Gardening Services Guide

Archive for the ‘General Gardening Tips’ Category

To achieve a successful and healthy garden, there are several suggested gardening tips to make a bountiful harvest. Although gardening can be at times, challenging and confusing, following some gardening tips from others that have experienced the same situations may be helpful. All gardeners experience unique situations in different growing regions and soil conditions. The Untied States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has devised a Plant Hardiness Zone Map consisting of eleven zones with zone 1 being the coldest and zone 11 being the hottest. Consulting this map will assist when planning a garden to help in the select of plants and the planting location through-out the garden.

Sunlight and water

Plants need six or more hours of sunlight for healthy, more fertile plants. Good soil with rich, sandy loam is the best for hale and hearty gardens. Adding nutrients to the garden bed is helpful; this is best achieved by adding manure or compost. Following gardening tips, as planting rows of plants from North to South, will help achieve a fertile growing environment. The use of new and fresh seeds is the one way to help the plants get a healthy start. By planting complementary plants side by side, this will insure a positive result. Watering plants and gardens deeply helps remove air pockets in the soil and helps the roots travel downwards to develop into strong root systems.

Bulbs need twelve weeks of cold for flowering; helpful gardening tips suggest refrigeration before planting. Fall is a good time to dig-up perennials and split the bulbs up. The splitting of the bulbs keeps the bulbs fresh and productive. They can be split into four or more pieces, the more pieces will produce more plants. Splitting is a must every three years or the bulbs will become unproductive. Vernalization or over-wintering which speeds seed development, should take place in the fall as well. This is the practice of placement of the bulbs in the soil to remain there through-out the winter to bloom in the spring. As stated from information about gardening tips, placing chicken wire over the bulbs after planting then adding the mulch on top will help stop rodents from digging up the bulbs.

Spring is a very busy time for gardeners as there are many things to do through-out the garden. This is the time for fertilizing and mulching, pruning, weeding, composting and planting. This is a great time to start grass seeds. In spring it is a good idea to deadhead your blooms as this will help with bloom time as well as strengthening the plants. This also controls self-seeding plants from spreading over other parts of your garden.

Following some gardening tips will help ease the difficulties faced while maintaining a garden but will help to reap a copious return for years to come.

Fall is a time of harvest as well as a time of planning for next year. In
the whirlwind of fall gardening one is optimally buying tools, bulbs,
supplies, gardening material for the winter and following year.

Tools

If you don’t have the appropriate tools, leaf cleanup can be a hassle. Leaf
blowers make the job an easy task. If the noise bothers you, you can always
go back to engaging the kids in a raking party out back. The leaves
themselves make wonderful compost and can be added to the compost pile to
rot throughout the winter. If you don’t have a compost bin, fall is a good
time to buy one. There are a variety of bins from wood boxes to round
barrels that are easily rotated.

Bulbs

Some tender bulbs will need to be lifted from the garden and stored away
from a hard frost. Other bulbs should optimally be planted in the fall to
give them a winter season to help them go dormant. So, whether you’re
digging up bulbs or planting them, odds are you are doing that during the
fall season. Tools, bulbs, supplies, gardening shopping for fall can be
overwhelming if not properly planned out. If you have bulbs that need to be
lifted, do that first. If you need bulbs planted there are special tools
that can make the job go quicker.

General Supplies

Now may also be time to prepare the lawn for the following season.
Fertilizers with weed killers may be broadcast on the lawn to help it endure
the cold and inhibit sprint weed growth the following year. Some people even
like to seed the next year’s lawn in the fall. Along with tools, bulbs,
supplies, gardening plants, include some lawn care products.

Garden Maintenance

After the appropriate tools, bulbs, supplies, gardening materials have been
bought, the gardener will need to go around and trim all the dead plant
material. If left on the plant, it can promote plant diseases. Mulches will
need to be bought for fall gardening materials to prepare the beds for the
following spring and to retain moisture in a dry winter. Once everything is
done, one has to maintain the tools by cleaning, sanding or oiling them
before putting them away in a shed for safekeeping.

Buying tools, bulbs, supplies, gardening materials is a frantic race with
time and Mother Nature during the fall season. But, with a little bit of
planning and knowing what the general needs of the garden are, one can go
about it in an orderly and calm fashion.