Horticulture can seem like too much to learn, but if you do a little research, it doesn’t end up seeming so hard. With this list of ideas in hand, you will be armed with a great deal of knowledge and will have the ability to become a terrific gardener in short order.
Do not plant perennials that are prone to snail infestation. Slugs and snails will quickly destroy your garden if you let them. They’re particularly fond of perennials with smooth and thin leaves, especially if the plants are young. Some perennials, however, leave a bad taste in slugs’ mouths or are difficult to chew through because their leaves aren’t tender. Some perennial families that snails and slugs won’t eat include achillea, campanula, and helleborus.
Before you plant anything in your garden, have the soil checked. Consider getting a soil analysis and working on enrichment techniques for giving your garden a vibrant and healthy environment. Ask about this service at a local university or the county Cooperative Extension office to improve the soil and insure fruitful crops.
Be sure to get rid of the weeds growing in your garden. A vibrant garden will be overrun with weeds if they are left alone. A simple tool that is useful in removing weeds is white vinegar. White vinegar will kill those pesky weeds. Use a spray bottle full of white vinegar and you won’t have to use your hands.
Being a novice gardener, you should ensure that you follow the directions carefully for tool and chemical use. If you do not do this very simple step, you can end up causing skin irritation problems that are very painful. So make sure you take precautions, follow the simple directions and be safe.
Know the perfect time to harvest the vegetables in your garden. Each variety needs a slightly different amount of growing time to produce the most flavorful vegetable. For instance, for the best flavor, zucchini and baby peas should be picked when they are young. Tomatoes, in contrast, taste better the longer they are allowed to ripen on the vine. Thus, you ought to familiarize yourself with the best times to pick the produce from your garden.
Pest control can become a major issue. You can’t use chemicals as they’re the last thing you want to be eating when you enjoy the fruits of your labor. Frequently check your garden for pests. In many cases, you can simply remove the pests from your plants by picking them off.
Choose a specific plant to become your garden’s focal point. A good garden design will have a focal point which captivates attention. Frequently, it will be a plant that’s very different from others in the neighborhood.
You don’t want to pick vegetables during the day when it is hot, as that is when they are prone to damage due to them being softer. Twisting off vegetables causes damage to the plant; always snip them at the base of the vine.
Pine can make for a great type of mulch. Many types of plants thrive in soil that has high acid levels. If this is the case, use pine needles to mulch your beds. Cover the beds with a couple inches of needles and as they decompose, they will disperse acid to the soil.
Laundry Basket
You may find an old plastic laundry basket ideal for gathering vegetables from your garden. A benefit of using something like a laundry basket is that it can strain for you, as well as hold a large amount of produce. Rinse off your produce while it’s in the laundry basket, and any excess water will be strained out through the basket’s holes.
When you are growing seedlings in your organic garden, lightly brush over them using your hand up to twice a day. It sounds weird, but research has shown that handling the seedling like this often will make them grow bigger than seedlings that are ignored.
Any type of horticulture can be a fun hobby because it brings you closer to the earth, but creating an organic garden is really good at this. Any form of horticulture gives a basic outline for all others; teaching you the general methodology behind sewing, planting, and harvesting properly.
Water your organic garden using a soaker hose. The water comes out very slowly and evenly, and the hose can be placed exactly where water is needed, such as at the roots. They are better because sprinklers use too much water and hand-watering is too time-consuming.
Be sure you know both when and how, to properly water your organic plants. Purchasing a soaker hose would be a worthwhile expenditure. These hoses apply water directly to the plant’s base, which can help minimize moisture loss due to evaporation. The early morning hours are the best time to water plants.
This isn’t as horrible as you thought, is it? There is all kinds of information available to the avid gardener. Sometimes, if you figure out where to begin, it’s easy to “jump right in”. Hopefully, the tips above have provided you with all the information that you need.