Tips for Growing Bonsai and Mini-Gardens
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Indoor, Container and
Small Space Gardeningfor Bioremediation and Growing Food.
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Fukien Tea - Forest (carmona)
- $ 10900.00
Bonsai Boy of New York
A NASA scientist lists plants that will clean the air in a building with lists of the polluting chemicals that will be removed by each plant. This is a wonderful resource for home gardeners and students of bioremediation within the home.
Comments on Indoor and Small Space Gardening
Fukien Tea - Forest (carmona)
- $ 10900.00
Bonsai Boy of New York
A NASA scientist lists plants that will clean the air in a building with lists of the polluting chemicals that will be removed by each plant. This is a wonderful resource for home gardeners and students of bioremediation within the home.
I was pleased to discover that Amazon.com carries some of the Bonsai Boy products, too.
Of course a few other brands are included in the Amazon.com listing. Among these is a book by a retired NASA botanist reports on plants that can be used to cleanse the air in you home. He originally did the research as part of the search for plants to use in biohabitats in space. It is a fascinating little book -- yes, I own it. Guess what plant is the best to use for the phytoremediation of the air in your home? And yes, one of the common bonsai trees is on the list of useful plants! And what about the small Scotch pine sold for potted Christmas trees during the Holidays? Why should you cultivate it?
While growing container gardens indoors, do not forget the Green Wall. The Green Wall is a system of planting small indoor perrenials into a vertical structure so that an entire wall is covered floor-to-ceiling with plant growth. The Green Wall is touted as a great air purifier and humidifier for the home as well as a beautiful focal point for a room.
Teachable Moments
(Yes, this is an OLPC that was being
sold on Amazon for a time.)
The use of plants to clean pollutants from air and ground is called phytoremediation. Phytoremediation is only one type of bioremediation. Based on our knowledge of ecology, the food web, and the geochemical cycles of our biosphere, the current Green technologies use natural processes to control pollution whenever possible. In fact, such technologies are used to clean up massive oil spills.
Read an article about phytoremediation. Also, use these links to a website that discusses the mangrove forests along the Florida coast. These forests are important to natural phytoremediation processes.
Indoor gardening requires articificial lighting. Try this one from Glentronics. It makes seasonal adjustments in its lighting.
Growing bonsai indoors will benefit from the special lighting as bonsai gardening takes special techniques and plant care.
Tips for Growing Bonsai
is a Japanese gardening art form that has been passed down for centuries.
Translated as potted tree, bonsai trees are the attempt to represent larger
natural tree forms in a small scale. To achieve this effect, growers employ
careful potting and care techniques as well as skilled pruning. Read more
bonsai history here. |
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| Choosing
Plants Traditionally, outdoor plants are used for bonsai, but you can bonsai just about anything with the right characteristics, preferably something woody enough to be trained. Species like Schefflera and Jade can do quite well indoors, while others like the Shogun and the Zen Reflections Juniper Bonsai prefer more sun. To keep things simple, you get pre-trained plants, or if you're feeling adventurous, you can start your own. |
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| Deluxe Windswept Bonsai | |||||
| Care Depending on your specific plants and growing styles, caring for your bonsai can be simple or demand gardening precision. No matter what, you’ll need to pay careful attention to your plants’ food, water and container needs – that’s in addition to any artistic shaping you plan to do. The quickest way to kill your bonsai is lack of water - because many bonsai plants are in small containers, their soil can dry out quickly, so be sure to check on your plants often. Read more on caring for your bonsai here. |
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| More
Info If you’re serious about bonsai, it’s always good to have a handy reference guide (like the Bonsai Survival Manual or Creating Bonsai Landscapes) to get you started. Books like these can offer helpful advice as well as inspiring photos to help you get started. |
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Happy Growing! |
Creating Bonsai Landscapes | ||||
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Small Garden Mini-Store
Find the perfect gift with the Gift Advisor from Windowbox.com!
Gifts for the seasons are available. One idea is
the Herbal Pocket Tea Garden (seed Kit). Got Kids? Help them grow a green thumb at Windowbox.com
Teach small children about plants with these gardens of rye grass from Windowbox.com
WindowBox.com - Chinese New Year Special 5% Off All Bamboo Products. CODE: LUCKY5P
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Nyokki - Froggie Nyokki means grow in Japanese, and that's exactly what these Nyokki Pets do! These little pet plants are adorable and original and they are hand made in Japan from glazed ceramic. They are shaped like eggs with fabric legs. Filled with a growing media and rye grass seeds, these Nyokki pets are easy to grow - seeds germinate and grass grows to full height in less than two weeks. You can style your Nyokki's "hair" or cut it and watch it grow again! Choose from Monkey, Chickee, Froggie, Panda, and Piglet. |
Combine a Mini-garden with Aquaculture!
While we are discussing biohabitats, there is an intriguing aquaculture kit that combines a growing platform for vegetable mini-gardens watered and fed from the fish tank below. It can be set up in a garage if the grow lights are added; in the or backyard or greenhouse if not. Read more about it.
GED is also available through Instacert.
A Small Area of the Woods becomes a Shade Garden
"Azaleas" © Freddy Smeets - Fotolia.com
Note: All fotolia photos have been modified for display on this site.
Click on images to see original.
Teachable Moments 2
(Yes, this is an OLPC that was being
sold on Amazon for a time.)
Use photos of outdoor landscapes as a model for shape and structure of the bonsai forest.
Ask students to design a mini-indoor garden that features a bonsai forest! What small flowering plants would work as understory? Thyme and a few other groundcover plants might be used. Mosses might replace grass. Many shade gardens feature ferns and other shade plants that grow well in indoor light.
The photo above is rich in biodiversity, partly articifically induced by the human gardener. Ask students about the natural biodiversity of the area, the understory of the woods, the different requirements for gardening in the shade and whether fertilizer must be used.
Other themes for discussion might be the art of landscape design, an estimate of the height of the flowering trees and the techniques of photographing a shady landscape.
About the Photos
Photo safaris are fun, especially when there is a theme governing your hunt. Looking for the perfect tree is one of my themes, although I often get sidetracked--and there are days when I find few trees of interest or suited to my talents, which are not quite nil.
From Fotolia.com I can get beautiful images of bonsai and more taken by highly talented individuals. For 100+ pennies I can purchase the photo and the license to use it in dozens of ways. Enjoy your exploration of the site for bonsai. Just search for bonsai, and for trees, and for landscapes, etc. It's as fun a visit as are Google images searches.
- Get a child's camera.
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- Continue the photo safari.
- Get this baby elephant as part of a Template Design Set: preview or ...
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Disclosure: I am an affiliate of many merchants. Even so, the opinions expressed are my own, and I do not speak for the merchant. Being an affiliate, however, does mean that the possibility of compensation does exist. --Valerie
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Essay and unlabled photos © Valerie Coskrey, 2007-2009. All rights reserved.
This page first posted 1/09/10.
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