Gardening Ideas – How to Get More From Your Garden

With outdoor entertaining on the rise and more people choosing to stay home instead of taking expensive vacations, we all want our garden areas and beds to look their best. It doesn’t matter if your garden is large or small. There are so many things you can do to get more from your garden. Before you go rushing for your garden tools you need to have a plan. If you’re in the early stages of planning your garden areas remember to keep several things in mind: the size of your garden spaces, the colors you want to use as well as how you plan to use your garden. The same guidelines you apply to decorating your interior spaces can apply to your garden as well.

Plan Your Garden Spaces

There are a lot of garden books and magazines you can use to get ideas to help you plan your garden Keep in mind that you need to work within your climate and planting zone. Don’t fall in love with a lush tropical garden if you live in the Northeast where you might get a blizzard in January. Also if you have children and pets there are some areas of your yard and garden that are going to get some heavy use. If you have concerns that your plants might get trampled, use raised planters or decorative garden carts to hold your flowers or even vegetables.

Plan your garden so you have flowers blooming all season long. Plant a variety of early blooming bulbs, mid summer flowers and late season bloomers like mums that can last right up until Thanksgiving. During the hot summer months use your garden hose to soak the ground around your plants. This way you’re getting the water right to the roots as apposed to watering the tops of the plants that can cause sunburn spots on the leaves.

Fighting the Weeds

Keep the weeds under control. Weeds can make an otherwise beautiful garden look shabby. So have some sort of weed control plan right from the beginning. If you don’t want to use chemicals, you can check out some earth friendly weed control products or simply attack them one by one. Remember that weeds like dandelions and some of the burdock family have deep and extremely tough tap roots and if you simply break off the top, they will shoot up again. So be diligent and thorough with your weed control.

Keep Things Growing

If your planters begin to die back and it’s still early in the season, clean them out and replant them. Use your garden hose to water the plants when the top of the soil feels dry but at the same time make sure your planters have good drainage, since most plants hate to have their roots sitting in water.

If you plan to entertain outdoors you’re going to want your gardens to look their best. This means keeping on top of things and giving your garden tools a good workout. Your planters will need regular drinks from the garden hose because container plants will dry out faster than those in the ground. With a little planning you can take any garden spot and turn it into your own beautiful outdoor haven.