For many people, gardening is more than just a hobby. Garden is one of the most relaxing and rewarding parts of their daily lives. Gardening can yield not just beautiful flowers and delicious fruits and vegetables, but less stress and tension as well! Read on for interesting and practical information, on how to get the most out of your gardening pleasure!
Use a mixture of vinegar, rubbing alcohol, and water to get rid of salt deposits. If you are having a problem of salt buildup on your clay pots, mix equal parts white vinegar, rubbing alcohol and water in a spray bottle. Spray on the deposits and they will wash away with ease. Make sure to let the pots dry thoroughly before use.
Divide up your perennials while they still look healthy. It’s best to divide a perennial at the end of the growing season during which it hits its peak. As the plant starts to overgrow, the center of the plant will start to have dying stalks and weaker flowers. Allowing perennials to grow too long may also lead to them overtaking neighboring plants.
Don’t bother with expensive chemicals if your plants start to sport powdery mildew. Combine baking soda with a small dollop of liquid soap and add it to water. Then, spray this mixture onto all of your infected plants once each week till the mildew is gone. Baking soda is a good way to get rid of mildew on your plants gently.
To store your garden-fresh onions for use throughout the winter and avoid having them rot or mold, store them in pantyhose! Yes, pantyhose! Simply place the onions into the legs of pantyhose, and, to avoid letting them touch one another (which is what helps create mold and rot), place a twist tie between each onion and the next. To store, hang the pantyhose by the gusset in a cool dry place and cut off or pop a hole in the pantyhose to grab an onion when you need it.
Make sure you recycle your garden waste and organic kitchen waste to create compost for your garden. A compost heap makes an excellent soil conditioner. It can also save you a lot of money, as you won’t need to buy bags of expensive commercial compost or fertilizer to make your plants grow.
Make your long handled garden tool into a measuring tool. You can get measuring tape and mark out the units with a black permanent marker. This works great for wood handled tools. When you need to space your plants out a particular distance, you can use your homemade measuring stick to measure the distance.
Key to any garden activity is using the right tools. While having a shovel is essential, so are other tools that work best with your garden size. For smaller gardens, short handled tools work best, for larger gardens longer handled hoes and spades work better. Make sure you keep a sharp edge on your tools for easier work.
If you discover that your soil is very alkaline, take used coffee grounds and mix them thoroughly with your soil. The coffee grounds are a very inexpensive way to add acid back into the dirt. You will notice that your vegetables and greens will have a stronger taste.
To make the most of the water you use, be sure to water your plants first thing in the morning. Doing this makes your water less likely to evaporate, and allows foliage to dry quickly. This reduces the risk of many common diseases, and will help your plants grow to be strong and healthy.
As you plan your garden this year, change the layout so that it’s different from where the various plants were located last year. For example, place your tomatoes in the part of the garden where the corn grew last season. This rotation of crops will help keep your soil from becoming depleted of the nutrients needed by each type of vegetable.
Make sure you are realistic about your gardening abilities. It is easy to get excited about the possibilities that your garden holds. However, it does not make sense to purchase seeds that will not thrive in your climate. Research what type of plants you can successfully grow and stick to your list when shopping.
A wonderful treat for your indoor houseplants is to take them outside periodically and let them bask in the glory of a summer rainstorm. You will be treating them to higher humidity and longer hours of daylight that far surpasses the stale conditions they may be getting indoors! You will want to minimize too much direct sunlight and make sure your plant containers have good drainage holes so that extra rainwater doesn’t collect to cause root rot. Some quality time in the outdoors will pay off with lush, healthy plants year-round!
When deciding to plant a garden, it is important to survey the areas available for planting and determine which will be the best location. Whether you grow your fruits and vegetables in your yard, on your patio in containers, or on your apartment balcony, your plants should be in a location which is exposed to sunlight. To yield the best harvest, most crops need to be situated in an area which is an open location that is sunny.
Consult the pros. If you are starting a garden for the first time, it’s a good idea to look for professional help. This doesn’t necessarily mean going to the trouble of hiring a landscape architect. You can find plenty of great advice online, in gardening books, magazines and tv shows. A good idea is to look for regional resources, such as a website devoted to gardening in your area, or a local garden center. Whatever method you choose, don’t be afraid to make mistakes, and above all – have fun designing your new garden!
Given how busy and stressed out life can be, it’s a wonder that more people do not take up gardening. As you have just read, there are many ways of making it easier and more cost effective and even, more fun. Hopefully, this article has planted a few seeds in your mind about how to be a better gardener, today!