Gardening is a pleasure activity as seen by most people. Many believe that only people who have lots of spare time and nothing to do take up gardening. However, this is not true. Gardening can be done by any one irrespective of age, region or any other discrimination. Gardening is an activity which is practiced by people who want to make their lawn look attractive. It is also cost effective and can be practiced by anyone.

The good thing about gardening is that you need not spend a lot of money to bring up a good garden. Some people spend huge amounts of money to decorate their patios or lawns by incorporating some artificial decorations. Gardening helps you save all the time and money invested in such expensive undertakings.

The positive thing about gardening is that you don't even need a vast space of land to grow a garden. Flower plants can also be grown in containers or polystyrene boxes. All you need to do is make a hole at the bottom of the box for draining the excess water.

Then soil from which rocks and weeds have been removed and which has been nicely broken up must be filled in the container. There are 3 types of soil available for this purpose:

? Sandy soil: This type of soil loses water very fast. Hence some peat should be added to it to increase its water retention capacity. In some cases, lime must also be added to the sandy soil to neutralize its acidity.

? Loamy soil: This type of soil holds moisture for a greater amount of time than the sandy soil.

? Clay soil: This type of soil holds moisture for the longest period amount the three. Organic matter or peat is to be added to this soil to prevent it from becoming too hard after planting.

Addition of lime to soil reduces its acidity, breaks down the organic matter that is added to the soil and prevents growth of fungi and bacteria. Due to these steps, nutrients added to the soil will reach the plants easily. Water retaining capacity of the soil is also increased.

Another important step to be taken is addition of fertilizers to the soil. Fertilizers can increase the nutrient quantity in the soil and increase your chances of obtaining a better crop output. Fertilizers are available in cheap as animal manures and also in expensive forms as nitrogen or other chemicals.