Your garden, like all gardens, small or large, requires some TLC to keep them looking fresh year-round. Make it a habit, to walk your garden several times a week, cut some flowers, pull a weed here and there and harvest the rhubarb, berries or tomatoes.
- Don’t forget to water the soil (not over the flowers!) when it hasn’t rained significantly for two days.
- Cut all the faded flowers to avoid self-seeding on places you don’t want them and also to clean up your flowers beds.
- Prune flowering shrubs immediately after the blooms get ugly
- Mulch if you haven’t already, it keeps the soil longer moist (water the soil well before applying the mulch!)
- Dig out weeds, such as Dandelions and Plantains - with their roots
- Give your houseplants a summer vacation outdoors (only in full shade!)
- Side dress flower beds with compost or manure or feed with fish emulsion - or if you don’t have any compost, add a little bit Miracle Grow to your potted plants/annuals
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Composters Beware!
A herbicide sold under the trade names of ForeFront and MileStone has ruined hundreds of gardens in Great Britain, and it can happen in North America, too. Used mostly to control perennial weeds in pastures, the herbicide can survive being digested by horses and then being piled up for months as compost. Especially sensitive plants such as lettuce, beans, and tomatoes refuse to grow and wither when planted in soil that contains very small amounts of this residue. These herbicides do not injure grasses, so they are often used in fields where manure-producing animals graze.
Registered with the EPA in 2005, the herbicides that survived commercial composting and went on to contaminate gardens in Washington eight years ago. These products are widely available at farm supply stores across the country, anyone can buy them.
Be selective if you decided to import manure for composting projects. Manure from animals that have fed in pastures that have been treated with these pesticides should be considered unsuitable for garden use!
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Watering Your Garden
Never water your yard in the heat of the day. First, you waste a lot of water due to evaporation and second it CAN burn your grass or plant leaves. Best time to water is from 4am till no later than about 7-8 am.
You are doing fine to water two or three times a week, soaking the soil thoroughly. Those people who water every single day and over-water are creating lawns that develop short shallow roots and are susceptible to dying in the winter if there is a bad freeze. In summer their grass requires MORE water as the roots are not digging down deep looking for a water source either nor are they able to retain the moisture being that close to the surface. The deeper the roots the better your grass will survive a long hot and dry summer and a freezing cold winter.
Don't forget to smell the roses!
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