While it takes a little effort to maintain, gardening can be a great budget-friendly family activity. Sharing the effort while spending time together will make it easier and more fun.
The truth is that growing your own produce is a great way to supplement your fruit and vegetables purchases from your local supermarket or farmers market.
But gardening can be work-intensive, however. Just ask any backyard garden growers. Local growers have been growing and canning their own vegetables for the past few years and they’ve turned the science of gardening into something of an art form.
“To grow a successful garden requires your constant attention,” explained Eliza Jane Fortner and her husband Mike of Daniels. “It’s important to keep your plants watered and the planting area free from weeds.”
The Fortner family operates a greenhouse, compost equipment, and raised garden beds. They catch rainwater in barrels for keeping the plants wet and growing.
Gardening is an American past-time that the entire family can enjoy. You are never too young or too old to start your first garden, according to the Fortner couple. “This is an extremely rewarding and entertaining hobby for those who are willing to dedicate the time and energy to properly care for their plants,” said Mike, who related the following scenario for those just starting out with their gardens.
• One of the most fundamental steps of backyard gardening is preparing the soil before planting. If the soil you use is not the right kind or is in poor quality, then it will be much harder to keep a successful garden. Different plants have different soils in which they thrive. That also means that no matter how incredible your personal soil is, if the plant is not in the right kind of soil, then it is going to struggle. Many plants placed in the wrong soil will die.
• Any plant, if cared for properly, will have a natural resistance to most diseases. This is part of nature and suggests that only organic compounds be introduced to any backyard garden. This includes mulch, compost, and any forms of weed control. Nasty, synthetic substances can weaken the plants immunities and make them more susceptible to common diseases. When in need of a particular pest control, it is wise to shop for the organic variety.
• If a fruit and vegetable garden is on your wish-list, but you just don’t have room outside, then consider mixing these alongside your ornamental plants. Most fruits and veggies will grow perfectly fine amongst the different perennials and annual flowers. As an example, you could plant a row of lettuce to line around the edging of a particular flower bed. It is even possible to include a variety of edible fruits and vegetables during your backyard gardening.
• If you haven’t already started making the transition, upgrading any electrical needs to a solar powered energy source is the right idea. Not only is this “green”, meaning less-harmful to nature, but it is also cheaper. The money saved using solar panels can quickly accumulate during gardening and justify the cost of installation.
• Not everyone has the room for a backyard garden, however.Those people without all of the free space can make use of pots and containers. Pots are a perfectly acceptable gardening environment and allow for their own unique advantages. Plants that grow in pots can grow individually;within the soil they require. Even if you do have a garden outside, a few potted plants will make a visual improvement of the scene.
Gardening, outdoors or indoors, doesn’t have to be as complicated as it may seem. It is entirely dependent upon what you want to grow and how much gardening you would like to do. Not everyone has that natural skill when it comes to gardening. Those backyard gardeners that were born without a green thumb can surely benefit from the suggested advice. Now the grass really can be greener on your side of the fence.
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Top o’ the morning!
