Creating a garden that you can be proud of takes a little time. From your flowers to your vegetables and your garden accessories, there’s plenty to think about. To help you on your journey to a beautiful garden, take into consideration these ten ideas and tools.
Ideas for a healthy garden
1 . Get rid of weeds
Looking for a natural way to get rid of weeds? All you have to do is fill a bottle with vinegar and water and get spraying! Be careful to only spray onto your weeds, (and avoid your healthy plants). It can be helpful to cover your plants to protect them. Another thing you can do is to add a layer of mulch over your soil. When you put down mulch, it limits the light which the weeds require to grow. Probably the most simple solution to get rid of weeds is boiling water. If you have weeds growing through your paving, simply pour boiling water into the cracks.
2. Pest maintenance
When you’ve worked hard to create a gorgeous garden, you won’t want pests eating up your plants. For a natural pest control remedy consider using chrysanthemum spray, which is made from chrysanthemum flowers. Neem oil is also a great natural solution; it’s made from Neem trees and is great for keeping the bugs at bay. When it comes to some pests, you might need to call in the professionals, for example, if bees have made a home in your garden! Whether it’s a hive on your fence or your letterbox, it’s best to call in bee removal services.
3. Create a compost pile
To get your garden in tip-top shape; what you need is a healthy compost pile. Creating a healthy compost pile is all about using the same amount of carbon-rich and nitrogen-rich materials. Nitrogen-rich items include coffee grounds, eggshells, grass trimmings, or waste from fruits and vegetables. Carbon-rich items could be things like dry leaves, cardboard, or wood chips. Once you’ve got a thriving compost pile, you’ll be able to enrich your soil and grow plenty of lovely veggies and plants.
4. Maintain your trees
If you have trees in your garden, you’ll need to keep these safe and healthy. It’s important to prune your trees to keep them in great condition. It’s best to prune during a dormant phase, but if your trees do have leaves, simply take off any dead or damaged twigs. Each year you should look for any shoots growing at a slightly odd angle. You should remove large shoots protruding from the base or extra shoots at the top. At least once a year, remove the branches of the bottom of the tree entirely.
5. Winter flowers
Looking for some winter-blooming flowers to spice up your garden? Consider planting a few of these:
- Snowdrops: Snowdrops might look all dainty, but they are hardy flowers that can survive a cold winter! To grow these, ensure that you have well-draining soil and great compost.
- Pansies: Pansies are a beautiful choice for any winter garden, they can survive a frost and keep on blooming, (plus they are lovely and bright).
- Holly bushes: Perfect for the holiday season, holly bushes need well-drained soil and enough sunshine. You’ll need to plant both a male and female plant (to ensure the holly berries grow).
Tools for a healthy garden
6 . Veggie Garden Planner
Veggie Garden Planner is a fantastic app to create a healthy vegetable patch. With the help of the app, you can learn all about the correct neighboring plants, how to distance your plants, sowing times, and a whole lot more. Here you can learn about the fruits and veggies that are in season and get the down-low on crop rotations. The application allows you to arrange and visualize your vegetable patch using the ‘Patch Plan Editor.’ Whether you’re a newbie or you already know a bit about growing vegetables, there’s plenty of knowledge to discover.
7 . Moon & Garden
The Moon & Garden app uses a lunar approach to planting vegetables, herbs, and fruits. Using the biodynamic method, this app focuses on moon phases to help you create a healthy garden. The concept is that transplanting, harvesting, and sowing are all dependent on lunar cycles. Here you’ll gain info about the weather, zodiac signs, and the phases of the moon. For a gardening app with a twist, Moon & Garden is just perfect!
8. My Garden Organizer
My Garden Organizer is an application to help you create and organize your vegetable garden. With this app, you can keep track of the cultivars that you’ve planted and learn how to get the most out of your vegetable patch. It’s simple to create a list of different vegetable beds. Simply click ‘add bed’ and input the right dimensions. You can type in the cultivar, date, and name, to carefully monitor your progress. To improve the health of your garden, My Garden Organizer has all that you need.
9. Garden Tags
Garden Tags was designed to make gardening both fun and easy! Here you can get planting inspiration, garden management tools, and advice. If you’re looking to grow more beautiful plants and ditch the weeds, Garden Tags can show you how. By using the app, you get to join a community of over 100,000 gardeners and get plenty of advice about plants. Looking to identify a few plants in your garden? The lovely people at Garden Tags will do this for free. Using Garden Tags, you can keep track of how all your plants have grown during each season.
10. Smart Plant
SmartPlant is a top app for anyone looking to enhance their gardening skills. With the SmartPlant app, you can learn about pests, identify plants, and get plant care updates. One of the best features is that you can talk to ‘plant-experts’ using the handy messaging chat. There’s a plant library with plenty to learn, including which plants are trending! For some truly inspiring plant-based content, SmartPlant can deliver.
