Category Archives: Gardening

Pros and cons of owning a pond

If you have a piece of property, you may have considered installing a pond. Ponds, as well as any water feature, can be relaxing and provide you with endless entertainment. Unfortunately, there are also some negatives to owning a pond. Here are some of the pros and cons of owning a pond to help you decide if it’s right for you.

Photo by Rajiv Bajaj on Unsplash

Plants

The plant life that naturally grows in a pond can be very invasive and try to take over your pond if you are unable to keep up with it. Aquatic weed control is a very important part of pond ownership.

Fishing

If you have fish planted in your little pond, you can go on fishing trips in your own yard. This can be very convenient, especially if you have children. You can skip the long road trips to find the perfect fishing spot. Some types of fish that you can have planted in your pond will help control certain types of weeds you may find growing in your pond.

Wildlife

Adding a pond to your property is like sending out an invitation to the wildlife in the area to come try out the new watering hole. It is important to have some familiarity with the variety of wild creatures that live near you, because chances are they will be attracted to your water. This could be good or bad. If you are attracting animals like mountain lions to your pond, it could be dangerous for you and your family. However, it can be exciting to see the variety of wildlife that lives around you.

Mosquitoes

If the water in your pond stands still, you may find that it is a breeding ground for mosquitoes. Mosquitoes can carry deadly diseases, so it is important to have some sort of filter system that keeps the water moving.

A pond can be a great addition to a spacious property if it is given the proper care.

Essential Hydroponic Supplies For Optimum Indoor Gardening

Hydroponics is an indoor gardening in which there is no need for any soil for plants to grow. In this form of gardening, the roots of plants are suspended in a nutrient rich water solution, which ensures proper growth of the plants. You may need wide range of hydroponic supplies for getting started with this form of gardening. You can order all your requirements, including grow tent kits from aquaculture-hydroponics.co.uk, as they are available with them at most competitive rates.

The hydroponic supplies that you may need may vary depending upon the system you choose, but most of them use same basic hydroponic infra that is essential to get started. This would include a reservoir, a aerator, a pump, and some means of holding the crowns of plants you’d be growing in the solution. This might include a tray or a net.

The reservoir is basically a large basin that can hold water and nutrient rich solution in place. A pump is also attached to this reservoir for moving the solution to the roots of each and every plant. An aerator is hydroponic equipment that keeps the nutrient rich solution oxygenated, which helps in ensuring the growth of plants. The tray or net holds the crown of your plants away from the solution at perfect height so that they can reach the solution and take nutrients and water. Hydroponics UK ensures that find more here each of your equipment is of top quality as this will ensure best return on your labor and investment.

The simple setup we discussed above will ensure that plant gets their necessary nutrients, but plants also need light. Therefore, you will have to add lighting to your hydroponic equipment. The number and type of lights you may need will depend upon the plants you want to grow, and the life stage of these plants. As you may have to imitate sunlight, so you will have to use bright light. However, if you are growing seedlings, then you will have to use off light that gives blue color spectrum for promoting the growth in these young plants.

Aside from lights, you may also need light reflectors for increasing the light coverage, and digital ballasts for controlling the electrical flow to the HID lights. Fans are used for cooling off these hot running lights because they will maintain the efficiency of your system. You may also want to buy growing medium as it is used in the place of soil, and may also include coir, or other things as well. Many people use their own plant starts, and may also need cloner as a part of their hydroponics supplies. With cloner, roots start growing on the cuttings very quickly.