Building a garden is not that difficult. What’s tricky is maintaining it to stay beautiful for a long time. Even the smallest garden requires as much attention as the biggest one. Here are some never exposed tips on building better home grown gardens so that it stays fresh for a longer time.
Table of Contents
tips to make a healthy garden
1. Healthy soil gives healthy plants!
Having healthy soil is more important than you might think. It is a well-known fact that good quality soil can ultimately give stronger and healthier plants.
To make sure your soil is right, you just need to dig the mud with the shovel to break any possible dirt clods. After that, just spread a 4-inch layer of compost over the planting area. Only do this for the top 12 inches of soil and see how it drastically improves the quality.
2. Don’t plant too deep
While planting actual smaller plants, don’t go too deep. The depth of planting should be equal to the height of the grown seedlings.
If you are directly sowing the seeds, you can follow the directions written on the seed packet. Plant requirements should match the climatic condition of the garden. For instance, hot areas are suitable for tomatoes, melons, or pepper. In contrast, you will need a cold climate for peas and carrots.
3. Protect your home grown gardens from the bugs
Garden pests like beetles or aphids can always invade your garden. How to get rid of them? Just pick up the bugs from the plants if you see them and toss them in the jar.
Try to drown them in the soapy water. Whereas for smaller pests, you can just use a spray of insecticide.
4. Clean the flooring
Before you plan on making home grown gardens, make sure to remove all the excess grass and weeds from the ground. By doing this, moisture and other soil nutrients will be used by the plants and not by wasted grass.
Once the plants get growing, you need to add organic mulch for a depth of 4 inches. Mulching will be beneficial to prevent excess weed growth. If you locate any weed seedling in mulch, use a garden hoe and knock it down to make garden beautiful.
5. Maintain the texture of the soil
Soil tends to lose its texture when left for long in the same layer. To keep the soil loose and soft for a long time, use a spade to turn it upside down at least once a month. On the other hand, clayey soil tends to become more hard over time.
Make sure you provide enough TLC in such cases. Read more on home grown gardens to find out how you can make the best out of it.
6. Deal with clay in Home Grown Gardens
The majority of your garden consists of clay soil, use a layer of organic compost on top of it to keep it loose. Use good compost on top of your soil by afoot. Click here to find out more gardening tips just like these!
7. Tools
The real gardener knows the value of the best garden tools. Sure there are many tools in the market. It won’t hurt to spend a little more and get quality tools that are the best. Everything right from the trimmer, scissors, or even mowers, are essential for a healthy garden.
8. Moisture
We know almost all the plants are made of 90% with water. As they can’t survive without moisture, it is essential to keep them hydrated. Whether it is a shrub or a tall tree, all of them need water early in the morning.
9. No time to water?
If you carry one of those heavy-duty jobs where you barely get time to water your plants, go for water retaining plants. Jasmine, Chrysanthemum, or gardenia are among some rare species that can retain moisture for a longer time.
10. Give some space!
Now that you have so many plants in your garden, it can be hard to divide open space to each of them. While you grow new shrubs, make sure they have enough space to grow. They need external elements like sunlight, moisture, and soil nutrient. In a vast area, competition for these elements will reduce, and the new shrub will get all it requires.
11. Get rid of slugs already
Slugs can be anywhere in your garden. The easiest way to understand home grown gardens is to get rid of slugs. them that no one knows about is beer.
All you need to do is keep a container full of beer in the soil. The smell will attract the slugs, and you’ll see a container filled with them in the morning. Do the beer procedure every night until all the slugs are gone.
12. harvest early
The last step to maintain your garden is to harvest as soon as the edibles are ready. You should remove any possible diseased plants. Just pull all the decade or dying plants and put them on the compost pile.
All the debris where pests can hide should be cleaned. Remember, a well-kept garden is a healthy garden! Now that you know how to make home grown gardens, make sure you follow the steps properly.
A good garden also needs a great composter! If you are not sure about this term, check out the related blog-
A guide to buying a composting machine for your garden.
In urban areas, gardens become very compact as compared to open lands. And if you try to adjust the space where you are living to convert it in a garden, you may run out of space.
But if you are living in a place where you have your roof, then you can harvest a rooftop garden. Harvesting of the rooftop garden is an idle thing to do in the urban area. Also, it is an excellent way to use the extra space for something creative. However, there are some few things to consider in mind before you harvest a rooftop garden
How will you make a Rooftop Garden?
First of all, find out about local ordinances, rental property rules or homeowner association regulations for a rooftop garden. May be harvesting a rooftop garden is prohibited in your area, or it requires special treatment. It’s better to know it before you spend any time or money.
Second, get a contractor or architecture to involve as soon as possible. You don’t need the architecture for making the whole garden but, to check the building. You must ensure that it is safe and possible to make a rooftop garden.
Some buildings were not designed to hold extra weight on the top. Or maybe it can take the weight but in a limited count. The contractor or architecture would be able to tell you the case with your building.
Third, even if your building can lift the weight of your rooftop garden, your roof should play the role of your garden. Try to put minimum weight as much as possible. Use foam planting, fibreglass, plastic, or containers and avoid using pavers.
Use lightweight potting soil instead of garden dirt. Use Styrofoam peanuts for drainage instead of rocks or pottery shards.
Fourth, be sure that your rooftop garden gets more air than a typical garden. Incorporate windbreaks if you need.
Fifth, make a good source of water supply for your rooftop garden. You will have to water your garden frequently during the hot season. Lugging heavy buckets of water on the roof is not fun or practical. Make a water storage system on the rooftop or have an automatic watering system installed.
If you consider these things, you will find that your rooftop garden will be a lovely and great place for you to escape to.
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What else does the rooftop garden need?
Waterproofing Layer
The roof must be waterproofed, durable and frost resistant. If you are planning to harvest a garden on the roof of your building, you should know if your roof is waterproof or not.
Whatever you are planting there, in the bucket or on the floor, be sure your roof; otherwise, it will start leaking. The waterproof surface on the roof where you are planning to harvest home grown gardens will protect the building from getting damp.
Insulation Layer
Constructing Insulation layer on a terrace (Protection Layer) improves the mechanical strength. It will be better to hold your garden nicely. Also, it protects it from becoming moist and weak. It is made mostly of PIR panels or polyurethane, XPS extruded polystyrene boards foam.
Type of gardens
When you are planning to harvest a garden on your rooftop, you get confused about what kind of harvesting you should do. It should mostly have flowers or vegetables, but the problem comes when you don’t know what kind of plants really grow in a small pot.
Be with us for a moment, and we will let you know which plants really grow well in a small area.
for Flower garden
1 ‘Fanal’ Astilbe
Great for shaded spots on a rooftop, Astilbe ‘Fanal’ rewards gardeners with vibrant crimson colour that blooms in july. It does best in a moist soil; don’t allow astilbe to dry out.
2 Lavender
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Best known for its scent, lavender is the most excellent addition to the mint family from the Mediterranean. It blooms well in windy or dry condition. It grows up to a foot or a bit more than that, which makes it best fit for compact places.
3 Daylily
These are the best flowers if you want to add colour to your rooftop garden. Anna Warner is another species that looks well in sunlight.
4 Japanese Wisteria
Wisteria is admirable woody vines that hang like grapes. It works well over any garden trellis small or big.
If you are thinking of harvesting a flower garden on your rooftop, you can go with these choices.
crops for Vegetable Garden
Beans
Most of the beans are climber trees, and they are very easy to grow. You can grow it near a wall or can plug a stick in the pot so that it can climb well within a week.
Beans need abundant sun for proper growth, so choose the spot accordingly in the home grown gardens. Make sure it has a pot that is minimum 12 inches deep and a trellis-like structure for support.
Since beans are known to fix the nitrogen, other vegetables requiring nitrogen grow well with them. And If you want to grow beans in a huge pot, you can grow summer savoury, kale, spinach and celery in the base.
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Tomato
This vegetable is very easy to grow up. If you can provide sunlight for 6 to 7 hours daily, it will grow very quickly. To support with at least 12-inch dip, so that you can two-three plants in a single pot.
In a limited space, growing this type of plants is easy to do. If you are aiming for higher yield, you can go for cherry tomatoes too.
Lettuce
Harvesting lettuce in pots is easy. For one thing, it grows quickly and you will also get to harvest it repeatedly. It is a cold season plant and especially grows well during springs so you have to decide according to your weather when you should harvest it. If you live in a warm atmosphere so harvest it during the winter season.
Final words
Now that you have a fair idea about rooftop gardens and home grown gardens, you should definitely give it a try. After all, a garden is all you need to complete your home.
You can also purchase river rocks to decorate your garden beautifully. Check out the tips here- 7 Tips To Buy Bulk River Rocks- Pricing & Uses
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