Garden Maintenance - Half the Fun of Gardening
Planting a garden is only the beginning. Keeping your garden growing and thriving is what makes you a gardener.
A discussion of when to clean-up the garden. Is it worth putting the garden to bed in the fall or can garden clean-up keep until the spring, leaving the seeds to sprout or feed the birds?
What plant do you regret putting in your garden?
How to label garden plants.
Every gardener has heard the term "water deeply". It's better to water deeply once a week than to water shallowly more often. What does it mean to water deeply and how can you tell if you've accomplished it? Here's a simple test.
Most perennial flowers will need to be divided to remain vigorous and continue blooming season after season. Division of perennials is an easily mastered gardening technique that is good for the plants and your garden.
If you don't cut back your ornamental grasses in the fall, they can provide winter interest well into the spring. But eventually you will have to cut back those ornamental grasses and it can be a messy proposition. Here's a quick and easy way to cut back your ornamental grasses without having them spill all over the garden.
There are no precise guidelines as to when to harvest your vegetables, but there are some rules of thumb to guide you. Most vegetables are harvested just before full maturity, for maximum flavor and the most pleasant texture. The following are criterion for judging whether your vegetables are ready for picking.
Mulch is any type of material that is spread or laid over the surface of the soil as a covering. It is used to retain moisture in the soil, suppress weeds, keep the soil cool and make the garden bed look more attractive. Organic mulches also help improve the soil’s fertility, as they decompose. Here are the pros and cons of various mulch materials.
Flower gardens require constant maintenance to look their best. Common garden chores like pruning, pinching and deadheading are easy to master, as show here in this step-by-step photo tutorial.
Seed saving is as old as gardening. There was a time when gardeners considered seed from their favorites plants to be treasures well worth saving from year to year. The best reason for saving seeds is because you have a plant you love and want to grow again. Saving your own seed is the only guarantee. Seed saving is also a lot of fun and easy to do.
