Flowerbed Tips - All the hints and tips you need to create your perfect garden A well prepared flowerbed is extremely important. It will save you plenty of time and effort in the future if it is. Things such as providing good drainage, creating higher levels of nutritional value for your plants and generally making maintenance easier will result from this.
1.If you are starting your flowerbed from scratch then it is important that you start to prepare it the summer/autumn before you plant your perennials. 2.The first flowerbed tip is to make sure that the soil you are going to use is devoid of vegetation such as weeds or clumps of grass. Remove these via a spade or give them a quick squirt with a good herbicide. If you use the herbicide give it a week to ten days before you start to turn the soil over. 3.Existing soil need to be spiced up by introducing good organic matter into it, such as peat or mature manure. When you introduce it the approx amount you need is 3 or 4 inches across the whole area of the flowerbed. 4.Dig the soil to a depth of roughly 1 foot and turn it over, this needs to be done approximately once a week (turn the soil over four or five times at each weekly session). 5.Before March you need to introduce fertilizer and the organic matter into the soil (both of these can be introduced at the same time). Congratulations!! The soil is now fully prepared for planting. When mulching takes place you need to add roughly 3 inches on each occasion, good mulch may include leaves or compost. One of the best times of years to do this is around about mid to late March. The third method of controlling weed growth is a preventative control mechanism, this involves regular spraying of the planting area with a preventative or preemergent herbicide, as we all know it’s best to take action before the problem gets too big, kill the weed at source. If the weeds have already appeared, you’ll need a postmergent herbicide such as Roundup. For those who want a more natural herbicide why not try corn gluten meal? It’s a natural preemergent herbicide. It won’t kill existing weeds but is a good preventative method, for more information click here Another good natural method of weeding, is the good old fashioned method of pulling them out by their roots, although sometimes labour intensive, follow the above methods and this needn’t be the case. NB. When you buy herbicides please make sure you read the label, as not all are suitable for certain flowers, after all your trying to kill your weeds not your flowers. There are two types of fertilizer which need to be considered here, organic and chemical. The former is usually more expensive, but pose less danger to plants and animals and can improve the constitution of the soil. The latter option is obviously cheaper but can damage your plants and flowers and doesn’t really improve the nutritional content of the soil. So spend that little extra to get optimal results. If you are using a liquid fertilizer then it needs to be applied to non-perennials roughly every three weeks and to perennials approximately every 5 weeks. If you are using good old compost then apply this as instructed by the manufacturer. Two inches of this can be sprinkled on top of existing soil so that the nutrients seep down through the earth. It may be a good idea to note, that, if your flowers and plants seem to be growing nicely, looking healthy and pretty, then you may not necessarily need to fertilize them at that specific time. Thanks for checking out our OPH Good Housekeeping & Homemaking flowerbed tips. We are adding more flowerbed tips all the time, so don't forget to click on to check them out. From Flowerbed tips, to gardening tips
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