Taking care of a garden is not easy. Gardening may seem like a relaxing, laid-back hobby on the surface, but in truth it’s anything but.
That’s especially the case if you want to do it well. Whether you’re growing vegetables, flowers or even if you have a greenhouse, there’s an awful lot of work that goes into a thriving setup.
Far more work than people realize. Every garden is different, and everyone wants different things out of their garden too.
When it comes to your garden you’re going to encounter a lot of problems but there’s also a lot of quick and easy ways to deal with these problems.
Here’s 5 DIY tricks that will help you out along the way…
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Modify your pots to control invasive plants
Invasive plants, as that friendly name suggests, are plants that will take over your garden if you allow them to continue growing.
Plants like Chinese Wisterias and Ox-Eye Daisies might look great in your garden but the reality is that their presence will choke out your other plants.
These plants spread by spreading their roots underground so that they can sprout elsewhere in the garden.
The roots are aggressive, so you need something strong to prevent them from being able to spread. Burying the plants in an underground container will solve this problem.
Cut the bottom off your pot and then place the spreading plants inside this container so that the roots will have no access to the soil outside the pot.
Invasive plants are a huge problem both in your garden and out in the wild, but if you use a method like this you can continue to grow them without affecting the rest of your plants.
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Make a self-cleaning garden tool holder
You’ve heard of people having a ‘green thumb’ right? The implication being that they’re a natural gardener?
Well that’s all well and good but nobody gets by using just their hands. Tools are essential for gardeners, But they get real dirty, real quick.
The gardening itself is fun, cleaning the tools though, not so much. It would be great if they could clean themselves right?
Well they totally can . . . Kind of. There’s a simple mixture you can put in a terra-cotta pot that will keep your tools clean at all times.
All you need is sand and mineral oil and baby oil will work fine for this too. Mix enough sand for the pot with 20 ounces of oil and then stir until they’re well mixed together.
Pack this mixture into the pot and you can just store you’re tools in it. The mixture will keep the tools nice and clean and you won’t have to waste time doing it manually.
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Make a PVC watering grid
This is something that is a little bit tricky to make and will probably take a bit of time but it’s definitely worth it. Especially if you’re looking for a way to water the garden more efficiently.
The idea behind this is that you put together a network of pipes into a grid which you can lay over the area of your garden you want to water.
This will then be attached to a hose which will be activated by a timer. Ideally you would set it to run once a day for about thirty minutes.
Any plants that require regular attention will be covered by this and you don’t need to worry about standing there holding out a hose for any length of time.
Extremely beneficial for less-rainy climates especially. As we said, there is quite a bit of putting together and you’ll need to get your hands on several pipes and connectors.
The actual job itself is straightforward enough if you follow some guidelines but you will want to set aside a good chunk of time to do it.
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Dry Creek Beds
A problem that people commonly encounter in their gardens is an excess of water. In particular you’ll find this if you’re landscaping.
If something like this happens, the only real solution is to find a way to drain all of this water out so that over-saturation doesn’t damage your soil and plants.
The excess water could be happening for a number of reasons, but most commonly it’s on account of a slope in the ground.
An effective way to solve this problem is to build what are known as Dry Creek Beds. What this is, is basically a stone crevice that will redirect the water.
Usually they’re pretty nice to look at because they basically resemble a stone path running down the slope of your land. Ideally, you could redirect the water towards the street.
If not however, you could build a pond or redirect it to an area of your own land where you don’t have anything growing.
When it comes to landscaping, there’s a lot of ways that you can make your garden look incredible. Having to drain is no fun and this is a handy solution.
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Hand-held bean planter
If beans are a bit part of your vegetable garden, you know how much of an annoyance it is to plant those seeds.
It involves an awful lot of getting low and crawling around which is terrible for your back and just an all-around miserable experience.
You remember those PVC pipes we talked about a little while ago? Well they’ve got an awful lot of uses, and they can help you a lot in your bean-planting too.
Once again, you’ll need a few pipes and connectors but this project is pretty straightforward. Have one long pipe, with another one attached near the top as a handle.
Have a few shorter pipes connected to the bottom of the long pipe which multiple seeds can pass through, and then it’s ready.
With this contraption, you can walk around the soil and simply drop the seeds into the top of the pipe where they will then travel through the different channels and into the soil.
This handy device will change your bean-planting experience forever.
Conclusion
So while gardening might sometimes be more stressful than we would like, the end result is almost always worth it.
And for those issues that crop up and get in the way of you having the best garden you can, there’s always a solution.
The 5 tricks that we’ve talked about here are just the tip of the iceberg
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