You may garden alone or with others, but in many ways gardening is a team activity. By gathering the knowledge of several expert growers and putting it here, we have placed some great tips within your reach. Use these tips to create a fantastic garden design or share the information with family and friends.
If you are new to gardening, be sure to keep it simple. Overplanting at first can lead to stress and a backyard that's a mess rather than a beautiful garden. Also, larger gardens are more prone to weeds. Keep it small at first, and you will have a better experience.
Don't grow food no one will eat. Just because you can grow something, doesn't mean you should. If your kids don't like spinach now, fresh spinach from the garden isn't going to change that and much will go to waste. Consider what you and your family like to eat and then determine your garden accordingly.
If you want something fun to do that will benefit you in the kitchen, try growing some herbs in your window. Some herbs may not take kindly to this, but many will! In this way you have some herbs always fresh and handy, and they add a nice touch to the house.
When you need to control weed growth, choose your weed killer carefully, and always follow the directions. Many weed killers have chemicals that are harmful to people if they are not applied properly. They are especially harmful to young children if the children play around an area that has recently been treated.
If you are going to garden around your home, you need to make sure that you wear safety clothing. If you wear sturdy shoes, long pants and safety goggles while you are maintaining your lawn, there is less of a chance that you will get hurt from doing yard work.
Plant evergreen shrubs. Certain shrubs can provide triple duty throughout the year: they bear leaves year-round, produce flowers, and sometimes have ornamental fruit that attracts birds and other wildlife. This makes them very desirable in any graden design. Excellent varieties are Berberis, Holly, Camellia Japonica, Ceanothus, Viburnum and Skimmia. Most will survive in any conditions.
Mulching around your plants is a great water saving tip. You can use purchased mulch, but it is easy to make your own from what you find in your yard. Use fallen leaves, pine cones, sticks, and tree bark, and lay them out heavily around your plants on the dirt so that water does not evaporate so easily after you water.
To keep cats, snakes, and other critters out of your garden design, use moth balls. Moth balls may not smell pleasant to us, but they smell even worse to most animals, and they'll easily scare them away. Simply scatter a few moth balls at the edges of your garden. Moth balls can be obtained very cheaply from drug stores and dollar stores.
A little extra effort can go a long way. These tips can improve your garden, dramatically or just make a tiny but important change. By introducing a fresh idea to your methods, gardening can become easier for you, as well as, a more positive experience. Impress your friends and neighbors with a healthy and lush garden.