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If ever there were a quiet, simple and relaxing way to enjoy life, it most certainly is gardening! Cultivating beautiful flowers and harvesting healthy food is a great way to spend time and is about as far from hectic life as you can get, from right in your own back yard! This article is full of helpful ideas on making the experience of gardening, an even better one for you!
Design your garden so that your harvest is staggered over as long a season as possible. Use cold-tolerant root crops and greens in the fall, for example, and plan to pick and preserve early strawberries in June. This way, you will have the space and time in your life to store everything you grow.
Use fertilizers that are free for the taking. Using chemical free grass clippings or human urine for a nutrient rich and free fertilizer. Twenty parts water with one part urine is an excellent fertilizer for seedlings, or steep the grass clippings in water to make a tea for watering and fertilizing the plants. So don't spend a lot on the garden when the fertilizers can be had for free.
A good idea when gardening is to keep a record of progress. If it is a journal form or photographic form of recording the progress of the garden is helpful for the years to come. Recording which types of plants work well, which did not work or what types of soil can help future gardens start without any trial and error of previous years.
An easy way to transport tools to and from the garden is to use an old golf bag. Many golf bags have a stand built into them so it makes grabbing and organizing the tools a breeze. Use the pockets in the sides of the bag to store all kinds of assorted gardening tools, seeds, and gloves, or just use them to store a refreshing beverage.
Create a record journal for https://www.sites.google.com/site/cvilletreeservice . Keep track of when you planted your seeds, when they germinated, how many grow to full size, the yield, etc. You will have more knowledge about your plants and a good idea of how successful your methods are. Use this information for your next grow cycles.
For a healthy, weed-free lawn, cut your grass at the highest point recommended for the blend of grass you're growing. Cutting your grass too short won't mean you have to mow less often. Instead, it allows weeds to take hold, and causes water to evaporate. Longer grass can better protect itself against weeds, drought, and pests.
Make sure to pick the right seeds for your location and zone. Certain crops grow better in certain locations. Seed packets usually have information regarding USDA zones. Information regarding USDA Plant Hardiness Zones is also available online. A good example of this is growing oranges in warmer climates and apples in cooler climates.
Plant self-seeding flowers. Let your flowers do the work of re-stocking the garden for you. If you allow your flowers to go to seed, the following year you will have new seedlings popping up everywhere. If things get too crowded, or if plants appear in the wrong place, simply thin them out. Good self-seeders are alyssum, bellflower, forget-me-not, poppy and columbine.
So you have finally decided you want to plant a garden. One of the first things you will want to do is to find out if you have good or bad soil. The only sure way you will know this is to have the soil tested. Many nurseries will test your soil for a nominal fee. Soil with poor health will produce yellow, sickly-looking plants. By having your soil tested, you will know if your soil needs nutrients added or if you need to make adjustments to the pH of the soil.
If you have to lift something heavy you need to lift with your knees. Many people make the mistake of lifting with their back when they are lifting heavy objects. This can lead to a lot of back ache and could even cause extreme damage. You should never lift anything that is extremely heavy without help from someone else.
Fertilize your soil with organic compost. Organic gardeners tend to fertilize their soil twice in one season: once prior to planting, and then again in the middle of a growth cycle. The best fertilizer to use is an organic compost, as it releases nutrients slowly unlike chemical fertilizers, which release nutrients in one go and then lose their effect.
Attract positive bugs to your garden. Bugs like lady-bugs actually hunt natural predators to your plants; aphids and caterpillars are just some of the nasty critters that can go through a garden and eat the leaves of the plants. Lady bugs are the natural predators to such pests and help the growth of a good healthy garden by consuming pests.
Any garden and gardener can benefit from these tips, whether your ideal garden is huge or tiny, whether you prefer flowers or vegetables, whether you like exotic plants or native plants. With this advice in your gardening tool shed, your gardening skills might improve so much that all your gardener friends will want to know your secrets.