Do you ever look at your garden and just ask yourself what you’re doing wrong? Have you tried and tried to grow certain plants, only to see them eaten up by pests or covered in disease?

If you’ve ever been on the brink of accepting that you were just born without a green thumb, this one’s for you!

Read on for some awesome tips to help you turn that black thumb into a beautiful, green one! 

Seeing a lot of yellow in your yard? It could just be your pooch! You can spray scents such as after-shave and cologne around your garden to deter your dog. This will mask any scents that might attract dogs and makes your garden less interesting to them. 

One odd but apparently useful tip for growing organic plants is to lightly brush your plants with your fingers or a piece of cardboard 1-2 times a day. This sounds like total nonsense, but there is research suggesting that it does promote plant growth relative to unpetted plants.

 A handy trick is to turn the handle on a tool you use a lot into a makeshift ruler. Large-handled tools like rakes, hoes or shovels can easily be used like measuring sticks! First, you’ll want to place the handles on the ground and measure them. Using a permanent marker, label the distances you need. When you are gardening next, you’ll have a ruler right there and handy for you to get to! 

When planting perennials, find ones resistant to slugs. A really vulnerable plant can be killed by snails and slugs overnight.

Slugs love perennials with smooth and thin leaves, especially if the plants are young.

Perennials that have thick, furry leaves and unpleasant tastes are less likely to attract slugs and snails. Some of these include Achillea, Heuchera, Campanula, Helleborus, and Euphorbia.

Try not to shock your plants by gradually changing their conditions and temperature. Place them outdoors in the sun for about an hour or two on the first day to start hardening them off.

 Many times when digging in clay soil the clay will adhere to the shovel, which will make it much harder to dig. To ease the digging, apply some car wax or floor wax to the head of the shovel and buff. Not only will the clay slide off the surface, but it will keep the end from rusting.

 If you’re growing veggies in the garden, they need to be in a spot that lets them get about six hours of sun daily. Most vegetables need that much sun to grow rapidly and successfully. Some flowers also have the same need.

If you want to keep your garden free of pests, start with healthy soil! Healthy plants can better ward off pests and diseases.

To boost your garden’s prospects of giving you the healthiest possible plants, make sure you begin with premium soil devoid of salt-accumulating chemicals.

 Be smart when you water your garden. You can save time by using soaker hoses when watering plants because you won’t need to water your plants individually.

Keep the water running slowly so it doesn’t spray up onto the plants’ leaves. You can take care of other tasks or just relax while your plants are automatically watered for an hour or so.

 You don’t need a costly chemical solution to deal with powdery mildew in your garden. The best solution is mixing baking soda, a drop of liquid dish detergent and water together in a spray bottle.

 Try to work in your garden at least a short time each day. Not everyone has time to do a lot in their gardens every day, but by doing little things whenever you have a chance, you can avoid having things pile up.

 When it’s time to harvest, an old laundry basket works great straining the produce as well as storing it while you are harvesting the rest of your produce.

 Pine is a wonderful mulch so don’t get rid of pine needles! Some plants are high in acidity and do better with acidic soil. Pine needles work as an awesome mulch for these plants. Cover soil beds with a few inches of pine needles and they’ll disperse acidity to the soil below as they decompose.

 Looking for a natural way to kill weeds in your garden? You can use multiple layers of newspapers to smother them since they need sunlight to grow. Newspapers break down nicely over time to become part of the compost. You can cover the newspapers with mulch to make them look more attractive if you like!

Your compost pile should contain green plant materials and dry plant materials. “Green” material refers to things like wilted flowers, weeds, leaves from your yard, and grass clippings. Examples of dried plant material are sawdust, shredded paper, straw, cut-up woody material, and cardboard. Don’t include ashes, diseased plants, charcoal meat, or carnivorous animal waste.

 Add mulch to keep your soil healthy. Mulch can help protect your soil. For the best results when mulching, you should aim to create a bed of mulch two to three inches thick.

 For container planting, be sure to plant your seeds at a depth around three times the radius of the seed. Some seeds shouldn’t be covered since they need sunlight. Some common examples include ageratum and petunias. Read the instructions that came with the seeds, and do some research to find out the amount of sunlight your seeds need. 

Plant your tomatoes in intervals of three weeks, this way you won’t have to harvest all of your crops at once. 

Water infused with aspirin is great for combating plant disease. To add aspirin to the plant just dissolve about one tablet and a half into about two gallons of fresh water. Help your plants fight disease by spraying them with the aspirin water. Apply this solution to your plants every few weeks.

You’ll garden more efficiently if you keep your tools close by. Wear pants with multiple pockets or use a toolbox or large bucket.

Include your kids in growing an organic garden. Gardens are terrific teaching tools for kids and present awesome opportunities for interaction, growth, and instruction on healthy living.

Tuck away some plastic grocery bags and use them to slip over your muddy boots. This lets you go back and forth to work in your garden without interrupting your work.

If you want to sell your organic crops you can get certification for your garden. Having certification can help sales and can verify to your customers that what they’re getting is fresh and healthy. 

Summary

Use these tips to revitalize your garden with your new-found green thumb! You’ll be rewarded with healthy, beautiful plants to show off to your family and friends, and they’ll want to know your gardening secrets!