Gardening A complete Introduction
The thing to remember while gardening is to start small. A small plant bed, about 25 or 30 feet square is perfect, is just enough room for about 30 plants. This will give you a chance to try out your green thumb and if you find that you enjoy your garden you can always expand and increase your plantings.
Sponsored Links:
The next thing you will want to do is choose a
site. Gardening must be done in an area that gets at least six hours of
sunlight. Try and stay away from large trees that will take your plants
water and nutrients, and at least three feet from any fences or
buildings. In hot climates it is a good idea to choose a place that will
have shade from a part of the intense afternoon sun. It is possible to
have a healthy garden with even ten to twelve hours of sunlight, but the
type of plants must be adaptable. While soil can always be improved, a
site with good soil is a plus. Avoid areas that have rocky soil, steep
slopes, or areas where water stands.
Now comes the fun part: start digging. Gardening is not a clean hobby;
you're going to have to get some dirt under your nails. First remove the
rocks, debris, and any grass and weeds then dig the spot up about one
foot deep. Level up the dirt and add compost or minerals if the needed.
If your soil is too acidic, add lime; if it is too sandy, add peat moss.
Plants will thrive in neutral to acidic soil with a little added
fertilizer.
If you buy seeds then plant them according to the directions. If picking
plants, choose ones with green, healthy looking leaves and stems and
healthy roots. Put the smaller plants towards the front of the bed and
larger ones in the back. The key to a successful beginning in gardening
is planting at the right time. Make sure and wait until the frosts are
over before planting. If you are planting seeds the package will usually
tell you exactly when you can plant them to achieve maximum growth.
Once you have started and gotten into gardening, making sure your plants
receive enough water is essential to their growth. Hand watering works
well if you only have a few plants. Other options include sprinklers or
sprinkler hoses. Watering is more effective during the cooler parts of
the day. The type of plant will depend on how much water is needed, but
most require about an inch per week. During the hottest periods plants
will be need watering about three times per week.
One of the most helpful things to add to a garden is mulch or compost.
Just a few inches of organic mulch will improve fertility and help the
soil hold moisture. Wood chips, grass clippings, leaves, manure, and
pine needles are all things that can be used as mulch.
Flower Gardening
Flower gardening is becoming more and more popular every day. Flowers
can brighten everyone's day, they smell nice, and are a great hobby.
Flower gardening is simple, inexpensive, and loads of fun.
Flower gardening can be done for yard
decoration, simply as a hobby, or even professionally.
There are some decisions that have to be made before even flower
gardening can be started. You must decide if you want annuals that live
for one season and must be replanted every year, or perennials that
survive the winter and return again in the summer. When buying and
planting, pay attention to what kind of flowers thrive in your climate
as well ass the sun requirements.
When flower gardening, you must decide what type
of look you want before planting. For instance, mixing different
heights, colours, and varieties of flowers together in a wild-plant
style will give your garden a meadow look and can be very charming. If
short flowers are planted in the front of your garden and work up to the
tallest flowers in the back you will have a stepping stone style.
You can order seeds for flower gardening from
catalogues or buy them from a nursery. Most people will go to the
nursery and buy actual flowers and then transplant them. After you have
prepared your garden area and bought flowers, it is a good idea to lay
the flowers out in the bed to make sure you like the arrangement and
that they will be spaced properly.
One of the easiest processes in flower gardening
is the planting/ if you have seeds just sprinkle them around in the
flower bed. For planting transplants dig a hole just bigger than the
flower, pull the container off, and set the flower in the hole right
side up. Cover it with the loose soil and press down firmly, then water.
Maintaining a flower garden is even easier than planting one. Although
they might make it on their own, a bag of fertilizer applied in the
early spring is a good idea. Pinch back any blooms after they start to
fade and keep them good and watered. To save yourself work during the
next season of flower gardening, rid your garden of all debris and
spread out organic nutrients like peat moss or compost. Don't forget to
turn over the soil to properly mix in the fertilizer and rake smooth
when finished. If you have perennials planted be careful not to disturb
their roots in this process.
Flower gardening is as easy as 1, 2, and 3: simply decide what to plant;
plant it, and water, water, water! Flower gardening is undoubtedly
gaining in popularity and gives anyone excellent reason to spend some
outdoors and test out their green thumb.
Gardening Equipment
Nearly every gardener has some type of gardening equipment. In fact, its
nearly impossible to have a garden without used gardening equipment.
What kind of gardening equipment you use will obviously depend on the
size and extent of your garden, what you are able to handle, if you want
to spend a lot of time in your garden or get done quickly, and finally,
how much money you are willing to spend.
While many gardeners do not have expensive or high-tech gardening tools,
all of them have some type of gardening equipment for cultivating. Tools
for cultivating can include both hand held tools and power tools. What
kind you buy depends on how serious of a gardener you are. Hand tools
include your everyday items like shovels, spading forks, rakes, trowels,
and diggers. These can all be used to get a garden ready for planting
and are relatively easy and do not require much strength to use. Other
tools include a wheel cultivator, pickax, and mattock.
While power tools are a little more expensive than hand tools, they
really cut down on the hard labour. The most essential piece of
gardening equipment is undoubtedly the tiller. The tiller will break up
the ground and get it ready for planting, chop up any debris, and help
mix in fertilizer and compost. If you don't want to spend the money on a
tiller you can hire someone or rent a tiller for one time use. Other
power tools that are very popular include chippers, garden shredders,
and chain-saws.
If you have shrubs, hedges, or small trees in your yard, pruning tools
are a vital piece of gardening equipment. Pruning shears are good for
branches about in diameter, while lopping shears can handle branches
from a half inch up to about 2 inches. Pole pruners are on a pole and
can reach branches about 15 feet above ground. Hedge shears and pruning
saws are both larger, more heavy duty pruning tools for the serious
gardener.
Since your plants must be watered in order to survive, and lets face it,
it doesn't rain whenever we want it to, gardening equipment for watering
is a must have. The one thing you cant get along without is a water
hose, everything after that is optional. Many gardeners use sprinklers
or s drip irrigation hose. There are even timers you can purchase for
sprinklers or drip hoses, if you are willing to drop the extra cash.
Gardening without gardening equipment would be a nightmare. Sure there
are some people who enjoy getting a little dirty while they plant their
flowers, but even those types of people have the most basic of gardening
tools, like a rake or a hoe. Gardening equipment is a part of gardening,
as important as the dirt and the seeds.
