A garden has many benefits: It's good for your body, good for your mind, and can be good for the environment. You can fill your yard full of flowers that attract beautiful butterflies and raise your property values, or plant a vegetable garden that will feed your household and save money on your grocery bill.
Not everyone starts out with a green thumb, but there are many tricks you can try to stack the deck in your favor. Here are a few.
In high temperatures, leaves on tomatoes and other plants may curl a bit. You can restore them by watering in the evening when temperatures are cooler, and the water won't evaporate away. If leaf curl is severe, or if the leaves curl under instead of upwards, that can be a sign of disease, though, so you may want to remove that branch to keep the issue from spreading.
Lots of organic materials, like kitchen scraps and garden trimmings, can be composted or added directly to the soil as fertilizer. But if you can get it, seaweed may give your garden an extra boost. It's high in minerals, and it can discourage slugs from eating your plants. Harvest seaweed that has washed up on the beach, rinse it in fresh water to get rid of excess salt, and apply it around the bases of your plants.
In a garden, it matters what you plant where. Some plants will attract bugs and slugs, and others will repel them. If you plant strategically, you can use repelling plants to drive pests away from your fruits and veggies and use attracting plants to lure them to other parts of the garden. For example, planting onions with your strawberries can help keep your crop from being eaten. Other companion plants offer physical support, shade, or ground cover to plants that need it.
An olla is a time-tested watering technique for warm weather. Find an unpainted terracotta pot and plug the bottom hole, then bury the pot up to its neck beside your plants. Fill it with water and place the bottom catch on top as a lid. The terracotta lets water seep through slowly into the soil while the lid prevents evaporation. Your plants will stay watered throughout the day, even when water that you just pour on the ground would dry out.
Invasive plants like bamboo and kudzu will overrun your garden, cutting your wanted plants off from nutrients and sunlight. Be decisive about removing them. The good news is that a lot of them are edible. For example, if your area is plagued with honeysuckle, you can turn the blossoms into a delicious syrup.
🗣️ What's the hardest thing about taking care of your yard?
🔘 Mowing the lawn 🏡
🔘 Controlling weeds 🌿
🔘 Keeping pests at bay 🐿️
🔘 I don't have a yard 🤷
🗳️ Click your choice to see results and speak your mind
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