SolveYourProblem
Article Series: Gardening
Everyday
Gardening Tips & Advice
Basic
Planting Techniques: Gardening 101
Though many plants will grow no matter what
you do to them, there are plenty of gardening techniques to
learn which will make your part in the process simpler or more
effective and less conducive to failures and disappointments.
A garden that is well placed and well planned already has a
good head start, but if your site and situation are not ideal,
there are tricks to use which will greatly compensate for things
your garden may lack. Other techniques are just standard practices
to keep your plants in fine condition.
Gardening Tools
A good set of tools is a first need - a good shovel, spading
fork, trowels, cultivators and a tiller of some sort if your
place is large enough to warrant it. Even an old kitchen knife
is great to dig out weeds. For a hose, you need a soaking hose
for long watering, which is much the best way, and if you want
a sprinkler, do not get a rotating one which stirs up a flower
garden too much. A wheelbarrow is needed for mixing potting
and garden soil, and for bringing compost and other fertilizers
and mulches that you will be using. Pruning sheers and clippers
are essentials, and probably stakes, rakes and perhaps a fork
to pitch and spread mulching hay. If you have moles, get some
small windmills. For red squirrels you may need a Hav-a-hart
trap. Consult your garden center for any of these and for gloves,
flats, containers, window boxes and all such conveniences you
may want to have, too.
Preparing The Hole
There is no sense and no excuse for putting a good plant into
a hole that is inadequately prepared, too small, undernourished,
or carelessly dug. It is possible to dig the hole at the last
minute, but much better is to prepare it beforehand and give
the fresh, enriched soil mixture a chance to mellow.
The hole you dig should be deep enough and wide enough to
give all the roots plenty of leeway to spread out quickly into
the new soil you prepare. Put the topsoil on one side when
you dig, and the subsoil on the other, so that when you return
the soil you can fill in around the roots with the topsoil.
Do not add chemical fertilizer or potent fresh manure or other
high-nitrogen materials like blood meal to the topsoil, but
it is quite all right to add some bone meal, compost or mild
organic fertilizers like Milorganite thoroughly mixed into
the topsoil you put into the bottom of the hole.
How To Plant
The first rule about planting is that if the tree, shrub or
perennial comes bare-rooted, it must never be allowed to have
its roots dried out. Keep them wrapped in wet sphagnum moss,
or set in a pail of water, or even in mud. Most trees and shrubs
can be set at a level slightly deeper than they grew at the
nursery, and you can always tell because the soil line shows
very clearly on the main stem. Spread the roots evenly and
as much as possible for maximum soil contact. See that they
do not twist over and around each other in a way that might
cause future girdling or strangulation. Fill up the hole half
way with topsoil, and tamp it down well.
This soil must not be soaking wet, and if the roots have been
in mud, it is well to rinse them off before planting. But it
is the soil itself which should not be wet because when you
tamp it down so that each rootlet is in contact with soil particles,
you must not tamp on muddy soil which would then compact and
you'd have no air pockets at all. Tamp with your fingers first,
then with your foot. When the hole is half full and firmly
tamped, you can water. A good slow soaking is the best method.
Then add the subsoil to the top of the hole and leave a slight
basin to catch rain water in the future. The subsoil may be
watered again, but it is not necessary to tamp this, and certainly
do not do it after watering.
Each newly planted shrub or tree should be pruned. Cut back
enough so that the top growth balances the root growth, and
this may mean the removal of half or up to half of the top
branches, but preferably not the leader; and a third to a half
of several lower branches.
Do not just plant the tree or shrub and forget it; water it
well with a slow soak about once a week for the first summer.
Both for summer sun which can scald young exposed tissues,
and for protection against rabbits and such beasts who will
want to eat the bark, wrap the trunk of your new small trees
either in burlap or in one of the new wrapping materials available
at nurseries. Add a mulch. Stones, pebbles, or organic mulches
are possibilities, but keep track of any new residents like
mice who might wish to move in under the mulch. In case they
do, remove it. Maybe the safest from the start is to choose
stone or a pebble mulch.
Improving Drainage
The best place to have your flower garden is on a slope. The
southeast slope is the best because the drainage is in the
direction where the morning sun shines on the soil and helps
to dry it out. This slope is also protected from the hotter
afternoon sun which can dry out the soil too fast and cause
wilt in dry spells.
If you cannot arrange for this sort of slope, there is the
possibility of drainage tiles put in under your garden, at
considerable trouble and expense. A simpler, and often equally
effective procedure is to put stones and cinders In the bottom
of the hole you dig or the bed you prepare for your plants.
The drain tile, if you do have to resort to that, should be
jointed, with tar paper or other suitable material over the
joints to prevent entry of soil when the water goes in, and
stones and pebbles as well at the open upper end to keep soil
out. If you live in a frosty area, put it down three or four
feet, and slope it at a rate of about four or five inches per
100 feet and without any dips where silt could collect. There
must be a way to carry off the water at the bottom. And the
drain tile must never be put where there are willow, poplar
or elm roots because they will invade it. A plastic agricultural
tile, which is perforated, is obtainable in all supply stores. # # # # #
SolveYourProblem.com : 2007
> Home
> Gardening
Articles: Main Page
|
