Gardening can help you get rid of stress and improve your life. A garden increases your home’s curb appeal and is a perfect place to spend time with your friends and family.
However, we understand that cultivating or renovating your garden can sometimes be daunting. To make this daunting task simpler, here is a blog with fourteen ways to improve your garden without hiring professionals.
1. Choose the right plants
You might be thrilled to have plants in your garden that you like. However, not all plants can thrive in your garden. It’s important to identify which plants are native to your land and how you can grow them without making a ton of effort.
Use a proper guide like USDA Hardiness Zone guidelines to easily identify which plants can thrive in your garden. You can also link up with gardeners to find which plants you can cultivate according to your region.
2. Prune your plants
The pruning of your plant ensures that they grow properly. With pruning, your plants can get rid of the overgrown branches that can shun the growth of your plants. It’s important to know when to prune your plants to avoid complications.
For example, if you have shrubs in your garden that blossom in spring, you should prune those plants when the blooms disappear. Avoid pruning these plants in fall or winter as it can remove flower buds for the spring season.
3. Keep unwanted animals away
Birds, pets, and other animals can destroy your garden. These animals can try to make a “living space” in your garden and damage your plants. It’s therefore important that you deter animals from your garden.
For example, you have to keep the geese away to get rid of geese poop and make your garden look beautiful.
There are several methods to avoid the entrance of animals into your garden. Explore your options and pick the right method to keep animals out.
4. Add proper fertilizers
Plants can run out of nutrients if levels of nutrients in the soil are not in balance. Adding fertilizers can replenish the plants with nutrients and speed up their growth. You have to be cautious about fertilizers as improper fertilizers can ruin your garden.
Explore what kinds of fertilizers are recommended for plants you’ve cultivated. If you can’t find relevant information about fertilizers online, it’s better to ask for help from local gardening experts.
5. Water your plants regularly
Many people don’t know how to water their plants properly. For example, it’s a common misconception that one should supply A LOT of water thrice a day to the plants. But the truth is that the need for water varies from one plant to the other.
Learn how you can water your plants without damaging them. Use the right tools for watering, so you don’t waste water in your garden.
Another thing to know about watering is that “casual watering” doesn’t fulfill the needs of your plants. Shallow watering only moistens the top layer of the soil, so it’s recommended to deeply water the soil once a week.
Watering your plants is a time-consuming task. You can install an irrigation system in your garden to automate the watering process.
6. Treat the garden soil
The soil in your garden is prone to degradation over time. You have to refresh the soil to promote the healthy growth of your plants.
A simple way to improve the soil in your garden is by buying soil from a local garden center. After adding new soil, you can also add mulching material and fertilizers to boost the quality of the soil.
7. Add compost
Compost is a curated mixture of different materials that improve the quality of soil in your garden. Leftover foods and decomposing plants are the best materials for making compost.
Compost plays its role in nurturing your plants by balancing the soil density. This balancing helps plants grow healthier roots and grow faster. Add multi-purpose compost to your garden so plants can enjoy proper growth.
8. Clean the gardening tools
Many people think they can use gardening tools without cleaning them. However, gardening tools can cause various diseases in your garden if left unclean.
Proper cleaning of your gardening tools ensures that your plants don’t catch bacteria. Spend your time cleaning the gardening tools to be safe for use in your garden.
9. Get rid of weeds
Weeds are known as “garden killers.” They can appear in your garden out of nowhere and steal all the necessary nutrients from your plants. Weeds suffocate your plants by destroying the plant roots.
Keep a close look at the growth of weeds and get rid of them as soon as you can. Use proper weeding strategies to ensure that your plants stay healthy.
10. Add companion plants
Having the same type of plants in your garden can stop the growth of plants. It’s better to add different plants to ensure that all plants stay healthy.
Companion planting can:
- Provide pollinators
- Destroy weeds
- Attract healthy insects
Research what type of plants you should use for companion planting in your garden. You can ask a local gardening expert how you can get started with companion planting as a beginner.
11. Stake some of the plants
Not all plants can keep growing perfectly on their own. You can aid the plants in your garden by staking them properly. Staking strengthens the stem of plants and keeps them upright.
The process of staking involves adding sticks to the garden. You can stake plants like tomato plants with cloth or thread. Watching online tutorials about staking can help you stake your plants without damaging them.
12. Make a schedule
Gardening requires you to do things according to a plan in your garden. You cannot postpone all your gardening tasks to the weekend and expect that your plants will stay healthy.
Set aside some time from your busy routine and dedicate it to gardening. Make sure you don’t forget about other important activities when gardening to keep your daily routine in check.
13. Join online forums
It can get difficult to find all the information about gardening by yourself. You can find relevant information easily by joining online forums about gardening.
There are several online forums you can join without paying any fees. Make sure you join online forums that have gardeners from your community to find relevant information about gardening.
14. Ask for recommendations
Getting information about gardening from your close circle is the best option for you. Doing so allows you to waste the time and effort you might spend on gathering information online.
Contact people in your close who have a stunning garden. Get tips from them so you can boost the growth of plants.
