Looking To Improve Your Garden? Read On For Helpful Tips!

~ craigb

TIP! Before you even place the first plant in your garden, you need to check the composition of your soil. For a tiny fee, a soil analysis may be done, and based on the results, the soil can support a growing garden by you enriching it as necessary.

You are now prepared to embark on the journey of making a garden that is organic and healthy. Now’s the time! This article is packed with tips and inspiration that will allow you to better understand the basics of organic horticulture. Read on!

TIP! Draw up a garden plan before you plant the first seed. This is a good way to remember which plants have been planted in each area before they grow.

When gardening in the fall, you need to be watching for stink bugs. Stinkbugs are most prevalent on tomatoes, beans and peppers. If left unattended, your garden could be ravaged by these bugs, so you need to proactively keep their population under control.

TIP! A quality garden must be grown from seeds. Not only is this more of an effective method for gardening, but it’s also more environmentally-friendly.

A set of knee pads is a great investment if your garden has a lot of low-growing plants. Horticulture can really put a lot of pressure on your knees that will leave you cramped and uncomfortable. Using a pair of quality knee pads designed for gardening can provide your knees with cushioning and support, preventing any discomfort.

TIP! Apply organic mulch generously around your vegetable plants. Mulching helps keep moisture in the soil.

There are natural steps you can take to keep garden pests at bay. A border of onions or marigolds around a vegetable garden can repel slug. Insects can be deterred if you use wood ash instead of mulch around trees and shrub seedlings. These are proven methods without having to use harsh chemical pesticides.

TIP! Look for targeted pesticides instead of using popular but damaging broad-spectrum products. This particular type of pesticide will also kill the useful insects that consume the pests.

If you are gardening for the first time ever, read and follow all directions and instructions that come with your chemicals and tools. You might end up damaging your plants or getting a skin irritation. Following instructions for the use of harsh chemicals can keep you safe from serious injury.

TIP! You can create the look and feel of an English garden by mixing different plants of varying heights throughout your flower bed. Using plants of all the same kind or size, can result in a boring, and unoriginal garden.

Think about adding some berry-producing evergreens to your landscaping. The evergreens will add some color to your garden or yard, especially during the winter, when other plants have died or lost color. Some examples of evergreens that produce berries and color in the wintertime are the American Holly, Cranberrybush, the Winterberry and the Common Snowberry.

TIP! Are you a parent? If you are, try planting some strawberries like everbearing strawberries in your garden. Kids are quite eager to pick fruit from a garden, and will help with the planting if they get a nice snack out of it at the end.

When gardening outdoors, you must always wear sunscreen and appropriate attire; this will help to protect you from sun damage. Make sure you wear a wide brimmed hat along with sunglasses and plenty of sunscreen. When you protect yourself against the sun’s rays, you are more likely to avoid both skin cancer and sunburn.

TIP! If you choose to use organic methods to care for your houseplants, you should bear in mind that certain plants require more sunlight than others. If your windows are small or receive little light due to their positioning, a plant that requires little sunlight will be more comfortable and healthy.

Always completely protect any cuts, or wait until they are healed before attempting any horticulture, as this can introduce dirt or chemicals into the wound. A cut could get infected if it gets in contact with grime and dirt in the garden. The key is to use bandages capable of covering cuts in their entirety.

TIP! Do not plant your seeds in a rush. Begin by adding moisture to the dirt.

It is a great idea to help your garden by ruffling seedlings, either with cardboard or with your own hands, a couple of times each day. This will sound a bit strange. However, it has been proven to cause plants to grow larger.

TIP! Your seeds, once they begin sprouting, don’t need the same amount of warmth as they did before. Take your plants out of the heat once they start to grow.

If plants are inundated with too much water, it becomes more difficult for roots to pull nutrients out of the soil. Don’t go ahead and water your garden if the weather report predicts rain that day. If rain is on its way, you are probably safe to skip watering duties for the day.

TIP! In your flower beds and garden, utilize a few inches of organic mulch. Mulch will minimize weed growth and maximize nutrients and moisture.

Make sure you look at what lies beneath in order to start off on the right foot. Look out for green starts that are lush that might have bad root systems when you start purchasing tomato seedlings to help your organic garden prosper. The lush starts remain on the baby plants for several weeks, crippling their growth until the starts are gone.

TIP! Put coffee grounds in your soil. Plants can use the nitrogenous nutrients found in coffee grounds.

Stagger you vegetable planting so you will have a new harvest every month or so. This staggers your harvest over time. Additionally, if weather or something else ruins one harvest, you still get a second chance to get a good tomato crop.

TIP! Old laundry baskets are handy tools at harvest time. An old laundry basket makes an excellent strainer for cleaning your produce.

Using a soaker hose to water your organic garden is the best method. This type of hose allows the gardener to get a small, but steady amount of water near the roots without getting the leaves wet constantly. Instead of hand watering the plants, which can be tiresome, go with a soaker hose that uses less water.

TIP! Ruffle the seedlings carefully with a piece of soft cardboard or your hands twice a day. This may sound strange, but research has proven that doing this will help your plants grow bigger than if they were not petted at all.

Try to use at least three inches of some organic material for mulching trees and flowers. Doing this will benefit the environment, as well as reduce your water bills. The proper amount of mulch also makes for a very attractive appearance.

TIP! Use alcohol to help control the slugs in your garden by fashioning a beer trap. Start by burying a wide-mouth jar in the soil, ensuring that the rim of the jar is just at the soil’s surface.

Make sure your trees are in a location near your house so that they give you a lot of shade. Your energy bills will reflect this maneuver as your home will be naturally cooled by the shade from the tree.

TIP! You can find a lot of information on how to keep any unwanted pests away by researching local botanical insecticides. Natural insecticides can sometimes kill pests more powerfully than synthetic pesticides.

Save your rainwater. It can help you to keep your garden healthy. Use barrels or buckets to catch water for your garden. This way, you don’t need to spend money on water for your garden. One of the few things in life that is both free and plentiful is rainwater! You will find that your plants thrive on rainwater.

Organic Garden

TIP! Be cautious of what you are using on your garden. There are many organic fertilizers and pesticides available which are much better options than chemicals.

Now you know a bit more about what you are doing in starting an organic garden. You have just learned a lot of great information. Use the advice you have been given to make your organic garden bloom like never before.