10 Gardening Tips To Keep
Your Garden Alive
Taking care of your plants
can be really fun if you know what exactly to do. Here are some few tips to
observe:
- Check the health of your plants. Whether you’re transplanting
plants from nurseries or growing your own from seeds, fully inspect your
garden plants to make sure they are pest and rot free. Bringing in
infected or diseased plants can harm the whole garden. Aside from plant
disease, destructive bugs like aphids, gnats, and white-flies should be
eliminated using the appropriate pesticides or other effective
extermination methods.
- Water properly. Over-watering can lead to fungi
growth, leaf spots, and unhealthy plants. Only water as often as necessary
during the growing season for your specific plant species, and let the
soil dry between watering to keep from over-saturating. The trick is to keep
your garden well-watered but not soaking, and avoid wetting the foliage.
Water directly onto the soil instead. This is easy to do when watering by
hand, but if you want to automate things, opt for a drip irrigation system
if possible.
- Treat your soil. Soil degrades over time and needs
to be refreshed every so now and then. You can buy new soil from a local
garden center, so make sure to check the quality of your garden soil and
replace when necessary. Adding mulch is also useful for retaining the soil
moisture of your garden. Mulching material will keep weeds down while also
supplying organic matter to your soil when it begins to degrade.
Fertilizing your garden is another method to keeping it healthy. Depending
on the type of plant species you’re growing, use the right amount of
fertilizer and apply appropriately to make sure you don’t over-stress your
plants.
- Clean your gardening tools. Garden tools should be cleaned to
control disease and prevent transferring any bacteria or dangerous
elements into your garden. In addition to the other methods of garden
care, clean tools can help keep your garden healthy longer.
- Perform plant maintenance. Deadhead, prune, and cull your
plants as needed. Deadheading removes old flower blooms to encourage new
growth. Pruning is cutting back the branches of your plants to control
growth and make room for more. Culling your plants will clean up the
unhealthy bits and also create more space for your garden to flourish.
These gardening methods can all promote growth, clearing out any possible
hidden pests or undesirable parts, increasing room for your flower or
vegetable garden to flourish.
- Get rid of weeds. Weeds are garden killers. They
can suffocate the roots of your healthy plants, harbor pests, and become
an unsightly nuisance. Weeds take up space and resources that your plants
could be using, so weeding your garden can keep it healthy and growing.
- Keep animals at bay. Set up a barrier around your
garden bed, like a wire fence, to keep herbivores, critters, and other
garden pests from destroying your plants. Wire fencing keeps your garden
safe, while also keeping it visible and exposed to the sun.
- Stake your plants. Staking involves fixing sticks
into the ground and tying your flower stems or other garden crops to them
with cloth or thread (trellis is a very good idea as well). Staking your
plants—like cucumber, pepper, or tomato plants—reinforces the stems and keeps
them from bending or breaking, keeping them upright and healthy.
- Companion plant. Companion planting, or
inter-cropping, is when you plant a variety of different
crops together to increase growth productivity, provide pollinators, ward off
pests, and control the habitat for beneficial insects. Inter-cropping is a
great way to keep your garden and flower beds thriving by surrounding them
with the right plants that will enable their successful growth.
- Try raised beds. Adding raised beds
(or garden containers) to your garden plans can significantly increase
your plant’s longevity. Raised beds are great if you want to start small,
or plant a variety of sections. Raised beds come with a barrier, provide
proper drainage, and can help keep your garden bed safe from weeds and
other garden nuisances.