A good garden results in coffee time with your thoughts, watching a sunrise, the majesty of a butterfly or the buzzing of hummingbirds.
“Gardener” is a label proudly worn, but there are some unpleasant tasks that can be eliminated. Weeds are my nemesis, watering is a bane, and chemicals must be avoided for a life lived well. Simplify is my motto in the garden. “Do something right the first time” and “quality over quantity” are mottos posted above my monitor that I take into account before writing any garden advice.
Below are personal garden tips that make local gardening easier. I know some of the tips are common sense, and some seem like more work in the short term, but together they make for more beauty with less work.
Feed the Soil
Start with great soil and you’ll grow great plants. Many gardeners only view mulch as decoration. Composted mulch does make a garden look more attractive, but it also keeps the soil and plant roots cool, retains moisture so you can water less often, prevents weeds from sprouting and feeds the soil. Right there, you’ve cut down on watering, weeding and fertilizer time.
Many of you are gardening in dead soil and don’t even realize it. The little top soil that was on your property was scraped away by the home builder to make room for footers, driveways and patios. No living organisms, worms or beneficial fungi remain. You will need to rebuild your soil.
Choose Lower Maintenance Perennials
Make perennial flowers, that take care of themselves, the backbone of your garden. Plants like red Salvia, blue Russian sage, agave, yucca and sedums look good all season and don’t need deadheading, pinching or staking. Here are even more low maintenance perennials.
Raised Beds, Containers
It’s much easier to control your garden with definite boundaries. You control the soil, water, exposure and even limit the growth of the plants in containers. Raised beds separate the garden beds from their surroundings. Ideally, lift the beds up by 12 inches or more. You’ll have the benefits of controlling your borders and you’ll be saving your back from some bending.
Insider Container Tip
Fill containers with Watters Potting Soil. This is my personal soil recipe created with mountain plants in mind. Plants love the flavor and root deep into the soil without becoming soggy.
Group Plants by Their Needs
I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “Right plant for the right spot.” Put sun lovers in the sun and ground covers where they can roam. But consider how efficient it would be if you put all your water hogs together – so, you turn on the sprinklers on in one area and you’re done. The same goes for plants that require a lot of deadheading or vegetables that need a daily harvest. You can still mix in different bloom times and variations in color, form and texture. It’s just the heavy maintenance chores that should be consolidated.
Aqua Boost, Drip Irrigation
This is one of those suggestions that sounds like it’s going to cost a fortune and require a professional to install, but it doesn’t have to. Here at Watters, we reduced drip irrigation to a tinker toy level. There is an initial cost, although nowhere near what you might think, and you need some measurements. Drip irrigation is far more efficient than any other type of watering. It pushes water deep into the root level. Add an inexpensive timer and think of all the time you’ve saved yourself.
Aqua Boost Crystal cuts the number of times you need to water in half. The Watters-created crystals absorb 200 times their weight in water that hold moisture at the root leave. Beneficial mycorrhizal fungi are used in this formula to revitalize garden soil and stimulate additional root formation, a must for raised beds and container gardening.
Watters All Purpose Food
Again, my own personal recipe with local plants in mind. This food breaks down slowly and allows better uptake for young plants. Watters All Purpose Food 7-4-4 was created for mountain plants. It feeds landscape plants better, and is less likely to pollute your well and local water sources. Because of the slow breakdown of this, food plants have time to take up and use all the food, unlike synthetic fertilizers. Use three time a year: spring, summer and fall.
Prevent Weeds
Pre-Emergent prevents seed from ever germinating, but timing is everything. I use Hi-Yield Weed and Grass Preventer twice and year and rarely have weed outbreaks. Apply now as the monsoon rains begin and again just after the New Year. This winter/summer application greatly reduces the work needed weeding. One bag covers a very large garden plot.
Until next issue, I’ll be helping gardeners here at Watters Garden Center. QCBN
By Ken Lain
Ken Lain, the mountain gardener, can be found throughout the week at Watters Garden Center, 1815 W. Iron Springs Rd in Prescott, or contacted through his web site at WattersGardenCenter.com or FB.com/WattersGardenCenter .
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