Gardening: Tips Your Mali Won’t Tell You!

We frequently overlook the value of plants and take them for granted. Plants and trees may appear insignificant to us on a daily basis, yet they are essential for life and our long-term survival. We rely on plants for food, water, medicine, the air we breathe, habitat, our climate, and many other things.

So, today we will be focusing on how to take care of both indoor and outdoor plants like a professional.

Regularly loosen the top soil of the plant

• As plant roots collect water on a regular basis, the soil becomes highly compacted. You must restore balance by gradually loosening the soil.

• This will allow aeration for roots and improve water absorption.

• To ensure proper aeration of soil, use a tool sharp enough to loosen the soil but make sure not to damage any roots.

• Aeration of the soil is required for aerobic earth-dwelling microorganisms and adequate oxidation.

• In case you have damaged a root, let the plant heal for a couple of days.

• Repeat this technique every month and you can do this to almost all the plants, vegetables, flowers and even indoor plants.

Regular Trimming

Depending on the type of plant, several trimming techniques are used. If you have trailing plants like money plants, potholes, monsteras, or anything else, cutting the ends will encourage the plant to invest in side growth.

This will induce the plant to invest on side growth rather than vertical growth. Basically, making your plant bushier and improving the rate of growth for plants such as fiddly figs, rubber plant, etc.

Plants that grow vertically with a solid stem and broad leaves, trim them from the top.

Trimming is essential for those plants that are not showing any growth.

In a vegetable plant, remove any side stems growing out of the main stem. By doing this we are ensuring that the plant is investing all its energy just towards the main stem.

Add Fertilizer

You can produce your own compost or fertilizer at home. All you need is your kitchen waste, add a little curd and some soy. You will then get some good homemade compost within a month or so.

A compost bin or even a matka with a couple of aeration holes might be used for this. You may start with a simple bucket if you don't have either of them.

A good frequency to add that fertilizer:

• In a garden: Once in two months

• In a pot: Once in 20-30 days

When & How to Water

It’s better to water your plants early in the morning because if you are watering your plants in the evening, for the entire night they will be standing water or wet soil.

During the day, as the sun comes out, the heat increases both indoors and outdoors. As a result, the stress on the plants due to the loss of moisture also increases. So, it’s better if you provide water to your plants in the morning.

Thought when to water your plant is not as important as overwatering or underwatering them. To test this, water your plant, both indoor and outdoor, and then touch the soil. If the soil sticks to your fingers, then it indicates you do not have to add more water.

This also varies depending on the kind of plant. Like most of the broad leave plants such as rubber plant, phyllo dendrons, monsteras loose water really quickly