Gardening can be an enjoyable activity with many benefits to your life. Whether it is made of vegetables or flowers, there is definitely something highly rewarding about caring for a garden. Learn how much water your vegetables and flowers need and be sure you plant them in the right kind of soil. Follow some of the advice contained in this article for further ideas of things you should know.
Learn about plant varieties so you can choose the ones with the best yields. Many times, a cold-tolerant or disease-resistant hybrid can have a higher yield versus traditional ones.
If mildew is forming on your plants, you should not purchase an expensive chemical. Combine baking soda with a small dollop of liquid soap and add it to water. Once a week, spray this solution on your plants and your mildew should disappear in no time. Baking soda will not damage your plants and treats the mildew gently but efficiently.
Grow wheat or cat grass around the plants your cat likes nibbling. Alternatively, you can try putting mothballs, citrus peel or anything else with an odor that cats find distasteful in the soil surrounding the plants.
Don’t cut your grass down by the soil when you run the mower. If you let your grass grow, the roots will go deeper and make your lawn more resistant to dryness. If you keep your lawn too short, the roots will not go deep enough to survive in case of a heat wave.
You should make sure to divide your irises. Overgrown clumps of irises can be divided up to increase your numbers of this lovely flower. After the foliage dies, pick up bulbous irises. You will be able to split the bulb easily and replant it to get more flowers next year. Divide up the rhizomes with a knife. You can trim new pieces away from the outside of the bulbs and then simply throw the old center away. Each piece should have at least one strong offshoot. Replant each one immediately.
If you want to grow peas, consider starting them indoors instead of planting them outside. When you plant them indoors first, the seeds will germinate better. This will also make the seedlings hardier, which will help them resist diseases and pests. Once the seedlings have become hardy enough to survive, you can transplant them to your outdoor garden.
If you want the best tasting vegetables, learn about the optimum time to harvest them. Every vegetable has a proper time to be picked in order to capture the perfect flavor. Zucchini and baby peas, for example, have the best flavor when harvested early. However, you get better taste out of tomatoes that have been allowed to ripen as much as practical while still on their vine. Take some time to learn about the best harvest time for the vegetables that you have growing.
As aforementioned, gardening can become a very rewarding pastime. Whether it is the beauty of flowers or the fresh vegetables, the benefits are evident and never ending. Utilizing some of the information that has been provided can help you to see that gardening is wonderful and interesting.
Originally posted 2014-01-04 11:36:35.