Waiting for normal days are becoming difficult right now due to the havoc of pandemic. What to do during these days? How to overcome loneliness? Well I have some suggestion. So take a deep breath and get busy outside. Here’s a list of some garden tips that can help save your sanity now and make the coming months more pleasant.
1. Weeding:
The recent rains have been a gift for our reservoirs and our weed seeds. If your garden’s ground is thick with sprouting weeds, that will only get thicker as the sun starts to shine. Any weeding you do now will save you time and effort later this year, when it’s hot and the weeds are threatening to take over your yard. Doing this will save your weeding time while leaving the roots of the weeds behind to slowly decompose and nourish the soil. One more thing you can do if the weeds haven’t gone to seed, throw them in your compost pile.
2. Prepare a compost pile:
To prepare compost, you have to collect dried leaves, grass clippings, twigs, stable bedding or straw, kitchen scraps, coffee grounds, egg shells, shredded newspapers, even old potting soil and put them in a composting bin. Now add some nitrate material to balance the high level of carbon. Moist the layers as you add them (the pile should be damp, like a wrung-out sponge, not dripping), and keep it turned. The more often you turn the pile, the faster it will convert to a rich and sweet-smelling product, which is a sign of good compost.
3. Prepare your Inventory:
Now is a great time to check out your garden accessories, tools and supplies. Buy a good quality hand- gloves, pruning shears, loppers, garden fork, spade, rake, hoe, etc. for your garden. If you have all of this now, you will have what you need as the season progresses.
4. Create your own plant swap:
A plant swap is the swapping of plants with fellow gardeners, may be with your neighbors. Plant and seed exchanges allow gardeners in the community to come together and share seeds, transplants, and cuttings from their own gardens to swap with others.
5. Enriching the garden soil:
Feed your garden bed with bags of organic potting soil, compost, organic manure. Water it properly, then let it sit for a week or two while the organisms break down the ingredients. Give this mixture a week or two to cool down, since planting right away could burn or kill tender seedlings.
6. Create a handy herb garden:
Herbs are for more than cooking. Include these plants to help add spice to your landscape in this multi-season garden. Lush green garden herbs combined with other plants allow your garden to provide the usefulness of edibles for cooking and crafts, while offering plenty of pleasing qualities for the eye. For instance, you can plant Lemon grass, Purple basil, Golden oregano, Korean mint, etc.
7. Converting into a shade garden:
A shade garden can be a good and pleasant place to sit during the summer and it can also shelter your garden from the sun’s harsh rays in the afternoon. For instance, tomatoes stop setting fruit when they get too hot, so set up a way to shade your garden. One of the easiest ways to build a shade is by simple PVC-pipe frame that you can place over your veggies and then drape with shade cloth.
