Keeping your garden neat and beautiful is a gratifying experience. However, sometimes your plants get sick, or the yard needs a little bit more love and effort to flourish. If your life is too hectic or you simply don’t have the time, you can always pay for a gardening service. Or, you can learn a few tricks and become a fantastic gardener yourself.
Hence, in this article, we’re going to explain the basics of gardening and give you some useful tips about maintaining a charming garden. You can create a secluded and magical haven right at your doorstep.
1) Examine Your Plants Before You Buy Them
It would be best if you examine your plants before purchase, and that’s a simple and yet very prudent advice. The quality of the plants will determine the time and effort you’ll need to put into growing them. Plus, the easiest way to have a healthy garden is to avoid introducing sick plants in the environment.
If you want to become one of the finest gardeners in your neighborhood, you should learn how to recognize healthy and quality plants. Thus, it would help if you avoided plants with dead spots, rotted stems, or insects. Additionally, you should always check the roots. Vigorous roots are firm, typically white, and spaced all over.
2) Water Your Plants Regularly
Watering your plants regularly is a no-brainer. But, not all plants are created equal, which means some of them will require more water and attention than others. The first thing you should do is to learn about each plant individually. However, a rule of thumb is to water your plants once or twice a week.
Water them early in the morning or in the evening when the soil is cold so that the water won’t evaporate because of the heat. Plus, you should be careful not to water the leaves, only the roots. That way, you’ll avoid mold. Most people hire a gardening service that installs an irrigation system with water control, which gives you the option to regulate the moisture in the soil.
3) Consider the Quality of the Soil
The soil is the main ingredient for a beautiful garden. Gardening with clay soil will require organic compost to keep it lose. Consider adding about a foot of compost, or two layers one atop the other. Plus, turn your soil at least once a month, to make sure it is light and lose, which will give the plants room to grow.
4) Pruning in Winter & Spring
Another useful tip is to prune regularly. Pruning is not only for show, but it also gives your plants a growing boost because the plant is not wasting resources on broken or disfigured branches. It would be best if you pruned summer flowers at the end of winter or early spring before the growth starts. And you should prune spring flowers after they bloom at the end of spring.
5) Use Composted Yard Waste
Because not all waste composes at the same rate, use only fully composted yard waste while gardening. The reason you need to use only fully composted waste is that composting generates high temperatures and they last for an extended period of time. That means the waste will kill any pathogens and keep your plants healthy.
6) Be Careful with Weeds
It’s almost impossible to avoid weeds when you’re trying to maintain a lavish and beautiful garden. Thus, you’ll have to create some good cultural practices like dealing with weeds early in the spring and cutting their room for growth.
We would recommend you take care of them as soon as possible because as their roots grow deeper, it will become harder for you to get rid of them and they can damage your plants. Plus, it would be best if you started spring fertilization after you dealt with the weeds.
7) Use Mulch
As we said above, and any expert gardener would agree, using mulch or waste is extremely important for the growth of your plants. Plus, mulch prevents weed seeds from developing further. But, knowing the right time and the right amount is crucial because you can smother the ground if you use too much mulch right after winter.
In fact, the best practice if to leave the garden to warm up a little and let the soil get dry before you use mulch.
8) Slugs
Sometimes, your garden gets taken over by slugs. And you should find a way to get rid of them and the easiest way to do that is beer. You can build a beer trap quite quickly, just fill a bucket with beer and position it in the ground, in the middle of the garden. The beers with a high percentage of yeast work the best.
9) Bugs
Another annoyance is garden bugs. In fact, viruses and bacteria can only enter a plant through openings or bug damage. Additionally, some bugs act as transports and they can carry bacterias from one plant to another. If you notice bugs in your garden that affect your plants, consider using some plant-friendly pesticides.
10) Remove Debris Frequently
Removing debris like leaves and broken branches will keep your garden neat and prevent or control any plant diseases. Plus, your plants need room to grow, and dead leaves can prevent that. However, if you want to have an amazing garden, and you don’t want to do all of the above by yourself, you can always acquire a gardening service!