GARDENING Garden Types and Styles Vegetable Gardens Herb

GARDENING

Garden Types and Styles ◦ Vegetable Gardens ◦ Herb Gardens ◦ Perennial Gardens ◦ Border Gardens ◦ Container Gardens ◦ Small Space Gardening

Vegetable Gardening ◦ Vegetables are divided into cool-season and warm-season. To get a jump on spring planting, you can start seedlings for warm-weather crops such as tomatoes, peppers and squash indoors with the help of a grow light ◦ Before you plant, there are many things you can do to give your plants the best chance to thrive, including selecting and preparing the right site for your vegetable garden ◦ choose a sunny, sheltered spot away from frost pockets, ideally where the soil is fertile and well-drained.

Preparing the Soil ◦ Weed the area first and remove large rocks ◦ Dig the soil to at least one spade’s depth. Work across the bed and from one end to the other to avoid standing where you have already dug. ◦ Improve the soil with well-rotted organic matter, such as manure or garden compost. On heavy clay soil, dig in composted bark. ◦ Apply granular fertilizer before planting or use organic chicken manure. Water well.

Test your soil ◦ Problem: Soil is too acidic. While certain plants require a more acidic soil, most do best between 5. 8 and 6. 5 p. H. ◦ Solution: add lime, poultry manure, or wood ash to make the soil more alkaline ◦ Problem: Soil is too basic ◦ Solution: Add elemental sulfur (although it is slow-acting). Iron sulfate is more expensive, but faster. Many gardeners swear by coffee grounds. ◦ Problem: Soil is lacking in essential nutrients ◦ Solution: Organic matter can include anything from compost to bone meal to lawn clippings, depending on your specific needs. Inorganic fertilizer is inexpensive and works quickly, but instead of actually amending the soil, it simply feeds existing plants, and can damage soil over the long haul. ◦ Problem: Soil is too sandy or dense Adding peat moss is an inexpensive and effective way to loosen up clay soil, while compost can build up and enrich sandy soil

◦ Time your crops ◦ Find out the proper soil temperature for the crops you are planting ◦ Protect your crops ◦ Consider putting tender seedlings in a cold frame, or protecting with plastic or cloth if there is still danger of late frost in your area.

Mulch ◦ Benefits ◦ Keeps weeds at bay ◦ Protects soil from drying out ◦ Provides compost ◦ Types ◦ Shredded or chipped bark ◦ Hardwood shavings ◦ Hay ◦ Nut shells ◦ Gravel ◦ Crushed brick

Herb Gardens ◦ Select pots that are at least 10 inches in diameter or small pots that are at least six inches in diameter. They should suit an area close to the kitchen. Use multipurpose compost or soilbased compost, and make sure they receive full sun

Perennial Gardens

Perennials for Shade ◦ http: //www. hgtvgardens. com/shade-plants/14 -perennial-flowers-for-shade

Perennials for Full Sun ◦ http: //www. hgtvgardens. com/perennials/13 -perennials-for-full-sun

Perennials for Cut Flowers ◦ http: //www. hgtvgardens. com/photos/flowering-plants-photos/perennials-for-cut-flowers

Container Gardens ◦ Parts of a container garden ◦ Thriller ◦ Filler ◦ Spiller

Thriller ◦ Tall ◦ Good color ◦ Texture ◦ Shape ◦ Examples ◦ Banana ◦ Elephant Ears ◦ Ornamental Grasses Click to add text

Filler ◦ Medium size ◦ Mounding/billowy ◦ Hide the base of the thriller ◦ Examples ◦ Coleus ◦ Pentas ◦ Lantana

Spiller ◦ Cascading ◦ Soften edges of the pot ◦ Examples ◦ Sweet Potato vine ◦ Million bells ◦ Verbena

Top 8 Rules for Gardening ◦ Rule #1 – Work the Soil When It’s Dry ◦ Work the soil only when it’s moderately dry. ◦ Tilling, walking on, or cultivating the soil when it is wet leads to creating dense compacted soil.

Rule #2 – Provide Drainage ◦ If your soil is too wet to work, use raised beds to enable earlier planting in the spring ◦ The soil in raised beds dries out and warms up faster than the soil in the ground.

Rule #3 – Check Your Seed Packet ◦ Plant cool-season plants such as peas, onions, Swiss chard, spinach and lettuce in early spring so they mature before hot weather arrives. ◦ Delay planting warm-weather crops until you're safely past the last spring frost and the soil has warmed sufficiently

Rule #4 – Know Your Zone

Rule #5 – Ease in Transplants ◦ If you've started seedlings indoors, expose them gradually to the conditions they'll have in the garden: start the pots off for only a few hours in a sunny place, then gradually increase the amount of sun exposure before installing the transplants in the garden.

Rule #6 – Rely on Mother Nature ◦ The best amendment for your soil is one you can make yourself: compost.

Rule #7 – Water Deeply ◦ Your veggie garden will need about an inch of water a week; if enough rain hasn't fallen, water till the top 6 inches of soil are wet. Simply wetting the soil's surface with daily watering doesn't reach most of the root zone and is harmful to plants

Rule #8 – Rotate Your Crops ◦ Grow them in different spots every year. Tomatoes are especially vulnerable to diseases that may linger in the soil or in plant residue

Pest Problems

Red Spider Mites ◦ Cause problems in hot dry weather ◦ Leaves appear mottled ◦ Check underside of leaves for tiny green mites, which turn red in autumn.

Carrot Flies ◦ Small, black bodied fly whose larvae feed on the roots of carrots and related plants

Aphids ◦ Suck the sap out of tender plant shoots and leaves.

Other Pests ◦ Birds ◦ Small animals ◦ Caterpillars ◦ Earwigs ◦ Grasshoppers

Common Plant Diseases ◦ Rose Rust ◦ Rose rust spots (here, in spring) shed fungal spores in the summer, and this is followed by leaf loss. Rusts are a large group of diseases, characterized by orangey spots or bumps.

◦ Lettuce Downy Mildew is Fungal Disease of Leaves ◦ Downy mildew of lettuce is a fungal disease causing yellow patches and fuzzy white mold on leaves. These patches turn brown as the leaf tissue dies. It affects seedlings and mature plants. Remove infected leaves to prevent spore release into soil.

◦ Powdery Mildew Cause White Dusty Powder on Plants ◦ Powdery mildews are a group of related fungi which attack a wide range of plants, causing a white, dusty coating on leaves, stems and flowers. Destroy infected leaves, mulch and water to reduce water stress, and prune out infected shoots.

◦ Tomato and Potato Blight Affects Plant Foliage ◦ Potato and tomato blight is a disease of the foliage and fruit or tubers of tomatoes and potatoes, causing rotting. It is most common in wet weather. Infected material should be buried or burned rather than composted. Rotate crops each year

◦ Strawberry Virus Affects Yield of Berries ◦ Several viruses infect strawberries to cause a wide range of symptoms which result in poor vigour and low yield. Always buy plants which are certified as virus free. Destroy and replace plants as soon as yields start to fall and rotate crops

◦ Potassium Poor Plants Fail to Thrive ◦ If plants fail to thrive, despite adequate soil preparation, watering and mulching, it may be a sign of potassium deficiency. Yellow or reddish colored leaves, stunted growth and poor flowering are all common symptoms.

◦ Yellowing Plants in Spring Need Nitrogen ◦ Nitrogen promotes green, leafy growth and deficiency results in yellowing and stunted growth. Nitrogen is very soluble, so is easily washed out of the soil in winter rains, leaving the soil deficient in spring, just when plants are putting on new growth.

Plant Nutrition 16 Essential Nutrients for Normal Plant Growth

How do plants uptake nutrients? Soil-water solution 98% obtained in soil-water solution 2% directly from soil What if there is too much water?

Primary Nutrients in Agriculture u Macronutrients – are needed/used in large amounts • Nitrogen • Phosphorous • Potassium • Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Calcium, Magnesium, Sulfur u If a plant receives too much nutrients it is called plant toxicity

Primary Nutrients Nitrogen (N) – is needed for vegetative growth and dark green color. (easily leached out) Nitrogen is the most important nutrient. Deficiency signs – reduced growth & yellowing of lower leaves. Yellowing is called Chlorosis

Primary Nutrients in Agriculture n n n 2. Phosphorus (P) – important for seedling and young plant growth and develop good root system. (not easily leached out) AKA – Potash Deficiency signsreduced growth, poor root systems, reduced flowering. Also thin stems and browning or purpling of foliage.

Primary Nutrients in Agriculture n n n 3. Potassium (K) – mined as a rock and made into a fertilizer – can be leached. Deficiency signs – reduced growth, shortened internodes and some burn, scorched marks (brown leaves). Too Much (K ) – can cause nitrogen deficiency.

Secondary Nutrients 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. n Calcium (Ca) Carbon (C) Hydrogen (H) Magnesium (Mg) Oxygen (O) Sulfur (S) Where does the plant get C, H, O? From the Air & Water

Micronutrients in Agriculture n n n n They are used in small quantities – and obtained from the soil. (excess amounts are toxic) Boron, (B) Chlorine (Cl) Copper (Cu) Iron (Fe) Manganese (Mn) Molybenum (Mo) Zinc (Zn)

Ways to apply Nutrients Application Methods 1. Pre-emergence – applied before germination 2. Top Dress – done early in plants life 3. Side Dress – done later in plants life Types of fertilizer 1. Organic > liquid or dry 2. Inorganic > liquid or dry If there is to much fertilizer what could happen? Leaching Plants Burn