Outdoor Gardens
Planting an outdoor garden is great fun! It’s a real thrill to watch little green sprouts come poking up from the places where you planted seeds.
What kind of garden do you want? A garden full of crunchy, delicious vegetables? Or a flower garden with colours and scents to delight you? All you need for an outdoor garden is a small patch of ground. Ask an adult to help you find a good spot.
Most gardens do best in sunny spots. Plants that love sunshine include yuccas, geraniums, and yarrows. If you live where it’s hot and dry for much of the year, you can grow euphorbias and cactuses.
But you can also plant a garden in a shady spot. You just have to choose plants that like shade. Hostas, impatiens, begonias, and ferns all are shade-loving plants.
You can buy seeds or bulbs for all kinds of plants. If the seeds are very tiny, you can plant them on a tray of soil indoors. Cover them lightly with soil and water them. Keep them in a warm place but out of direct sunlight. The small plants can be planted outside when they are big enough for you to handle.
To give your garden the best possible start, you have to prepare the ground first. Pull up all the weeds. Weeds are any plants that are not wanted in your garden. Then dig and rake the ground to loosen the soil. Mark off rows for the seeds or plants. To make holes for seeds, push a pointed stick into the ground. To put in small plants, you’ll need a trowel. Use it like a big spoon to scoop out holes. Gently cover the seeds or roots with soil.
Water the garden until the soil is damp but not muddy. The best time to water is in the evening or early morning. That way, the sun won’t dry up the water before it soaks into the soil.
By early summer, garden plants are usually growing well, but so are the weeds! You can either pull up weeds by hand, or gently scrape small weeds from the ground with a hoe.
When it’s time to harvest, your garden will reward you for all your hard work. Colourful flowers look pretty in a vase. And tasty fruits and vegetables are popular at mealtime!
Picture Credit : Google
