For those of you who would like to find out how to grow and keep a simple but well-maintained garden. You only really need two things - a lot of determination and a bit of know-how.
Here are some great gardening tips to help you learn how to keep your gardens looking healthy, attractive, well maintained, productive, spruced up, and last but not least... glamorous.
The Art of Dead Heading
Keep your border tidy and free from wilting flowers and dried out leaves. Dead heading is the process of removing dead flower heads; it will encourage your plants to produce more blooms for longer over the growing season. There are many perennials, for example geraniums and dahlias, that will get some annual benefit from you spending a bit of time to remove spent blooms and flower heads.
Pinching Out Tops
Certain plants respond well, and will follow with a spurt of growth, when their tops are pinched out. This is especially true of some species such as Coleus. Pinching out will make the plant become much bushier and produce more blooms during the season. Fuchsias can be prone to becoming rather leggy if they are not pinched out, and you will definitely see some improvement if you just pinch a few of the tops out.
Light Fertilizing
If you apply a minimal amount of fertilizer it will give a further boost to the growth of your plants and vegetation. If you already water your garden frequently, you also have to ensure you fertilize it regularly to prevent nutrient depletion. A regular schedule of applying liquid fertilizer every two weeks is sometimes more beneficial than if you use fertilizer granules as it is much more readily absorbed by the plants leaves. Container plants will show a considerable improvement in health with a half-strength solution of liquid fertilizer applied at these two week periods through the growing season.
Weeding
This is one of the most important and also the best ways to preserve the health and beauty of your garden and plants. If you remember that weeds are competing with your plants for both nutrients and for moisture, you'll see why this is so important. If the weeds are young and not close to producing seeds, you can leave them on the bed to rot down as additional mulch. I don't recommend using a weed killer as I prefer to see organic gardening to be practiced, but if you must use it try and get a wick applicator in preference to a spray. This will protect your lovely plants and flowers from getting some spray-drift which will no doubt kill them.
Watering
One of the best tips when it comes to watering a garden is to make sure you do give it a thorough soaking once every week. Make sure while you are watering that there is no run-off as it will cause soil erosion. Deep watering will undoubtedly encourage the growth of deeper roots and deep roots are in a better health to withstand any dry spells of weather.
Don't Use Chemicals!
Chemicals and pesticides are dangerous to humans, wildlife, and pets. Chemicals will often kill all the natural predators of the pests that you don't want in your garden, so avoid the use of chemicals if at all possible. There are many organic alternatives that work almost as well as the chemical ones do, and they are less harmful to yourself and the environment we all live in.
If you try to follow these simple gardening tips, your garden will soon be the envy of your friends and neighbors, your plants will be happy and healthy, and so will your family and pets.
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Here are some great gardening tips to help you learn how to keep your gardens looking healthy, attractive, well maintained, productive, spruced up, and last but not least... glamorous.
