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.

Low Maintenance Gardening Tips That Save You Time

When it comes to gardening lots of people use excuses like, they haven't got the time or it is just too expensive to create a garden which is pleasing to the eye and easy to maintain. This couldn't be further from the truth. With the correct gardening info and tips you can quickly make gardening a breeze and create a garden that not only you will be proud of, but will be the envy of your friends and family.

Gardening doesn't have to be hard and time consuming. In fact it is a great way to relax, unwind and relieve stress. Most people want gardens that look nice and are easy to maintain. So if you are thinking this way, it will be a good idea to eliminate complicated garden designs and plans from your mind and work on something a lot less complex, cheaper and much more easy to maintain.

If you are a person who is limited for time and wants to create a low budget and low maintenance garden, then a gravel garden is going to be right up your street. To create this type of garden, first of all you will need to level off the area that you plan on laying the gravel. Once you have done this, you can then lay down a sheet of membrane over the entire area. This will help to stop weeds growing through the gravel once it is laid. Once the surface is flat and the membrane is laid, simply drop the gravel over the entire surface. It would be wise idea, to have around a three to four inch depth of gravel over the entire surface area, this will prevent exposing the membrane when you walk over the gravel and it will also help to slow down weed growth.

Once all the gravel is down, the next step would be to get a few low maintenance plants and plant them in decorative pots around the garden. Another great addition to a gravel garden is wooden garden furniture, such as table, benches and chairs. There you have it, an easy to maintain garden, which will look fantastic all year round.

The only jobs you will need to do on this type of garden to keep it looking good. Is to pull up weeds as they appear and trim and prune your plants. If you let your plants grow and weeds appear, it will only take a few months for your garden to become untidy and possibly overgrown with weeds. Weeds are resilient and can even get through membrane, so try to spend around 20 minutes each week, weeding and pruning your gravel garden.