Author: Wright Holdings, Inc.

Understanding Acid And Alkaline Soil
The pH scale (from 1 to 14) is defined in very scientific terms as “the negative logarithm of the concentration of hydrogen ions in a solution” – in gardening and landscaping terms, the measure of acidity or alkalinity in soil.

A measure of “1” on the scale indicates an acid strong enough to dissolve anything it comes in contact with; one of “14” an alkali of similar destructive power; “7” is perfectly neutral. Pure water for example has a pH of “7” – being totally neutral.

The scale refers not only to soil (or soil moisture to be exact), but to any solution. Cosmetic companies for example develop their products to the pH equivalent of the skin.

Each step in the scale is 10 times that of the one before. A soil reading of pH5 is ten times more acid than a soil of pH6 and so on. Most soils fall between pH5.5 and pH8.6. Neutral or slightly acid soil in a range around pH7.5 to pH6 is considered ideal for most plants.

It’s important to know the pH of your soil before planting – kits to test your soil are readily available from most garden centers. Understanding the difference between acid and alkaline soil is critical to gardening success

Acid Soils contain very little lime (compounds of calcium). Alkaline soils have larger quantities of lime, in neutral soils the lime is in balance with other elements.

Calcium affects the availability to plants of other nutrient elements such as iron, which can be in extreme shortage in extremely alkaline soil. Plants that cope poorly with this will show signs of Chlorosis and need to be grown in acid soils. Other plants prefer lime and will like the soil to be alkaline.

The ideal is for the soil to be slightly on the acid side of neutral. This will suit most plants and those that need it can be given a small dose of lime to improve their health. It’s always best to group these plants together so a specific area of the garden can be treated.

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It’s more difficult to make an alkaline soil acid though it can be achieved by adding an organic mulch – pine needles are quite acid and have proven efficient as an organic mulch for this purpose.

Adding sulphur can help also – as it weathers it makes the soil water acid and locks up some of the free calcium as insoluble calcium sulphate. The down side – sulphur will kill off microorganisms in the soil.

If your garden soil is alkaline and you want to grow acid loving plants it’s best to do so in containers or raised beds of lime-free soil. Water only with rainwater, as where the soil is alkaline the tap water is likely to be alkaline as well.

It’s a general (though by no means hard and fast) rule that soils in humid coastal climates tend to be acid. Soils in drier inland climates are typically alkaline.

The acidity or alkalinity of your soil can be easily quantified on the pH scale. Anything (on a scale of 1 to 14) less than 7 is acid and above is alkaline. Hydrangeas are nature’s indicator, flowering blue in acid soil and pink in alkaline soil. If they can’t seem to make up their mind and flower both ways your soil is likely neutral.

If you can’t be bothered to purchase a testing kit try the method your grandmother likely used – put a little soil on the tip of your tongue. If it is slightly sweet to the taste, your soil is alkaline, slightly sour and your soil is acid.

Want to know what to plant in acid or alkaline soil? Send us a message and I will be happy to offer some options.

Happy gardening…

Gardening is no easy task, especially if you have put quite a lot of effort into it. It won’t take you long before tending to the flower beds, pruning and doing all sorts of other gardening chores starts to feel tiring and overwhelming. The purpose of gardening is to make you feel happy, not super tired.

To achieve this, you can adopt a few clever tricks that will make the workflow easy. The following techniques aim to keep you sharp on the gardening jobs while helping you conserve your energy.
Raised beds are a blessing
Whether made of wood (manufactured or regular), pavers or concrete blocks, you can bet that they will make your gardening efforts easy. You needn’t worry about building raised beds yourself, as you will most often see kits in large stores. What you have to remember is the height of the raised bed shouldn’t be too great. A maximum of 40 inches is recommended. You also have to make them at least 3-4 feet wide so that access to the middle is not difficult.
Gardening in containers
Containers are also convenient for gardening purposes since you can practically place them at whatever height is appropriate. You can put them on the ground, or a table, if that is more convenient for you. Weeding plants in containers are much easier than in raised beds, and you can also water them without much trouble. Depending on the size of the container, you won’t have much trouble. It is worth it to check for containers with wheels, as those are very easy to move around.
Use only ergonomic tools
There is a wide variety of tools available out there, and you can make a choice to get more convenient ones. For instance, there are tools with smaller handles and such that come with braces to protect your wrists. Some tools feature special handle design with curved handles and indentations for fingers. If you feel the handle of a tool doesn’t feel as comfortable as it should use pipe insulation or tape to make it such.
Invest in a pulley system for hanging baskets
If you find hanging baskets too heavy to move, remember that you can always get a pulley system for them. This reduces the weight by half at least and is quite convenient. You can lower the baskets when you need to water them or tending to plants there and then return them where they need to be with ease.
Tailor the watering can to your ability
If you cannot lift heavy, perhaps a standard watering can prove a bad decision. What you can use is a smaller can that is easier to lift and carry around.
Warm up before initiating work and take breaks
Treat gardening work the same way you would as going to the gym. To prepare your body, you will need to start off easy, as a warm-up before the actual workout. Another important thing is to give yourself regular breaks so that you don’t grow tired quickly after you begin. Take a seat for a few minutes or stand up to stretch your legs if you are working something on the ground.
Succession gardening
If you are planting crops, you should try out succession gardening. What this means is planting crops at staggered dates. That way they will ripe at different times, which means you won’t feel greatly overwhelmed.

All of these practical tips can greatly help your gardening efforts. Remember to implement them and you will find the work is not that difficult.

The Muscovy duck has been selectively bred for hundreds of years. It is often a good option for little farms and Gardens to help manage pest. Muscovies are distinctive, the only ducks that did not descend from mallards. They are South American natives. The initial name was “Musco” duck because they were voracious eaters of mosquitoes. Muscovies come in a number of colors. The most numerous commercial variety is probably the white. Muscovies. They are relatively good fliers.

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• Happy Frog Steamed Bone Meal Fertilizer
• perennial plants

They will roost in trees and they will also roost on “perches” or “roosts,” at night if available.Muscovy duck can live as free range and while they can fly, they just fly around will not fly away and leave the property. In fact our Muscovy ducks hardly ever fly. Muscovy ducks do not make as much noise as other ducks.

Use Muscovy Ducks as pest controllers

Muscovy Ducks do an awesome job at controlling mosquitoes and flies. They will eat all sorts of bugs, the black widow and the deadly brown spider, Japanese beetles, maggots, grasshoppers, mosquitoes, mosquito maggot, slugs, snails and everything else that crawls, creeps, or flies. They also make a quick food out of mice, snakes, wasps, and hornets. They love to eat roaches and will eat them voraciously. They consume every bug they observe including ants. One of the things that make them very valuable is that they love spiders. They will even eat poisonous ones including the deadly brown and the Black Widow spider. They will go under things such as picnic tables and get up in the corners and crevices and eat the bugs, spiders, and other insects.

Their bug eating activities help reduce problems with bugs when working in the blueberry field or garden. Using Muscovy also helps eliminate the need to purchase chemicals for pest control to keep pests down. This can help in raising a pesticide free blueberries and vegetables.

Muscovy Ducks are Easy to raise

They’re inexpensive and trouble-free: Muscovies reproduce well. They are very good foragers, they grow quick and they rarely get sick. They will eat what the other animals leave or spill. They are good mothers. Muscovy Ducks also are very useful on farms where you have other animals because they eat any the excess food left by other animals. This helps reduce rats because there is no excess food lying around that can attract rats. They will also eat the spare food from the chickens or other animals.

Meat and eggs of Muscovies

They are really efficient for meat production. Muscovy breast is the size of a steak; you wouldn’t deduce it was duck without knowing. The meat is lean when compared to the fatty meat of ducks of mallard decent. Its leanness and tenderness is often compared to veal. The meat of Muscovy ducks is one of the healthiest meats you can purchase or grow. It is 98% or greater fat-free. Some people declare that the breast of a Muscovy duck taste like a Sirloin steak. It is sometimes made into “hamburger”. Persons requiring a low-fat diet use it. The meat is great tasting and very nutritious. Being a very lean meat it is not greasy like that of other ducks.

Muscovy eggs are tasty and are used in many dishes. They are considered a delicacy. Muscovy ducks can lay as many as almost 200 eggs a year. This can provide plenty of eggs for you to eat. They will nest three or four times a year and hatch up to 20 ducklings a time.