You need to have some knowledge of what to do and what to expect from growing and maintaining a garden. You need to know what resources are available to you and who can provide you answers as to what you need. The tips below can help you with how to start.
If you live in an area with clay soil, coat your shovel or gardening trowel with flour or car wax before you start digging your garden. This will prevent soil from sticking to the blade of your shovel, making your work much easier. It also lengthens the life of your shovel by preventing rust.
You need to be realistic about what your garden can and can’t produce. No matter how tempting a particular vegetable may be, if it’s not suitable for your climate, it’s not going to grow well. You’ll get more out of your garden if you focus on plants that are right for your area.
When your summer blooms have bloomed and faded away, remember to dead-head the flowers. This means pinching off the flower heads. This will encourage new flowers to bloom longer next year, and it will also strengthen the plant. Since the flower heads have seeds, you can also save the flower heads that you have pinched off for planting at another time.
To discourage garden pests of the rodent variety from eating your beautiful perennial flowers and tasty vegetables, brush your dog or cat and use bits of the accumulated hair near the base of the plants being bothered. Garden rodents such as moles, gophers, rabbits and chipmunks can smell a predator and while your little Yorkie may not look like much of a threat, it only takes his scent to ward off the garden troublemakers. Don’t have a dog or cat to brush? Volunteer to brush a neighbor’s pet for the cause!
If you like to plant roses, before you buy any variety, ask yourself what characteristics you would like from your roses. Different varieties have different characteristics, such as fragrance, heartiness, and size, to name a few. The traits that you want the most from a rose bush will influence your decision on what variety to plant.
Look at your planting area before you purchase any rose bushes. Some varieties of roses can be finicky in the type of soil or planting environment that they need. On the other hand, there are other varieties that are hearty enough to tolerate a variety of conditions. So, when you know what type of growing environment your roses will live in, you can choose the most suitable variety.
Use stones as plant markers if you want to keep a natural looking motif. You can write with permanent magic marker on the flat side of stones and surround your plant with them. That way you will be able to tell what type of plants you have without having an unsightly white mark.
As you have seen in the above tips, there is a lot of knowledge you can acquire before starting to grow your own garden and it is this knowledge that can help you. Do everything you must, in order to figure out what will work for you, in regards to your gardening needs.
