If you have just started out as a gardener, you probably have visions of a beautiful, bountiful garden and lots of enjoyable hours tilling the soil and reaping the fruits of your labors. While this can surely be the case, very often, gardening is lots of hard work followed by baffled disappointment – at least until you know what you are doing! Here are some ideas to help you cultivate your green thumb as quickly as possible.
Avoid chemicals for pest control. Chemicals are effective but can also damage your plants. You should look for natural methods instead. For instance, you can buy jars of ladybugs and release them on your plants. Ladybugs are natural predators for a variety of smaller insects that eat flowers and other plants.
Make a handy twine dispenser from old clay pots. To always have gardening twine ready to use, take an old clay pot, and place it in your garden where you want your twine dispenser to be. Then place your ball of twine in it, and turn a second clay pot upside down. Thread the twine through the drainage hole of the upside down pot and place it on top of the bottom pot. You now have a handy dispenser!
When deciding to take up gardening, it is important to study and know your geographical area. Some vegetation simply can’t survive a northern winter. Contrarily, some plants can’t survive a Texas summer. As such, it is important to know where you are and what the plants that you intend on growing can handle.
If you have many potted plants, do not water them all the same way. Some plants do well with plenty of water, whereas other plants might prefer a drier soil. Over-watering can do as much damage to a plant as under-watering. So, be mindful of what types of plants that you have in the pots, and water them appropriately.
Use your leftover pasta water in your garden! Plants are big starch fans and thrive with water that contains higher levels of starch, like the water left over after you boil pasta or potatoes. Make sure, though, that you let the water sit until it reaches room temperature prior to watering your plants with it!
Fertilize your garden regularly. Manure helps your plants grow. Make sure you use a product that is commercially composted so you don’t risk adding pathogens to your garden. There are numerous types of fertilizers available. What type you select is less of a concern; any kind of fertilizer is better than none.
Save your eggshells to use as a soil additive. Crushed eggshells add much needed calcium to your garden, and working the shells in also helps keep the soil aerated. A barrier made of crushed eggshells and placed in a ring around your plants can also protect them from snails and slugs. Their delicate bodies are cut and scratched by the jagged eggshells, making them avoid those sections of the garden.
Clean up your garden at the end of the growing season. If you clean up your garden when the growing season is over, it will improve the appearance and make less work for you the following year. Remove dead or damaged branches on trees and shrubs, get rid of weeds before they go to seed, and rake any leaves from the lawn. Remove old annual plants and cut perennials to the ground if they normally die back in the winter. Any plant material that isn’t diseased can be put in the compost pile.
If you do not like chemical insect repellents you should consider using herbs instead. Herbs like chives can be used in place of the chemical insect repellents to keep bugs from eating your flowers and produce. You can grow chives yourself or buy them at your local grocery store.
You need to prune your rose bushes on a regular basis. Pruning a bush helps to increase its circulation, which will help it to be healthier. You should use pruners when pruning a rose bush as they are quick, easy and do not cause damage to the bush when they are used. They are typically cheap and affordable at Powertoolbuzz.
