You just prepared your first garden and are so excited about it. Are you worried that you might fail to keep it green and lush all year long? Whether it is a lawn or a vegetable garden, every gardener wants to keep it blooming all year round.
If you don’t know where to start, don’t worry. This article is meant for you. By the end of it, you should be confident enough to start your gardening. Below are some tips to help you.
Soil
This is the most important thing when talking about gardening! Your plants will require healthy soil for them to thrive. This is why you should turn it at least once a month to ensure it remains loose and light.
Clay soil tends to harden and crumble over time, thus making it harder to maintain. You can top the clay soil with organic compost to ensure it stays loose and fertile.
Water
We all know that plants need water, what not everyone knows is when and how to water them. They should be watered early in the morning when the temperatures are lower to minimize water loss through evaporation. Also, watering them consistently is key to getting fresh produce all year long.
The best watering method is drip irrigation. This is because it minimizes the amount of water used and prevents the leaves from getting wet, which could lead to diseases.
Most pathogens depend on water for growth and reproduction. If you do not have a drip irrigation unit and are forced to water by hand, hold out the leaves and water the roots.
Wetness worsens most leaf problems. This is why overhead sprinklers are not ideal. If you still choose to use them, water the plants when the leaves have the likelihood of drying quickly and still get the roots get the chance to absorb enough moisture before all of it evaporates.
Giving your plants inadequate water comes with a set of problems. These include stunted growth, browning or dead leaves, and wilting.
More is not always better where watering plants is concerned. A waterlogged environment encourages root-rotting fungi and leads to roots suffocation, which in turn, promotes rotting fungi.
If you cannot manage to water your plants daily, consider plants like Lavender, Gardenia, Jasmine, or Chrysanthemum that requires less of it. Also, go for vegetables that grow throughout the year. An expert will help you choose the ideal ones.
Season Extenders
If you live in hot places, provide shade for your plants. Cheesecloth provides the best shade cover. For colder climates, you should consider using seasonal extenders like a plastic tarp that acts like a greenhouse to protect your vegetables from cold.
Spacing
When planting any vegetable, bulb, shrubs, or fruit, give it enough growth space. Every plant requires moisture, sunlight, and the needed nutrients from the soil. Avoid overcrowding to enable each plant to receive an adequate supply of air and essential elements.
When spacing transplants, take extra care and watch how already established plants spread. Overcrowded plants produce humidity, which encourages diseases like powdery mildew, downy mildew, or rust to thrive.
Increasing airflow around the plants minimizes this relative humidity and encourages foliage to dry more speedily. Placing plants too close to each other makes them grow poorly since they tend to compete for sunlight, nutrients, and water. They become weak, making them susceptibility to attacks.
Infected leaves also tend to spread diseases to others that they come into contact with. This is most likely when plants are overcrowded. To minimize the likelihood of diseases, cut out damaged, crowded, or old plant stalks that are at risk of getting attacked by powdery mildew.
You can also divide or rearrange your plants if needed. Vegetables tend to require direct sunlight and should, therefore, not be crowded. It is also essential to keep them watered and clipped.
Weeding
Resistant weeds can be a big headache to any farmer who wishes to get rid of them and prevent their recurrence. These stubborn weeds need to be handled both chemically and physically. Since it is hard to control them completely, aim at preventing them from spreading.
Although mulch is known for providing shade and minimizing water evaporation, it can also be used to suppress weeds. What is more, you don’t have to spend much on it. Simply use the excess grass you got after mowing your lawn.
Use the Right Fertilizer
Not every material in a compost pile decomposes at the same rate. Some of these materials might have lost their value and need not be put in the garden. Thorough compost will generate high temperatures for longer periods, which can help kill pathogens.
Refrain from using infected plant debris as it will reintroduce diseases in your garden. If you are not sure about your compost, avoid using yard waste.
Always take care when applying fertilizer on your plants. Too much of it can burn the roots and reduce their ability to uptake water.
Watch out for Bugs
Plant diseases caused by insects tend to be quite destructive. Bacteria and viruses can easily enter a plant via some opening that bugs provide. Some insects transport viruses and spread them to different plants. Aphids tend to be the most common carriers while thrips spread viruses.
Watch out for bugs and use the appropriate insecticide to get rid of them. If possible, go for an organic insecticide as it will cause no future health problems to anyone or anything that consumes your produce.
If your garden is infested with slugs, a container filled with beer will help. Just keep it in your garden and let your soil absorb the beer throughout the night. Slugs tend to be attracted to the beer scent, and your container will be full of them the next morning.
Giving them beer every night will eventually drive them out of your garden. Planting disease-resistant plants is also Weanother great option. These tend to fight off diseases instead of succumbing to them.
Clean Up in the Fall
The best time to clean your garden is during fall. This is not only an effective disease deterrent mechanism but also a sure way to control any disease that might already have attacked your plants.
One last but very important aspect is to conduct a proper analysis of your soil. Get a local expert to help with the procedure. This will provide you with information regarding the nutrients levels in your soil. This way, you will know what to feed it for maximum yields.
With the above tips, you should be ready to start gardening. We are here to make sure of that. Did you enjoy reading this article? Well, let us know what you think and any questions you might have regarding this topic.
Author Bio:
Alex is a firewood cutting fan and a chainsaw expert. He owns a ranch in Montana where he lives with his wife and son. He is a tech cowboy who enjoys writing his blog ElectroSawHQ.com.
