Green Thumbs Up for Beginning Gardeners at StarterGardens.com

Containers and Small Spaces Maintenance and prep.

Maintenance

Maintenance for a simple garden falls into a few categories: .

• watering and feeding
• weed control (mainly for non-container gardening), pest control
• promoting constant blooming or "deadheading" your flowers
• checking on growth and light conditions, possibly transplanting if "overgrown"

Watering and feeding:

This is not rocket science. But it is important to pay attention to water requirements for plants. Some like a lot of water, some start to show strain if over-watered. Usually, the tag for your plant when you puchase it will tell you. If it is a very hot day, be careful NOT to water in the full heat of the day. You can scorch your plant with the very hot water which is magnified in heat by the sun. Even if you water close to the roots, evaporation takes place immediately, so your garden will not reap the maximum benefits.

Feeding can take place once a month or so. You can use the pre-fab Miracle-Gro as mentioned on the previous page, or else, for containers, consider also slow-release fertilizer spikes that you put in the soil. While many gardens still survive fine without fertiliization, taking nutrients from the soil, nutrients are depleted over time, and your garden will bloom far better with just minimal care in this area.

Weed and pest control:

While there are many aids to weed control, a flower bed in a smallish space does not need these chemicals. One of the things you can easily do is to buy a couple of big bags of mulch (e.g. cedar mulch) and cover all areas that have not been planted. This is a very effective and natural way of weed control, and eventually, the mulch just breaks down and goes into the soil. Beds covered in mulch also look lovely and well tended! Some will use a black weed fabric to cover the ground (preventing light from reaching weeds) and then you can cover the fabric with mulch (for looks). This is messy and more difficult. For a small garden, there is no other effective way of weed control than pulling them up by hand. Try to dig up the roots too, so the weeds don't come back in their tenacious way.

The plants that have been recommended are, by and large, relatively easy and not so prone to diseases. However, there are dangers to your garden in the form of rabbits and possibly even deer (more unlikely in a small space). Rabbits can come along in the spring and snack on the lovely fresh salad of your spring plants like crocuses etc., and you will be disappointed to find them neatly chomped on. You can purchase something called "dried blood" that is a natural rabbit repellent. What also works (from personal experience) is chili pepper. If you can get this in bulk somewhere, a good sprinkling of this all over the flower bed will repel those cute little bunnies, but not cause them any harm.

You might also consider planting some ground cover. There are different types that you can get, with different light requirements. A popular one is the vinca, which does produce little blue flowers in the spring. These do spread, so make sure you don't overplant, or else, be very sure you want to have a ground cover! Ground cover does effectively eliminate weeds, as they take hold and cover the empty spaces.

Promoting blooms:

By nature, flowers go to seed so they can self propagate. This is done when the blooms die off. Thus, if you remove the dead flowers (called "deadheading") either by plucking them off, pruning or cutting, they perceive a threat to survival, and counteract by producing more blooms.

If you have a container garden with petunias, these get long and leggy later in the summer. To keep them looking bushy and healthy, cut them, even if it means losing a few blooms. This periodic trimming will encourage them to grow more "stems" and continue to bloom, rather than become a long dangly plant with but 1-2 blooms at the end.

Transplanting etc.:

Beginning gardeners can make the mistake of planting too close together, not factoring in that these plants will spread. Keep an eye out for these. It is generally fine to transplant crowded plants to another spot, if you are careful with the roots, and make sure that you replant well and water generously, to minimize the shock.

Preparation for the next gardening season

Once you have had a successful experience with your starter garden, and fall rolls around, it is time to start thinking of the next season. This is called fall clean-up. Later in the fall, before the first frost, cut down your plants and bushes. Clean up debris. Undo your gardening hose.

The FUN part is that you can start thinking of planting BULBS for the next season. Spring bulbs include crocuses (first sign of spring), daffodils, tulips, irises. Bulbs that will come up later in the summer will include the different types of lilies, like Asiatic lilies, and also gladioli. Follow isntructions for planting these, but don't plant them overly close as these will spread over the seasons, and before long, you will have wonderful, cheery splashes of color from early to late spring.

If you are looking to do more planting, and buy from a mail order nursery, which will send out very small plants, a very good time to plant is the fall. In the spring, they will come to life and the root systems will have had a head start (or root start). Note that plants from mail order nurseries can sometimes take 2 seasons to come into their own, so it is not the way for instant gratification.

Also, ground cover can be planted in the fall. Some of these are evergreen, and again, once the spring starts, they will have had a good start in the soil.

In the spring, depending on where you live, be careful about being overly eager with the planting of annuals, if you choose to go that route. In northern climes, the last frost can come quite late, even if there are intervening beautiful spring-like days in between. You CAN try to cover up your plants overnight to protect them, in the event of an unexpected frosty night.

Shade plants have more limited blooming periods, and primarily give us interest in foliage. One of the most stunning partial sun/shade plants is the astilbe. Other more muted ones are the lily-of-the-valley and the bleeding heart with the tiny pink flowers. They add lushness throughout the season.

During the fall, if you want stunning splashes of color, plant a mum or two -- they come in so many brilliant colors, and are hardy and easy to grow.

Our next page (coming soon) will focus on maintaining your starter garden or container garden, common problems, and also discuss preparing for the new season with the planting of bulbs for the spring. Again, bulbs will come back year after year, and will also multiply. Before you know it, in a year or two, your spring garden will be a splash of color from early spring to when the other perennials come in with their blooms!

Supplementary reading:

http://www.thegardenhelper.com/guide1.html

Also browse for a good reference book e.g. those put out by the American Horticultural Society (encyclopedia of gardening):

Gardening books

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