After you’ve planned out your garden and finally, got everything in the ground, tending your garden is more important than ever.
Your plants need to have plenty of light and water to continue growing. You shouldn’t have to do anything about your plants getting enough light if you’ve designed your plot correctly.
Watering Tips
Be sure that you deeply soak your plants with at least two inches of water each week. If you only add a little water each day, your plants will not grow roots deep enough. This could make them vulnerable to the hot searing sun in the middle of summer. Be sure that at least 4-6 inches of soil is thoroughly soaked to ensure the roots grow deep.
For seedlings and germinating seeds, they should be gently watered every day or every other day. Once they are bigger and developing, then start watering more deeply. Let the soil completely dry out before watering again.
Once they have deep roots, water about every five to seven days when it’s hot out.
If you water with a hose, it saves on water but takes more time. Make sure you are watering deep enough and spot check to be sure you haven’t missed any.
Sprinklers save time but waste water by setting open spots or paths. They may also lose water from the wind blowing or evaporation. They could also cause the leaves to develop disease because they tend to water a lot of the foliage.
If you have a large garden, this would be much easier than standing for 20 minutes with a hose. Oscillating sprinklers should be raised above the highest plants to ensure the water is not blocked. You should make sure the patterns of the water spray overlap so all plants get watered. If you notice runoff, slow down the watering.
You can make an irrigation system using a simple garden hose. Poke holes across the top at regular intervals. Place the hose where you want to water and move it to each area of your garden as needed to water everything.
Always water when it’s cool out in the evening. Evening watering will prevent evaporation. You can water in the early morning but as the day heats up, the water will evaporate quickly.
Be careful that you don’t over water your plants. Your plants will not yield much and could actually die. After planting and transplanting is the when your plants need the most water. So the first couple weeks after putting your plants in the ground, be sure to give them plenty of water.
When it rains, you should monitor the amount it has rained and check that your plants have enough moisture.
Fertilizer
You will need to add fertilizer to your plants to make sure they get enough nutrients. You can add compost to the soil but that’s not fertilizer.
Animal manure is one of the best sources to use for your organic fertilizer. You can get manure from poultry farms, dairy farms and even, riding stables. When you get them from these sources, you’ll have to use your own truck. There are some places that will deliver, but you will have to check around to find these sources.
When using fresh manure, you should apply it to the soil in the fall. You should only use well-rotted manure in the spring. Place it at the base of your plants.
You could use either rotted or fresh manure to make a liquid that you can feed your plants. It’s typically made with one part manure and ten parts water. Allow it to set for a few days before using it. You then spray it directly onto the plants.
Processed manures that you find at a garden supply store can be mixed into the soil or used for top-dressing. Great sources of organic nitrogen fertilizers are bone meal, fish meal and cottonseed meal. If you want to add phosphorus, phosphate rock and bone meal are two sources. You can use wood ashes and rock potash to add potassium.
The most important ingredients for fertilizer are lime and seed meals. Using just those as fertilizer are good enough to grow your garden.
Seed meal are the byproducts produced when making vegetable oil. Lime is a natural rock that is ground up. It contains calcium and there are three types of lime you can get. Agricultural lime is calcium carbonate, gypsum is calcium sulfate and dolomite has magnesium and calcium carbonates.
If you had to choose only one, the best would be dolomite but it’s best to use all three. They are not very expensive at an agricultural suppliers.
Organic fertilizers are better for the environment because they are broken down naturally and completely. You have to be very careful when using chemical fertilizers. It’s very easy to add too much and kill your plants.
It’s important to keep weeds out of your garden. Morning is the best time of day to work in the garden and it’s best to weed each day.
Tending your garden will take plenty of work but it’s important to work on it each day to stay on top of it. Before you know it, you will soon see the fruits of your labor.
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