Tag: home garden

If you want to take advantage of your summer holidays to take care of your garden and create a vegetable garden you may have considered installing a mulch. You may have noticed by doing some research, the idea blossoms everywhere on forums dedicated to gardening and a question is on everyone’s lips about the garden: mulching or not mulching? The Potager Blog tells you more about this gardening technique.

Mulching: what’s the point?

Carried out between the end of April and the beginning of May, mulching makes it possible, above all, to prevent the proliferation of weeds on the straw area: with mulching, the weeding chore is over!

Mulching also helps your soil retain moisture: a real asset when the summer droughts are raging. It is also a very good organic supplement for your land and improves its quality.

To install mulching, wait until the soil has warmed up, hence the interest of waiting for spring. We must weed first (in order not to do it again, or at least, less often) and cover with mulching when the soil is wet.

The materials used for mulching

Mulching can be made from straw, of course, but you can also use the remains of mowing your lawn, fragmented wood or dead leaves: this will save you from having to compost everything! 

If you do not have all these materials, you can also find in the garden, as well as anti-foam or Bordeaux mixture. They can contain clay balls, pine bark … or even coconut extracts!

You should know that it is also possible to use mulching to protect plants in pots or planters. The clay balls mentioned earlier are very well adapted to this use. This will limit the watering of these plants.

Less watering, less maintenance, in short, less effort: you will understand, the benefits of mulching all or part of his garden so many. It’s your turn!

Before you start building your kitchen garden, find out about the tools that will be needed for its creation and regular maintenance. Creating a vegetable garden is not difficult in itself, as long as it is done with the method and quality tools. So just set the type of vegetables you want to grow. You can then organize your future kitchen garden, equip you and you will be ready.

Steps and tools to make your garden

1 – Prepare the earth: for this, a spade is essential in order to return the earth, to ventilate it and to smooth it. If the soil is particularly hard, a fork will be useful. Its four teeth will push the tool into the ground and crumble it. Finally, a wheelbarrow will not be too much to help you transport green waste and bags of soil. If the land intended for the reception of your kitchen garden is crowded with stumps and troublesome hedges, do not hesitate to equip you with powerful tools of size, of the mark Bosch for example.

2- Plant: you will need to use a sled to trace the furrows needed to plant your seedlings. A transplanter is a tool used to dig small holes. These will be essential for the planting of medium-sized plants.

3- To grow and harvest: to take care of your plants, a watering can and secateurs will also be essential. The shears will be used for the maintenance but also for harvesting some of your products, such as tomatoes or cucumbers. On the other hand, aromatic herbs must be cut with a chisel and salads or cabbages with a knife. Finally, vegetables that grow underground, such as carrots or potatoes, are harvested with a fork.

Choose your garden tools

If you want to invest, you can choose quality tools from Dewalt, for example. It would be a shame to encounter difficulties because of poor quality equipment. So choose tools that are solid and practical to use. With large handles, if you are rather tall or automated if you are prone to joint pain. You can probably find your happiness with major brands, such as Milwaukee.

Did you want a small vegetable garden? It is not necessarily useful in this case to buy directly a large number of tools. A spade, a transplanter and a pruner will suffice at first. You will soon know the satisfaction of being able to eat vegetables grown in your own garden!

If some insects are the best friend of the gardener, other inhabitants of the garden are his sworn enemies! Sometimes your plantations suffer from the presence of certain harmful insects. However, exterminating them with pesticides permanently degrades the quality of your soil. You will find in this article tips for getting rid of pests naturally in the garden.

The insects

Small animals that attack your plantations are numerous and can cause serious damage. To get rid of it, we recommend organic products that target harmful species and do not affect the nice garden insects.

For aphids that deform leaves and weaken plants, spray nettle manure or a mixture of water and black soap on infested plants. If your trees are under attack, you can install a strip of glue on the trunk to prevent ants from climbing into the foliage to practice aphid farming.

Bedbugs can be harmful to your crops when they are present in large numbers. Some species are found in tomatoes, others love strawberries, and some have specialized in cabbage. If your garden is not too big, it’s best to pick them up one by one. Otherwise, opt for a natural pyrethrin insecticide.

In the Colorado potato beetle, larvae and adults are to be feared. This insect native to Mexico attacks the potatoes but also aubergines and tomatoes. In case of CPB attack, it is advisable to plant blue flax and garlic between your rows of potatoes.

The caterpillars

Before little caterpillar turns into a butterfly, he has to feed himself. And his powerful mandibles quickly become the obsession of gardeners. Before you get carried away by your murderous instincts, take the time to identify your opponent. All caterpillars are not dangerous for the garden. Here are the ones to beware of:

• Ringworm of leeks that yellow leaves of leeks;
• The attacking caterpillars are rooted in the leaves of the plants;
• Boxwood borer that can contaminate your garden in the blink of an eye;
• The larva of codling moth that eats apples and pears.

To get rid of caterpillars, it may be necessary to test several methods before finding the one that works. Many caterpillar species are susceptible to pyrethrin or Bt, two natural active ingredients. Otherwise, a treatment based on essential oils is also possible.

Finally, there is a kind of caterpillar, particularly dangerous, which you must not deal with alone. The processionary caterpillar, which often settles in pines, must be removed by a pest control company in Paris or elsewhere in France.

Rodents

Mice, voles, field rats: there are many rodents in the garden. And they are voracious. Stumping your crops and creating galleries that hinder the development of plants, they quickly become invasive. To keep them away, you can adopt a cat or make your garden more welcoming to snakes. Otherwise, some catch traps, placed in strategic places can stem the invasion. Finally, you can create vibrations in the ground that will scare away rodents. For this, install a system of metal rods planted in the ground on which you place plastic bottles that will wiggle with the wind.

Pollinators

Pollinators are not pests. On the contrary, as their name suggests, they will help to fertilize the plants. However, it happens that, present in too large numbers, they cause havoc. They can sting fruit and are also dangerous if you are allergic. The hornets, but also the wasps, can build nests in your garden. To make them clear, it will be necessary to call on a professional. Professional insect control in Île-de-France or in the countryside will move the nest without killing it because pollinators are essential to the biodiversity of our gardens.