Hello and Welcome to Garden Tools and Tips Online.
I hope you can take a moment to look around…
Have you ever wondered how to get the most out of your gardening… well our plan here at Garden Tools and Tips Online is to help you do just that?
Perhaps you are new to growing your own, and you would like to find some helpful organic gardening tips and suggestions to get the most from your gardening efforts.
Maybe you are not so new to gardening, but you appreciate the importance of good quality and essential gardening tools, and you are always looking for tips on avoiding chemicals and getting more from your garden.
What You Can Expect to Find Here…
What I hope to do with this website is help as many people as possible to enjoy their home gardens no matter how big or small they might be, and to encourage more and more people to grow their own fruit and veggies as much as possible.
Whether you are after general information that will improve your soil and your harvest, things like vegetable garden tips, herb garden tips or maybe something more specific like tomato gardening tips, there’s a good chance you will find it here.
What is focused on here are organic growing solutions, because I believe more and more people are becoming aware of the environment as well as their own health issues.
Growing your own food and even your own medicine, in the form of herbs and home remedies is a huge growing trend, and it is becoming increasingly important to ensure we don’t lose these skills to be able to provide for ourselves.
This is particularly important with the growing uncertainty in the world around economic issues as well as world social and weather events, with the growing risk of terrorism and what seem to be more frequent occurrences of natural disasters.
The Two Sides of Growing Your Own
There are two sides of growing your own… You need to have the knowledge to know what to do, and you need the right kind of essential gardening tools to help you achieve your goals.
So the other side of this website is hoping to provide good quality reviews and recommendations of reliable and trusted garden tools that you can get for a good price.
There is also going to be information on how to care for and store your tools so you can get the most out of them.
- You can find the answer to what are the basic gardening tools you will need to get started?
- Is it worth looking for ergonomic garden tools?
- Should you try to source second-hand quality implements that might even come into the category of ‘antique garden tools’ that have lasted the test of time?
- What planting tools are best?
- Are there some tried and true brands like Ame’s, Lowes or other well-known brands of garden tools?
The Essentials of Growing Healthy Fruit & Veg
No matter what type of garden you decide to have, whether it’s a couple of containers on the balcony or full on food production in the backyard, the basic requirements of growing plants is pretty much the same.
Of course there are individual requirements for particular plants, which is getting down to the more specific knowledge, however, some things are necessary across the board.
Plants need sunlight, food, and of course water… just like we do…
Wherever you choose to start your garden you will need to consider all these essentials, and work out the best and most economical way to provide them in order to have healthy plants and achieve your goals.
Sunlight
Even if you decide to grow indoors you will have to provide sunlight in the form of the ‘real’ thing or by the use of the correct types of ‘artificial’ lighting.
Plants require a certain spectrum of light in order for them to function…
You have probably heard about ‘photosynthesis’ at school, even if you don’t remember all the details. This is all about the process of how plants get energy from the sun.
Even though a number of plants can survive with low light, for the most part any sort of food plants, vegetables, fruits or herbs are going to need a good amount of sunlight or the artificial equivalent each day.
If you are growing indoors then this can get expensive, however, there are ways to maximise your efforts and save money, depending on where and how you set things up.
If you are growing outdoors, then maybe you are in a cold climate zone, and your growing seasons are short… Even then, there are ways to maximise your production and even have fresh produce all year round, if you know how.
Using a greenhouse or hothouse as well as other methods like hoop runs are some of the ways you can extend your growing season in these colder climates.
If you live in a hot zone, then you will have issues trying to grow certain veggies that prefer a cooler climate, so you might want to utilize more shade houses and other methods to ensure you can grow a good variety and quantity of food.
Of course, you also want to choose the best varieties that will most suit your particular zone so that you don’t make things extra difficult or even impossible to succeed…
Food
Well most of the food for your plants will come from starting with good quality healthy soil. Whether you have to buy it, or you make it yourself (usually, the cheapest option, and one you will need to master either way), you will have to give this a bit of thought beforehand.
You will want to learn organic methods because then you at least don’t have to worry too much about having a ‘balance’ of nutrients, as nature tends to do that on its own.
To start with, you might want to test your soil, just so you know what your starting point is and what sort of amendments are going to be most helpful to get things going.
You might also want to think about what sort of composting system or systems will suit you best, a rotating composter or a worm farm… Some people use more than one method.
The art of composting and building healthy soil is really an essential part of growing healthy, disease and bug resistant veggies… Understanding these principles will help you ensure you get to benefit from a bountiful and delicious harvest!
Water
We all know that plants need water to survive… this is especially true for veggies who can suffer the effects of dehydration if they don’t have sufficient water regularly.
Plants that dry out from time to time and go all wilted are suffering from stress and this will weaken your plants making them much more susceptible to disease and pests.
Of course, they can also die, or shorten their productivity as well.
So ensuring you have a consistent way to deliver the right amount of water to your garden is extremely important, and of course there are ways you can conserve moisture in the soil and therefore in your plants using the right kind of mulches as an example.
In Brief…
Really I have only touched on the basics here, and there is a whole lot more information surrounding all these topics, but don’t let that put you off.
Don’t think it’s all too hard, because really it isn’t necessarily hard at all… it is just about getting the right information and putting it into practice.
Like any skill… gardening does take a bit of practice, and if you are a beginner, then it is always good to start small and build up as you go.
Not only will you benefit from the tasty rewards your garden can provide, and the savings you can enjoy, the better health etc. but you can even learn some excellent character lessons along the way…
Gardening is a great family activity that can involve everyone including the children. Children can even learn to enjoy eating their vegetables when they have played a part in growing them, themselves.
Thank you for stopping by Garden Tools and Tips Online, and I hope you can check out some of the other articles and information and don’t forget to sign up for the free…. below which will help get you started and make sure you don’t miss any updates!
Lynne