Creating A Deer-Free, Healthy, Eco-Friendly Garden

Creating A Deer-Free, Healthy, Eco-Friendly Garden

By: Jennifer Homes

Poor soil quality, inadequate water, pests, weeds, deer, and other wildlife are listed among the top 10 problems gardeners face. Now, food is vital for human survival, and with the population estimated to increase by 200,000 people daily, new ways of food production and solutions to the above problems need to be presented. Enter eco-conscious gardening, a technique that helps produce high yields without the use of chemicals that further contribute to global warming. Thankfully, one can start their own eco-friendly garden at home by simply using natural methods of improving soil fertility, controlling pests, and watering. All this, of course, without overlooking the importance of having a garden that is properly safeguarded from deer and other wildlife. If you want to create a deer free eco-friendly garden, deviate a little from the commonly used gardening practices, and try out the following steps.

Warding Off Deer Naturally
Before creating a beautiful eco-friendly garden, you want to make sure you protect it from wildlife. Deer can be very destructive, trampling over new shoots and grazing on the plants in your garden. In the eco-friendly spirit, go for natural solutions. For starters, physical barriers like one of Benner's Garden fencing kits will help. Secondly, consider scarecrows. Although an ancient practice, they are a simple and effective way of keeping wildlife off of your garden. Although Benner's Gardens have a range of repellents, you could make an all natural DIY repellant using eggs, milk, water, detergent or Tabasco sauce. Alternatively, you can spread kitty litter, human hair or dog hair along the edge of your garden. Setting up an affordable motion detector that makes noise when triggered is another sure way of keeping deer off your eco-friendly garden. Once you have secured your garden, you can now get down to the nitty-gritty of eco-friendly gardening.

Prudent Use Of Water
Water is a very important commodity in our lives, without which humanity would cease to exist. It is also vital for the growth of the plants in your garden. Learning eco-friendly and good water use practices is therefore important. The first thing you should do in your eco-garden is install water harvesting tanks. Water collected during the rainy season should be used in irrigating your garden during drier seasons. While watering your plants, try to avoid using sprinklers, since a lot of water goes to waste on bare surfaces. Using a drip line would be more prudent, or a hosepipe. Reusing water is another important aspect. After doing dishes or cleaning the house, use the wastewater if it is not soapy, to water your garden. All these practices are eco-friendly, as they help conserve water reserves by minimizing the use of municipal water.

Making A Compost Pit
Synthetic fertilizers are bad for the ecosystem. Aside from depleting soil quality and leading to eutrophication, they contain ammonia, methane, carbon dioxide, sulfur and nitrogen gases, which lead to global warming. It is therefore advisable to use organic fertilizers instead. One can create their own organic manure by making a compost. A lot of useful waste can be found at home: old newspapers, egg shells, vegetables, leftover food and fruit peels. These wastes can be recycled to provide manure for your garden. Manure boosts soil fertility in an all-natural way, helping you increase the quality and quantity of your produce without damaging the environment.

Leveraging On Symbiotic Relations
To avoid the use of pesticides and herbicides that are not healthy for your garden, apply natural means of fighting pests. Plant flowers like sunflowers on your garden to attract useful bugs such as ladybirds. The ladybirds will in turn help ingest aphids that usually eat garden plants, lowering yields. To deal with other pests such as caterpillars, slugs and snails, one can attract birds. To do so, a garden owner just needs to have bird baths and food strategically located in the garden.
Companion farming is another important aspect. When two different but compatible plants are planted together, they complement each other, ensuring healthy growth. An example is planting chives and tomatoes together. The smell of chives turns away aphids that attack tomatoes.

Planting Native Plants
The main essence of an eco-garden is to enhance savings. This is achievable by planting native plants. Native plants thrive easily with little or no additional care required if grown in specified regions. They require less water, fertilizer and care than non-native species. Attracting good bugs and birds is also an easier task with native plants, since they are common in the locality. Having knowledge on the list of native plants in your area is important for someone who wants to try out eco-gardening.

Having an eco-friendly garden neither requires extra resources nor high expertise. Simply follow the above steps and turn your garden into a deer-free, eco-friendly one. By using all natural solutions, The Nature Conservancy suggests that global warming could be reduced by a significant 21%.

Protecting Your Garden From Damage This Winter by Gardening Limited

Protecting Your Garden From Damage This Winter

at NOVEMBER 29, 2018

With winter just around the corner, its time to think about how to prepare your garden for the colder months of the year. Some of these tips may or may not apply to you, based on where you live and your weather patterns. Below is a collaborative post on some things to keep in mind when protecting your garden from damage this winter.

The green fingered amongst us who dote on our backyards tend to spend extended periods of time taking care of our gardens during the summer months. We mow the grass regularly, pull weeds, ensure that our plants are well watered and protected from pests, trim bushes, prune trees, and generally ensure that everything is made presentable.

However, as we start to enter the winter months, we tend to look at the gloomy picture outside and convince ourselves that we’ll carry on our gardening work tomorrow, or maybe the day after. Who can blame us? Nobody wants to spend hours toiling away in the garden when it’s wet and rainy or frosty and icy. Cuddling up in front of the television indoors is a much more preferable option.

But if you want to avoid a mess of a garden and you want to return to a pretty and presentable scene in the spring months, you’re going to have to make the effort to maintain your outdoor space come rain or shine! Now is the time of year when it really does need the most TLC. Here are a few steps that you can take to protect it from damage throughout the upcoming months!

Photo Source

Remove Leaves

Most of the leaves will have fallen from the trees by now, but if there are still leaves lying around on the ground in your backyard, it’s extremely important that you remove them. Not only will they quickly change from pretty shades of red, orange, and yellow to a decayed brown and black pulpy mess, but they will prevent sufficient sunlight from reaching your grass. This can cause serious damage and can cause your grass to wither and die, as it won’t be able to photosynthesize and maintain itself.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that the wind will eventually blow them away somewhere. Your fences will generally block leaves from escaping. Instead, you need to be a little more active.

If you’re feeling energetic, you can use a rake to gather and collect the leaves to then dispose of them. If you want to spend a little less time outdoors, you might want to invest in a leaf blower. While this will prove to be more expensive, it can be used year after year and gets the job done as quickly as possible.

Remember to Water Plants and Grass

Many of us make the assumption that we don’t need to water our plants throughout the winter. We assume that rainfall is sufficient to keep everything as hydrated as it needs to be. But this isn’t necessarily the case. Rain can be sporadic and outbursts may not be sufficient for your plants. You may still need to top everything up with your watering can or hose. Monitor rainfall and determine whether there have been any dry spells that could see your plants need a little extra water.

Put Up a Deer Fence

If you have deer in your local area, they may encroach onto your land in search of food. Who can blame them? Their main sources of food tend to get scarce during the colder winter months and they’ll become increasingly willing to come into closer contact with humans for the sake of a good meal. However, if you’re not willing to offer up your own plants to them, you might want to install a Garden Deer Fence. This is a humane way to prevent them from stepping foot on your property.

Sweep Snow

If you have trees in your garden and it snows heavily, you should consider sweeping the snow from their branches. This will reduce the weight that they have to bear and can ensure that light reaches any leaves. Just be extremely careful when doing this – large volumes of snow can be heavy and you don’t want this to fall on you from above.

Use Mulch

If you have flower beds, you might want to consider spreading a layer of mulch over the soil’s surface. This will prevent the soil from becoming compacted over the winter months and can consequently avoid water logging during periods of excessive rain. Mulch can also protect the roots of perennials from frost!

Raise Potted Plants

Potted plants can become waterlogged extremely easily. So, take the time to ensure that all pots have holes in the bottom that excess water can drain out of and that these pots are raised above the ground. This will prevent plants from becoming overwatered and will reduce the chances of roots rotting.

Consider a Greenhouse

If you have delicate or particularly vulnerable plants that you want to maintain through the winter months, consider investing in a greenhouse. This will provide them with a safer space to grow in. They will be better insulated and will be out of the reach of snow, ice, and frost.

Ventilate Your Greenhouse

If you do invest in a greenhouse, make sure to monitor the temperature inside of it. The sun’s rays can still be strong on clear days and you will consequently need to ventilate the space in order to maintain a good temperature.

As you can see, you do have to take various steps to fully protect your garden during the winter months. Don’t be a fair weather gardener. Make sure that you maintain all of the hard work that you have already put into your outdoor space over the summer and autumn months!

What are you doing to protect your garden from damage this winter? Let me know in the comments section below!

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