Four Ways To Prepare Your Garden For Winter

Organic horticulture requires a lot of patience and talent. It is a good way to grow healthy fresh foods in an environmentally friendly, chemical-free way. It might sound easy, but is it? Continue on for some helpful advice that will have you gardening like a pro.

Slowly acclimatize your plants to the outside environment to keep from shocking them. You need to give them about an hour of sunlight during the first day. Gradually increase the the time they spend outside over a one week period. After one week, the plants should be fully acclimated and ready to move outside.

Brighten your garden with biennials and annuals. These biennials and annuals are fast-growing, and they allow you to brighten up your flower bed with a change for each season. You can also use these flowers to fill gaps between shrubs or perennials. Some varieties are hollyhocks, petunias and sunflowers.

When you mow your lawn, do not mow it close to the ground. Cutting your grass at a taller height allows grass roots to grow deeper and stronger, which helps lessen the chance of your lawn drying out easily. If the grass is too short that will lead to shallow roots, which will cause a brown and dried-out lawn.

When you grow veggies in a garden, you need to ensure they get at least six hours of good sunlight each day. Most vegetables require this amount of sun in order to grow properly and at a quicker pace. Some flowers have the same requirement for growth.

Be sure to split the irises. Try increasing your stock by dividing your overgrown clumps of plants. When you see the foliage is definitely dead, lift up the bulbous irises. The bulbs, when harvested, should easily split by hand – allowing you to replant them for even more blooms next spring. If you have a rhizome you will need to split it with a knife. Cut the center out of each rhizome but save the pieces. Don’t plant any pieces that don’t have any strong offshoots. All that is left to do is immediately replant the pieces you have created and let the cycle begin anew.

A great garden starts from the seeds and not from the plants. Your can contribute to environmental soundness by beginning your garden with fresh seeds. Very few nurseries recycle the plastics that they use as containers for their plants, so the majority of these containers are thrown away and dumped in landfills. Therefore, it is better for the environment to plant a garden with seeds or to find a nursery that packages its plants using organic materials.

Take the time to spread around five centimeters of organic mulch near your vegetable plants. Mulch keeps soil moist for longer periods of time. Mulch will help a lot in preventing weeds from growing. You will be able to save the time you would spend watering your plants and pulling out weeds.

Read instructions before using any gardening tool you aren’t familiar with, including pesticides or other chemicals. Use the tools only as directed in the instructions. It may seem simple enough, but not following it could lead to chemical burns and skin irritations. Protect yourself and follow all instructions.

Learn the best harvest time for each vegetable. Each type of produce has unique time frames for harvesting at the peak of flavor. For example, some plants, such as zucchini and baby peas, have the most flavor when harvested while young. However, you get better taste out of tomatoes that have been allowed to ripen as much as practical while still on their vine. To get the most out of your horticulture efforts, find out when to harvest your crops.