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5 gardening tips to keep your plants healthy

Sometimes, it may be difficult to know the best ways to keep your plants healthy, especially if you’re not a gardener by profession. We aim to have a highly productive garden that fulfils our needs, natures needs, is energy efficient and low maintenance. If you’re struggling to maintain the health of your plants, don’t worry – this guide can help get your plants flourishing in no time at all, expanding nature for both its beauty and eco-friendly benefits. Read on for more discussion!

 

Water

Telling you to water your plants may seem very obvious, but you should never underestimate the significance that water has in a plant’s growing cycle. Making up a high percentage of an entire plant’s weight, water is crucial for delivering nutrients from the soil to the plant’s cells, keeping them healthy and strong. It can be a challenge sometimes to know how much water to give your plants, so you need to consider the conditions. Thinking about the climate and soil type can help you with this. It is important to get the balance right since too little water causes plants to stop growing and die, whilst too much water can create soggy roots, resulting in the plant becoming oxygen-starved. A good estimate for most gardens is supplying your plants with around one inch of water a week, whilst gardens in hot climates may need two inches of water per week due to the loss of moisture. Water aids plants in their critical life processes, including photosynthesis, nutrient distribution, and transpiration. Therefore, one healthy soak a week should be enough to keep your plants alive and healthy, helping your garden to blossom with minimal effort!

 

Light

Light is a vital part of allowing plants to undergo photosynthesis, so it’s important to pay attention to how much light your plants are receiving and how much each specific plant needs. Plants like vegetables often require around 8 hours of sunlight per day, so investing in a greenhouse could certainly be worth it in helping your crops reach the desired amount of light.

 

Irrigation system

Image by Denise Krebs, Flickr.

Irrigation systems can be a great way to know that your garden is receiving the right amount of water when it needs it, often done on an automatic timer or sensors to increase the ease of the homeowner. Automated irrigation systems can keep your garden healthy even when you are away on holiday, but you do need to make sure that the components are working properly for it to take full effect. Sprinklers are often installed in individual gardens, performing circles to ensure that a certain number of metres within the diameter are watered. However, there may be possible functional issues with your installed irrigation system. For example, limescale may build up in the water pipes or sprinklers over time due to hard water, reducing the efficiency of your system. This can be solved by investing in water treatment products to soften your water for your irrigation system. Additionally, you may want to try physical water treatment to be more eco-friendly.

 

Soil quality

Soil quality always overrides fertiliser when it comes to considering what works best for your plants’ growth. Adding manure or compost to the soil can make it easy to dig and loose enough to provide oxygen to the plant roots. This type of soil will also accept water with more ease, providing plant roots with what it needs to carry on growing healthily. Keep in mind that the manure should be mature in age, cured for a minimum of six months. Newer, fresher manure is too high in nitrogen and might also contain parasites that can harm your plants.

 

Pruning

It can be difficult to know when to prune, but make sure you prune spring-flowering shrubs immediately after the blooms start to decline. Deadheading, a widespread type of pruning, is the removal of dead flowers from plants. This is a great practice to participate in for some types of plants, especially for annual ones. Removing old flower heads prompts the plant to produce more flowers and encourages it to use energy to create strong roots and leaves too. This can keep your plants healthy and productive, resulting in the continual bloom of your garden.

 

 

Conclusion

Hopefully, you should now have a better idea of how to take care of your garden and the range of plants within it. Be mindful that different types of plants have different needs, but applying widespread practices such as watering and pruning can be sure to keep your plants healthier for longer.

One Comment

  1. I’m a bit disappointed that your section on ‘irrigation systems’ doesn’t at least raise the idea of something far more ‘sustainable’ such as a drip-irrigation system using ‘captured’ water in rain barrels.

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