Easy Gardening

Host: Gary Bachman, Ornamental Horticulture Specialist

Transcription:

There are always tips home owners can use to make the garden a little easier to care for today on Southern Gardening. 

Everyone has heard of the mythical no maintenance garden.  But you can reduce some of the work with these easy gardening tips. 

Applying a layer of mulch does double and even triple duty for your garden.  Just a two to three inches of mulch is one of the best tools you have in the battle against weeds.  Just about any good organic mulch will reduce the soil temperature and hold in moisture.  And as the organic mulch decomposes it helps to improve the soil.  Try using shredded bark or cocoa hulls. 

Now even with the best preparation weeds are going get into the garden.  Make it a regular practice to pull any weeds when they are young seedlings.  They are very easy to pull at this stage.  And they will not have the chance to flower and set seed causing more problems later in the season and following years. 

If you don’t like to work in sticky clay on your hands and knees try building raised beds.  You can use timbers or concrete blocks and fill with good topsoil and compost.  Because nobody walks in the raised bed the soil always stays lights and loose.  An added benefit is the raised bed will drain much better than the regular in-ground garden.  Don’t make the raised bed wider than 4 feet.  This way you can reach in from both sides comfortably. 

And don’t forget about your garden journal.  Try taking pictures and make a pictorial of your garden for future reference.  I am horticulturist Gary Bachman for Southern Gardening.