How To Increase Your Crop Yields In Your Garden

Many people think of gardening as a hobby that is soothing and therapeutic. Gardeners usually seek answers to questions involving topics such as soil types, necessary equipment, and different growing seasons. This article contains important information for anyone wanting to begin a garden.

Select perennials to reduce the amount of care your garden requires. Plants that return year after year usually require only a modicum of weeding and pruning. Edible perennials, such as asparagus, rhubarb, and sorrel, can provide an excellent salad addition for your household without causing too much work for you.

If you are planting vegetables, choose varieties that dont require processing in order to keep. For example, sweet potatoes and onions will keep for months as long as they are kept cool and dry, without any additional work on your part. This reduces the amount of time you have to spend after harvesting.

Use seedlings to run relay planting. Using seedlings can allow you to get a jump start on the growing season and improve yields to the harvest by extending time. If growing lettuce and a squash harvest is needed for summer, then after the lettuce has been harvested you can plant seedlings to get a jump start on another crop and a higher yield for the garden.

A spicy solution to ridding your garden of pests is to spray your plants with a hot mustard or red pepper mixture (one tablespoon of hot mustard or red pepper to one quart water). The solution is safe to spray directly on your garden foliage and pests cant stand the taste of it!

Exercise

To avoid injuring yourself while gardening, be sure to do some warm-up stretches before starting your project. Most people may not think of gardening as exercise, but injuries like pulled muscles frequently occur in the garden. You should also be sure to move around and not stay in one position for a long period of time.

Growing your own vegetable garden, whether large or small, offers many benefits. You will eat better! Fresh vegetables offer more vitamins than those which have been processed. Planting and doing upkeep on your garden will also help provide exercise which leads to better fitness. It will also save you a significant amount of money at the grocery store!

Nutrition

When youre picking vegetables from your garden, choose to harvest them when they are at the peak of ripeness for the best flavor and the most nutrition. It is best to pick vegetables and fruits in the early morning, because they are still full of moisture and nutrients. With only a few exceptions, anything that youre not going to use right away can then be preserved by chilling in the refrigerator.

To give your plant great nutrition without spending a lot of money, use leaves! Leaves are one of the best plant foods available. Try covering any exposed soil in your garden with small, shredded leaves. This will enrich the soil and will allow it to provide better nutrition to your plants.

Remember to mulch before the first freeze. Spread compost or shredded leaves around the garden, mulching under shrubs, hedges, roses, and on top of the crown of any tender perennials. A layer of compost spread on bare ground will help to protect any bulbs, corms or plant roots. By springtime, this compost will have been taken into the ground by worms, and your soil will be full of nutrition, ready for new planting.

In summation, gardening can be fun and satisfying, but you should follow some basic guidelines in order to get the most from your garden. A knowledgeable gardener is most often a successful gardener. Follow the advice in this article and you will be on your way to enjoying a beautiful garden of your own.