Most of us are ready to invest huge amounts of money into our gardens, for landscaping and to give our homes a face lift, but we are often guilty of neglect. Often we fail to prune, when the plants need it, don’t treat disease in time and then our expensive gardens become ill and they look worse than ever, so we spend even more money on it, but overlook the causes.
So, it’s high time, we knew a few gardening tips, to avoid making these simple mistakes and to keep our gardens healthy. Follow these gardening tips, for a better looking, healthy garden.
1. Gardening tips for pruning
Pruning plays a very important role, in garden maintenance. Don’t be afraid to cut. Remember, if you make a mistake while pruning, don’t lose sleep over it - it’s like a bad haircut, it will grow back again.
2. Avoid watering gardens in the evening
During summer, you could experience high humidity. This may result in problems in your garden as fungus and other diseases love warm, damp conditions. To keep your plants nice and dry, tuck them in for night, literally - cover them. In addition to this, watering in the evening should always be avoided, if you have fungus problems.
3. Get rid of Powdery mildew
Powdery mildew, is a common fungus and most often, affects your ornamental plants. This creates a white film, on the leaves of the plants, in your garden. Even other ornamental plants, such as Sand cherry and Dogwoods, also get affected by this fungus. Efficient gardening is necessary, to curtail the growth of this fungus. You can easily prevent this, by spraying general fungicide, in your garden.
4. Prevention of Pythium Blight
If you reside in the north and probably have perennial Rye grass, then you should be very careful not to leave your grass wet, at night. A dreadful fungus called Pythium Blight may take over, especially if you leave your lawn wet at night, because this fungus loves to grow in conditions of high humidity, particularly at night.
Pythium Blight, can easily be seen in the early morning. This fungus on the top of the lawn, looks almost like white cotton candy. You will notice this fungus, mainly along driveways and walks, where the soil is moist. Pythium Blight, can easily be controlled, by watering your garden during the day and as early as possible.
5. Prevention of Fire Blight
Fire Blight, is yet another culprit affecting gardens. This one prefers the summer months. This nuisance fungus, prefers to attack Pyracantha, cotoneasters, crabapple trees, and Apple trees. The presence of Fire Blight, can easily be seen. Usually, the branches of the plant, turn red and die. This Fire Blight, can be controlled by careful pruning of the affected branch and by removing it from the main plant altogether. It is also important, that the cut branches, be burnt, as Fire Blight is contagious. You should also wash, or dip your pruning shears, in an alcohol solution, to prevent the spread of the deadly fungus, to other parts of the garden.
6. Prevention of Shotgun fungus
A little gem like fungus, in appearance, this one prefers to grow in mulch and then, tends to swell. It has been called “Shotgun Fungus, because it can “shoot” up to 8 feet in the air and will splatter your house with tiny brown specks and once they stick to the house, or windows, they stick like glue and are difficult to remove. Most of us tend to blame the spiders and other bugs, for this tiny brown speck.
You can not prevent this fungus, but you can do something, to limit it’s chances, by keeping the mulch loose, so that air can circulate inside the pile and not seem so attractive to the fungus. Although compost heaps are great, for the garden, don’t allow them to become compacted. You should turn your pile, at least twice a year and also rake it flat, so that it doesn’t become too deep.
Conclusion
Hopefully these few, simple tips will help you to keep your garden healthier, understand the problems and prevent unnecessary diseases. This will also save money and have your garden being the envy of your neighbours.
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Sally Robson is a South African Internet marketer, who together with her husband Derek, have a vision of empowering all fellow South Africans and other non U.S folk, to have equal opportunity and success on the internet, by overcoming the many obstacles facing them. They have started a string of sites, resources, courses and articles, as part of Dersalsites. Sally has a passion for gardening. For more articles and advice on gardening topics, visit Sally at: http://www.dersalsites.com/sallysgardeningtips/
