Save Money And Start Your Garden On A Budget

Starting a garden of your own can be a very rewarding experience. Working the soil not only will benefit your health it can also save you a lot of money over time. Even during the height of the growing season buying all of those great tasting vegetables can cost you a lot of money. Even though you are going to save some money by growing your vegetables yourself you still will have to make an investment in your future garden to reap the benefits later in the year.

It is possible to start your garden on a budget. You do not have to have all of the new garden tools. Your ancestors made do with little more than a hoe and a horse and plow. There are a few things you need to think about if you want to grow a garden on a budget such as thinking ahead and getting your thoughts sorted before you start planting. Start a compost pile now so when you start your garden you will have some cheap fertilizer ready to nourish your plants. Starting seeds instead of buying plants can save you a lot of money. You can stretch your garden budget by choosing vegetables that will yield an abundant crop. This article will look at some ways to help you spend less on your garden.

Start out by thinking about your garden before it is time to start planting. It is all too easy to start planting and the next thing you know you have several things planted you did not intend to grow. Decide what types of vegetables you want to have in your garden and stick to your plan.

Starting a compost pile can save you a lot of money. Chemicals and fertilizers can be costly and many people do not like to put them on the garden preferring organic methods instead. Starting a compost pile will help recycle items from your kitchen into rich organic fertilizer. Your plants should respond to the compost you add with lush green growth.

Starting your vegetables from seed is one of the best ways to save as plants from a nursery cost a lot more than a package of seeds. Another benefit of starting from seed is you can buy more varieties of vegetables than you can usually find locally.

One last thing you can do to stretch your garden budget is to choose plants that yield abundant crops. Check around and see which types of plants yield the most.

Starting a garden on a budget can be done without a whole lot of trouble as long as you do the proper planning and do not get carried away when you start planting.

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For more information on growing an organic garden of your own try visiting www.onegardens.com/ where you will find tips, advice and resources about topics such as how to grow an organic garden.

Perennial Flower Diseases

One of the attractions of perennial flowers is their ability to tolerate a wide range of problems, usually without serious or lasting damage.
There are a few diseases to watch for that can make perennials unsightly, or cause more serious damage.

Powdery mildew, like many diseases, is aptly named as it resembles a powdery white mildew on leaf surfaces. Unlike many diseases, this one
doesn’t need leaves to be wet in order to spread and become a problem.

It is commonly found on some tall garden phlox (/Phlox paniculata/) and lungworts (/Pulmonaria/). There are fungicides, both synthetic and organic, for powdery mildew. Good air circulation from proper spacing may help as well.

Keep in mind that cultivars (cultivated varieties) often have differing resistance to diseases such as this one. ‘David’ is a white phlox mostly resistant, while ‘Mt. Fuji’ is a white phlox very susceptible. Another interesting point about this disease is that it is not the same powdery
mildew strain that gets on lilacs and annual flowers such as zinnias. If you have this disease on these plants, however, conditions are likely ripe for it on perennials.

Downy mildew is quite a different disease, and is rather difficult to control. This appears as gray downy growth on undersides of leaves under cool and humid conditions. Perennials
susceptible to this include tickseed (/Coreopsis/), black-eyed Susan (/Rudbeckia/), speedwell (/Veronica/), asters (/Aster/), bluets (/Centaurea/), dead nettle (/Lamium/), and roses. There are fungicides you can use to prevent this from spreading as it is beginning. Keep in mind that fungicides are preventative—they prevent more disease but usually don’t get rid of that already present. Avoid watering plants with this disease in early morning, and discard severely infected plants.

Rust diseases cause rust-colored spots on leaf surfaces, particularly undersides of leaves. Most commonly it is seen on hollyhocks, but it can occur on many others such as asters and hibiscus. The latest perennial to show a new rust strain to our country, only still in a few areas, is the speedwell. Daylily rust on this popular perennial has become quite prevalent in the last few years in over half the states. It was first introduced into our country in the southeastern states in 2000. Watch for this on purchased plants, especially from southern sources, removing
infested leaves. There are several fungicides that can be used, but check first for resistant cultivars.

If you have hostas, beware of the relatively new Hosta Virus X. Often symptoms resemble natural leaf variegation making diagnosis difficult. Most distinctive is an irregular color feathering along leaf veins. A hosta nursery specialist, or Extension diagnostician, can help identify infected plants. ‘Gold Standard’, ‘Striptease’, and ‘Sum and Substance’ cultivars are often infected. ‘Blue Angel’, ‘Frances Williams’, ‘Bressingham Blue’, ‘Love Pat’, ‘Great Expectations’, and ‘Sagae’ are some of the cultivars immune or resistant.

Remember, if using any pesticides, follow all label directions. Make sure you know what you are treating, as fungicides for instance only work on fungi and not bacteria or virus.

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Checked out Perry’s Perennial Pages lately? www.uvm.edu/~pass/perry