Avoid Common Gardening Errors

Gardening errors are common even amongst the prolific gardeners. Once into a certain habit it's a bit hard to break that habit. But you can avoid certain common gardening errors with this handy list.

Wrong Type of Plant For Your Area

There are plants for almost all climates including cooler climates. Some plants are more likely to grow in areas than other plants. Choosing the right plant for your area can be tough. But knowing your area's climate can help.

Ask your local agricultural department for a list of common native plants for your area. You could also ask a local greenhouse or plant nursery for a list too.

Planting Too Early

Sometimes in early spring, the weather might turn warm. This gives gardeners a sense of hope for the start of the gardening season. But this sense of hope can lead to disaster. Some plants do tolerate some cooler weather but some, such as vegetables and some flowers do not tolerate the cooler weather. The cooler weather can severerly limit production and may even outright kill the plant.

Be careful and know what your gardening zone is. Know the last frost and freeze dates of your area. Most departments of agriculture and local greenhouses know these dates and would be more than happy to relay this information on to you if you ask.

Watering: Too Much or Too Little

Watering is a very important chore in the garden. Plants need the water to survive. Too little water and the garden won't grow.

For most plants, you need about an inch of water a week. Some plants need more, some need less. Usually vegetables need a little more once they start setting fruit. A trick to find out if you need to water the garden is stick your finger about two inches into the soil. If it it damp, then you won't have to water. If it is dry, then the garden probably needs water.

Plants need water for survival. But too much water is just as problematic. The water causes the plants to droop. It can also cause germination problems. The seeds might not grow, or they will grow severely weak stems.

Too Much Fertilizer

Some gardeners get zealous when they begin to fertilize plants. They put too much fertilizer on plants and that can cause problems with growth especially with vegetables. Most vegetables that have too much fertilizer won't produce more fruit and produce. They will produce less produce and more foliage.

Read the fertilizer instructions very carefully and do some research on whether the plant you are growing actually needs an extra fertilizer.

Not Enough Sun

Light is a very important ingredient in the plant's survival. It needs light to make and process the plant's food. Too little light and the plant can't produce enough food and thus will die.

Some plants need a full eight hours of sun to have a healthy production. But some plants will tolerate shade. But even most shade tolerant plants need some sort of sun.

Spacing

Spacing problems occur often in gardens. Most of the problems are with too little space between plants. Disease and pests are the main problems with spacing plants too close. Follow the proper spacing guides usually given on the seed packages or plant packages. These are generally carefully researched. Following them can lead to a better, healthier garden.

If you want to space plants closer, try a raised bed garden. A raised bed garden is a garden bed that is raised above the ground. It is much like a container on the ground. With a raised bed garden, you have much more control over weeds, control of pests and control the type of soil that you put into the garden. You can usually plant closer in the raised bed garden because of these controls you have over this type of bed.

Mistakes Can Be Corrected

Most garden mistakes can be corrected. Just be aware of the common mistakes and you can avoid later headaches and heartaches in your garden. Avoiding these mistakes in the first place can give you a healthier and faster producing garden.

Katina Mooneyham is the contributing editor for Little Gardeners ([http://www.gardenandhearth.com/LittleGardeners.htm]) at Garden and Hearth.com. She has written various articles on gardening mostly about gardening with kids. She maintains a blog on gardening at http://littlegardeners.blogspot.com.