4 Gardening Tips from Merrifield Garden Center

https://www.nbcwashington.com/weather/stories/4-Gardening-Tips-From-Merrifield-Garden-Center-491295891.html

If you have a garden, here is some advice from Merrifield Garden Center for what you should be doing now:

August and September is the ideal time to divide irises and daylilies. These perennials can be easily separated into multiple plants and then replanted right away. Irises and daylilies should be planted immediately after dividing.

Many plant diseases cause only minor damage and can be left untreated. Bring samples to your local garden center or extension agent for diagnosis before applying pesticides. Most diseases require moderate temperatures and moisture to infect the plant. Many plant diseases have remained active this summer because of the frequent rain. Mildew and leaf spot diseases cause minimal harm to plant health and don’t require treatment.

Plants are an economical and effective solution to erosion problems. Landscape slopes with ground covers, trees and shrubs slow down and reduce runoff. Plants reduce the impact, slow the velocity and increase the infiltration of rain. Plants protect the soil from the wind and roots stabilize the soil.

American goldfinches are vegetarians and feed exclusively on seeds. Attract them to your garden with full birdseed feeders and these perennials: milkweed, coneflower and woodland sunflower. The males are bright yellow and black May through August, then molt and change to dull yellow/brown in the fall.

Gardening for Beginner

Why not start your first garden right now? The weather is still mild, there are chances of spring rains and it’s your best opportunity to get the warm weather crops planted, such as beans, cantaloupe, cucumber, eggplant, tomatoes, squash, okra and peppers. While the idea of growing food and flowers for the first time might seem overwhelming, the good news is there’s lots of help out there. Gardeners not only love growing plants, they’re also generous about sharing their knowledge, because that’s most likely how they got started. Learning from other’s mistakes can save you lots of time and help you avoid the “I just can’t garden!” tantrum you may feel like throwing after yet another plant bites the dust. Like anything else worth doing, successful gardening just requires a little preparation.

Suzi Fields of San Marcos is one of those growers who enjoys sharing her gardening tips and experience. “I’m all about trying to help people grow their own food,” she said recently. That was the motivation behind the blog she designed at ediblesanmarcos.wordpress.com which has many articles, guides and resources dedicated to helping Central Texas gardeners. Fields makes teas and personal care products for her company, Suzi’s Naturals, and grows many of the necessary ingredients in her home garden.

Fields recommends that beginning gardeners study their growing area before doing anything else. “The very first thing is to look at your garden and see where the sun and shade are,” she said. Also, be conscious of where to put walkways, Fields pointed out, as you want to make the garden fully accessible. Whenever possible, plant herbs and vegetables close to the house, so that they’re easier to harvest and use in cooking. Make sure you have a source of water nearby and that there are sunny areas available, as most food crops require six to eight hours of full sun a day to thrive.

A frequently heard piece of advice is to start small. First time gardeners “get discouraged if the garden’s too big,” Fields explained.

Pick a few things that you really like, such as tomatoes or peppers, and go from there. Four feet square would be large enough to accommodate several plants. As you gain confidence and your skill level increases, you can expand the garden in the next growing season.

Fields, along with other experienced gardeners, firmly believes in getting the soil tested before starting a new project in an unused area. She had hers done at Texas Plant and Soil Lab in Edinburg (texasplantandsoillab.com). Once you know what the soil needs, it’s time for the real fun: preparing the bed. Loosen the soil at least 6 to 10 inches deep with hand tools or with a tiller. Clear the planting area of weeds and mix in any necessary soil amendments. Keep in mind that most soils benefit from added compost, which improves drainage and water retention and also adds nutrition.

Except for those living in the Hill Country, Fields doesn’t recommend gardening in raised beds. They dry out, she said, and using cinder blocks or rocks to form the structure retains too much heat. If you must garden in a raised bed, make the frame from untreated wood or metal.

Some crops are best direct seeded, such as beans, cantaloupe, squash and okra. Others, such as peppers, eggplant, tomatoes and most herbs do best as transplants. Read up on what and when to plant and go from there. Most important–grow what you and your family enjoy eating.

Using organic products is not only a good idea when growing food, it also means your garden will be able to attract and keep pollinators like birds, bees, butterflies and other beneficial garden helpers around. These natural predators will feast on pests like aphids, mites, caterpillars and more.

Finally, maintaining a compost pile and using mulch are two of the best gardening habits you can practice. As mentioned earlier, compost helps the garden in several ways by adding nutrition and organic matter to the soil. And mulch, be it shredded cedar, leaves, straw or bark, is one of the easiest and least expensive ways to retain water and keep plants and soil cool in the summer heat. According to Fields, using anything less than four inches of mulch around established plants won’t work as well.

Referring to the advice related here and the gardening information on the Edible San Marcos blog, she said, “These are the small tips that can make a huge difference in your garden.” So, when it comes to growing things, start small and ‘grow’ large!

Source:

https://haysfreepress.com/2017/04/15/gardening-for-beginners/

Q & A about gardening

Q. I am thinking about getting a Ti plant. I saw on the web that they do best in zones 9a-11. Do you think it will grow and survive here in zone 8? I do not want to waste my time, money and effort if it is not worth it.

– Jennifer Lindauer, Virginia Beach

A. You can add a splash of the tropics to your patio or garden setting with this shrubby plant from Hawaii. Colors range from red to white, depending on the cultivar and sunlight exposure. It is a tropical plant, so you could plant it in the ground, but it would need to be dug up and moved indoors for the winter, so I suggest leaving it in a container to make the move easier. These plants can reach a height of 10 feet with a spread of 4 feet, so a three- to five-gallon container will not need repotting as often. You can fertilize them in early spring, but use a balanced product with all the numbers the same; a high nitrogen fertilizer will reduce the intensity of foliage color.

Tips for gardening

New comers to the Deep South from cooler parts of the country are truly shocked at just how hot it gets here during the summer.  The heat and humidity are oppressive not just during the day, but also during the sultry nights.  The high temperatures and humidity can last for months testing natives as well as the newcomer’s patience and air conditioning.

The summer heat is tough on plants too.  For your garden plants to survive, choose the toughest plants adapted to the southern zones.  Colorado blue spruce or Jersey blueberries belong in those states, not Mississippi.  Even so, your local plants might need some help to survive and prosper.  Following are some tips on keeping your garden in top shape through the summer with a minimum of time and effort.

1) Keep plants mulched.   

You probably already know of the many benefits of mulch. Keep the mulch replenished in the heat.  Use your old newspapers and grass clippings. Apply fresh grass clippings in a thin layer of and let dry for a few days before adding more.

What is hugelkultur gardening?

What is hugelkultur?

Pronounced hoog-el-cull-tour, a German word meaning “hill culture,” hugelkultur is a gardening technique that uses rotting woody debris as well as additional organic matter to build beds for planting, as explained by Washington State University Extension.

Hugelkultur is a way for gardeners to reverse nature’s natural decaying process.
How does hugelkultur work?

‘Grow three herbs and build up’ – the millennial’s guide to gardening

When to prick out and when to pinch out, what to dead-head and what to mulch – the Royal Horticultural Society says a whole “lost generation” of people in their 20s and 30s have no idea when it comes to gardening. It has led to back gardens suppressed by decking, front gardens concreted over and used to park the car. “For a lot of them, their parents just didn’t teach them gardening and we lost a lot of the skills,” Sue Biggs, director-general of the RHS, told the Times. But she also blamed the rise of buy-to-let and the housing crisis, which has made it harder for younger people to buy their own homes, and so literally to put down roots. So how can millennials get involved? Two experts advise:
Have patience

Vegetable Gardening Tips

With the costs of living rising all the time, it may be possible to save money and increase your family's health at the same time by growing vegetables in your backyard.

It's a good idea to choose your favourite vegetables to grow and plan beds for early, middle of the season and late varieties.

Most vegetables require at least 6 hours of sunlight per day, some need 8. Some quick growers like lettuce and radish can be grown between the rows of plants that take longer to mature, like beet or corn, thus making full use of the area available.

Container Gardening Tips for Newbies

Container gardens can create a natural sanctuary in a busy city street, along rooftops or on balconies. You can easily accentuate the welcoming look of a deck or patio with colourful pots of annuals, or fill your window boxes with beautiful shrub roses or any number of small perennials. Whether you arrange your pots in a group for a massed effect or highlight a smaller space with a single specimen, you'll be delighted with this simple way to create a garden.

Modern Gardening Equipment

The types and quality of equipment you use to take care of your plants not only have an effect on your plants' health, but your own as well.

Defective tools could cause damage to your plants, but it is worse if they are so uncomfortable to use that they give you blisters or a bad back. To avoid this, look for the gardening equipment that will do the best job for your type of gardening. It must have the right amount of power to be energy efficient while also being able to do the job without causing you any more strain than necessary.

Gardening Advice

Many people may not be aware that gardening can actually harm the environment.  A large amount of carbon dioxide can be released through tilling the soil.  This contributes to global warming.  When you cultivating and compacting the soil, destroys good fungi.  Fertilizers like nitrogen and manure often leach out of the soil and pollute the water you drink.

Global warming

Did you know that the earth's soil gives out carbon dioxide in the atmosphere 10 times more than all human activity?  This comes from the pill bugs, microbes, fungi and worms when they breathe, digest food and then die. Although in the past plants have been capable of absorbing carbon dioxide caused by small-scale tillages, this isn't the case nowadays. 
The increase of the globe's average temperature is because of the carbon dioxide the soil emits when tilled. The good news is that tilling can be minimized by mulching or sheet composting.

Gardening Gloves

Healthy hands are the Gardener's Best Tools

Here are the major reasons why one should consider getting a pair of trusty gardening gloves: Gloves protect your hands from blisters, thorns and cuts while doing rough work like digging or pruning in the garden. Investing in one or more pairs of quality gloves is a good decision.

Hydroponics Gardening

Hydroponics was derived from the Greek word hydro, which means "water" and ponos, which means "labor or water-working". Hydroponics gardening involves growing plants with their roots in other nutrient solutions and without soil.

Hydroponics gardening is as simple as ordinary gardening. Both of them necessitate sufficient light, water, temperature, light, and humidity. But with hydroponics, no soil is used. Instead a soil substitute holds the roots while nutrients are carried by the water. Indoor hydroponic gardening is not that hard and plants respond well to this method of growing.

Gardening For Kids

Apparently, we can see how nature is treated these days.  It is a sad thing to know that people do not pay attention so much anymore to the environmental problems.  What can we do about this?  It's as simple as starting with the children.  It is good to see the children's involvement with environment-friendly activities. One such nature-loving activity that children could easily get their hands on is gardening. Why should you consider gardening for your children?

Here are the benefits that gardening could easily provide the children with:

Gardening as a Family Event

Gardening Being a Family EventHave fun with the family in the event of gardening together. Show them how much you enjoy gardening. Spending time in your garden. This is especially easy to stimulate the interest of the child when they see you having fun.Make gardening easier. Do not expect a perfect garden. Allow your family to work at their own pace and in their attention span and age range, especially children.Dig it! Children love to dig. This is a great way to teach the basics while letting them play and just have fun.Let them play an active role in planning. Bringing your child to a local nursery and let them pick seeds or transplants to start their gardens. Take your time and let them explore and enjoy all the beautiful plants.