Does Your Garden Need A Little Help? Find Handy Tips Here!
Dec 21st, 2013 by administrator
Does Your Garden Need A Little Help? Find Handy Tips Here!
Taking your hobby of gardening an extra step and using organic materials, can be beneficial for the plants you grow, as well as, the environment! Instead of using pesticides and toxic weed-killing solutions, use natural alternatives like vinegar and soapy water. Read this article for more tips on organic gardening.
Buying a container-grown shrub. Slide the shrub out of its container to check for a well-developed root system. The roots should have healthy, white tips, and not look dry at all. Don’t buy a plant if it has poorly developed roots, or if the roots are congested and coiled around the base of the pot. These kinds of roots rarely establish themselves once they are planted in the ground.
A key element to having a great garden is to fence it in. In many areas the wildlife will consume the fruits and vegetables as soon as they sprout, yielding little or no harvest. A good fence will not only keep out the wildlife, but it will keep out the neighborhood children from playing ball and pets from digging.
Pick garden vegetables often and early. While immature, many types of vegetables are very tasty in their young phase. Snap peas, little summer squash, cucumbers, and budding broccoli can be picked to keep the plants in a state of reproduction for a longer period of time. This will also increase yields with a second harvest off of the same plants.
You can dry herbs by putting them in your car. You can neatly arrange them on a sheet of newspaper in a single layer. Then close the doors and windows and let it air dry. The warmth in the car will dry the herbs quickly. The herbs themselves will create a very nice aroma.
Don’t try to remove low lying weeds by hand. Instead get a small shovel and flip them over so their leaves are under the dirt. You will kill the weed and the leaves will rot creating a fresh mulch like material for you to use. It is green and nourishing for the other plants.
A great way to keep insects and pests at bay in your garden is to spray your plants with a dish soap and water mixture. A mixture of one quart water and one half teaspoon dish detergent will kill off those pesky parasites. Be sure to respray every fourteen days.
Are you ready to plant a garden? Swap seeds with other people you know, or join a seed exchange with others online. It is not uncommon to need only a small number of seeds from each of your seed packets for each growing season. Trading will help you gain a greater variety of seeds not found in your stores. It will also save you from spending even more money just to get a greater variety of seeds!
To make birds stay away from the produce you’re growing in your garden, tie mylar balloons near your plants. These will scare away the birds and keep your fruit and veggies safe until you’re ready to pick them. Silver balloons or balloons that sparkle in the sun make especially effective bird repellents.
A helpful solution for getting rid of a few slugs in your garden is to set out a container of beer. Just take a small plastic cup or container (plastic margarine bowl works great) and tuck it down into your garden beds near the area where the slugs are known to appear. Be sure the lip of the dish is level to the ground and then fill it with beer. The beer attracts the slugs into the dish where they will drown. You will have to dispose of the slugs and reset the beer “trap” every couple days, but your slugs will disappear.
Plan your garden for best results. Before you put one spade into the dirt, you need to decide what you will plant, and where. You want to plot your garden’s size, and then decide what plants use according to their individual needs. Consider lighting, drainage, and spacing for each plant.
You can maintain a garden without spending a lot of money on store-bought mulch or using pesticides on your plants. Anything that used to be alive is a great source for mulch, like leaves or kitchen waste. Remember the tips in this article, in order to maintain a great organic garden, without spending too much money!