General Guide for Gardening
The quality and longevity of your plants, fruits, and vegetables can be improved with proper garden maintenance. Nearly every plant need a few hours of direct sunlight, but different plant types require varied levels of care. It’s critical to learn how to properly care for your garden if you want your outdoor produce and gorgeous flowers to weather the seasons.
It’s helpful to know the proper care for any plant type before buying your plants or starting your garden. Many plants have specific care instructions specific to that plant. In addition, these care instructions may need to be updated as a plant or a type matures.
The proper care for most plants include watering, feeding, planting, pruning and harvesting.
If you’re trying to grow flowers in your garden for winter beauty, be sure to include water in your garden plan. The best flowers are evergreens, including Rhododendrons, Cedars, Tulips, Blue Floribunda and the like. However, other plants, like Begonia, Clematis and Citrus trees require little or no water.
Feed your garden plants when needed. Feed often, 1-2 times per month as needed. Most plants will thrive on fertilizer. If you prefer a lower maintenance garden, your best options are organic fertilizers like compost. Be sure to follow the instructions on the bag.
Harvest your plants when they’re mature. This is usually when they turn from a soft and mushy texture to a firm and red color. The harvest time varies for different plants.
Water your garden properly. If you’re planting in raised garden beds, use a high quality potting soil in them.
As your garden matures, prune regularly. The best time to prune is as they’re forming. In between pruning periods, make sure to keep the soil moist. Apply a mulch to help retain the moisture, even if the leaves fall off, as they can act as insulators. Prune in the fall.
Mulch your garden with a good quality mulch in the fall as they’re formed, and in the spring. The mulch will keep the soil from drying out and will act as insulation against extreme temperatures. This will help keep weeds from taking root. Remove dead leaves and any weeds that will not fall off.
Your soil should be in a dormant state when mulching, meaning no new leaves will form. This will keep the soil aerated and will allow nutrients to be redistributed throughout the garden. If you’re using compost in the mulch you should not use too much. You will notice a dark streak in the mulch when the compost becomes too concentrated in a few places. This is okay.
Your garden will benefit from having more nutrients in the compost. The same goes with a general filtration and aeration as well as a good mix of soil types. Keep soil moist as you can tell. Your soil should feel damp to not feel dry. If it feels dry it means there is too much water. You can help if you water the soil.
Growing plants in containers like pots can be a fun experiment. You can use different types of plants to see what will flourish. You can grow herbs in containers. With a good soil and fertilizer in containers it can be a very rewarding experiment. Take note that you will have a much better success rate if you use organic mulch like compost and mulch. The compost will help retain moisture, and the mulch will keep weeds from growing. Organic mulch will also act as a nutrient reservoir for the plants. The plants will benefit from the micro organisms living in the mulch. The mulch will help to retain soil moisture and will add nutrients to the soil that can be absorbed by the plants.
Remember to keep plants in containers growing in an ideal environment, but remember to water plants often and if you notice that they are wilting, you can give them a little more water.
Take note of what works best for you. The container you choose for your pots will have a certain feel to it. The pot you choose for your pots should be just right. Plants will need to be planted in the right pot for the type of plant you have. Plants vary with regard to size. Be aware that your plants may grow too tall and also you need to monitor what size container they are in. Also, if they seem to be doing well in one container, you can move them to another container. You may also need to water the plants in containers more often. That will help to keep the plants healthy.
Take notice of the pot you choose for your containers. You may choose to use a terracotta pot and terracotta is a wonderful material. There are some designs which are more attractive than others. The other material you can use is plastic. You can use a plastic container.
There are certain styles of plants that will thrive in plastic. This is because a plastic pot can easily drain excess water. Plants that tend to thrive in plastic pots are plants like geraniums. Geraniums thrive well in plastic pots. They can get all the water they need from drainage. You can make a terracotta pot with plastic as well.
I hope you have found this article to be helpful. You may also find it helpful to read over garden plans from time to time.
