subject: Six Tips For Keeping A Healthy Garden [print this page] Proper maintenance is essential to a healthy and beautiful garden. Neglected gardens offer suffer from over crowding, countless weeds, poor soil quality and weak plants. Here are six tips on keeping a well maintained and vigorously growing garden.
Deadheading Flowers: This is the practice of snipping off the dead and spent flowers on perennials and annuals. Removing dead flower heads will encourage repeat blooming, particularly with annuals. It also keeps the garden looking fresh well kept all season long. Many perennials such as peony, daylily and iris, and all annuals benefit from having spent blooms removed.
Pinching Back: Certain plants, especially foliage plants like Coleus, respond with a spurt of new growth when their tops are pinched back. Pinching back promotes healthy growth and encourages more numerous blooms. Some plants become too leggy or top heavy unless they are pinched back.
Proper Fertilizing: Over fertilization can burn your plants. Fertilizing correctly encourages healthy growth in your flowers, shrubs and other garden plants. If you water your yard frequently, fertilizing more regularly may be necessary because nutrients can leach out of the soil. An occasional application of liquid fertilizer is sometimes more beneficial than granules. This type of fertilization is more easily absorbed by the leaves. Container plants will be considerably healthier with a half-strength solution of liquid fertilizer applied regularly.
Diligent Weeding: This is one of the best and most effective ways to preserve the beauty and health of your garden. Remember, weeds compete with your all of your garden plants for space, nutrients and moisture. Weedes also have the tendency to crowd out other flowers. This may limit air flow in the garden resulting in a constant dampness and rot.
Proper Watering: Give your garden a thorough soaking a few times a week rather a quick dousing all at once. This will ensure there is no run-off to cause erosion. Deep watering also encourages the growth of deeper roots which will help your garden plants withstand long dry spells, particularly throughout the hot summer months.
Avoid Pesticides: Chemicals are dangerous to humans and often kill the natural predators of the pest in your garden, so avoid them if possible. Chemicals will also discourage wildlife such as hummingbirds and butterflies from visiting your garden. There are many organic alternatives that effectively control weeds and other garden pests.
Remembering these six simple tips will keep your garden healthy and vibrant throughout the entire season as well as from year to year.
