Tips from Olle Garden Bed: How Do You Keep Your Garden Clean

A garden is an integral part of a home. It has such peace, beauty and brings joy to the inhabitants. You need to keep it clean every day; not only will this make your plants healthier, but you will also feel better too when you see the plants growing healthily and green in your garden. Here are some tips and tricks from Olle Garden Bed to make sure your garden stays tidy and clean to enjoy it to the fullest!

 

1. Check plants before you buy

When buying plants, you must explore them carefully to avoid pests and diseases entering your garden later. Choose a healthy one. You can check by examining the roots as well as the top of the plant. Place your hand on top of the soil and place the plant stem between your fingers.

Gradually turn the pot and shake the plant. Breaking the connection between the pot root and the pot may require tapping the side of the pot against a hard surface. If the roots are firm, white and spaced, the plant is healthy.

On the other hand, if they're dark or muddy, these are indicators that you shouldn't buy them. Even if the top looks healthy, its roots can rot, meaning it is not a healthy plant. It won't be long before the roots destroy the plant.

If you introduce healthy plants, half of your job in preventing disease in your garden is already done. It is not easy for the average person to determine whether a plant is healthy. Therefore, it is best to do some research before buying.

You can get guidance from blogs, books, and magazines that show what healthy plants look like. If the plant has decaying stems, insects, or dead spots, you should not buy it. It can spread the disease to your other plants and is basically hard to get rid of.

2. Use compost as fertilizer

Compost soil is the best fertilizer. Useful compost waste as fertilizer for plants. Not only is it good for plants and helps to avoid disease, but it's also a great way to use waste from your garden and keep it clean and tidy. Dried twigs, grass and leaves are some of the most common materials used for composting.

Different materials in the compost pile break down at different rates. While some materials may be ready for the garden, others may not have broken down to the extent needed. Therefore, before using feces, please look carefully to ensure that all of its materials are completely broken down and ready for use.

Make sure to thoroughly compost your material, this will radiate high temperatures for a long time, killing any pathogens in the material. Infected plant residues that have not gone through the composting process can bring disease to your garden. Do not use garden waste as mulch if you do not fully understand the status of the compost pile, especially for more sensitive plants, and be careful not to put potentially infected debris into the compost pile.

3. Check closely for errors

Insect damage to plants is a real problem. These attacks can put significant stress on your plants, making them less resistant to disease. Therefore, you must keep an eye out for insects that can cause bacteria and viruses.

Most viruses and bacteria can only enter a plant through some kind of crack or opening, but insect damage provides a platform. Some insects provide a means of transport for the virus, removing it from the plant and spreading it to the next plant.

Aphids are one of the best known carriers, and the spread of thrips causes necrotic spot virus, which has become a major nuisance for commercial producers over the last 10 years.

Aster yellow is a disease spread by leafhoppers and hosts a wide variety of plants.

4. Clean your garden regularly

You need to clean your garden regularly to ensure that it remains a source of pleasure and not pain. This is especially important in the fall, even if you live in a temperate climate. Continue to remove dry leaves to prevent disease from breeding and to destroy new leaves that re-emerge once spring begins.

Besides, you should dust the POTS and leaves every day; They tend to collect a lot of dust every day. The best solution is to wipe them gently with a cloth periodically. This is especially important for leaves; A lot of times, even though they look strong and sturdy, they are fragile and soft. As for POTS and containers, you can rinse them out or clean them with cloth and water.

You need to keep checking and removing dead leaves and debris. By treating dead leaves in the fall, you can prevent or reduce the effects of diseases such as black spots that attack roses, fungi that cause spots on iris leaves and leaf-stripe fungi that affect daylilies.

5. Plant resistant varieties

In addition to picking and selecting healthy plants, you should also make sure they are disease resistant. These plants will fight the disease, rather than allow it to cause damage. Some vegetables, such as tomatoes, have been marked as resistant to certain diseases, so check these at the time of purchase.

You won't find these labels on flowers, because disease resistance is almost never found on plant labels. However, this does not mean that various flower varieties are not disease resistant. Many flower companies do sell plants that are resistant to diseases like powdery mildew and black spot.

You can ask nursery staff and gardeners for help in picking the most resistant varieties. Beyond that, books and blog posts can provide further information about which plants and varieties are resistant to particular diseases.

6. Trim hedges

Although this may sound like a fairly simple task, it is an important one to keep your garden clean. It keeps the hedges intact and in shape, while also protecting them from insects and disease.

You can trim the hedge once or twice a month. It will keep your garden clean and tidy. An easy way to do this is to invest in cordless trimmers. It is easy to use and manipulate. In addition, the length of the power cord or the need to purchase an extension cord will not cause you additional stress.

7. Trim

Keep an eye out for damaged branches and lie prone to them as soon as you spot them. This helps prevent the disease from spreading to the rest of the plant. Daily pruning will keep your garden neat and clean and ensure quality, healthy produce.

Ideally, you should prune in late winter instead of waiting for spring. This applies especially to plants that are injured and susceptible to infection during the winter, leading to the spread of disease while the plant is still sleeping.

By pruning in late winter, you can prevent disease from entering new plants. While this season's storms may cause some damage, it is still much better to prune fragmented plants than to abandon them until spring.

It is best to use sharp tools so that they make quick recovery straight line cuts.

For your convenience, you can keep a bucket and a pair of trimmers in the garden shed for immediate treatment of dead branches or leaves or those affected by insects or mold.

The ideal rate of complete pruning of garden plants is once a month. However, if you find dead leaves anywhere in your garden, take care of it immediately.

8. Treat weed growth immediately

One of the most challenging tasks when gardening is dealing with weed growth. As soon as you're done with one weed, another weed appears. It's a never-ending process. However, there are two simple ways to deal with this. Dig them up and spray them with herbicide.

A more sustainable option in the long run is to dig weeds to their roots. It will also be much better for the garden. However, if you are looking for shortcuts and solutions that require less time and effort, you should opt for sprays.

9. Dispose of fallen leaves

Falling leaves are a part of every garden; This is especially true in the fall. As mentioned before, it is best to remove these leaves as soon as they are found. However, to do this on a larger scale, many tools will help you deal with these leaves and debris. Depending on how much money and time you have to spend, you can choose your tools accordingly.

If you are looking for something more efficient and less time-consuming, you can choose garden vacuum cleaners and leaf blowers. You can group them together to constantly change patterns in a machine where you can snort the leaves or blow them away.

The best way to do this is to first use a leaf blower to collect the leaves and debris in an area, then use a vacuum to remove them and clear the space.

Other options include using a simple lawn rake to collect all fallen leaves, branches, fruit, etc. in a fixed area to dispose of them, and using a garden vacuum cleaner. It should be noted that garden vacuums are cheaper and easier to use than regular vacuums.

10. Fertilizing 

When fertilizing plants, you need to make sure you don't over fertilize them. Over-fertilization can completely destroy the roots of plants, making them harder to soak in water. Ultimately, this makes them more vulnerable to cold temperatures, drought and heat. Oversupply of one mineral can deplete the plant and cause it to rot, which can ruin your garden.

However, you still need to make sure the plant is getting a certain amount of nutrients to stay healthy. Plants that are completely starved of nutrients become smaller and less healthy; They may get leaf spots, which can also damage other plants.

Conduct soil tests to obtain reliable information about nutrient levels in the soil. This is essential before any fertilizer is added, as it will depend directly on the nutrients present in the soil at that particular time. Without it, it would be based purely on guesswork, which can lead to over - or under-quantities.