How To Keep A Healthy Garden

There is nothing worse than buying a plant, only to get it home to find that it is wilted or diseased. You may feel as though you have wasted your money and at times you may wonder if there is anything that you can do to resolve the situation too. If you want to help keep a healthy garden then here are a few tips that will help you to do that easier than ever before.

How To Keep a Healthy Garden

Examine your Plants before you Buy

The fastest and easiest way for you to eliminate diseases in your garden would be for you to stop introducing it. The best way for you to do this would be for you to thoroughly examine the plant, to begin with. You also need to make sure that you collect a few books or even magazines as they will show you what a healthy specimen looks like.

Don’t take a plant that has dead spots or even rotted stems home with you. If you do, the problem will most likely spread to your healthy plants and you may find that the whole situation gets worse as a result. When buying plants, it also helps to check the root quality too. Roots should be firm, white and spaced evenly.  If you see that the roots are dark or mushy then this is not a good sign, and it’s only a matter of time before the issue gets worse.

Watching out for problems before they start is an excellent way to have a healthy garden right from the start!

Use Fully Composted Waste

Not all materials in a compost pile will decompose at the same rate. When you compost something, it will generate heat This will kill any pathogens that might be lodged within the organic material.

If you use compost that has not fully decomposed then you may introduce any disease back into your garden. If you really aren’t sure if your waste has fully composted yet, then stay on the safe side and avoid using it for now. Your healthy garden will thank you for it.

Keep an Eye on Bugs

Insect damage doesn’t just look bad cosmetically. Bacteria and even viruses can enter a plant through any kind of opening. Bug damage provides the perfect environment. Some insects spread viruses from one plant to the next. Aphids are very common and they carry disease.

This is the last thing that you need when you already have so much to think about. So try and make sure that you inspect all of your plants on a regular basis. And keep an eye out for any bug marks too. This will ensure having a healthy garden.

Clean up

The best time for you to clean up is actually during the fall. When you do it during this time, you’ll find that it is a very effective way for you to control the disease that’s already in your garden. It can also help you to deter any problems that you might be having.

Diseases tend to act on dead leaves over winter, and they attack new or fresh leaves that emerge in spring. If you clean out as much as you can in the fall, then this will stop this from becoming a major issue. You may even find that you are able to keep your healthy garden looking better as a result.

Apply the Right Fertilizer

It’s so important that you take care whenever you fertilize plants. If you add too much, this can easily burn the roots stopping your healthy garden growth. This will stop them from absorbing water, and it will make them way more susceptible to stress. Plants that have too much fertilizer often become starved from nutrients and they also become more open to disease.

If you want to make sure that your soil is the best that it can be then it helps to talk with a local gardening store. They may be able to test it for you. If you are having a hard time storing fertilizer, why not look into a self-storage service?

Disease Resistance

Disease-resistant plants can still come down with a disease, but they are able to fight it much more efficiently. If you aren’t sure if a plant is disease resistant or not, then you should look on the tag. This will usually tell you if the plant has a specific gene or if it has been grown in a way that stops diseases from becoming as much of an issue.

Sure, you may end up paying more for plants like this. But at the end of the day, they are worth the money. This is because they can save you a ton of headaches and issues at a later date. Not to mention it really adds the security of having a healthy garden.

Prune Damaged Limbs

Wounded limbs can become infected very easily over winter, so you should trim them as soon as the cold weather hits rather than waiting for spring. If you have a wounded limb then this will leave the plant open to disease. It also impacts growth too.

Sure, winter can also bring about its own damages but either way, it’s still important that you trim beforehand anyway. When trimming, make sure that you use sharp tools. This will keep the garden thriving and it will also make it easier for it to heal too.

Choose the Plant Site Appropriately

If you want your gardening venture to be successful, then you need to be careful when choosing the zone and the site for your plants. When you have a plant that loves the shade, consider planting it somewhere near to the shed or even underneath a tree. If you don’t then you may be opening them to disease. You may even find that insects thrive on them too.

If you aren’t sure how to choose plants that love shade or sun, then it helps to talk to your local gardening service. They will be able to advise you on the best way to plan out your garden. They can also stop you from making a ton of mistakes too. The internet has some fantastic resources too so don’t be afraid to use them.