Even some of the smartest, most educated people can feel like dummies, when it comes to the garden. There are a few basic principles that need to be learned when planning and maintaining a garden. Nurseries arrange plants according to growing conditions; and there are only a few basic tools you will need to be a successful gardener. This article will show you how, in easy to follow steps, to go from a gardening dummy to a self-confident gardener.
Tip 1 - The Top Two Secrets to Gardening Success
The right plant for the right conditions! It's all in the drainage!
Whether you are trying to grow in shade or blistering sun, your nursery makes it easy for you to pick out the right plants. The shade and sun loving plants will be each in their own sections in the nursery. The tag for each plant will give added details on the growing conditions best suited for each particular plant.
Drainage is a big key to growing success. In a pot, you will want to have a large hole in the middle of the pot bottom or many small ones. You will want to put some pebbles, stones, broken pieces of pots and sand in the bottom of the container, and good potting soil on top. Potting soil already has the nutrients and soil lighteners added to the mixture.
For outdoor garden beds, you will want to dig a hole two to three times the size of the pot the plant came in from the nursery. To make it easier to formulate the soil, mix in equal parts garden soil and potting soil with the soil from the garden.
Tip 2 - Buy the basic tools
There is a few tools you will need in your garage or shed to assure success. You will need a spade for digging holes, a trawl for planting, a metal garden rake for spreading the soil and mulch, a garden fork for turning mulch and loosening soil before digging or weeding, a hoe for weeding, and a soil water tester to indicate when you need to re-water.
Tip 3 - Add a Set of Garden Augers and a good Power Drill to your Tool Collection
Garden augers, which can be found on the Internet, look like large drill bits. They attach to an ordinary drill and make life much easier for your planting, and weeding chores. You can simply mulch weeds right into the soil as they emerge.
Tip 4 - Attack the Weeds when they are Young
If you mulch up the weeds with either a hoe or a garden auger, before they go to seed, you won't give them the chance to propagate. If you attack the weeds when they are young enough, they will easily mulch back into the soil. Of course, you will still get weeds from neighboring yards and fields - and even from lands far away thanks to birds and whether streams. There is still no need to panic. Simply use the same strategy as above to manage those weeds. A full size garden hoe applied to weeds when they are young is the method easiest on your back.
Some weeds propagate through their root systems. These types of weeds are the hardest to get rid of, but there still is no need to panic. Periodically take a hoe or garden auger to the emerging plants and root systems.
Tip 5 - Make Clover and other Beneficial Weeds your Friends
Clover makes a good ground cover and will fix the nitrogen in the soil, plus help hold in the moisture in the garden. Clover is actually a very small bean, and the bean-containing mature florets make a nutritious and delicious addition to a salad. Farmers markets a good place to learn about beneficial weeds.
Check out the Handy American website for a full list of professionals and contractors for your gardening needs. They can help plan an easy to maintain garden.
Posted by: TrustedProsSuggested Reading For You
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