Proper Flower Growing And Upkeep

Planting a garden is really only half the battle.  From the first day a garden is planted, it will require maintenance and upkeep to ensure healthy plants during the growing season. To maintain a thriving garden, you need to practice proper flower growing and upkeep. There are several routine daily chores that should be completed to maintain a healthy, colorful garden.

Pruning
This is an often overlooked gardening chore. When a plant's leaves become old-looking, prune them back, with sharp pruning shears, to where there is fresh growth. Sometimes a plant will need to be pruned back all the way to the basal growth, which is the new growth at the base of the plant. It's a heartbreaking task for a gardener, but the plants will definitely appreciate it if their leaves are worn-looking.

Deadheading
For proper flower growing and upkeep, a garden's flowering plants will benefit from a technique known as deadheading–and no it has nothing to do with a Grateful Dead enthusiast. Once a flower has finished its bloom cycle, another flower will not grow in its place unless it is removed from the plant. If the flower stays on the plant, it will go to seed and stop flowering, but will bloom again if it is removed. This is a good chore in garden upkeep, because it will encourage the plant to keep producing fresh blooms. It works well for flowers that only bloom once as well. The energy the plant would normally put into producing seeds will go into strengthening the entire plant if it is deadheaded.

Tools
You can purchase a good amount of gardening tools for under $100. If you're a beginning gardener, buy inexpensive tools.  If you find out gardening isn't quite as exciting as you thought it would be, you didn't waste too much money on tools. A spading fork is one of the first tools to buy. It looks like a small pitchfork and is used to dig down into hard soils and break up the ground. It's a great tool for garden upkeep and healthy flower growing. A hoe is another important tool for maintaining a garden. It is used for weeding and cultivating the soil's surface. A round-ended shovel is good for larger digging projects, such as planting trees and shrubs. Gardening shears are also important. They are used for pruning, shaping and removing branches and foliage from flowering plants. Buying gardening gloves, a wheelbarrow and a rake is also a smart idea.

Watering
Every plant will have different watering requirements.  Over-watering and under-watering is unhealthy for plants, and will most likely kill them.  Proper flower growing is the result of routine watering.  As a general rule for garden upkeep, plants will need about 1 inch of water per week, and slightly more in hot weather. One deep watering is better than several light waterings.  

Fertilizer
This is used to add nutrients to plants not provided by the soil. There are 16 essential nutrients for the upkeep of your flowers. Three of these, carbon, hydrogen and oxygen are provided by the air and water. The other 13 nutrients, which are divided into primary, secondary and micronutrients, need to be supplied by the soil and some type of fertilizer. There are organic fertilizers and inorganic, or chemical, fertilizers. Organic fertilizers are provided from a living plant or animal source. They provide much of the micronutrients needed for proper flower growth and upkeep, but less of the macronutrients. Conversely chemical fertilizers, which are generally less expensive, provide more of a plant's macronutrient needs. Chemical fertilizers are a major source of groundwater pollution.

Soils
Different types of soils will have different requirements. Loam soils are the best type; they are a combination of sand, silt and clay. Clay soil should have organic materials such as compost or peat moss added to it and should also be tilled to loosen it. Watering clay soils should be done only as fast as the soil can absorb water, which is very slowly. Organic material should also be added to sandy soils, otherwise water will run through it too quickly. Loosening soil around garden plants will help them quickly absorb water and nutrients.

Sunlight
Sunlight is one of a plant's most basic needs. A plant makes food by a process called photosynthesis, which occurs in the sunlight. Each plant will have different light requirements.  These requirements fall into three categories: direct, indirect or diffused light.