Monday, November 21, 2011

Want Help With Gardening? Try These Ideas

By Al Turton


For many of us, gardening is more than something we do simply to make our house or our property look more attractive. It can be an ideal way to lower our stress levels and get some exercise while breathing in fresh air and getting in touch with nature.

Working in a garden may seem like a highly difficult undertaking at the very beginning. This is why it is very important that you start with only a small patch and with simpler plants. By working your way up to a larger garden you will stay interested and avoiding becoming overwhelmed.

You should get a heat lamp to warm your plants during the winter months if you are growing an indoor garden. Plants need a constant temperature around 65 degrees. It can be expensive to keep a home or apartment at that constant temperature. A heat lamp is a cheap and inexpensive way to give the plants the heat they need to grow.

Using a garden box to grow your vegetables is water efficient. Certain vegetables do not need a lot of root depth to grow. Plant these types of vegetables in a large planter box. When you water all the water will go directly to the roots of the plants. Grasses and trees will not have the chance to rob the vegetables of water.

Slugs can be a big problem in the garden. One suggestion for getting rid of slugs is to fill shallow containers, like a tuna can, with a mixture of one part beer and one part water. The slugs are attracted to the smell and will fall in and drown. Three teaspoons of yeast added to one cup of warm water will also work.

Plant smaller bulb plants in rock gardens because the bulb plant's height will have the right scale combined with other smaller plants in your rock garden. Bulb plants might otherwise get lost in a larger flower bed. The rocks hold heat that protects the bulbs from late frosts.

A great tip for running your garden is to put plastic grocery bags by the door of your home. You can use these to cover your muddy shoes if you have to go inside before you finish your gardening. This will keep mud and dirt out of your home.

Having a water feature in your garden can be beautiful. You can enjoy the way the sunlight sparkles as the water cascades down and the sound is calming too. When adding a water feature, consider going small so that your leisure time is not spent on maintenance. Surround the water feature with plants that love moist soil.

A very important step to remember when planting a rose is to use soil, mulch or compost to mound at the base of the plant all the way to the first canes. Mounding this way will protect the plant until new growth emerges and new feeder roots have grown to absorb water for the plant.

It is better to have several smaller rain gardens than one big one. In order to determine how large to make you rain garden, you can find computer models that will give you the information to control 90 percent of runoff from specific roof sizes. Any size rain garden is better than none, but generally rain gardens should not be larger than 300 square feet.

Gardening provides relaxation and enjoyment to millions of people, this article has been written to assist the development of your green thumb and if you apply suggestions and wisdom outlined above there is a good chance that you can get even more out of your gardening adventures.




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