Gardening is a wonderful hobby that is enjoyed by millions of people. If you are one of them, you know how delicious fresh vegetables grown in your own garden can be. If you are looking for some advice on how to improve your gardening skills, this article can give you some great ideas.
A great tip to consider when gardening is to check your local hardware or lumber stores for tarps that they might be throwing away. This is a great way to save money on weed blocking materials instead of buying them. Place them below your mulch or fertilizer and plant directly on top.
Plants need room to grow. Packing too many plants in proximity to one another will make them compete for resources and you’ll subsequently either have one plant die, or have both plants grow in much worse conditions. It’s advisable to research the full size of a plant and look at how deep and how far apart the plants should be grown.
To get rid of weeds and household junk at the same time, use shredded junk mail as a fertilizer. Take the shredded pieces of mail, wet them, and lay them in your garden. This will prevent weeds from growing on the places where they are laid, and will also help your plants to fight off diseases.
When growing potatoes, make sure you choose a variety with a starch content that corresponds with the way you’ll be cooking them. The more starch there is in a potato, the drier and flakier it will be when cooked. Potatoes that are good for mashing have approximately 7% starch. These potatoes cook quickly and retain a high moisture content, so they’re easy to mash. Baking potatoes have a starch content between 15% and 18%, and frying potatoes have the highest level at 22%.
Get your children involved in gardening to encourage them to eat their vegetables. Children often are reluctant to eat vegetables, but if they plant vegetable seeds in the garden, nurture the plants, watch them grow and harvest them, they are more likely to be willing to eat the fruits (or vegetables) of their labor.
Wash off your garden harvest before taking it inside your home. Use a laundry basket or some other plastic basket with holes. You can spray down your fruits and vegetables easily with water inside the basket, and the water and dirt will run out. You could also save the water that runs out to water your plants with.
When dividing or transferring a plant, make sure you keep the roots cool and moist. Roots are the most fragile part of a plant and are extremely sensitive to light and heat. Put a dark plastic bag over the roots if you plan on not transferring the plant right away.
As gardening grows in popularity, more and more people are looking for ways to get the most out their gardens. If you use the tips and techniques you’ve read about in this article, you will soon find your garden flourishing like never before. Just put these ideas to work for you!
