How to Care for your Garden
There’s more to gardening than the planting of plants. As gardeners, you must take care of the plants once planted in the soil. Ensure they’re well-watered and fed, with adequate support, and not competing with weeds or other plants. The maintenance of your garden, in general, involves taking care of each plant individually. What is effective for one plant won’t necessarily work for another.
How to Care for your Garden (Tips)
Watering
Watering your plants is among the essential ways to maintain your garden. Plants shed water from their leaves via transpiration. It’s, therefore, important to make sure there’s enough water in the soil to absorb the water via their roots. In the summer, moisture evaporates out of the soil too. It is, therefore, necessary to soak the ground more frequently during hot summer days as opposed to cooler autumn or spring conditions and in sunny regions more frequently than in shady areas.
Seedlings and young plants require to be watered more frequently than established plants due to having smaller root systems and therefore can absorb less moisture. In addition, when transplanting or planting, plants damage the hairs on their roots that are designed to absorb water, which is why in the initial few days following planting, you’ll have to provide them with more water, as well. Plants planted inside pots have roots that aren’t as strong and have less soil to soak up moisture from. Therefore, they require additional irrigation than established plants on your garden border. Also, plants growing in sunny areas need more water than plants in the shade.
Feeding plants
Along with water, plants take in minerals and nutrients via their roots. They include nitrogen (N), which aids the growth of leaves, as well as the mineral phosphorus (P), which stimulates the development of roots and potassium (K), that aids in the growth of fruits and flowers. These are considered to be the most important elements needed for healthy plants. In nature, leaf litter and other decaying plants release nutrients to the soil; however, in our gardens, these are usually taken away to the compost heap or burnt in the recycling bins. Since this process slowly removes soil’s nutrients, it’s crucial to replenish these by giving the soil nutrients or the plant for the sake of helping our plants to grow.
Pruning your plants
While certain trees and shrubs can thrive in a shady environment, most need pruning and cutting back. Pruning is cutting off portions of a plant to limit its size, encourage it to take on the shape it prefers, or produce more flowers, fruit, and stems. It is also used to get rid of dead or diseased plant material.
Many gardeners are intimidated by the thought of cutting their plants. However, pruning isn’t hard. Cleaning sick, dead, damaged branches, crossing or crowded is usually enough for many plants.
Deadheading
Deadheading blooms that are not used up prevent plants from seeding, which allows them to bloom more. By consistently killing bedding plants such as herbaceous perennials, herbaceous plants and roses, you can ensure they continue blooming all through summer and even through the fall. Deadheading bulbs also divert the plant’s energy towards flowering next year instead of producing seeds.
Trimming and clipping
The new hedges must be pruned regularly during the first few years after the planting. This is known as ‘formative pruning’ and is usually done in the winter months or before spring. Formative pruning generally involves cutting branches on the side till the ideal height of the hedge is reached. Prune new, deciduous hedges during winter and new evergreen hedges during spring.
After formal pruning, It is a good idea to cut your hedge each year; however, formal hedges might require pruning twice yearly to keep them looking tidy. It is recommended to trim your hedge for wildlife every two years since certain butterflies’ eggs could be removed from the stems of plants when pruning. Do this during summer, but thoroughly check your hedges to see if nesting birds are in the nesting season (it’s recommended to leave it until fall if you can).
