Home & Garden

Gardening in small spaces can be tricky and limited, but container gardens are an easy and rewarding solution. Use the following easy tips to create a beautiful container garden just about anywhere.

1. Select an appropriate sized container. Consider not just where you will be placing the container, but the size of the plant at full growth as well. Leave plenty of room for roots to spread out and the plant to establish solid footing. Avoid using cheap plastic containers, as they can erode quickly and compromise your handiwork. Ceramic pots are usually your best bet, but can be heavy.

2. Allow for ample drainage. If your chosen container doesn’t have holes at the bottom, make some. Drainage is essential for proper growth and distribution of nutrients. Add a handful of small pebbles before putting the soil in to help the plant best utilize water.

3. Choose top-notch potting soil. Dirt from your backyard probably has too many weeds and other debris that can choke plants as it interferes with growth. It is recommended that you buy high-quality soil specifically formulated for container gardening; it will contain all the necessary nutrients and be well-textured for this type of environment. Soil should be light and fluffy and power-packed with certain elements for food and balance.

4. Water frequently. Container gardens dry out much quicker than standard ground-based gardens, therefore you must water them more frequently. Check conditions daily, particularly in hot and dry weather and add water when the soil is dry. Use a mister to spray different parts of the plant too, simulating conditions of rain that give the plant hydration all over.

5. Add fertilizer. Since the downward drainage tends to wash away a lot of soil nutrients, fertilizer is needed regularly. Depending on your specific type of plant you may need to purchase liquid fertilizer that provides extra essentials. Liquid seaweed fertilizer can make an excellent supplement, as can compost material, however; it is important to be aware of the individual needs of your particular plants.

6. Allow for adequate, but not over-done sunlight. Most plants thrive with plenty of sunlight and container gardens are no exception, but they can be more sensitive and retain excess heat. Make sure the light is given in doses that can be absorbed without overwhelming the plants, especially when they are young. The beauty of container gardens is that they can easily be moved! Simply put them in a good area of sunshine for a while and move them back later, or find the perfect indirect source of sunlight that automatically fulfills their needs without over doing it.

7. Harvest often to encourage extra growth. Pinching spent blooms will help flowers mature to full and gorgeous fruition, and picking vegetables and herbs frequently will extend their growing period. Check out the schedule for your chosen veggies and follow it carefully. Once you are familiar with the process, picking and pinching will become more obvious and your thumb will get greener!

Container gardening is increasingly popular due to its ease and rewards; use the above tips to become a quick master of this process and the envy of your neighborhood!

It might be that you’ve never even thought of testing out your green thumb by planting a vegetable garden. However, just about everyone loves eating the fresh vegetables that come from a garden, and it is something that everybody should take on at least once while they have the health to be able to try it.

It is easy, in our electronic age, to forget the delicate cycles that operate within our planet, whether we are aware of them or not. We think in terms of pace on social media, text messages and emails, and when things do not happen at a rapid pace, we become frustrated. Gardens do not grow at this rate, though. There is no way to rush the dynamic of growth, as plants slowly form roots and push them into the soil, taking up their nutrients at their own rate. This is similar to the growth that takes place within each of us as children, and to the changes that take place within us as we age, inexorably. Gardening sensitizes us to these changes, at their slower but more stubborn pace, and makes us more in tune with ourselves.

Food, in the modern age, magically appears at the grocery store for us to buy and take home — at least, that is how it seems when we head to the store, because we have not had to put any of the work in with regard to cultivating the food. When we take the time to create our own gardens, then we get a sense of the sheer labor that goes into producing one bell pepper or one head of lettuce. Mechanized farming, to be sure, makes this process easier for the larger commercial farmers, but gardening will allow us to see why the rhythms of life were much slower for our ancestors, because the rhythms of cultivation were the most important ones of all, governing all other schedules.

Gardening teaches us about the ecosystem in which we live. If our neighborhood goes for a month without rain, it’s likely that our grocery stores will still have the same offerings. However, our gardens will suffer. This teaches us how badly we need rain in order for our land to remain healthy on a regular basis. Also, you are much less likely to dump household chemicals or other waste into the backyard if the broccoli you are going to eat later is growing out there. Keeping toxins out of the environment becomes much more important when that environment next to us is about to feed us.

Gardening can relieve stress over time. It’s true that wandering outside to find that bugs have gotten to your tomato plants or that a bunny is running off with your lettuce is frustrating, but the slow rhythm of cultivation will help you slow down and relax in other areas of your life, reducing stress.

Plants give us foods but also medicines and even fragrances. By starting a vegetable garden, you can enjoy the sources of so many wonders in our world.

Being a first-time homeowner is a fairly tough endeavor, but managing a garden on the side offers a creative outlet for reducing the stress. Many new homeowners become gardeners for this very reason. This article is for all of those owners attempting to balance these two workloads, regardless of experience in the garden. Everyone has the same opportunities and many of these people will deal with similar problems. Solutions for several of these issues are covered below.

Making compost is a necessary job if you are hoping to maintain a garden with healthy plant-life each season. The amount of work you put into your composting can be varied, and tossing a few leaves into a small pile is considered an honorable effort that will make a difference. There are many degradable items that can be saved from the trashcan and tossed into the composting pile. If you are putting forth serious attention to detail, then you should keep in mind the different nutrients that separate items leave behind. As an example, some items will increase the pH levels for the surrounding soil which may or may not be a desirable goal.

Compost is the miracle solution for any garden. The many different uses for compost are too expansive for this article, but understanding the basic uses they provide will help manage your collection with a greater efficiency. You can spread the compost across the garden, over all of the soil, and it will ward off unfriendly diseases that infect plant-life. The compost may be broken down within a clay pot and mixed with the planting soil to take the benefits out of the garden alone. Soil that has dried up over the years, has been neglected, or has suffered from a rough season each have something to gain from compost.

If you are going to undertake the work of managing a garden, you need to proceed with organization and efficient placement in mind. Different plants have their own unique harvest and are easier to work with when those with similar purpose are grouped together. Long beds, rather than miscellaneous patches in the yard, work well for keeping the rows aligned and separated. The rows should be elevated above the top-most layer of soil by using wood or stone. When planning the outline, think of what is more comfortable for the plants, not only yourself.

Plants are incredibly unique creatures and they require their own time for research if you want to proceed properly. At minimum, find the best seasons for planting, the ideal watering conditions, any preferences within the soil, and any signs that you should watch for during their growth. Understanding the plant allows you to communicate with it on a higher-level and spot problems before they ruin a crop.

This new garden will definitely lead to envious neighbors. Follow all of the advice covered in each tip, and find a unique set of solutions for your land. If you hope to achieve an excellent harvest, you need to read excellent advice.

Plant Your Perennials Like a Pro: Techniques for an Outstanding Garden

When you drive by neighborhoods with luxury homes, do you just drool over the landscaping? Are you jealous of the professionals, wondering how they get their results year after year? The key can be with perennial plants, which emerge year after year to bring the same gorgeous results to the exterior of the home where they are planted. Here are some secrets that the pros use to bring beauty to homes on an annual basis.

There is no substitute for research when it comes to landscaping. You have to know your planting zone if you want to have success with landscaping your house. If you live in Vermont, you just can’t plan on success with a line of palm trees running down to the street — you just can’t. However, each part of the world has a wide variety of plants that are indigenous and successful, so the key is talking to a nursery professional and finding out the best plants for the place where you live. Once you know this, then starting your landscaping will be much simpler.

It is also important to know the best time of year to do your planting. If you live in Alabama, you won’t want to start planting new things in July. It just gets too hot, and there’s not enough rain to keep the soil hospitable for the new plant you just put into the ground. Even if you water every day, it is likely that the soil will not be able to give your new plant the nutrients it needs to prosper year after year. Talk to your nursery professional to find out the best times to plant in your part of the country, so that you can optimize your own chances for success.

A major element of landscaping has to do with matching colors. You want to make sure that the colors you select blend with each other and with your house so that you can have a unified look heading forward. Choosing the right color scheme will go a long way toward making your home a place that other people drive by, wondering just how you did all of that amazing stuff with your plants.

Part of identifying the right climatic zone includes choosing the best plants for your yard. This isn’t just about whether you live in Florida or not, though — it also has to do with the amount of sunlight your yard gets, the type of soil you have in your yard, and the balance of colors you want in your yard. Once you have figured all of this out with a nursery professional, you are ready to make some selections. This is the exciting part — putting your vision into reality.

You will have to check for weeds every day. There’s no way around it. Mulching your plants, and putting down landscape fabric around your plants, will help keep the weeds at bay. However, managing this is a battle you will renew every time you go outside.

With a bit of hard work, you can have a set of perennials making your home look like a model. Use these tips to get started.

Biologists learn to study the different physical features of a plant. All plants have different parts of their bodies that are designed to perform certain functions. Once you understand this, you will have an even better understanding of your garden and the way that all of the parts fit together. This will help your plants live longer, and your garden to become beautiful more quickly.

Pruning is a key element of plant management. Even healthy plants can generate dead limbs or branches, which will end up yielding you nothing and may end up harming the plant over time. During dormant phases for plant life, such as in winter or very early spring, you can prune those parts off plants, which will then grow healthy replacements for those parts, most of the time. This will increase your overall yield, eventually, as replacing dead parts with living parts will give your plant more places to sprout fruit.

If you know what your plant is supposed to look like at its different growth phases, then you will be able to tell when it is surrounded by weeds — and to leave it in the ground instead of yanking it up with them. You are cultivating a garden, and so you need to be familiar with all of its parts. If you are not, then you will fail to notice it when weeding, and you may end up killing the plant as a result. You don’t have to become a biologist to do this; just commit to knowing the species that you have put in your garden.

Harmful weeds can tear their way through a garden, leaving you with plants that have been terrorized by the rapacious actions of the weeds in the soil. It doesn’t take long for certain weeds to spread rapidly, so it is important that you spend some time, several days a week, poring through your garden and finding weeds that need to come out. If you do not, the overall symmetry of your garden can suffer, as weeds grow and push your desired plants out of the way.

If you know what a plant is supposed to look like, when it is healthy, then you will have an easier time protecting it from disease and from other malaises. Knowing what an unhealthy plant looks like will help you know when it is being attacked by parasites; being able to identify the specific problem will help you find a solution even more quickly, which means that the overall health of your garden will not be as threatened when just one pest or disease shows up.

Different plants grow in different ways. You want to familiarize yourself with your plants’ growth patterns so, as they mature, you will be able to protect them from outside harm more effectively.

Gardeners need to take the time to learn all they can about the plants they are growing. Learning about your plant will help you save it from internal disease or external predator, making for a longer lasting garden.

Particularly as the weather begins to warm up, many gardeners can hardly wait to get back out into their space and start getting things ready for the spring and summer months. However, things can get very busy, very quickly, and a lot of individuals find that they just can’t get everything done that they need or want to finish. By utilizing a few simple tips, though, you can make the most of your time and get more accomplished than you ever thought possible.

First, it is essential to plan out your garden space before you even get outside. This includes thinking about where you want your plants to go and which tasks you want to tackle (and in which order). Spend a few minutes jotting out a basic plan for the following day before you go to sleep each night. It doesn’t have to be too detailed, but it should contain enough information to keep you going.

Consider where to place your tools during your gardening time. If you have to constantly go back and forth between your garden and a storage unit, you will be wasting a substantial amount of time each day. Keep the most necessary items on you at all times, like gloves and a trowel. To make things easy, purchase some work pants that have several pockets or consider carrying a large bucket with you that will hold your items.

Think about investing in a soaker hose. It can be very laborious to walk around your garden with a watering can or even a regular hose. A soaker hose allows you to turn it on and walk away to focus on other tasks. However, keep in mind that if you have a few baby plants, they need to be hand-watered to prevent any damage from occurring.

Get in the habit of bringing a few plastic bags outside with you each day. If you find that you need to run inside for a minute, use the bags to cover up your shoes so that you don’t track dirt inside. This allows you to leave your footwear on instead of removing it each time you have to go indoors. While this sounds simple, it can actually save you quite a bit of time.

Remember that you don’t have to dedicate hours to your garden each time you go outside. If you have a free half an hour, head out and see what you can get done. There will probably always be weeds that need to be pulled or produce that is ready to be gathered. Don’t waste your free time because you think you can’t be productive. Just get out there and get your hands dirty.

Gardening can be complicated. There are often a number of tasks to attend to each day, and you may feel stressed about everything that needs to be done. If you find yourself in this position, use the tips above to relieve some of the pressure and get things in your garden done much more efficiently.