Horticulture is a great way to grow delicious fruits and vegetables right in your own backyard. There’s nothing better than eating fresh veggies in your salad. Use the common sense advice in the article below to ensure a bountiful harvest.
Plant seeds in pots that have a rich soil to give them a strong start. Your plants will be more likely to survive if you do this. In addition, it offers you a smaller time frame between plantings. Using this method, you can remove the mature plants, then put the seedlings in their places.
Plant a little catnip or wheatgrass in the area surrounding the plants that your cat is devouring. You may also place something offensively smelly atop the soil, like citrus peel or mothballs.
Keep your plants dry and aerated daily. Parasites are attracted to the moisture on plants. An example of a common plant parasite is fungi. It is possible to control fungi with sprays, but the key is to treat your garden before any problems arise.
Start your garden by planting seed in small pots. Planting seeds is the most eco-friendly way to start a new garden. The planters used to hold nursery plants are generally not made from eco-friendly materials, and thus get thrown into landfills. Starting from seeds, or buying from one of the few nurseries that use biodegradable planters, prevents this.
See to it that you fertilize your garden. Manure can be very helpful in growing plants, but it is essential to use a commercial product that has been composted, in order to minimize pathogen risk. There are numerous types of fertilizers available. What type you select is less of a concern; any kind of fertilizer is better than none.
If you are new to horticulture, make sure you read and follow all the directions on any tool or chemical you use. It may seem simple enough, but not following it could lead to chemical burns and skin irritations. Keep yourself safe by carefully following all instructions.
To create a beautiful English garden, use the same bed to mix various kinds of plants, as well as different heights. Using plants that all grow the same height result in a flat and uniform looking bed.
Just as when outside, plants kept inside need varying degrees of sunlight, which can be harder to obtain from indoors. Ideally, these plants should be kept in a room that offers natural light from a window or glass door. If you have a different type of plant, extra lighting can always help.
Coffee Grounds
Coffee grounds work great mixed in with your soil. Coffee grounds are filled with nutritional elements plants need, such as nitrogen. Nitrogen is often the most important nutrient when it comes to plants thriving, and a solid source of nitrogen, like coffee grounds, urea, or compost, can boost growth speed and increase height.
You need to avoid chores in your organic garden stacking up. No matter what your schedule is like, you should be able to fit in small things that will help you avoid having an overwhelming amount of work all at once. You can pull a few weeds when you take your dog outside.
Old laundry baskets are handy tools at harvest time. The laundry basket is a perfect strainer for any produce run off. Just rinse the produce right in the basket; the water will drain through the holes.
Dried Plant Material
Use equal parts of green and dried plant material in your compost pile. Green plant material can include old flowers, fruit waste, grass clippings, vegetable waste, and leaves. Sawdust, straw, cardboard, paper and wood pulp are all examples of dried plant material. Don’t throw charcoal, meat or manure into your compost.
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. That may sound like a silly thing to do, but it’s been proven to help plants grow larger than they would otherwise.
Untreated Wood
A raised bed can be built with untreated wood, brick or stone. If you choose to use wood, see to it that it’s untreated and that it can resist rotting. The most popular options for this type of project are cypress, locust and cedar woods. Using untreated wood is especially important for veggie gardens, because chemicals from treated wood could leach into the soil, affecting your food. If you have placed treated wood in your garden, line it with a coat of plastic.
An excellent feature of organic vegetables is that they contain no pesticides. This is healthier than other alternatives, but you need to still check for diseases and bugs regularly.
A cheap, easy way to build your compost pile is to add fruit peels and scraps from your kitchen. This natural waste is full of nutrients to give your garden a healthy bloom at no cost when used as compost.
Leaves make for a good organic compost pile which you can mix in with soil. When the leaves decompose, they’ll become a compost that will nourish your plants. This is a great alternative to buying compost, and you can save a lot of money by doing this.
Garlic strategically located throughout your garden is a great way to keep the insect pests away without using chemicals. The smell of garlic repels lots of annoying insects. Encircle your most valuable plants with garlic to keep insects and other plants from devouring them quite so readily. A great benefit to planting garlic is you can use it for yourself because it is edible.
As was mentioned at the start of this article the beginning, a garden is a wonderful way to have your own fresh fruit, veggies and herbs at home. Being able to make a meal from homegrown ingredients will leave you with a sense of satisfaction. Use these tips to get more from your horticulture.
