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Audiobook ID: 619808
Author: Emma Andrews
Publisher: Findaway Voices
Summary:
Master your first gardening experience even with limited space by following these 9 easy steps!Gardening has long been an extremely rewarding practice giving you the power to grow fruits, vegetables, and herbs for your kitchen and your dinner table.
However, it can require a lot of time, patience, and, most importantly, space.
Space is a big issue, especially if you live in an urban area or dont have access to sprawling, open ground.
And thats where raised beds and containers come in! These compact mini-gardening methods allow you to plant and maintain a garden easily and are flexible enough to let you grow whatever you want.
Whether a small strip of land, a balcony, a patio, or a terrace, raised bed and container gardening allow you easy access to natures freshest bounty in miniature gardens with the same quality and freshness of a large one.
In this guide, you will discover:
– A beginner-friendly 9-step process to fast-track your way to raised bed and container gardening
– Prepare Like a Pro everything that you need to know and do to grow a garden from scratch
– DIY Designs build your own raised beds and find out how to utilize empty containers
– How to create the perfect soil mix for your raised beds and containers
– Watering and Irrigation from hand watering to DIY drip systems, explore a host of watering methods for efficient and enriching hydration of your plants
– The fundamentals of garden maintenance and organic pest control
– Organic fertilization methods and recipes to aid in your plants growth
And much more.
Gardening is a long-term investment it changes your lifestyle and allows you to live sustainably and naturally.
Discover how to start gardening no matter how much space you do or dont have.
Chapter 17, Maintaining Your Garden. Step nine, maintenance of your garden. Having prepared your garden bed and sewed your seed, continual maintenance is essential to ensure that your garden stays on track for providing you with the healthy crops that you have been looking forward to. General maintenance guidelines have been mentioned throughout this book. However, you will probably find it useful to have access to these in a single chapter that can be used as a reference for knowing how to maintain your garden and the tools used to work in it. The first rule of maintenance for a raised garden bed is to not walk on top of it or engage in any activity which will compact the soil. Mulching with organic materials is key to the health of your raised bed garden as it provides numerous benefits. First, it allows the soil to retain moisture during the hot summer months when the insoil water plants need for photosynthesis would have evaporated. At the same time, the existence of mulch over the soil discourages weeds from sprouting while leaving open spaces for your plants to access the sunlight. Mulch added after the growing season provides a cover that stops the soil from compacting while keeping the soil insulated from the cold and breaks down to form compost over time. An alternative to traditional mulching is the use of living mulch throughout winter. It can be in the form of planting any of the various plants that can serve as cover while airrating the soil during the winter months. Plants used as living mulch include crimson clover, hairy veetch, and annual rygrass. While mulch can provide a barrier to roots appearing above the ground, what can you do about weeds, roots, and pests that try to invade your raised bed garden from below? One solution is to use a barrier in the form of hardware cloth. Its wire mesh will discourage tree roots from poking up onto the raised garden bed and deter any gophers or other digging pests that may want to consume your plants from the roots. To improve soil health, ensure that you add compost to it annually and increase irration by fluffing the soil with a garden fork at the end of the winter season. Invite pollinators into your garden by planting flowers alongside vegetables to enable abundant crops. It will have the added benefit of making your garden look aesthetically pleasing. And some flowers may even draw pests away from your vegetables, resulting in a healthier crop. For further abundance in your garden, you can extend your growing season by adding a cold frame to your raised bed garden. It will enable some warm season crops to survive in cooler weather and allow cool crops to survive a bit longer into winter. And finally, one of the best ways to reduce the amount of time you are idle in the garden is to plan and install an irrigation system for your raised bed garden. The best systems are drip irrigation or a soaker hose so that the ground is watered directly. Tool maintenance. One way of keeping your garden healthy and free of disease is to ensure that the tools you use are clean and free of mildew, bacteria, or insect infestation that can spread to other parts of the garden. It is quickly done by constantly cleaning your tools with a brush, soap, and water after using them. After that, ensure they are thoroughly dried before you put them away in a clean, dry location. After exposure to pestinfested soil, you can take extra precautions by soaking your tools in a mixture of a gallon of water combined with two cups of bleach. To keep your metal digging tools clean, plunge them into a bucket filled with sand and mixed with boiled linseed oil. It will keep them clean, sharp, and free of rust. Prunes can be kept sharp with the use of a sharpening stone or pruner sharpening tool.