basic gardening tips

Useful Gardening Tips For Beginners

You've decided to plant a garden but you need basic gardening tips for beginners, this is the place to be. Gardening has become a delightful hobby for people all over the world.

There are many rewards for the gardener, the visuals of his creation, the scent of the blooms, great fresh air and lots of exercise. Imagine a weekend spent in the yard with your feet up drinking in the spectacular gardens that you have created the fruits of your labor and love. If you are a beginner gardener, here are some basic gardening tips. No matter how much room you have, you can create a masterpiece garden.

The basic garden tips for beginners will help you create new gardens and make it a successful and joyful experience. In the beginning go slowly, start small but use your imagination. Choose a project that will not take a long time to complete. If it takes you weeks to finish a project you will get frustrated and start to hate the project you wanted to enjoy. Even if you have 75 or 100 square feet you will be amazed at how much you can plant.

If you are determined to have a larger project, then work in sections and turn your attention to one area at a time. This way as each section is finished you can enjoy that completed job. This will also build up your confidence as you go along making the next section not so daunting.

But for a beginner gardener a small scale garden is optimal. You are going to have to learn the basics of gardening, all about disease, the best way to control weeds and pests, the all important watering and when and how to fertilize. After your initial project you can enlarge the garden or plant one somewhere else in your yard with your new found confidence.

To cut down on the weeding of your garden, place mulch around the plants. This serves three purposes; it cuts down on weeding, as well as aiding in temperature control and water retention. Granted there are some gardeners that love to work the soil and weed the plants but it would be more rewarding to tending to the plants or just watching them grow. To maintain really healthy plants water for longer periods of time but less frequently. Do not let the plants dry out. Always water early in the morning so the plant leaves have time to dry out during the day which helps prevent fungal disease.

After planting, try to have your garden remain pesticide free. An especially good natural deterrent is as follows:

In a jar, combine 1 teaspoon dishwashing liquid and 1 cup vegetable oil. Shake vigorously. In an empty spray bottle, combine 2 teaspoons of this mixture and 1 cup water. Use at ten-day intervals (or more often if needed) to rid plants of whiteflies, mites, aphids, scales, and other pests.

These are the basic gardening tips for beginners. Remember, that you can create lovely gardens in containers which you can move around as you please. There are hundreds of different plant combinations and containers that you can use for a container garden. So, if you are an apartment or condo dweller, you can plant lovely gardens on your balcony or patio. The basic tip here is that container gardens will dry out much faster than the plants in the ground so be vigilant about checking them for moisture.

Posted by Admin

Reasons For You To Start Gardening

Gardening is one of those hobbies which can be enjoyed by almost anybody. From the very young to the very old, from the very healthy to those with poor health or some form of disability, all types of person can enjoy various types of gardening. For those adults who are strong and healthy virtually any aspect of the hobby can be thoroughly enjoyed as often as they like but for those less fortunate strenuous gardening tasks, such as those involved in landscaping and building a new garden, may be beyond their capabilities. Such folk can still enjoy some of the lighter tasks, such as pruning and weeding, and they can certainly enjoy all of the many benefits.

One of the most obvious benefits of gardening are related to the elements of exercise. One of the beautiful things about gardening is that the hobby offers many different levels of exercise from the vigorous and strenuous to the light and easy going. At different ages we require different levels and different types of exercise. It is often a joke that when somebody is about to retire from full time employment they are likely to take up gardening in their spare time. It is true that a great many of us choose to take up the hobby late in life when we have much more spare time to enjoy such things but, for the elderly, regular and gentle exercise can help ensure that joints remain supple. For some elderly gardeners a simple task such as bending over to remove a weed can prove to be nearly impossible, or could lead to injury if done incorrectly. For this reason there are a number of garden implements available to help older folk. These include long handled tools which reduce the need for bending or a small platform with tall poles at each side to help the person lower themselves to a seated or kneeling position and then aide them in returning to the standing position.

Of course regular exercise is important to us all. Unfortunately it is often said that the increase in child obesity is due to lack of regular exercise and bad diet. Well gardening can cater for both these needs because as well as providing all sorts of opportunity for exercise we can also grow fresh fruit and vegetables in even the smallest of spaces. Young children, more often than not, find the whole process from planting the seeds to harvesting the produce, highly fascinating. Many schools now try to incorporate simple gardening into their science lessons and more and more are developing their own gardens, both flower and vegetable, for both educational and recreational use.

From the moment a fruit or vegetable is picked it begins to lose it's nutritional benefits most noticeable is the reduction in vitamin content. All produce now has a sell by date and a consume by date but, when it comes to fruit and vegetables they are best consumed as soon after harvesting as possible. Food should not be too processed, it should not be cooked for too long, as this further degrades the vitamins (steaming of fresh vegetables is increasing in popularity because it helps retain vitamins). Freezing the produce as soon after harvesting as possible can help greatly but nothing beats food which is picked and eaten on the same day.

By indulging in a little gardening you can ensure that at least some of your diet includes food which can be picked and eaten on the same day. Furthermore you can ensure that it is even healthier by avoiding the use of artificial chemicals. Organic fruit and vegetables are considered far healthier and organic gardening is not really that difficult. You will be amazed at how gorgeous a fresh organic new potato can taste and as for tomatoes, have you tasted a tomato recently? They are disgusting, they are often orange and rather tasteless. Compare the cheaper tomatoes with organic vine tomatoes and you can really taste the difference, and I really do mean that you will taste a massive difference. Sadly there is just a massive increase in the price but, happily, tomatoes are one of the most commonly grow vegetables or fruit grown in indoor gardening. I have often grown tomatoes on my kitchen window where they receive most sunlight and where they can be watched closely (as they do require a fair bit of attention). Homegrown tomatoes are simply the best and they remind me of my great grandfather who always grew a great many in his small greenhouse alongside one or two pot plants, a cacti or two and some seed trays full of annuals for his beautifully kept flower garden. He was an avid gardener all of his long life and credited his good health to his love of gardening.

There are numerous other health benefits to gardening, far to many to comprehensively list here, but, with a little research you will find sufficient ways in which to benefit from gardening to encourage almost anybody to take up the hobby. Even the disabled can benefit and can have a garden designed to compensate for their disabilities, such as raised beds which can enable them to weed, prune and plant. However the greatest benefit has to be the enjoyment of the garden itself. Time spent relaxing in a garden it truly priceless, especially if you have a hectic modern lifestyle. Just an hour or two a week spent taking in the sun surrounded by the sounds of birds and other wildlife can prove highly restorative. It is therefore little surprise that nearly every hospital, hospice, health spa or other such places, all have well kept gardens.

Posted by Admin

Gardening - A Great Family Activity

Gardening with your family can be a good way to connect with your kids. While gardening can be a little expensive, it doesn't have to. There are cheaper ways to make gardening fun and exciting for you and your family.

Start small. If you don't have a backyard or lawn, you can turn your window boxes or containers into mini-gardens. Set up mini-gardens in your kid's bedroom. You'll be surprised at how responsible they can be.

Get child-sized gardening tools. Local nurseries or garden centers usually have gardening tools for the little hands. Purchase ones that looks like the real things to make your child feel like a real gardener. Plastic spoons and shovels can work too, if you're on a tight budget.

Kids love the best of both worlds. Children are amazed at the biggest and smallest things so when it comes to plant choices, choose huge plants like sunflowers and the small vegetable plants like cherry tomatoes. You can also try planting herbs and teach your kids how to rub them between their fingers and enjoy the scent.

Be creative and fun. Have a specific area in your garden where your kids can dig even after your gardening sessions are over. This would most probably be their favorite part of the garden. Create games like digging the longest earthworm or the deepest hole.

Teach your kids to compost. Dig a hole in your garden and put in rinds, peels from fruits, eggshells or anything that easily decomposes. It would take several months but afterwards, you can use the compost as fertilizers for your own garden.

Remember though, if you're working with kids, be prepared for the not-so-perfect looking gardens. Have fun!

Posted by Admin