Gardening Information - Tips to Keep Your Garden Attractive

Some folks with small yards would like to have a simple well-maintained garden none the less. Here are some tips to a glamorous inviting garden.

1. Keep you garden free of wilted flowers and dried leaves. Remove dead flower heads from the plants and pickup any dead leaves you may find. Many plants will produce more blossoms sooner if you get rid of the ugly brown spent blossoms.

2. Foliage plants like Coleus and others, respond with a spurt of growth when their tops are pinched out. When you pinch out the top of a plant the growing energy goes laterally more than vertically, you have bushier fuller plants. That's one reason you notice that orchards are filled with squat, wide trees. The arborist cuts the tops out of the fruit trees and they grow bushier thus more fruit is produced. Some plants will get tall and lanky if you don't intervene in this way.

3. Be careful of over fertilizing if you put on too much you can have some "burning" or yellowing of the leaves. Once a month is about all you should need to fertilize you garden. You can mix up a weak solution of liquid fertilizer for you potted plants and as long as its weak enough you can water with it regularly, however if they get to much you may see damage.

4. Not only do weeds make your garden unsightly but they compete for nutrients and moisture as well and it seems like weeds will always get the upper hand if you don't do your gardening duty and pull them out. For weeds such as blackberry or other brush types you can cut the bottom from a bucket or one gallon can, or create cylinder some other way. Place the cylinder over the plant and spray herbicide on the plant. The weed gets killed but your garden stays safe and healthy. Of course if yo let the brush weeds get the better of you, you might have to sacrifice your garden and spray the whole area with brush killer. The following spring you can use you cylinder method and have a nice garden.

5. Just use common sense when watering and if you are not sure turn over a shovel full of soil and see how moist it is. If it's dry water if not wait. However I believer you should not water during the heat of the day, water in the cool of the morning or evening. That's easier on the plants and the amount of water you use.

6. Whenever you can use a natural solution to get rid of garden pest or weeds say no to chemicals, the less you use contaminants around your garden the better. Of course some weeds as mentioned above and some pest need more that manual eradication, when the situation arises always follow label directions an use protective clothing, a face mask and goggles or face shield. To be safest if you have a rubber apron, boots and gloves you should use them. One spill of some chemicals could really ruin your day.

7. If you smoke, never carry your smokes on your person when using chemicals. One guy I heard of had a cigarette behind his ear when he sprayed his fruit trees and had to be hospitalized for poisoning after he smoked his contaminated cigarette.

My life yield to you an abundant harvest of joy.