Gardening Services Guide

Archive for the ‘General Gardening Tips’ Category

Gardening supplies can be simple or elaborate. Gardening supplies can be found for large farms, or small container gardens inside one’s home. Gardening supplies can be very expensive, or relatively inexpensive. If a gardener does not want to go broke trying every new tool advertised for a home garden, a gardener needs to plan, to consider what kind of garden is desired, and how much time will be available to care for it.

Many communities have at least one garden store. There gardeners of all experience levels can find many of the gardening supplies necessary to maintain their garden. In most cases, some small tools will be needed in order to dig the soil and plant the seeds or the transplant. Some tool may be needed to weed the garden. A gardener might decide to use mulch on the garden. Mulch is a material that can be placed on the ground to prevent water from evaporating too quickly as well as to keep weeds from overtaking the garden. The garden center will also sell the seeds or the plants that a gardener wishes to place in the garden. A gardener might also be interested in a watering can, a hose, garden gloves, a trellis, plastic for a greenhouse, a variety of containers, books about gardening, top soil, manure, fertilizer, shovels, and all sorts of other equipment that make up the gardening supplies necessary to maintain the garden.

One can even find gardening supplies like plant stands and lighting fixtures if a gardener wants to build some form of artificial lighting system for a particular kind of plant. These artificial systems can also be used to extend a growing season, allowing a gardener to get a head start by planting before the outside weather is warm enough to let the plant grow without additional help. If a gardener is interested enough and has the space, a gardener can find the supplies to build a greenhouse.

If the local garden store isn’t available or sufficient, a garden can order any number of catalogues that arrive in the mail or online. These catalogues may be general catalogues and sell plants, seeds and other gardening supplies, or the catalogues may specialize in only one or two items. A gardener who searches even a little bit can find gardening supplies for container gardens, vegetable gardens, hydroponic gardens, green houses, tools or any component of gardening that is necessary for any particular garden. These catalogues will start appearing in mid- to late winter in order to get the gardener to start thinking about the kind of garden that will be planted that year.

There is nothing like the fresh taste of home grown vegetables or the satisfaction you get from growing them yourself. Many people who live in apartments or condos give up on the idea of having a vegetable garden. Others decide that it would take up too much time. Growing your own produce doesn’t have to take up a lot of space or time if you use the vegetable container gardening method. The containers fit easily on a deck or patio and due to the smaller size and easy accessibility these vegetables gardens don’t take a large amount of time to take care of either.

Just about any vegetable that will grow well in a traditional garden pot will do just fine with vegetable container gardening. If you feel more confident using a seed designed specifically for containers, many seed companies offer that option. Look for words like bush, space saver, dwarf, or compact. These smaller versions are designed especially to grow well in containers.

As far as which vegetables to grow you are only limited by personal tastes. Salad lovers may want to grow a variety of lettuces. Buttercrunch and Bibb lettuces do well in vegetable container gardening. Cucumbers are also a popular choice. Varieties you may want to try are Bush Pickle and Spacemaster. Toy Boy, Small Fry, and Pixie are tomato plants that grow very well in containers. They make an excellent addition to a salad themed container garden too.

Don’t forget about the vegetables that are great cooked as well. Eggplant grows well using the Bambino and Slim Jim varieties. Your Eggplant Parmesan will be the freshest ever using home grown eggplant. Squashes are an excellent choice as well. They also work so well in fall dishes. Vegetable container gardening can add a lot of choice and variety to your dinner table.

When choosing a container to use for your vegetable garden, there are some factors to keep in mind. You could use the plastic pots for sale everywhere or buckets, washtubs, and bushel baskets have been used with a lot of success. As long as you can put drainage holes in the bottom, any container will work well. You may want to avoid dark colored containers as they attract more heat and may make it too hot for your plants’ roots. Tomatoes and eggplant will grow better in larger pots, like a five gallon bucket. Most of the other vegetables will do fine in smaller containers averaging 2-3 gallon size.

Vegetable container gardening is a fun, productive hobby. You have control over what you grow and have the peace of mind of knowing your vegetables are clean and disease free.