Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Dreary Garden? Perk It Up With This Fabulous Advice.

Horticulture is generally a relaxing and therapeutic hobby. When it comes to horticulture there are some basic "need to know" things such as: knowing your soils, which equipment to use and the time frame for planting your seeds. This article contains important information for anyone wanting to begin a garden.

Plant cool-weather edibles in the fall. Clay pots are boring, so replace those ordinary lettuce and kale pots with pumpkins. To use the pumpkin as a planter, it is important to prevent it from rotting. To do this, you simply spray the entire inside and any edges with a horticulture spray called Wilt-Pruf. This is done after you've opened the pumpkin at the top and removed the insides. Now you can use the pumpkin as a planter.

There is always a best time to pick your garden's vegetables, and you should know them. Each kind of vegetable should be picked at a specific point for maximum flavor. Harvesting zucchini is best done when they are small and baby peas should be harvested when they are young. The opposite is true of tomatoes. They taste their best if you allow them to ripen on the vine as long as possible. Find out what the best harvest time is for your vegetables.

An English garden mixes plants of various kinds and sizes close together, which helps to give it a more multi-dimensional feel. If you use a combination of plants that grow to the same height, your garden bed will be uniform and dull looking.

Cover the fences and walls with climbers. Climbing plants are known to be very versatile, and can help hide any ugly wall or fence, and this often only takes one growing season. They can be trained to grow over an arbor, or through trees and shrubs that are already in the garden. There are natural climbers, which use tendrils or stems to wrap around any given surface, while others must be tied with a string or rope. A few good choices are climbing roses, wisteria, jasmine, honeysuckle and clematis.

Think about berry-producing trees that are green year round for your garden. This will allow your garden to have color, even in the dreary winter months. Some examples include Holly, Snowberry trees, Winterberry and similar plants.

Turn the handles of your garden tools into measuring rulers. Tools that have long handles such as rakes, hoes and shovels can be used in place of a measuring stick. Place the handles on the ground and measure them. Use a bright permanent marker and label the distances. This will allow you to have a ruler at your fingertips when you are working out in the garden.

Keep your tools stored away safely if you're in a large traffic area. If valuable tools are left out, it could prove to be too tempting for a potential thief.

Protect your plants from moisture on a daily basis. Excess moisture creates an appealing environment for disease and parasites. A common parasite found in the plant kingdom is fungi. It is possible to control fungi by using fungicide sprays. However, these sprays should be used before issues become apparent.

Choose the right soil for best results. Different types of plants require different soils, so check soil requirements for the ones you choose. You may also cultivate an artificial area comprised of just one type of soil.

Create a planting calendar for your garden. This will tell you what you need to plant each season. If you make a plan ahead of time, you will be prepared with the seeds and plants when you need them. You can make a planting calendar using a computer program, or with paper.

Get some horticulture knee pads if you find yourself kneeling on the ground a lot to do your horticulture. Long hours spent in the garden will wreak havoc on your knees. Investing in good knee pads will help cushion your knees so you are more comfortable.

A great horticulture tip to implement is to actually create new plants for your garden by using root cuttings from existing plants. Cut the roots in the winter, while they are dormant. Use a knife to take the longest and thickest roots away from the plant. The roots should be sliced at least two inches long. Fill up a tray with seeds with dirt and grit and put your roots on the surface of that. Cover the root pieces with the same grit and peat moss mixture that you filled the trays with. Leave the tray in a cool area, and seedlings will sprout in approximately a month. Then you can transplant the seedlings into separate pots with room to grow. In the spring, you can plant them outdoors.

Remove your garden's weeds! Weeds can turn a beautiful garden into an eyesore. To help with the removal, you can use white vinegar. The acid in white vinegar kills weeds. You may also be using plants that need that very same acid. So, if weed pulling is tiring you out, spray a white vinegar solution all over them.

If you want to draw advantageous insects to your garden, plant some heather. Bees like heather, and they get their nectar from it early in the spring. Spiders, ground beetles and other useful insects are drawn to heather beds because they don't tend to get jostled around. With this in mind, be sure to prune your heather while wearing gardening gloves.

Biennials and annuals are great if you would like to better your flower bed. These types of flowers grow at high speed, which gives you more flexibility in changing the look of your flower beds as the seasons change. They are very useful for filling in the gaps between perennials and shrubs in a sunny area. The most popular varieties to use include petunia, zinnia, cosmos, snapdragon, marigold, hollyhock, and sunflower.

Improve the value of your home. If you are looking for high returns, landscaping gets you a lot of your money back. Certain plants could increase the value by 20%. It is a good idea to aim for plants that require low moisture to survive and are adapted to thrive within your environment.

In order to bring in good insects to your garden, you need to plant heather. Heather is very attractive to bees, and when bees first emerge in the spring, it is an early source of nectar. In addition, beds of heather are usually left alone. Because of this, insects that are good for your garden often make them a home, such as beetles or spiders. Because of this, you might want to invest in a good pair of horticulture gloves for the times when you need to prune it.

Vegetables should be planted in an area where they will get a minimum of six hours of daily sunlight. Almost all vegetables need this much sunlight, so that they can grow correctly and in a shorter amount of time. This also rings true for some of the flowers.

Gardening is a rewarding and pleasurable hobby. Whether the garden is for fresh vegetables, or just for beauty of having flowers, the benefits are clear and never ending. By applying some of the advice you have learned, you can find a lot of joy from gardening.

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