copy now for only $.99!

Your ‘American Gardener‘ e-book is in .PDF format for easy viewing & printing from ANY computer.

To Your Gardening Success…

Cheryl20772

P.S. This ebook includes free resell rights. Resell this e-book yourself and keep 100% of the profits!

]]> http://piemoney.com/landscape_garden/the-american-gardener/feed http://piemoney.com/im_articles/helpful-internet-business-resources http://piemoney.com/im_articles/helpful-internet-business-resources#comments Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:27:16 +0000 Cheryl20772 http://piemoney.com/?p=11 Helpful Business Forums

Digital Point This is the free forum I turn to for information about tools freshly launched on the net or to find out how to do something I want on my pages. I found out about CBMonster ads on Digital Point and these are exactly the type of ads I was looking for to promote ClickBank products on my pages. Before this, the only tool available had a steep subscription price tag and an affiliate program. I prefer to stay free and independent.

V7N Network Web Development Community Another very active, fun, stimulating and provocative webmaster forum. Lots of huge contests and much information sharing. I often get absorbed reading there and lost on interesting tangents. The people posting in V7N are so neat. I had a page in their v7ndotcom elursrebmem contest.

WebmasterWorld costs $89 for a 6 month subscription. It’s known net wide as an authoritative source on search engine optimization and marketing matters. I look to them for information about ways to monetize my pages. Even though I don’t have a subscription, I read the front page of their site and always look for any archived threads in search results when I’m searching on Google for stuff.

Advertising Tools

Piemoney Free Words This is a free version of Michael Cheney’s 500 Words. He charges $50+ for his words on a PR zero page just like this. Piemoney Free Words is not taking new words now, but the script is available and you can create a site just like it for your own use.

Webmaster Tools

Piemoney How-to video Tutorial showing a fast way to change from Google Adsense ad code to another company’s ad code on multi-page web sites. Don’t be overwhelmed when you need to change code on a thousand pages. This edit method will get the job done fast!

NVU (pronounced “N-view”) Is a free open source WYSIWYG HTML editor based on Mozilla Composer. I think it has a huge online following. You don’t have to know HTML in order to use this to make web pages. I use Dreamweaver, but before I got that I used either Mozilla Composer or NVU. Both are great.

Free Search Engine Submissions Draze (drz) is a metasearch engine, which means it has no local database. Draze goes beyond searching for just simple text characters and operates entirely by querying other major search engines.

Free AddMe Search Engine Submission A leading resource for webmasters and small-business owners specialized in website submission and promotion in the search engines, since 1996

Marketing Tools

Traffic Swarm is a traffic exchange which may be acceptable to Google Adsense terms and conditions (not sure about that). This works because the member pages are presented on a link page and selected from many links by the viewer as from a directory. Many successful online promoters swear by Traffic Swarm.

Secret Affiliate Weapon Just one idea from this package could make you the top affiliate for your promotions. I sincerely believe this membership is packed with
value and highly recommend it to all Internet marketers
and online business owners.

The two I am most familiar with are SuperChargedLinking, which requires installation of one MSQL database and LinkMachine, which does not.

Of the two, Linkmachine allows the most template editing to fit your website theme. LinkMachine automates the process of emailing other webmasters about their links or requesting links. Both automate the time consuming process of verifying that your link exists on the other pages. Linkmachine does it for a batch, while SuperChargedLinking requires links to be given individual push button attention.

click to continue

SupercChargedLinking is an inexpensive script, which contains obtrusive advertising from the author, which can be edited out after purchasing rights to do so. LinkMachine has one small “Powered by…” link at the bottom of every directory page, which is gone after a paid upgrade.

Linkmachine is a freeware download, which comes with a 10-day free trial of their premium service. If you like it you can continue using it, on up to three different web sites, for $89.95. (Additional web site licenses are $10 per site.) After purchasing Linkmachine Premium, if you’re dissatisfied for any reason, there’s a 30-day full money-back guarantee. They have 2 high premium services for $89.95 and $149.95, which incorporate SEO functionality.

These features would be nice, but most people only want or need the actual links directory, which is free! The free service has multiple valuable features including telling you the PR rankings of those pages listed in your directory. My suggestion would be to try the LinkMachine script and take advantage of the 10-day free trial of their service to fill your directory with links. Then when the trial expires it can continue to grow your directory more slowly and naturally.

LinkMachine is kind of boggy when told to fetch info for a site or add a new link. It takes a long time to run through the directory checking for reciprocals. This would be even more of a problem if someone had to do it with a dial up connection. In spite of these small problems, the free script has so many nice features that I can only highly recommend it.

Recently there have been a lot of people losing their Google Adsense accounts. If you are one of these unfortunates, the Yahoo Publisher ads mean you can get right back into the game. Others are faced with the question…. which is best?

While Google Adsense ads have been paying less over time, Yahoo Publisher ads have been paying very well. They have not been as well contextually targeted, though, and may not perform as well overall with your targeted traffic. I would suggest running a split test to see which is best for your pages.

Get your account at yahoo.publisher.com. See which one is better for your bottom line as that is the most important factor in any business decision.

The back office interfaces of the two are very similar. There is at least one ad group size (125×125 button) missing from the Yahoo listing and no banners option, but colors and tracking work the same and the script for the ads is very similar. Unlike some other optional ad networks, when first looking at it, there is a very short learning curve.

Yahoo Publisher can only get stronger and better with time. Right now they appear to have a limited ad pool to draw on, but that can change and will allow them to better match the ads to the page keywords. With such a strong challenger in the market, Google should get stronger too. Competition is good for the market.

See which one will pay you more and then stick with your particular winner. It’s possible that the result will depend on the type of webpages you have on your site.

There is a current frenzy to churn out more and more pages with garbage content with mainly the purpose of trapping the unsuspecting searcher to click on ad links. Lists of 300 to 1,000 keyword related phrases are spun into as many individual pages for each phrase. Yes, for example, if the keyword of choice is “make money”, they will have a list of every conceivable combination pertaining to it such as:

make money
make money online
make money at home
make money on the internet
make money fast
make money from home
ways to make money
make extra money
make money on ebay
make money fast online….

They don’t publish one search engine friendly web page for “make money”, but they make one page for each permutation of the keyword. They provide “rich content”, either from public domain articles grabbed from directories, or from “scrapings” of keyword related nonsense from the web. There are now many software programs that will churn out these pages in a few seconds per keyword phrase. Some of these are ArticleSiteBuilder, TrafficHurricane, TrafficPanther and Articlebot + XsitePro. Some of the systems make ugly, plain pages while others help users to make tr