June Gardening Tips
By admin | July 2, 2008
These are just a few gardening tips for you to consider here in late June. Many people seem to think that just because all the plants have been put into their places for the summer and your perennials are blooming, or past bloom, there is no more work to be done. The garden is full of multi-colored flowers, so there must be little or nothing to do. Right? No, there is always work that may be done.
Watering alone when the weather is very hot and dry is important work. The chief thing to remember is never to give water until it is needed, and then to water thoroughly. A mere sprinkling of water with a water can to plants that are thirsty and needing a good drink is worse than useless. When you water a plant, you’ve got to get the water down to the roots which is how the plant takes up the water. If you just sprinkle the surface of the soil with a little water, you will only encourage the roots to remain near the surface and they will suffer from the heat of the sun. What you want to do is to make the roots go as deep as possible in search of moisture. Therefore, you need to give enough water to penetrate the soil to a sufficient depth. One really good watering when it is needed is better than half a dozen little sprinklings. Having the roots grow down deep also gets them down to where the nutrients are that the plants need to grow.
Mulch can be added around your plants to help preserve water. Not only will this conserve moisture, it will add to the nutrients in the soil as the mulch breaks down and keeps the roots cooler, too. You are using organic mulch, aren’t you? For more information on mulch, see our article about composting.
Perhaps upi don’t need to water much this month, if you are fortunate enough to live where there is a lot of spring rainfall but as the summer advances more water will probably be needed. All the same you must research and know which plants require plenty of moisture and which do not need as much. Such plants as snapdragons and geraniums like to be fairly dry while hollyhocks and pansies among other things, like more moisture. Look up how much moisture your plants need if you are not sure.
Another tip for the flower garden has to do with getting more flowers. It may be that you want to keep a plant from flowering for awhile so as to make the display of flowers of flowers last longer. You can do this with many plants by merely pinching out the growths tips. Doing so can have another effect beside slowing the flowering. It will make the plant bushier and thicker. When the flowers do come, there will be many more of them. Some of the plants that may be treated in this manner are the snapdragon and blue cornflowers.
One last gardening tip for your late June garden. In the fall, you might want to put in a rock garden. The weather will certainly be nicer then when it’s not so hot as it is becoming now. See our other articles for more information on creating rock gardens. To enable you to have something to put in it when it is ready, you might want to consider sowing some seeds now in some pots with ideal rock garden plants. There is more information under the gardening tips articles section at our website.
© 2005, Sandra Dinkins-Wilson.
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Tags: flower garden, gardening tips, June, rock gardenEverything You need to Know to Set up Your Square Foot Garden
By admin | May 2, 2008
Many people love square foot gardening because they can get so much beauty from a small space. You can build a square foot garden following an exact square foot layout, or you can garden using a square foot layout and put a few square feet together to make a larger space for vegetables and other larger plants. Here are the basics of what you will need to develop a small Square Foot Garden of your own.
You will need to build or buy boxes that sit above the ground to hold your soil and plants. If you are using more than one box, space them 3′ apart so you can walk in between them. You don’t want to ever step inside the box and damage your plants.
Place your boxes in an area that gets 6 - 8 hours of sunshine daily, and it should sit somewhere close to the house so you can water often. Because you are working with small spaces, you may have to water more often than you do your larger garden.
The soil mixture should consist of 1/3 part compost, 1/3 part peat moss and 1/3 coarse vermiculite.
Remember that your garden will be arranged in squares, not rows (it’s a little deceiving because if you do it right, and all of your squares are the same size, it will look like you have rows. First, lay out your garden in 4′ by 4′ areas, then make a square foot grid on the top and start separating them into 1′ sections.
Depending on what you like to eat, or view, you can mix flowers, vegetables, or herbs in each square foot. It doesn’t hurt to mix the plants, as they will each be planted in their own square foot space. You should plant only 2 or 3 seeds per hole; it doesn’t take much to make a beautiful garden.
When you water, use a bucket of sun-warmed water and water gently by hand. The seeds are very delicate at first, and you don’t want to just spray them with a hose and send them flying all over the place.
Then, sit back and watch everything grow. At harvest time enjoy the fruits of your labor, or the beauty of your garden, and then when everything is done blooming and growing, add fresh compost and replant new crops.
Note: Square foot gardens do not always have to be exactly square. You can get creative and add a little flair by using an Octagon shape, or even round (although round is going to be harder to work with). And, you can also add some small garden art pieces to make it more pleasing to look at while your plants are young. It’s up to you whether you leave the art in as the plants grow. Some people find that when their flowers start to bloom, they like to see the natural look and will take the garden art out. Others just enjoy the beauty of it all.
It’s your garden, and now you should have enough information to make it enjoyable for years to come!
Find Advice on Square Foot Gardening, Container Gardening and Small Space Gardening; Landscaping and Planning your Garden. Plants, Supplies and Accessories (and a Free report) at: http://www.squarefootgardeningtips.com;
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