Watering the vegetable garden can be quite a time consuming job in the middle of summer. You can however save lots of time just by using a soaker hose! I have always preferred to water my vegetable garden underneath rather than spraying the leaves of the plants. I learned from my parents and grandparent that this gives the plants a much deeper watering. This in turn enables them to cope better with the hot summer days. It also saves water because it is delivers the water directly to where the … [Read more...]
Benefits of Using Pine Needles as Mulch
Do you have pine trees in your garden? Or maybe you know someone who has pine trees. Either way you will have access to pine needles that you can use around the garden. We have 4 pine trees along the back fence of our yard. They are not massive trees but they are big enough that they drop lots of needles. It seems a waste to let the pine needles just lay there and rot so I thought I’d use them as mulch. I know that strawberry plants like them and I have used some around my strawberries but … [Read more...]
Controlling Purple Oxalis Weed
I know that there are some pretty ornamental oxalis plants that exist but in my garden the oxalis plant is hated. I have talked about controlling the soursob variety of oxalis in the past but in this post I am focusing on my other arch enemy the creeping purple oxalis! It is such a horrible weed, you can control it by digging it out but because it has a mass of stems and roots under the ground it is hard to get it all. If you don’t get it all then it just re-shoots again! We have got some of … [Read more...]
Organising Garden Irrigation Supplies
Whether you have a large or a small garden having some sort of garden irrigation set up can be handy. Things like drippers and sprays permanently set up in a garden bed make watering the garden so much easier. For most of our garden beds we just have to either turn on a tap or connect a hose to one point and the entire garden bed is watered. When you have a garden irrigation system you inevitably end up with lots of spare bits and pieces. Such as different types of spray heads, spare … [Read more...]
Controlling Oxalis Weeds in the Garden
I find weeding the garden can be quite therapeutic, getting down on your hands and knees amongst the plants you can forget about life’s troubles and just concentrate on pulling up those pesky weeds while you burn some calories! If you are vigilant and ensure that the weeds are removed before they can have a chance to flower and spread their seeds then most weeds will not return either! One weed that is not so easy to get rid of is my arch enemy oxalis pes-caprae, also known as soursob and … [Read more...]
Getting Started With Compost: Great Information And Links When Learning About How To Compost
If you are like me and love gardening then you will put out lots of mulch around your plants to combat weeds and conserve moisture and you will also go through lots of potting mix as you pot up new plants. This can prove to be quite expensive though when you have a large garden and lots of potted plants. One way that you can cut down on your reliance on purchasing these garden products is to make your own compost which can then be used directly as mulch or as an ingredient in potting … [Read more...]
Killing Garden Weeds Naturally Using Mulch
Have you ever felt like you are spending all spring weeding the garden? Until recently I seemed to be on a yearly treadmill weeding the garden in spring one year only to be back starting from scratch doing it all over again the next year! I couldn’t go on like that, especially as I have several large garden beds where I live. I decided to put down some mulch throughout the garden beds to try and suppress the weeds. I found some valuable websites that have helped me to do just that. Since … [Read more...]
Repairing a Leak in Garden Irrigation Hose
I was doing some weeding in my garden recently and I accidently put a fork through a piece of my drip irrigation system. I wasn’t sure how I should fix it and found that taping it up didn’t work. I found the following videos that show how to remove the damaged section of pipe and then insert a barbed coupling piece to re-join the two pieces of pipe. A video I found at the IrrigationRepair.com website shows what material you will need as well as how to repair a leak in your drip … [Read more...]