Sunday, July 15, 2012

Beat The Stress Of Everyday Living With Gardening

Gardening is a great pastime and could bring many benefits. No matter whether you keep a garden for food or merely for decoration, the sense of accomplishment you get from taking care of plants is like nothing else. In this article, you will be shown different techniques to help you start a garden, and grow plants of your own.

Choose trees that come to fruition in the fall. Fall is usually associated with foliage, but some trees will produce decorative fruit. Your berries will have a range of colors from deep reds to bright yellows, and will last well into winter, allowing your garden to remain colorful, and also providing food for birds. The best varieties include hawthorn, holly, crab apple and choke berry.

Gardening is a great way to relax. There are numerous avenues to pursue when attempting to find your personal peace and relaxation. Amongst the simplest ways to get there is to start a garden. While you do have to invest a little bit of money, the returns on that are huge. The best part of it is not the plants themselves, but the stillness achieved by tending to them.

Several annuals grow better in the colder months. For great looking plants, try pruning them if they get too leggy. After a couple of weeks, you will see these annuals bloom again, and they will look beautiful when compared to all of the winter foliage. Some annuals like snapdragons, dianthus, and petunias are particularly well suited to cooler temperatures.

To remove deposits of salt from clay pots, use a mixture of vinegar and alcohol. The salt deposits build up over time as you water the plants in the clay pots. Spray the inside of the pot with a mixture containing water, vinegar and rubbing alcohol; all in equal parts. When you scrub the pot with a stiff brush, the salt stains will disappear. Just rinse the pot out after this and you should be on your way.

A good way to ensure that your seeds sprout effectively is to start them in smaller pots and then transplant them once they reach the seedling stage. Your plants will be more likely to survive if you do this. This will also allow you to stick to a tighter, cleaner planting schedule. After you remove the mature plants from your garden, you can immediately replace them with the seedlings and start the cycle over again.

To keep pests away, you can use plants in the garden or other natural materials. For example, if you plant onions or marigolds along the edges of your vegetable garden, you can ward off slugs. Wood ash can be used as mulch, and if put on the base of shrub and tree seedlings, will keep insects away. You can avoid using pesticides that contain harsh chemicals if you employ these techniques.

Consider planting evergreens that produce berries in your yard. These help to give your garden nice looking color, even during winter when most vegetation is colorless. Other winter plants include the American Holly, Winterberry, The American Cranberrybush and the Common Snowberry.

If your garden is limited in size, consider planting fruit trees that come in dwarf varieties. In a city lot, you might find a very small garden area. Nonetheless, a miniature fruit tree can be squeezed in. Don't expect your trees to start bearing their full sized fruit until about 3 to 5 years from the time you plant them. Springtime is the best time to plant a dormant tree. Be sure to keep them watered until the roots are well established.

Your tool handles can easily be used as handy rulers. Tools with long handles such as hoes and rakes can double as measuring sticks. Lay the handles upon the floor and use a tape measure along side of them. Then, transfer the measurements to the handle using a permanent marker. When the need arises to measure something while in your garden, the measuring tool you need will literally be "on hand," sketched into the handles of your tools.

Identify a plant that will be the most prominent object of the landscape. In any good garden design, a focal point will grab the eye and hold it there. Usually, the focal point will be a plant that is unique from the plants around it.

An English garden mixes plants of various kinds and sizes close together, which helps to give it a more multi-dimensional feel. If you only use uniform plants, your bed will look boring and flat.

Gardening is a very interesting and rewarding activity. The benefits of garden-fresh vegetable or beautiful floral arrangements can be immediate and long-lasting. Apply these tips to make sure you do everything properly for better results.

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