All about Gardening

Gardening makes someone happy. It also provides exercise and relaxation. Plants beautify yards. People grow plants for many reasons:

1) Some grow flowers and other ornamental plants to beautify their homes, yards, offices, hospitals and parks. Plants with beautiful flowers are raised to produce and sell cut flowers. Plants with colorful leaves or rare shapes are also used for landscaping and as indoor plants.

2) Some raise vegetables, fruits and herbs. They found that homegrown produce is cheaper, fresher and tastier than that sold in grocery stores. Certain plants are useful in medicine. They contain chemicals that have good effects on the human body.  In the Philippines, plant leaves, barks, roots, trunk, seeds, stem and fruits are used for their medicinal values. Sambong leaves are diuretic. There are now sambong capsules used for people with kidney problems. In fact, my grandmother takes this kind of medicine... Even me, I use to take ampalaya medicine to save me from being anemic. Animals also recognize the use of plants as medicine. They eat plants to heal their wounds faster.

3) Some people like gardening because it provides exercise, relaxation and the joy of working with the living things.

4) Some gardeners grow crops, vegetables, fruits and flowers as a means of earning money. They sell it in a public market... Most vegetables that are sold every day were spices like lemon grass, onions, etc. because they are used in it in terms of cooking. Flowers are sold in any occasions. It can be sold during Valentine’s Day, Death, in courting, Anniversaries, etc. Farmers and those who are interested in gardening earn a lot of money for the crops and flowers they raise.

5) Plants remove carbon dioxide from the air and provide fresh oxygen. Another important product by photosynthesis is oxygen.

6) Plants cool the environment. Plants absorb energy from the sun. They also reflect much sunlight, thus reducing the amount of energy in the place.

People who love plants are fond of ornamental gardens. These gardens differ in the types of plants contained and how the plants are arranged. Most of the plants include grass, shrubs and trees.

The six most common ornamental gardens are:

1) Container garden. These are the plants that can be grown in containers, or flowerpots. Different plants require different amounts of care. Example is spice vegetables.

2) Formal flower gardens consist of flower beds laid out in balanced and regular patterns. The edges of the beds are straight and perfectly wounded. As I have observed, the beds contain only a few kinds of flowers, which grow to a similar height and shape. Formal flower gardens require the constant care of a skilled gardener to keep them neat and orderly.

3) Informal gardens have one or more beds of flowers laid out in a casual or irregular manner. A simple flower garden is fairly inexpensive and easy to care for.

4) Rock gardens consist of plants grown in pockets of soil among rocks. Natural rock arrangements can be used to create such a garden. An artificial rock garden also is a costly and difficult to make. Plants that require little soil can be planted in a rock garden. A rock garden may be hard to care for because of its uneven surface.

5) Water gardens. A water garden consists of a body of water, usually a pool or a pond in which plants that live in water are grown. People with a natural body of water on their property can use it to create a water garden. Examples are water lily and lotus.

6) Wild flower gardens are made up of native wild flowers. Such a garden can be inexpensive and easy to grow. Many gardeners dig up wild flowers or collect the seeds in the countryside for their garden.

To maintain the beauty of nature, we must work together to protect our plant life. We must learn to admire our trees, flowers and plants in their proper surroundings and not to destroy them. We need the plants and the plants need us to take care of them. Let us be good partners. Without plants planet earth will be a wasteland.