Category Archives: Gardening Tips

Starting your own garden – Gardening Tips

There are many good reasons to start a garden, and if you’re looking for some beginners’ gardening tips, you’ll find them in this article. You shouldn’t be afraid to get started, as you can start small and gradually increase your knowledge over time. No gardener started out perfect but they did all start somewhere; pick your plants and get started today! Many beginners gravitate towards flower gardens because they are so beautiful and fragrant. If you want to make the most of your flower garden start out with flowers from your region.

Plan your garden

It’s important to factor the sunlight needs of flowers in your garden and plan your garden accordingly. Many new gardeners choose to fill their gardens with a fair number of perennials because they will flower at the same time every year. Annuals, on the other hand, only survive for a single season, so they must be replanted every year. You should also choose flowers that go well with your home and property. If you have, or are thinking of growing an indoor garden, you may want to consider using LED grow lights. You will notice that this type of lighting can actually help you produce more for the following reasons. For one thing, this type of lighting uses less electricity than other kinds, so you’ll be saving money on power usage. The production within your indoor garden will actually increase because these types of lights are geared for a specific spectrum that encourages growth. Another thing is the variety of colors that these lights come in which are made specifically for certain types of plants.

Make sure to get the soil right

A successful garden is nearly impossible to accomplish without adequate soil quality. A simple soil testing kit will help you learn valuable information about your soil like its pH level and any nutrients it contains. For the path of least resistance you’ll want to find plants that are a good match for the soil contents you have. Adding nutrients can be used to make the soil more suitable. You can also use the presence and volume of weeds on a property to help determine its soil content. Be aware that different plants have different soil requirements so this is not a “one size fits all” sort of proposition. Long winter months can be used, believe it or not, to grow plants inside your home. This is an incredibly safe way to get started with a new garden because the seedlings are so well protected. When you plant them outside and a late frost occurs your seedlings are particularly vulnerable. You’ll have much better odds of success if you wait as little as an extra month before you begin.

Planting your own herbs

There are few things as satisfying as growing your own herbs to add unparalleled flavor and zest to your dishes. The vast majority of herbs prefer full sun, but you can find some that like the shade. Herbs like oregano, basil, thyme, dill and rosemary are fairly simple to grow. You can buy seedlings in gardening-shops or on-line, or you can propagate them from cuttings. Spraying the new seedlings as needed with a light mist is beneficial.Overwintering your herbs in containers may be a good idea if you have to deal with harsh winters. An herb garden is simple enough not to overwhelm someone just getting started in gardening, but also yields a bounty of zestful spices. Gardening has been enjoyed by people around the world for many thousands of years. This is a simple way for people to get out, about, and really feel connected with Mother Nature. Your choice of what to grow will probably be influenced by your local climate, but no matter where you live you have lots of options. Now that we’ve given you some practical gardening tips, why not find out for yourself how satisfying it can be to watch something you planted start to grow?

Gardening Mistakes – How To Avoid The Most Common Ones

Perhaps the hardest part for the inexperienced gardening enthusiast is waiting for the young seedlings to make their journey into the world. Other than being patient and wait, there is nothing more to do. Although the plants will enjoy the care you give them, at times the best idea is let Mother Nature take control. There are many best practices that will all contribute to satisfying results whether you plant flowers or vegetables. Assuming gardening is something you love, and I am sure that is the case, then you could contemplate a life-long time of growing, learning and a great deal of livelihood.

How to grow your seeds

First of all, you need to be aware of how warm your soil is, and the time of year that you are planting in regard to warming cycles that naturally occur. The best time of the year to plant whatever crop you may be growing is usually assessed by a person who has experience with growing the previous year. If you are not familiar with a certain seeds, pay attention to the instructions on the packet or do research online. Another thing to consider are hybrids which are created by companies and horticulturists every year. Growing hybrid seeds is very similar to regular seeds and each one has special instructions on how to get the job done right. Growing a garden can be very successful as long as you follow the directions on what to do with each particular seed.

Don’t buy fully grown plants at nurseries

Going to the local nursery can provide a lot of inspiration for what you want to grow. There are usually not a lot of people at nurseries typically are advanced or professional gardeners. They are experts however at hanging flowers and arranging them so that you, the customer, will want to buy them. But be careful about making hasty decisions and buying those fully matured plants. It is not a good idea to purchase a plant that you see and actually believe that you can simply take it out of the pot and stick it in the ground and it will grow. The success rate is probably going to be pretty low because you don’t know about the soil or a variety of other considerations.

The challenge of growing vegetables

Vegetable gardens offer special challenges and require more specific knowledge. Vegetables such as cucumbers and tomatoes do much better in a single row format. Root yielding vegetables are usually better off in wide rows which would include carrots and onions. Knowing what seeds and vegetables you are going to use in your garden is necessary for proper garden planning. Vegetables that grow straight up are perfect for gardens that are small and have limited space.

Essential Gardening Tools for a Successful Garden

A craftsman is only as good as his tools, and that goes for gardeners as well. Making a flower garden your beautiful creation would be very difficult without proper tools. A garden can be done without tools, but it would be a messy job. . It is a common thing to search around for a tool to buy, and it is also a common thing to have a certain behavior when using that tool.  Many people use them for the wrong tasks. Usually a person will try to adapt what he or she already owns, to try to work for the new job. The best thing to do, is to have the right tool for the job that you are planning to do. Since safety should be important, it is sometimes dangerous to force a tool to do a job that it wasn’t designed for.

Protect your plants

Some gardens may require more specialised tools to improve your garden. There are some gardens that will benefit from being protected using garden netting. Light weight netting can be very useful on many types of plants. You don’t need to leave the netting over your plants permanently, but if you do you can get netting that is barely noticeable from a distance. It is great for protecting your garden against birds and other pests. You can find garden netting at your local nursery, or even through many online shops.

How to prepare soil

Another very handy garden tool is the garden hoe, which is great for preparing soil and garden beds. These are often available in a range of designs and materials. The manual hoe is the ideal tool for working the soil over. When you till the soil in garden beds this way, you give the dirt better aeration and water gets down to the plant roots more easily. You don’t have to worry about lifting heavy loads, as the garden hoe breaks up soil perfectly. In many areas the soil can be very compacted after winter, so you might want to break it up and loosen it using a pitch-fork or garden fork before switching to a hoe to till it gently.

Weed control

Trying to find effective weed control methods is the bane of every gardener. It’s possible to use home-made weed sprays or companion planting to keep weed growth to a minimum. There are also garden tools specifically designed to help you remove weeds properly. If you are tired of crawling around and pulling weeds by hand, then you can use a weed digger. This hand-tool looks a bit like a spear with a pointed metal tip at the end, split into a V-shape. You push the V down near the roots of the weed you want to remove and simply leverage it up so it pulls the whole weed out by the roots.

When you choose the right gardening tools, you’ll find that working in your garden is easier, more enjoyable and less of a chore. The right tools also make it easier to cultivate beautiful healthy plants and flowers at any time of the year.

Healthy Gardening Tips You Can Easily Use

The subject of gardening is certainly a big one, as there are vast amounts of different plants and flowers. It’s a good idea to start off with the basics if you’re new to this activity. What you wish to grow and what you actually can is sometimes different, unfortunately. Often times what you are able to grow will be determined by your location. As an example, the soil chemistry might have a pH that’s unusual which will affect your plants. So become familiar with where you are and the specifics of the soil and weather. Perhaps your best bet is to visit a local nursery and just ask them for help.

The advantage of peat moss

A great component that should be added to your garden, that is usually a mystery to most gardeners, is peat moss. Although peat moss has many nutrients, it is not used as a fertilizer. If you want to make sure that your crop is overabundant this year, use a combination of fertilizer and peat moss. However, you can use peat moss if you need to lighten soil that is heavy in nature. When gardening with a lighter variety of soil, the addition of peat moss will help with water retention. Mixing peat moss with soil is as easy as putting it on top of the dirt and turning the soil over with a shovel several times.

Organic gardening

Organic methods of gardening have been getting a lot more popular over the past years. There are various reasons as to why this has happened, but generally people are more aware of the dangers of chemicals. Of course, if you’re planning to grow some vegetables you would rather consume them without any chemicals. This is definitely an important health concern for both you and your family. To help with this, companies are starting to market natural products that can get rid of insects and generally promote the health of all kinds of plants.

Protect your hands

The most common hand injury is the laceration. You might require stitches if the injury you sustain is quite bad. When gardening you should wear some proper gardening gloves to avoid these kind of injuries. Even if the weather is warm you shouldn’t take them off. There are a number of gloves available for a variety of hazards and uses. A thin and lightweight glove will look quite nice but it won’t be very good for gardening. So make sure you wear the right gloves all the time. If you are working with liquid chemicals, wear rubber gloves and not cloth so you can protect your skin.

How to Select a Garden Style

Before planning your garden you must decide which style it’ll have, and what sort of plants you’ll have in it. There are multiple options to choose from, so it may be best if you have a look at a few different styles to see which is best for you. One of the gardens introduced in this piece may help you select the one you would like to make at your home:

Wildflower Garden

The look of a wildflower garden is enjoyed by some but others opt for the appearance of cultivated flowers. This garden variety has a naturalistic appearance and is easy to keep up if you utilize naturalistic plants. Greenhouses or garden centers are a good source for seeds or you can discover transplants in your surrounding area. Typically, wildflowers do not require as much care as other plants but you do need to keep in mind the essential demands of the plants you select. It’s a good idea to plant a variety of wildflowers that bloom in different seasons, to give your garden a lush look all year round.

English Country Style Garden

Choosing the English Country garden style is a unique way to create and present a garden. Originating in England, this century-old type of garden has both flowers and a variety of plants. Traditional English Country gardens are based on the type of gardens found on the estates of wealthy landowners, which usually have formal rows of hedges, stone paths, and possibly decorated with ornaments such as statues. One would know that you are in an English country garden because of the wide variety of wildflowers that burst with color throughout the entire area. Fountains within large ponds are also part of these types of gardens which usually have a bench or two for people to sit and rest.

Japanese Style Garden

Gardens that are of a Japanese style are very popular these days, mostly due to their rather beautiful looks. These types of garden harness the natural environment as their foundations, just like how Japanese art does. If the style you’re going for is Japanese you would try to incorporate the natural things in your garden, such as a stream, rocks or trees. Japanese gardens usually have a very distinctive empty space. Bamboo, pines, Japanese maples and azaleas all feature in Japanese gardens. This kind of garden usually has a small number of species in order to keep it in line with the simplicity of the Japanese. Another fantastic type of garden to grow which will amaze your friends and family is a butterfly garden. As you may have figured out, this type of garden is designed specifically to attract butterflies to it. To make sure that it is a success, the plants that you grow must excrete a certain nectar that will attract the butterflies to them. Less wind and more sunshine are key factors that also need to be part of your garden for this to work. In general, the best flowers to attract butterflies are colorful and fragrant ones, so this also gives you a reason to create an attractive, multicolored garden that also has a pleasant fragrance. Creating this garden will give you two sources of entertainment and pleasure counting both the butterflies and the assorted flowers.

Water Gardens

Water gardens are an interesting type of garden that you may want to consider, whether you have a pond or other body of water on your property or not. If there aren’t any natural water sources close to you, you could always add a fountain to the middle. Make sure your garden has a lot of sunlight as the aquatic plants in a water garden will require it.

It’s also typical to incorporate fish into a water garden, not only for their beauty but for the job they do of controlling debris and insects. A water garden can be very rewarding, but it’s also a big project, and it can be expensive to start. For those who have little experience with this type of garden they would be better off with a smaller water garden to start with.

Medical Herb Garden

A medicinal herb garden is something you may want to consider if you’re interested in holistic health. A benefit of planting herbs is the ease to which they grow, both outdoors and indoors. Do some research concerning the medicinal herbs most well suited for your area. Oregano, Chamomile, and Echinacea work well in a variety of environments. Chamomile makes for a relaxing tea that can help with insomnia and nervousness. Avoid sickness by utilizing Echinacea which has been used for many years by the Native Americans. Help your immune system with Oregano, perhaps better known as an Italian cooking spice, that also has other medicinal qualities.