There is something restful and relaxing in being in a beautiful garden. The garden can take on the form of a formal rose garden or an informal hodgepodge of a variety of flowers or a Japanese rock garden or even an herbal garden. A few potted flower pots could be the only garden that you can keep. No matter, the essence of a garden is never lost whatever its type or size is.
Keeping a garden is a breeze for some “green thumbs”. For others, starting one is easy enough but keeping the garden thriving is not. After endless hours spent “toiling” under the hot sun, split nails et al. the flower bed still refuse to “live”, much less bear flowers! Here are some helpful garden tips.
Get the right kind of soil for your garden. You just don’t go about buying a truckload of “garden” soil without analyzing your existing soil. Have a qualified person determine the deficiencies of your soil. You might need to feed the soil with nutrients and minerals to make it a good soil for your flower beds. An organic fertilizer, the slow release kind, is greatly recommended for healthy soils. Healthy soil translates to healthy plants
Group plants accordingly. Put in one spot all plants that need water twice a day. In one corner, group all those plant that need not be watered on a daily basis. If you have a vegetable garden, group those that need to be harvested together. It is all about having the right plant at the right place. You can mix-match blooms of different colors and variety for effect.
Peony Bloom
Choose low-maintenance perennials for your blooms. This is not to say that you opt out of exotic blooms but if you are tight on effort and time, maintaining perennials is easy enough. A novice gardener is advised not to try his hands on exotic and hard-to-maintain blooms like orchids. Some suggested perennials are: peony, thistle, foam flower, coral bells, cone-flowers, and blazing stars. Of course you still need to water these perennials, weed them at all. Remember to pick the ones suited to your location and give them time to establish.
Mulch your flower beds. Mulch makes a garden more attractive but its real purpose is to retain moisture, prevents the freezing of roots and stops weeds from growing around the flowerbeds. It even helps retain the fertilizers in the soil. The mulch would save you time in weeding, watering and fertilizing.
Lady Bug
Encourage birds and bees to come in your garden. The birds will eat the insects while the bees will help in pollination. Having a bird bath in your garden will encourage birds to drop by in your garden and planting blooms that attract bees will do your garden good too. Believe it or not, not all insects are “bad”. Bees, Green Lacewing, Ladybug, big-eyed bug, assassin bug, damsel bug, are just some beneficial bugs that you can out in your garden. Don’t know where to get those bugs? You can order them from your local nursery and even online.
Keeping a garden is not a walk in the park but the wonderful sense of fulfillment and relaxation you would experience is worth the effort.
