Gaia herbs prides itself on the natural organic ingredients it puts in its extracts and products. Their herbs are grown on a two hundred and fifty acre farm. The farm is right next to the production plant and research facilities. Their mission is to provide fresh organic quality ingredients for their products. The farm and facilities are in North Carolina and they do not get their ingredients from anywhere else. Their motto is pure plant medicine from the highest quality ingredients.

The farm itself is in the south western section of the Blue Ridge region of North Carolina. This currently is their only farm. They are setting another one up in Costa Rica to farm the tropical and subtropical herbs that they offer. All of the growing process, refining process, and bottling process is certified organic. This facility has all of the production, growing, and bottling together.

Their extracts are made in the exact same place as they are grown so you know that only the freshest herbs are used. They are kept at their peak throughout the extraction and refining process. Also there are quality controls in place that insure that their product stays pure. All of their facilities meet or exceed FDA guidelines so although their products are not FDA approved they do still meet their standards.

Organic growers are more careful about what and where their liquid organic fertilizers come from. Hence, this article discusses how liquid fish emulsions are made. First of, they are mostly made from the Menhaden fish which is not considered a human food source. However this fish is used for making oil and animal feeds. The waste from the production of this fish into oil or animal feed is the ingredient used for making liquid fish fertilizers.

The process of making liquid fertilizer starts with cooking the fish and pressing out the oils and liquids. The solids are made into fishmeal, animal feed, and other products. The oil, which is literally worth its weight in gold, is skimmed off. The liquid is boiled down until it thickens, making fish emulsion.

A small amount of phosphoric acid is added to the fish emulsion to lower the pH. Lowering the pH makes the liquid fertilizer more acidic, which prevents it from decaying and fermenting into gas. Before phosphoric acid was added in the manufacturing process, containers of fish emulsion were known to burst from fermentation. Because the amount of added phosphoric acid is so small (less than one percent by weight), the product is still considered organic.

Soil is the gardener’s bread and butter, much like dough is for the chef. Without good soil all the effort in the world can come to naught, just as poor dough can lay to waste even the most extravagant culinary effort. Soil varies by area into three broad categories, and also varies in quality from area to area. The categories that soil falls into are claylike, sandy and silt. Ideal soil contains a good mixture of the three types, and is called good garden loam. Clay soil possesses the greatest water-holding capability, while sandy soil possesses the least.

Humus is an organic substance that helps bind soils together. It also makes the soil more receptive to water, actively absorbs light from the sun and fertilizes and improves the texture of the soil by pulling beneficial compounds from plants. Humus can be found in organic fertilizers such as manure and compost heaps, and can also be purchased as a stand-alone product.

Like the grass, trees and plants that take root in it, soil is a living thing, composed of millions of organisms. The four key ingredients needed to maintain an optimum soil health are sunlight, water, food and bacterial activity. Save for the sun, the other three elements can all be added to the soil through organic fertilizers.

The owners of small gardens need to utilise every scrap of space and they, therefore, must be more selective in their choice of plants. Climbers and wall plants will provide the answer to many problems for they will add both space and height to congested sites and will bring colour to every available wall. However, enthusiasm should be tempered with discreet understanding for there are climbers which love to be baked into brilliance of flower by hot sun, whereas others must be soothed by moist shade.

Tradition has it that clematis produce their best efforts when the roots are shaded but the flowers are allowed to reach up into the sun. However, I believe a well-drained soil to be more important, otherwise losses in winter are liable to be heavy. A mulch of peat mixed with a handful of bone- meal is all the feed necessary.

I could till a book with a selection of climbing and wall plants but as before will restrict the choice to those which have been proven in the crucible of the garden. There are two species especially suitable for wall culture, butoboth need different treatment.

The form of L. japonica known as aureoreticulata has proved more resilient in my line of a millstone grit boulder in the rock garden. L. periclymenum is the woodbine and its variety belgica makes the perfect company planting. The first crop of yellow-flushed dark red flowers opens early in June to be followed in September by a late indulgence of the same quality if not the quantity. Softwood cuttings in July root rapidly in the sand frame. To prune shorten back the side shoots to 4 buds after flowering in September.

The Virginia creepers are especially noteworthy for brilliance of autumn colouring. Parthenocissus henryana is a Chinese climber which I use to disguise a rather unimaginative iron fence. Now the rusty iron has disappeared under a panoply of leaves which are tinged purple in the shade, but all turn deep red in autumn. P. quinquefolia from North America is the true Virginia creeper, a self-clinging species whose leaves turn scarlet and gold with the first frost of autumn; a vigorous plant which will cover a three storey building, chimney included.

Clematis macropetala species with large violet semi-double blooms, was her favourite and it was always grown through a wisteria which flowered at the same time. C. montana is the robust, independent, ‘go out and conquer the world’ member of the clan, growing well in any position. I have seen it on walls, potting sheds, thatched cottages, Scots Pine, apple trees, even a ruined church. I grow the white form granditiora , the rose-purple flowered, bronze-leaved rubens and the pearl- pink, sweetly fragrant Elizabeth. All flower in May and some years a small second crop appears rather apologetically in August.

The species grow readily from seed or cuttings, and the most obliging of all is C. tangutica. Some years ago I tried three plants in a limestone rock garden and they are now very much at home rambling about amongst the stones. The flower stems are 12 in. long, each topped with a deep yellow, Chinese lantern-like flower. These are followed in due season by silver seed heads which in their own way equal the beauty of the blooms. Internodal cuttings should be made in August -September and placed in pumice or peat and sand mixture.

Ceratostigma willmottianum takes the very sensible precaution of becoming herbaceous in severe winters. The first time this happened I assumed the worst, and was just about to plant a very expensive replacement in the same position when I noticed bright scarlet buds poking through the soil, which on investigation proved to be the timorous ceratostigma.

Avoid only the form listed as rosea, a villainous washed-out pink, hideous to behold and parsimonious in producing flowers.

Pruning is accepted with equanimity even when amateurishly performed by rabbits, cows and a very unpredictable rotary grass cutter. Propagation can be by cuttings or layering, whichever is more convenient.

The ebullient, irrepressable Chaenomeles japonica is dazzling in flower, cheerfully ugly the rest of the year. I would always have one plant about the place somewhere but I prefer them trained onto a wall. By pruning back the young growth right through the summer a mass of plump flower buds are formed the full length of the spurs.

The rock roses are Mediterranean shrubs which like light, free-draining soil and a warm sunny position. Three varieties of those tried in my garden lived seven years, and cuttings taken from them continue to grace the garden in a sheltered bed by the house.

In moments of forgetfulness many gardeners still refer to hebe as veronica and, no matter what name we give them, most hail from New Zealand and are not entirely hardy in every garden. The majority flower white or a milky blue. A well-drained, not too rich soil is the best, and in my garden shelter from the dehydrating east winds of early spring is necessary.

On first aquaintance H. armstrongii looks like a refined dwarf conifer until July when the branches are starred with white flowers. A deep shining gold foliage intensifies with the first frost to a glorious bronze. After 12 years on my rock garden it has reached a towering 12 in. and is a delightful dwarf shrublet which is full of personality. Autumn Glory I grow tangled with the pink Calluna Camla (County Wicklow) which gives it the protection so essential in inland districts. The violet spikes open from July until the first frost to mingle with the pink spikes of heather.

Sooner or later the beginner is tempted by the very romance of the name to plant a representative of this genus. I succumbed some 20 years ago, and long since transferred my allegiance to rhododendrons as easily the best flowering evergreens.

I find it easy to become almost lyrical about the ling of our Yorkshire moors. Indeed, were the garden around my house left to nature, the patches of heathers from the moors nearby would soon creep back in. Gloriously informal and lending themselves to most planting schemes providing the soil is acid, they really are plants which thrive on the minimum of attention.

Except in the most favoured localities it is wiser to concentrate on varieties of Camellia japonica such as Adolphe Audusson, blood red, semi double; donckelarii, large crimson blooms flecked with white; elegans, deep peach pink, very large; and Lady Clare which is soft pink and although its rather spreading branches are often damaged under heavy snow, it is lovely as a wall plant.

Even out of flower I find the gnarled, tortured branches of the wisteria attractive. In full blossom there can be few more beautiful climbing shrubs. One of the loveliest associations I have never seen was when wisteria was used to cover an arch over a clear pool and cascade.

The exquisite flowers, and soothing music of running water captured a peace denied :o most gardens. Where the twining shoots are aLlowed complete freedom, as when growing over a tall tree, little pruning is possible. Those growing, in a restricted area, like a house wall, will need restraint to produce a proper crop of blossoms.

I sually cut back the long shoots yielded annually to about 2 or 3 buds in August. Once a framework is established, spur pruning can be done in November, cutting to within 3 in. of the old Wood. A shrub of such quality should be given f:e choice position on a sun-baked wall so the wood will ripen thoroughly. The species most often planted, Wisteria chinensis (sinensis) has fragrant flowers which are deep mauve in colour and carried in long racemes.