Most people appreciate a well-maintained garden that is full of life and color. Unfortunately, gardening can be complicated, time consuming and expensive. However, by increasing your knowledge of gardening techniques, the past time can become very enjoyable and relatively inexpensive. This article contains some essential gardening tips, advice and ideas.
A great gardening tip is to do all your gardening work minus the watering early in the morning. Sometimes working in the garden can take several hours and it behooves one to not do this at the hottest time of the day. This will help prevent heat related illness like heat stroke.
The handles on your gardening tools can be used as a convenient measuring instrument. Tools that have long handles such as rakes, hoes and shovels can be used in place of a measuring stick. On the floor, simply lay out the handles, then take a tape measure and run it next to them. Then, with a permanent marker, you want to label distances. When you are at work in the garden, you will always have a handy measuring device on each and every tool.
Make your long handled garden tool into a measuring tool. You can get measuring tape and mark out the units with a black permanent marker. This works great for wood handled tools. When you need to space your plants out a particular distance, you can use your homemade measuring stick to measure the distance.
To kill off aphids on rose plants, spray them with a powdered milk and water mixture (1/3 cup powdered milk to one quart water). When the mixture is sprayed, the aphids get caught in the liquid and eventually die. Every few weeks spray down the roses with water to rinse off the mixture and reapply it if needed.
Put compost down on the soil in your garden about two weeks to a month before you plan to plant. This allows the compost enough time to integrate with the soil. Giving the compost time to stabilize means that your soil pH will be steady enough to test, and your plants will be ready to thrive when you plant them.
Fall is a great time of the year to plant a fall vegetable garden. The mild temperatures of autumn are fantastic for cultivating fast-growing, cool-season vegetables such as spinach, radishes and lettuce. Growing an autumn garden does require some planning since you need to harvest your salad crop before the first frost. By looking on the seed packet, you will find out how long it takes for your plant to be mature enough to harvest. Since plants grow more slowly in the shortened days of fall, add two weeks to the time listed on the seed packet. If the total number of days is 45, make sure you plant your fall crop at least that many days before the time that the first day of frost typically occurs in your locale.
Roses can be difficult to grow in the best of conditions. Increase your chances for success by choosing the right rose for your climate. If your area has harsh winter conditions look for a rose with thicker petals. Mildew resistant varieties are ideal for humid areas and heat tolerant roses will do best in arid areas.
As stated in the introduction to this article, gardening can be complicated, but by applying some of the advice contained in this article, you could be on your way to designing, creating and cultivating your dream garden. Alternatively, maybe the tips above have expanded your gardening knowledge and inspired you to volunteer to help with some community gardening projects.
