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Practical Garden Tips

These practical garden tips will be time saving and allow you to spend more time on the fun and creative aspects of home garden like designing your garden, creating a garden journal , or just relaxing with friends and entertaining in your backyard oasis!

Weed Control

Put wet newspaper underneath the mulch or rocks for an extra layer of protection against weeds. The newspaper breaks down over time and can be replaced before adding more mulch the next year. It helps save the environment too because you're not using chemicals to kill the weeds.

Fight the battle of weed control with fire.

Use a torch to burn weeds that grow in the cracks and spaces in the sidewalks and patios.

It may seem extreme, but it's a quick and easy way to get rid of those annoying weeds that have grown roots to long to easily pull out.This method should be used with great care.

Another eco-friendly way to kill weeds is to pour boiling water over the area of plants that want to get rid of. This plan is a little more time consuming because you need to first boil the water and then carry it outside to douse the weeds with.

Mulch

Just like a coat of fresh paint re-energizes a room - refreshing your mulch puts the pizazz back into your landscaping and gardens.

It’s such a simple and usually inexpensive (about $3.00 a bag) thing to do that often gets overlooked.

If you think that your gardens or landscaping look tired and lack that ZING that it used to have and you can’t put your finger on what the issue is….. add fresh mulch.

I recommend that you add fresh mulch every year for your front yard landscaping to always give a great first impression of your home.

In the backyard garden you can usually get by with every two years before needing to add a layer of mulch, unless the water drains poorly into the landscaping and washes it away to quickly.

Add mulch to your container garden (especially your herb pots) to help cut down on the mess of dirt and soil splashing up and out when you water.

Mulch can add color and texture to your gardens. There is a wide variety of mulch to use. From coco beans to gravel to wood chips, the choice of what to use is getting harder to make!

Keep weeds out of certain areas of your yard or landscape by adding a 3-4" layer of mulch.

Use rubber mulch underneath the swing set or play staions in the back yard. This kind of mulch, made from recycled tires, is soft and cushy so if the kids fall off of the equipment, they're not as likely to get hurt.

This is the area that grass usually does not grow, so it also looks neater with a layer of mulch.

Water and Drainage Problems

Create a dry creek bed lined with rock for those crazy wet areas that are flowing right through your garden and washing everything away.Create the creek bed to have the water flow away form the house and direct the path of the water to a safe drainage spot, like a rain garden.

Add ferns and grasses along side the dry creek bed for a natural look.

Test to see how your soil drains, by digging a hole. Dig a hole about about 2 feet wide and 18" deep. Fill the hole with water . If the water drains in less than 10 minutes, then you most likely have sandy soil.

If the water take an hour or more to disappear, then you have clay soil.

Easy steps can be taken to amend both kinds of soil for proper draining, and growing flowers.

Create a bog or rain garden in the areas that are always wet and damp, and never seem to dry out. Plant native plants that can tolerate both wet and dry conditions.

These gardens also attract butterflies and frogs.

Garden Design

Plant the tallest flowers in the back of the garden .This sounds like a no-brainer, but it’s surprising how many beginning gardeners don’t think about this until its too late.

If you’re planting a garden that will be viewed straight on or from a front vantage point, take care to think about which plants are the tallest and put them in the back of the garden. (Remember the family photo sessions at Thanksgiving when the tallest people are directed to the back?)

Also think about the size and blooming time of each plant .

This is where information on those plant tags or the back of the seed packet comes in handy. Always read them so that you know when the plant is expected to bloom and how large will it get. Growing flowers is easier if you save the packet and plant tags.

You didn’t throw the instructions away did you? Just checking.

Planning ahead will avoid the dismal look of a cottage garden that blooms all at once and then having nothing but dead flower heads for the rest of the season. Not a pretty picture.

Planting the flowers closer together than what is recommended on the plant tag or seed package is sometimes a good idea.

I know that this goes against what some others say!

When I first began gardening,I used to follow the instructions to the letter on the seed packets or plant tags. If it said plant 2 feet apart, I did.

But......this never worked out for me. I had gaping holes in my garden and would wait all season for the flowers to fill in. (Usually right before the fall frost my garden would finally fill out!)

I prefer a fuller garden so now I plant the annual flowers closer than the recommended space and I have lush full flower gardens that I can cut from.

Prevent the Spread of Bacterial Disease

Bacterial disease can spread on garden tools like the pruners and garden snips.

Cleaning after every use with some rubbing alcohol and light oil will help sterilize the garden tools, and stop the spread of bacteria that can kill your plants. .

Disease can also spread through rain droplets, so pruning when the weather is a little drier and warmer will also help.

"Do not prune in April , May , and June. "

More Practical Garden Tips for a Better Yard and Garden
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