It's beginning to be that time of year again; time to get the garden started. Here are 7 habits/tips that every successful gardener should use:
- Make a compost. Mother nature never throws anything away. Start with kitchen, yard and garden debris and you will wind up with two benefits: a great soil amendment and many green points for avoiding the landfill.
- Use the compost. Spread compost around plants to ward off disease; put a bit in your potting mix to add slow-release micro-nutrients; top-dress beds with it to improve soil structure now matter what kind of soil you are using; or use it to help restore life to soils that's exhausted from years of chemical abuse.
- Plant crops in wide beds. This includes anything planted for harvesting; vegetables, cutting flowers or shrubs on hold to be transplanted. Keep these grouped as tightly together as possible in beds that are not trod upon cuts down on weeding, conserves water and allows the compost to be concentrated where it will do the most good.
- Mulch. Mulch covers the soil in a protective barrier that moderates temperature, conserves water, helps keep soul-borne diseases from splashing up and keeps soil itself from splashing up.
- Feed the soil, not the plants. Plant health depends on healthy roots; healthy roots depend on healthy soil for air, water and nutrients delivered in forms plants can use.
- Share something. Have extra seeds, flowers or vegetables? Share them with your neighbors, family and friends.
- Be there. Be there to take care of your garden, and watch it grow. "The best fertilizer is the shadow of the gardener."
Tips provided by MSN Real Estate - Home & Gardening.
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