For hundreds of years, people have enjoyed horticulture. Some people do it as a hobby, while others do it to feed their family. Below, you’ll read some excellent tips to bring more of the enjoyment surrounding horticulture into your daily life.
Use annuals and biennials to enliven your flower beds. By utilizing quick-growing biennials and annuals, not only will you be brightening up your flower bed, you can also alter its look each season and each year. They are useful for filling gaps in between shrubs and perennials in sunny areas. Some flowers you can use are rudbekia, petunias, cosmos, marigolds, or sunflowers.
When fall arrives, it’s time to plant your autumn vegetables. Instead of using regular clay pots this year for planting lettuce and kale, try a pumpkin container instead! Scoop the insides out of the pumpkin, and don’t forget to spray the inside with Wilt-Pruf. This will prevent your pumpkin from rotting. Once you have finished, you can begin planting.
If you find that you have soil that has high amounts of alkaline, mix used coffee grounds throughout the soil. This is an easy and inexpensive solution to increase the acid content back into the soil. Improving the pH of your soil will make your vegetables and greens taste even better!
Good green gardens begin from seeds, not plants. Planting seeds is the most eco-friendly way to start a new garden. Many nurseries use plastic growing pots that are very seldom recycled. Try buying from organic nurseries and farms so your garden is not using anti-environmental products.
Consider planting evergreens in your garden that produce berries. This gives your garden a bit of a “splash” of color, even in winter when everything is nearly colorless. Plants which you can purchase that offer color during the winter are the Winterberry, the Common Snowberry, the American Holly, and the American Cranberrybush.
When landscaping and horticulture in autumn, choose plants and trees with vibrant colors. Fall, though, can still be an interesting time for trees. In terms of colorful foliage, fall is the time of year admired by many. There are many variations in leaf color with different varieties of Maple, Beech and Dogwood trees that can give you lively yellows and deep crimsons. Some very good shrubs to choose are barberry, hydrangea, and cotoneaster, which is a member of the rose family.
The warmth of the day can make vegetables soft, making them more prone to damage as you pick them. Cut them with a tool rather than pulling or twisting, otherwise you could damage the plant itself.
To attract insects that will benefit your garden, plant heather. Bees love heather, and it’s one of the earliest sources of nectar for the bees when they emerge during springtime. Because heather beds require very little maintenance, they often become the home of spiders, ground beetles, and other insects that can benefit your garden. Bearing this in mind, it is always a good idea to wear gardening gloves when pruning your heather!
You’ll save time and energy if you keep tools nearby while working in your garden. Wear pants with multiple pockets or use a toolbox or large bucket. Have gloves, shears, a trowel and anything else you need handy for quick use.
Try to work as efficiently as possible when gardening. Keep all of your tools together; do not waste time looking for them! Prepare all the tools you need before you go out to work on your garden, and put them away nicely when you are done. Get a tool belt if you need to, or a pair of pants with a lot of pockets.
Do you want to know how to kill weeds in a natural way? Take layers of newspapers and use them for weed control. Without exposure to the sun, weeds cannot thrive. By placing newspaper over them, they will not get light and suffocate. As an added benefit, the newspapers will decompose over time, becoming organic compost. Cover the newspaper with a thick layer of mulch for a more attractive look.
For container planting, be sure to plant your seeds at a depth around three times the radius of the seed. Some seeds need to be in direct sunlight, though, so you need to know information about each type of seed. Two common examples of this type of seed are ageratum and petunias. Read the instructions that came with the seeds, and do some research on the Internet to find out the sunlight that your seeds need.
Add mulch to keep your soil healthy. A couple of inches of mulch will protect what lies beneath it. It can also keep the ground from overheating during hot weather, which will protect the roots of your plants from damage. By reducing the evaporation rate of your soil, you will not need to water as often. This also helps control the weeds.
In closing, gardening has been used and enjoyed since before recorded history. At one time, most people saw gardening as the sole means of providing food for their family. Now, people do it for pleasure, need and even profit. The advice provided to you can assist you in horticulture, no matter what your reason for doing so. Love your hobby and enjoy the rewards!