Plant Care Archives - Page 7 of 10

10 Garden Jobs You Can Stop Doing

Most gardeners work far too hard. Why? Because a lot of books and web sites tell you it’s the only way to keep plants growing well. As a young, inexperienced gardener I followed all the advice but over the years I have developed a new style of gardening. I now only do the work that is required.

This blog will save you hundreds of hours of work each year.

In this post I will reveal 10 things that you can stop doing in the garden because they are not needed by your plants. The focus in this post will be on ornamental gardens (perennials, grasses, shrubs and trees). In another post I will deal with vegetable gardens specifically.

Garden Jobs You Can Stop Doing — Gardening the right way

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Three Sisters Agriculture – an Example of Companion Planting

I’d like to talk about the Three Sisters. No, not the play written by Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, and not the three mountain peaks near Canmore, Alberta , Canada. I am talking about Three Sisters Agriculture used by Native Americans; corn, beans and squash.

If you have read anything about companion planting you will have come across a description of the Three Sisters as one of the best examples of companion planting that works. But have you ever seen any data to show that this system works? Did the Native Americans actually use this system?

The Three Sisters are the corner stone of the companion planting movement and if it is all a myth, is there any validity to the whole idea?

Iroquois family growing beans, corn, and squash using three sisters agricultural companion planting — Iroquois family growing beans, corn, and squash using Three Sisters agricultural companion planting

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Companion Planting: Truth or Myth?

I have wanted to do some posts on companion planting for quite some time. There is certainly a lot of nonsense out there about companion planting, but some of the advice seems to make sense. The problem with this topic is that it is vast and complex. So I have ignored it – until now.

This post is an overview of the topic. I will look at some general concepts and try to gain some basic understanding of companion planting. Future posts will look at specific combinations of plants.

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Secrets to a Weed Free Garden

Do you have a lot of weeds in your garden? Do you want to know how to get rid of them? Are you making a new garden bed and want to eliminate years of weeding? You have come to the right place.

In this blog I will provide you with solutions for both of these problems. Most people who have a lot of weeds in the garden have made two mistakes. They did not prepare the new garden properly and they are not mulching enough.

Weed fiasco in the garden - poor squash plant is trying to compete with a ton of competition. — Weed fiasco in the garden – poor squash plant is trying to compete with a ton of weeds.

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LED Grow Lights – Getting the Right Color Spectrum

In this post I will look at one of the most important criteria you should consider when shopping for an LED grow light, the color spectrum. If you don’t get the right color of light, plants will just not grow well, no matter how much you spend.

If you are looking to get a new grow light, you should really consider LED lights since they are much more energy efficient. That is good for your pocket book as well as the environment. The problem is that selecting the right type of light is no trivial matter. The market is full of products in a wide price range and many manufacturers are making claims that are designed to confuse you.

If you just want a quick answer, head on down to the last section called, The Best Color Spectrum for LED Grow Lights. If you want to understand what you are doing so you can make an intelligent choice, read the whole post. I promise I won’t get too technical on you.

LED Grow Lights - Getting the Right Color Spectrum, provided by Green Relief — LED Grow Lights – Getting the Right Color Spectrum, provided by Green Relief

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LED Grow Lights – The Myth About Watts

LED lights for home use have become very popular and many people are considering them for growing plants, especially for starting seedlings. It sounds like a great idea. LED lights use very little electricity so they save money, and they don’t produce a lot heat so they can be placed close to your plants. Sounds perfect and many people have started to use them with success. Unfortunately, others have found that they don’t work too well and one reason is that manufacturers don’t tell you the truth about their products. I know that is hard to believe – but it’s true, they go out of their way to confuse you.

In this post I will have a close look at just one aspect of LED grow lights – the truth about watts.

LED grow light - watts myth — BESTVA 1000W Double Chips LED Grow Light

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15 Myths About Seeds and Seed Germination

Starting plants from seed is a great hobby and a good way to increase your collection of plants. Most people only think about germinating vegetable seeds and much of the information on the internet is focused on these. But there is a whole other world out there. I am always surprised when people don’t understand that all of the perennials, trees and shrubs originally come from seed.

There is still a lot of mystery around seeds and for many species we still do not understand the best way to germinate them. This allows amateurs and hobbyists to do their own thing. This is great because it adds to the collective knowledge, but it also leads to many myths about starting plants from seed.

Sanguinaria seedlings Myths About Seeds and Seed Germination — Myths About Seeds and Seed Germination, picture of *Sanguinaria canadensis* by BotantyCa

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Best Potting Soil for Container Gardens

Container gardening has become extremely popular and there are all kinds of potting soils you can buy. Gardening in containers is very different than gardening in the ground so it is important to understand the special requirements for potting soil.

If you are looking for a simple solution, where cost is not a factor, and you don’t mind watering a lot, use a name brand potting mix. Almost all of them will produce healthy plants.

If you want a better solution – keep reading.

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10 Hacks for a Low Maintenance Garden

The Holy Grail in gardening is the perfect, beautiful garden that exists without any maintenance. I see titles for books and blog posts all of the time claiming to be “no-maintenance”. Any real gardener knows that is baloney, but there are things you can do to have a low-maintenance garden.

As gardeners age, maintenance becomes more of a chore, but we don’t want to give up our gardens. Making some simple changes in plant selection and attitude can reduce your workload significantly and allow you to keep the garden longer.

In this post, I will describe 10 things any gardener can do to reduce maintenance to a minimum.

Aspen Grove Gardens - a low maintenance garden — Aspen Grove Gardens – a low-maintenance garden

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Compost Tea NPK Values

Compost tea is reported to be great for growing plants, and some companies even call it a compost tea fertilizer. What is the NPK value of this magic potion?

I started this post about a year ago, and at that time, there were many products on the market, but I could not find one that provided the compost tea NPK value. I checked again today and was surprised that the number of compost tea products available is down significantly. Maybe it was too expensive to ship all that water around the country? Maybe it did not work, and people stopped buying the product?

Interestingly, the number of commercial DIY kits for making your tea is up significantly. When you click on Google Images for ‘bottles of tea,’ you are taken to pages selling kits. Even with kits, the same question needs to be asked. What is the NPK value of the tea these kits produce? Very few of the manufacturers I looked at provided such information, but many did say their compost ingredients were the best. Easy to say if you don’t give any data.

Even if you are not interested in compost tea, the following discussion will show you how companies are misleading consumers.

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Can Leaves be Used to Identify Nutrient Deficiencies?

There are lots of examples of people trying to use plant leaf characteristics to identify nutrient deficiencies in the soil. This seems to make a lot of sense. If the soil is lacking a specific nutrient, it should show up in the plant and it seems to follow that by examining the physical characteristics of the leaf you should be able to identify the nutrient deficiency.

How reliable is this method of diagnosis? Can you really identify a nutrient deficiency in the soil by looking at plant leaves?

Plant Nutrient Deficiency Symptoms by Permablitz

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Planting Perennials the Right Way

Planting perennials may seem easy but there is more to it than you realize. Planting correctly will ensure larger and healthier plants in the long term.

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