How To Make Your Garden Grow With Minimal Effort

| Saturday, January 19, 2013
By Georgio Francisca


Gardening can be an essential part of beautifying your home or supplementing you, your family, or your career. However, understanding it and buying the right gardening equipment can be tricky. Here are some tips that you can use to help you properly and successfully grow a garden like a pro.

Consult the pros. If you are starting a garden for the first time, it's a good idea to look for professional help. This doesn't necessarily mean going to the trouble of hiring a landscape architect. You can find plenty of great advice online, in gardening books, magazines and tv shows. A good idea is to look for regional resources, such as a website devoted to gardening in your area, or a local garden center. Whatever method you choose, don't be afraid to make mistakes, and above all - have fun designing your new garden!

Wait for the right moment if you plan on dividing a plant. Leave perhaps two years to grow and divide it at the end of the season when it looks at its best. If your plant shows signs of diseases or has areas with fewer leaves and flowers than others, it is too late.

Avoid rose mildew. This fungus affects many types of roses, especially in wet weather, when days are warm and nights are cold. Small gray or white spots will appear on the plant, forming a felt-like down. Shoot tips are killed and buds fail to open. Don't plant roses close together - they need good air circulation to avoid mildew. Spray any affected plants with fungicidal soap.

If you don't have the space to grow a garden in the ground you can still enjoy the benefits of gardening by using containers. Almost any plant can be grown in a container and many plants now are specifically designed for container growing. With a large container you could have a mini-garden right on your porch.

Praying mantises can in fact be beneficial to your gardens. These so called garden pests can be a great organic pest control. Praying mantises are skillful predators that trap and eat harmful insects in your garden such as: caterpillars, aphids and flies without harming your plants. If you have the imagination, you can even believe that in very rare cases praying mantises have been reported to kill small rodents.

Did you know that a tablespoon of powdered milk sprinkled around your rose bushes early in the season can help to prevent fungus growth on your beautiful flowers later in the spring? If you prefer to use a spray, you might try diluting some skim milk and spraying the plant leaves. The lower fat content in skim milk reduces the chance that it will turn rancid.

Flush your plants with water if the rim of the pot or top of the soil has white salt deposits. Flush using twice the amount water as the size of the pot. Salt accumulates when using liquid fertilizer and can cause a PH imbalance. Once you have flushed the plant, do not water the plant again until the soil is dry.

Make sure to protect your hands when working in your yard. Dirt and chemicals can be very harsh on your skin. However, the solution to this problem is very easy: gardening gloves. Gloves range from cheaper cottons (that wear easily) to more durable leather (which are more expensive). Look around your local garden supply center to find a pair of gloves that you feel comfortable working with to save your hands.

If you do not like chemical insect repellants you should consider using herbs instead. Herbs like chives can be used in place of the chemical insect repellants to keep bugs from eating your flowers and produce. You can grow chives yourself or buy them at your local grocery store.

As you read, gardening can be incredibly important to your current and future home. Understanding how to do it right will help you to truly beautify your home or your business. This article makes it easier for you to understand what you need to do to help your plants grow, and by following the above tips you have a very good starting place.




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