Gardenig in China. Tips & Guides

From the eye-popping vibrancy of Texas sage to the understated elegance of Forsythia, these shrubs offer an explosion of color, fragrance, and texture that’s tailor-made for the Lone Star State’s unique climate and soil conditions. Ready to elevate your outdoor space to a new level of enchantment? Then buckle up, as we guide you through an all-star lineup of Texas Flowering Shrubs that promise year-round splendor and endless conversation starters for your garden gatherings!

Check out the list of 12 Edibles You Can Grow in Water with ease! You don’t need a garden to grow these–A small windowsill, balcony, or tabletop is sufficient to have a fresh supply right at your fingertips!

This article offers easy steps for the successful planting, nurturing, and harvesting of Choy Sum (Yu Choy) – a nutritious and tasty Asian vegetable!

Do harmony and balance in an environment design bring the occupants peace and prosperity? The answer is yes according to the ancient Chinese art of Feng Shui. Using Feng Shui principles means arranging objects and space in your living space in a way that will accomplish these goals.

 Fireglow Japanese Maple is a fantastic specimen for anyone looking forward to create a natural focal point of colors in their garden! Let’s have a look at it!

If you are looking for an easy-to-maintain plant, then Button Orchid can be a good choice. Here are all the details on How to Grow Dischidia nummularia.

 Botanically known as Rhaphiolepis indica, these plants belong to the Rosaceae family and are popular for their attractive, glossy leaves and fragrant flowers, which bloom in the spring and summer. Let’s have a look at the best Indian Hawthorn Varieties!

China Central Television has produced a short video showing the plant experiments growing on the Tiangong space station. The Shenzhou-16 crew has been in orbit for almost three months, and says their space vegetable garden has given a good lettuce harvest.

Growing tea at home can be rewarding and fun. The best part is, you can also grow it in your balcony or patio! There’s nothing like watching a tea plant grow and sipping a piping hot tea made from the homegrown, organic tea leaves! Here’s everything about Growing Tea Leaves at Home!

Here are all the details you need about Baltic Blue Pothos Care!Make this stunning plant a part of your houseplant collection.

Chinar (Platanus orientalis) is a deciduous tree that belongs to the cold regions of the world, mainly in the Kashmir valley of India. Their real beauty unfurls in fall when the foliage turns to a blood-red and mauve color. The leaves eventually turn yellow and amber. The name ‘Chinar‘ comes from the Persian word, which means-‘What a fire.’ Here is Everything About Chinar Trees you need to know!

Get ready for launch, it’s time for the latest edition of Gardeners off World!

Header image: Tokyo Bekana Chinese cabbage leaves prior to harvest aboard the International Space Station. Photo credit: NASA

Today’s guest post is from Carl Legge.

Astronaut Steven Swanson tending to the Veggie garden on the International Space Station. Image credit: NASA

Move over, Mark Watney, there’s a new space botanist heading for Mars! Ryan and I have just finished watching the new Netflix series Away, which follows (over 10 episodes) the quest of five international astronauts to be the first people to set foot on the red planet.

Alison Tindale tells explains everything you need to know about Chinese artichokes!

Pea shoots are an oriental delicacy, regularly grown in gardens across China, but rarely seen for sale here in the UK because they’re very expensive for their weight. Cheap and easy to grow, pea shoots are an ideal candidate for growing in a kitchen garden because you’ll be getting a lot of value for your money and your space – even if all you have is a windowsill or a small container garden.

Join Emma the Space Gardener as she explores gardening on Earth… and beyond! In this episode, Emma recaps important spacecraft Arrivals and Departures and learns about growing nutrients and medicines in space. There’s a new plant experiment running on the International Space Station, and exciting news from ESA.

Hello! Welcome to Gardeners off World. The big news for space gardeners this week is that NASA has determined that the salads grown in Veggie are safe to eat. And a team of Russian researchers have developed a prototype for an orbital greenhouse. The Orbital Biological Automatic Module includes smart lighting to accelerate plant growth, specialised hydroponics, automated irrigation and harvesting solutions. It could be heading to the International Space Station (ISS) – “Humanity’s home in Low Earth Orbit” – in the next few years.

In previous years, my garden plan has revolved around what I want to grow. There are a lot of unusual plants that grow, or might grow, in our climate, and I enjoy trying them out. With my experimental impulses mainly focused on the Hydroponicum, I have been thinking about what we would like to eat from the garden.

With my bookshelf groaning under the weight of unread review books, I have declared an emergency Reading Week. Reading Week at university is a bit like half term – the lecturers get a week off teaching, and the students are supposed to use it to catch up on their reading list. When I went back to uni to do my Masters I dreamed of spending a lot of time reading, with the wealth of the university library on hand. The reality was there was never any time to ready anything that wasn’t immediately essay-related, which was a shame.

The lotus is a remarkable plant. I’m referring to Nelumbo nucifera, which is native to Asia and sacred to both buddhists and Hindus. (It’s related to the American lotus, N. lutea, but not to the lotus that appears in ancient Egyptian images – that’s Nymphaea lotus. Plants in the Nymphaea genus are more commonly referred to as waterlillies in the UK.)

The political weather has been stormy of late, and as the sun has come out to play at last, the garden seems the safest place to be. There’s a lot to be done to get it ready for the growing season, so time spent outside is never wasted. A lot of what I’m doing at the moment could best be termed ungardening, clearing out the contents from last year’s containers, and reusing the potting compost in the bottom of new pots, or as a soil improving mulch.

Last weekend, as the temperatures soared, I found a certain amount of solace in learning more about how plants are being grown in Antarctica – the coldest place on Earth. 

Header image: Chinese astronauts Tang Hongbo, Nie Haisheng, and Liu Boming during ceremony before heading to Tiangong. ROMAN PILIPEY/EPA

As I mentioned last month, for the time being I have decided to use my low-level trough planter for flowers, rather than the mini pond I had originally intended it for. Still, at some point in the future I would like a garden with a water feature. A natural swimming pool would be my first choice, but that seems unlikely. A fish pond would be lovely – as long as I was also blessed with hours to while away next to it, watching the fishes do their thing.

A year ago, the first seeds sprouted on the Moon. China’s Chang’e-4 mission was the first to land on the far side of the Moon, which faces away from Earth. The lander carried a sealed container filled with soil, cotton, rapeseed, Arabidopsis (rock cress) and potato seeds, yeast and fruit fly eggs. The aim of the experiment was to form an artificial, self-sustaining environment – a mini biosphere. The six components were chosen to act “producers, consumers and decomposers”, with the plants producing oxygen and food to sustain the fruit flies. The yeast was to process waste from the flies the dead plants to create more insect food. 

Join Emma the Space Gardener on the Tiangong space station to learn about China’s botanical experiments in space, and why Chinese consumers are eagerly awaiting rice from heaven. Plus – what was the first plant grown in space?

Header image: Rendering of Tiangong Space Station in late July 2022, along with June 2022 with Tianhe core module in the middle, Wentian lab module on the left, Tianzhou cargo spacecrafts on right, and Shenzhou-14 crewed spacecraft at nadir. Image credit Shujianyang via Wikipedia.

What kind of traveller are you? Do you prefer to lie in a hammock slung between two palm trees, reading the latest blockbuster novel? Or would I find you soaking up the local culture along with the sun? I’m more of the latter, and it helps to know a smattering of the local language if you go off the beaten track!

Join Emma the Space Gardener as she explores gardening on Earth… and beyond! In this episode, Emma explores some exciting interplanetary plant news and talks about two projects growing in the Orbital Garden – heritage hydroponics and space chiles.

I read an anecdote (and it bothers me now that I can’t remember where) about a crew on the ISS who looked at the food supplies on board. They called down to Mission Control and said, “We have lots of packets of Grits in stock, but no one likes them. Can we just toss them out?”

Header image credit: China Manned Space Engineering Office

Aquaculture is farming in water. Can we do that in space? Join Emma the Space Gardener as she explores gardening on Earth… and beyond!

The Mengtian laboratory cabin module has successfully docked with the Chinese Tiangong space station, and Tiangong is now complete.