Tips for New Gardeners' smart garden
In my experience, three out of five people need close contact with plants to live a happy life. Although most of us are hard-pressed to garden, we don't know how to do it. There's a lot to learn, and gardening in the information age brings unique challenges, as newcomers promise more than they deliver with ideas, tricks, and products.
1. Succeed with container growing
Containers help garden anywhere from a small balcony to a small patio. But containers come with a caring commitment, as plants with restricted root spacing require more from their caretakers in terms of watering, feeding, and overall support. Many beginners assume that containers are easy because they are small, but the opposite is true. With few exceptions, plants grow best when their roots are spread out in soil 10 degrees cooler than the air temperature, which is not the case in containers.
Plastic pots are a bit more forgiving than cloth bags and require less water, but all containers should be filled within 2 inches (5 cm) of the top. Otherwise, the edges of the container will shade the plants. Container-grown plants can always benefit from a bit more root space.
Many of the most popular vegetables eventually require very large containers. In addition to stunted growth, very small containers are prone to drooping in light and dry conditions. I grow a few vegetables and herbs in containers, always hoping they will thrive in pots on my deck. Half the time I bail and move the plants to the garden because they're not happy, or the pots have gotten too big to handle.
2. Avoid congestion
Seedlings should be thinned to expand their root space and improve access to light. Lettuce, beets, radishes, and carrots require aggressive thinning to reach their full potential, which can be difficult to do when you wait a long time to get healthy seedlings. Hold the laugh.
You need to pinch the premature fruits. Under stressful conditions, many seedlings rush to flower and sometimes set fruit when they are still very small. With seedlings that have spent time rooting in containers, the first small cucumbers or peppers should be pinched to help channel the plant's energy into new growth. Use scissors to make a clean cut. To motivate you to the task, while most vegetables have a high leaf-to-fruit ratio, any fruit they produce may lack flavor and nutrition.
3. Feed the plants well
Instead of digging up the garden and amending native soil, many gardeners fill raised beds with bags of long and varied soil, compost, and other amendments. But is it good? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. New soil, whether dug into native soil or made for beds, takes some time to settle in and respond to organic systems. Meanwhile, novice gardeners need a balanced organic fertilizer that can be mixed into the root zones of plants on an as-needed basis.
GardenTone, the most popular organic fertilizer in the United States, has an NPK analysis of 3-4-4, which indicates roughly equal amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, and a long list of micronutrients. Organic fertilizers break down slowly, especially in cold soils, and heavy forages like broccoli and sweet corn often benefit from extra nitrogen. Here's an important tip for new gardeners: Be careful when using fish broth, bone meal, or blood meal, which often attract the interest of hungry animals.
4. Mulch at the right time
Mulch brings a long list of benefits to the garden beyond spring. When mulch is applied before the soil warms and dries out a bit, the mulch becomes a haven for slugs and snails and can provide cover for cutworms and earwigs. To avoid potential problems, start saving mulch in the spring, but wait until early summer, after complete weeding, to spread it in the garden.
5. Make spraying a last resort
I learned early on that spraying the spinach with insecticidal soap was a bad idea because I saw a few aphids. Crop soap never stops tasting! The lesson you learn is that you shouldn't spray plants with anything but water, and you'll soon be eating them raw you will
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