It’s never too late to get into gardening and start working on making your thumb a little greener. One of the best things about gardening is that you don’t need a huge plot of land to get started. Plus, for many Okanagan home sellers, a well-taken-care-of garden can make a home significantly more appealing to potential buyers. Here are some tips to help you get better yields and help your plants grow without issue.
Key Tip for Okanagan Home Sellers Getting Into Gardening: Maintain and Use Good Soil
It doesn’t matter how experienced you are in gardening: if the soil you’re using doesn’t have the nutrients plants need to grow, you’re going to have a tough time. Plants need soil that will retain water as well.
If you get fertile, rich soil it will also require less care and attention for you to maintain.
For potted plants or plants in containers, they grow best with potting soil that specifically has specific nutrients that better retain water.
With respect to garden beds, put about three to four inches of organic compost into the soil and avoid using synthetic fertilizers or pesticides as that can damage the health of the soil.
Make Use of Rainwater
Although water from a hose may be more convenient, water from the sky is free and often a better choice. Why? Rainwater is softer water, has fewer contaminants, and typically rests at a pH level perfect for helping plants (and particularly vegetables) to grow.
There are plenty of easy ways to collect rainwater. You could connect it to your gutter system or just let it collect in a large pot or basin. Whatever method you choose remember that mosquitos like resting water so consider installing some kind of system to keep the water agitated enough they won’t want to lay eggs.
Plant What Will Actually Grow
This seems like an obvious statement but an important one. Just like how you can’t expect coconuts to grow in northern Canada, you can’t expect every plant will do well in the climate you live in. That doesn’t mean you can’t get those plants to grow, but they will be much harder to keep alive and produce good yields for vegetables or fruit.
Instead, do some research into what works well in your area and even city. Some cities have less nutrient-rich soil due to their location, whereas others may be too wet for some plants.
Give Enough Room for Plants to Grow
Some plants need more space for their roots to grow into. If they are placed too close to other plants they may even start stealing the nutrients from them to stay alive.
You can use garden spacing tools, which are perfect for many Okanagan home sellers, to find out how much space you need for each plant you are planning on planting. This can be especially helpful if you are using raised beds and aren’t sure how many plants you can put in them.
Get More Plants From Plants
Who says you need to go to the store to get plants if you already have existing plants? Many plants can have cuttings taken off of them, which is essentially just a small shoot of the plant, and be replanted to grow more plants. Flowers like irises and geraniums are perfect for this.
With regards to vegetables, you can save the seeds and reuse them for beans, squash, and tomatoes.
Gardening can be a rewarding hobby to see your work be translated into the literal growth of a plant or multiple plants. You don’t need a ton of equipment to get started and you can even get home-grown organic food if you take the proper care.