The Ultimate Guide to Gardening

8/2/2019 The Ultimate Guide to Gardening

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Here is truly the ultimate free guide to gardening brought to you byThomas Byers who writes atHub PagesBe sure that you check out all hiswriting .

GARDEN PESTS.

If we could garden without any interference from the pests which attack plants, then indeed gardening woube a simple matter. But all the time we must watch out for these little foes little in size, but tremendouhavoc they make.

As human illness may often be prevented by healthful conditions, so pests may be kept away by strict gacleanliness. Heaps of waste are lodging places for the breeding of insects. I do not think a compost pile wdo the harm, but unkempt, uncared-for spots seem to invite trouble.

There are certain helps to keeping pests down. The constant stirring up of the soil by earthworms is an akeeping the soil open to air and water. Many of our common birds feed upon insects. The sparrows, robinchickadees, meadow larks and orioles are all examples of birds who help in this way. Some insects feed oother and harmful insects. Some kinds of ladybugs do this good deed. The ichneumon-fly helps too. Andtoads are wonders in the number of insects they can consume at one meal. The toad deserves very kindtreatment from all of us.

Each gardener should try to make her or his garden into a place attractive to birds and toads. A goodbirdhouse, grain sprinkled about in early spring, a water-place, are invitations for birds to stay a while ingarden. If you wish toads, fix things up for them too. During a hot summer day a toad likes to rest inshade. By night he is ready to go forth to eat but not to kill, since toads prefer live food. How can onup" for toads? Well, one thing to do is to prepare a retreat, quiet, dark and damp. A few stones of someunderneath the shade of a shrub with perhaps a carpeting of damp leaves, would appear very fine to a to



There are two general classes of insects known by the way they do their work. One kind gnaws at thereally taking pieces of it into its system. This kind of insect has a mouth fitted to do this work. Grasshoand caterpillars are of this sort. The other kind sucks the juices from a plant. This, in some ways, is thsort. Plant lice belong here, as do mosquitoes, which prey on us. All the scale insects fasten themselves oplants, and suck out the life of the plants.

Now can we fight these chaps? The gnawing fellows may be caught with poison sprayed upon plants, whithey take into their bodies with the plant. The Bordeaux mixture which is a poison sprayed upon plants fothis purpose.

In the other case the only thing is to attack the insect direct. So certain insecticides, as they are called,sprayed on the plant to fall upon the insect. They do a deadly work of attacking, in one way or another,body of the insect.

Sometimes we are much troubled with underground insects at work. You have seen a garden covered withhills. Here is a remedy, but one of which you must be careful.

This question is constantly being asked, 'How can I tell what insect is doing the destructive work?' Well,can tell partly by the work done, and partly by seeing the insect itself. This latter thing is not always sto accomplish. I had cutworms one season and never saw one. I saw only the work done. If stalks of tplants are cut clean off be pretty sure the cutworm is abroad. What does he look like? Well, that is a haquestion because his family is a large one. Should you see sometime a grayish striped caterpillar, you may

know it is a cutworm. But because of its habit of resting in the ground during the day and working byis difficult to catch sight of one. The cutworm is around early in the season ready to cut the flower stalkthe hyacinths. When the peas come on a bit later, he is ready for them. A very good way to block himput paper collars, or tin ones, about the plants. These collars should be about an inch away from the plan

Of course, plant lice are more common. Those we see are often green in colour. But they may be red, yor brown. Lice are easy enough to find since they are always clinging to their host. As sucking insects thhave to cling close to a plant for food, and one is pretty sure to find them. But the biting insects do twork, and then go hide. That makes them much more difficult to deal with.

Rose slugs do great damage to the rose bushes. They eat out the body of the leaves, so that just the veileft. They are soft-bodied, green above and yellow below.

A beetle, the striped beetle, attacks young melons and squash leaves. It eats the leaf by riddling out holesit. This beetle, as its name implies, is striped. The back is black with yellow stripes running lengthwise.



Then there are the slugs, which are garden pests. The slug will devour almost any garden plant, whether ia flower or a vegetable. They lay lots of eggs in old rubbish heaps. Do you see the good of cleaning uprubbish? The slugs do more harm in the garden than almost any other single insect pest. You can discovethem in the following way. There is a trick for bringing them to the surface of the ground in the day timsee they rest during the day below ground. So just water the soil in which the slugs are supposed to beare you to know where they are? They are quite likely to hide near the plants they are feeding on. So w

the ground with some nice clean lime water. This will disturb them, and up they'll poke to see what theis.

Beside these most common of pests, pests which attack many kinds of plants, there are special pests forspecial plants. Discouraging, is it not? Beans have pests of their own; so have potatoes and cabbages. In fthe vegetable garden has many inhabitants. In the flower garden lice are very bothersome, the cutworm andthe slug have a good time there, too, and ants often get very numerous as the season advances. But for rdiscouraging insect troubles the vegetable garden takes the prize. If we were going into fruit to any extentperhaps the vegetable garden would have to resign in favour of the fruit garden.

A common pest in the vegetable garden is the tomato worm. This is a large yellowish or greenish stripedworm. Its work is to eat into the young fruit.

A great, light green caterpillar is found on celery. This caterpillar may be told by the black bands, one oneach ring or segment of its body.

The squash bug may be told by its brown body, which is long and slender, and by the disagreeable odoufrom it when killed. The potato bug is another fellow to look out for. It is a beetle with yellow and blacstripes down its crusty back. The little green cabbage worm is a perfect nuisance. It is a small caterpillarsmaller than the tomato worm. These are perhaps the most common of garden pests by name.



Gardening

The thing to remember while gardening is to start small. A small plant bed, about 25 or 30 feet squareperfect, is just enough room for about 30 plants. This will give you a chance to try out your green thumif you find that you enjoy your garden you can always expand and increase your plantings.

The next thing you will want to do is choose a site. Gardening must be done in an area that gets at lhours of sunlight. Try and stay away from large trees that will take your plants water and nutrients, andleast three feet from any fences or buildings. In hot climates it is a good idea to choose a place thatshade from a part of the intense afternoon sun. It is possible to have a healthy garden with even ten thours of sunlight, but the type of plants must be adaptable. While soil can always be improved, a sitegood soil is a plus. Avoid areas that have rocky soil, steep slopes, or areas where water stands.

Now comes the fun part: start digging. Gardening is not a clean hobby; you’re going to have to get so



under your nails. First remove the rocks, debris, and any grass and weeds then dig the spot up about ondeep. Level up the dirt and add compost or minerals if the needed. If your soil is too acidic, add limtoo sandy, add peat moss. Plants will thrive in neutral to acidic soil with a little added fertilizer.

If you buy seeds then plant them according to the directions. If picking plants, choose ones with green,healthy looking leaves and stems and healthy roots. Put the smaller plants towards the front of the bed a

larger ones in the back. The key to a successful beginning in gardening is planting at the right time. Msure and wait until the frosts are over before planting. If you are planting seeds the package will usuallyyou exactly when you can plant them to achieve maximum growth.

Once you have started and gotten into gardening, making sure your plants receive enough water is essentiato their growth. Hand watering works well if you only have a few plants. Other options include sprinsprinkler hoses. Watering is more effective during the cooler parts of the day. The type of plant will deon how much water is needed, but most require about an inch per week. During the hottest periods plawill be need watering about three times per week.

One of the most helpful things to add to a garden is mulch or compost. Just a few inches of organicwill improve fertility and help the soil hold moisture. Wood chips, grass clippings, leaves, manure, and pineedles are all things that can be used as mulch.

Gardening Advice



Garden advice is not that hard to come by. In fact, you can get gardening advice from another gardener,gardening catalog, gardening books, gardening magazines, and even on the Internet. Although you will havvariations with every plant, there is some gardening advice that is universal and that goes for any plant.

For example, the gardening advice given for planting is pretty much uniform. You must place plants whethey will have room to grow so they don’t overcrowd each other. Good air flow is a plus, and plants m

in a position where they will receive adequate amounts of sunlight. Advice will always tell you to add stype of nutrients to the soil to lead to better plant growth, such as mulch or compost.

Gardening advice on watering plants is a little more varied, because every type of plant needs differentamounts of water. For example, you wouldn’t want to water a cactus near as much as you water a tomaplant. How much you water will obviously also depend on where you live, the climate, and how muchyour area receives.

Gardening advice from nearly every source will tell you that your plants not only need fertilize when youfirst plant them, they will also needed to be fertilized throughout their growing season. What type of fertused will depend on the soil content and pH balance, but fertilize will definitely be needed on most all pCompost can be used instead and it is easy to find advice on how to make a compost pile as well asfertilize and compost needs to be used.

Gardening advice on weeds, insects, disease, and how to get rid of them is probably the most sought aftadvice in all of gardening. These pests invade all gardens and if you don’t get rid of them, they will ta

and ruin your garden. There are many different chemicals and pesticides that can be used, and gardeningadvice will usually clue gardeners in on which chemicals are better, which are harmful, and which ones areasier to administer.

Gardening is not an easy task; you have to fight against many outside forces, such as weather, insects,disease, and weeds. Even the most seasoned of gardeners will seek out gardening advice once in a whileWho wouldn’t when there are so many forces that could take a garden out? There is a lot of generalgardening advice on the market that goes for any plant, but if you look a little harder you will find specadvice for that one plant that is the only one giving you trouble. Gardening advice is relatively easy to

and while you may come across the occasional bad apple, most of it is relatively sound and will help wany gardening question.



EASY TIPS ON HOW TO CARE FOR YOUR PLANTS

Many people worry a lot when it comes to caring for their plants. When talking about house plants, therno need to worry. There are just a few things you need to consider.

1. Watering

Overwatering kills most houseplants. Looks can be deceptive, so to see if your soil is dry enough to watethe finger test. Insert your index finger up to the first joint into the soil. If the soil is damp, don't w

2. Feeding

Foliage plants usually have high nitrogen needs, while flowering plants, K2O is needed. Slow releasefertilizers can be mixed with the compost. However, certain plants like cacti and orchids need specialfertilizer. Feed plants during their most active growth period.

3. Lighting

Plants like Sanseveria and Aspidistra require no sun. They can be placed away from a window. Spiderneed semi-shade. You can put plants like these near a window that does or does not get sunlight. Checklabel to see what your plant needs.



4. Temperature

Houseplants can survive in cool or warm temperatures, but drastic fluctuations of temperature may not begood for them. One thing that most plants cannot survive is gas heating. If you have a plant that likesconditions, don't put it near an air conditioner in the summer.

5. Humidity

Some houseplants require a humid environment. One tip to maximize humidity is to put the pot inside alarger pot and fill in the gaps with stones or compost to keep in the moisture. Grouping plants togethercreates a micro climate that they will benefit from. If you want, you can spray them with water once oa day depending on the temperature.

6. Re-potting

Some plants require re-potting for optimum growth but there are others that resent having their rootsdisturbed. Or their roots system may be small enough that they don't require re-potting. One way to chyour plant needs re-potting is to turn it upside down. Tap the pot to release the plant and check its rooroots are all you see, then re-pot. Sometimes the roots will come out of the pot. You should either cut thoff or re-pot the plant.

You just need to have a little care for your plants and in turn, you'll reap the benefits. Indoor plants noadd to the beauty of your décor, but also give much pleasure to the indoor gardener.



Gardening tips to avoid fungus during summer

Most of us are ready to invest huge amount for landscaping and gardening to give face lift for our homewe failed to prune when the plants needed it, and then your highly invested landscape looks terrible thanever. So this is a high time to know about the gardening tips for better maintenance of your lawn. Do fothe following gardening tips for better life of your garden: -

Gardening tips for pruning

As we discussed in the introduction, pruning plays an important role in the garden maintenance. If youcommit any mistake while pruning, don’t lose your heart because it’s like a bad haircut, it is going to groagain.

Avoid watering in the evening

During summer, you may experience high humidity, which might result in lot of problems in your garden.get your plants nice and dry, tuck them in for night. In addition to this watering in the evening may beavoided to prevent damage to the plants.

Get rid of Powdery mildew

Powdery mildew is the common fungus mostly affects your ornamental plants. This will create white film

the leaves of the plants in your garden. Even other ornamental plants such as Sand cherry and Dogwoodsalso getting affected with this fungus. Efficient gardening is necessary to curtail the growth of this fungus.You can easily prevent this by spraying general fungicide in the garden centre.

Prevention of Pythium Blight

If you’re in the north and also having perennial Rye grass, then you ought to be very careful not to leavgrass wet at night. A dreadful fungus called Pythium Blight may take its upper hand, if you leave your lwet in the night because this fungus love to grow in high humid condition mostly, in the night.

Pythium blight can easily be seen in the early morning. You can easily appreciate the fungus on the top olawn as white cotton candy. You can easily notice this fungus mainly along driveways and walks, where thsoil is moist. Pythium blight can easily be controlled by watering in the day at the earliest possible time

Fire Blight



Fire Blight, yet another culprit prefers to grow well during summer than any other season. This fungusprefers to attack Pyracantha, cotoneasters, crabapple trees, and Apple trees. The presence of Fire Blight caneasily be visualized once the any one of the branches of the plant turns red and dies. This Fire Blight caprevented little by pruning the affected branch and removing it from the main plant as far as possible.

It is also important that the cut branches should be burnt since Fire Blight is contagious and also wash

the projected shears by using alcohol in order to prevent the spread of the deadly fungus to other parts obranch.

Shotgun fungus

A little gem like fungus, which prefers to grow in mulch and tends to swell, has been termed as “ShortFungus”. This fungus can fly up to 8 feet in the air and will spatter your house with tiny brown specksonce they stick to your house or windows, they stick like glue. Most of us suspect the spiders and alienthis tiny brown speck. You can’t prevent this fungus, but can do something by keeping the mulch loose s

can circulate inside to keep this fungus out. Although mulch is great, don’t allow them to get packed, tryremove it at least once in a year and also rake it flat as if it will look like you’ve just mulched.

Vegetable Gardening

Vegetable gardening has lately become just as popular as going to the grocery store fore produce. Vegetabgardening can produce vegetable that are usually cheaper than store bought, and vegetables from a homevegetable garden definitely taste better by far. Vegetable gardening is no different than growing herbs orflowers and if the proper steps are taken and the plants are give the proper care they will flourish and prvery tasty vegetables.



First you must decide what size of garden you wish to plant and then select a place for it; somewheregood drainage, good air flow, and good, deep soil. It also needs to be able to get as much sunlight aspossible. Because vegetable gardens have such tasty rewards, many animals, such as dogs, rabbits, deer, amany others will try and get to your veggies. One way to prevent this is to surround your garden withfence, or put out a trap to catch mice, moles, and other animals.

Before planting, the soil must be properly prepared. Good soil for vegetable gardening is achieved bycultivation and the application of organic materials. The soil must be tilled (plowed) to control weeds andmix mulch into the soil. If you have a small garden, spading could be a better bet than plowing. Mualso a vital part of soil preparation. Organic matter added to the soil releases nitrogen, minerals, and othenutrients plants need to thrive. The most popular and best type of mulch you can use is compost. Whilkind and amount of fertilizer used depends on the soil and types of plants, there are some plants that havspecific needs; leafy plants, like cabbage, spinach, and lettuce usually grow better with more nitrogen, whileroot crops like potatoes, beets, turnips, and carrots require more potash. Tomatoes and beans use lessfertilizer, while plants like onions, celery, and potatoes need a larger amount.

One thing that is vitally important in vegetable gardening is the garden arrangement. There is no single pthat will work for every garden due to varying conditions. One popular way to arrange a vegetable gardeto plant vegetables needing only limited space together, such as radishes, lettuce, beets, and spinach, andthose that require more room together, such as corn, pumpkins, and potatoes. Try and plant tall growingplants towards the back of the garden and shorter ones in the front so that their sunlight does not get blo

When you are finally ready to begin planting your vegetable garden, make sure and plant at the right timeyear. If you are dying to get an early start, you may want begin your garden inside in a hotbed and thtransplant when the weather permits. After you are finished planting, make sure your vegetables receive thappropriate amount of water, which depends on the type of plant. Most plants will need the equivalent toabout an inch of water per week.

Weeds must be controlled in vegetable gardening because they will take up water, light, and nutrients meanfor the vegetables and they often bring disease and insects to the garden. You can get rid of weeds bycultivation or mulching. To protect against disease and insects you can buy seeds that are disease resistanuse controlled chemicals.

Vegetable gardening is many people’s favorite form of gardening because you can actually taste the fruitsyour labor. Vegetable gardening is not that expensive to start and the taste of home grown veggies definibeat out that of supermarket vegetables. Your vegetable gardening days will be full of produce if you takthe proper precautions when planting and continue maintenance of your garden.



About The Author

Thomas Byers has been an award winning Gardener and Chef for over forty years now. He writes atHubPages asCrazyhorsesghost and you want to be sure to check out the below web sites of his for valuabl

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