When the weather gets warm, we all want to flock outside and enjoy our outdoor spaces. If your garden is more weeds than flowers, or you feel cursed with a black thumb, hope is not all lost.
This is gardening week, and we’re tackling everything you need to know about planting, watering, maintaining your lawn and growing your own food. It doesn’t matter if you have two acres or two feet of balcony space, you can create a lush garden.
What should you grow?
Before you start eyeing those succulents or lemon trees at the garden store, check your hardiness zone. These zones tell you what kinds of plants will survive in your garden all year long, depending on the average minimum winter temperature in your area. It should be your first step in determining what kinds of plants to buy — especially if you are ordering them online.
Save water and money by watering deep once per week.
Water less, water smarter
Your lawn and garden needs water to stay healthy, but you might be watering more often than you need to. CNET’s Alina Bradford explains that you should be watering “deep” once per week. That means when you turn on the sprinklers every week, you should ensure your garden gets an inch of water.
Learn everything else you can do to water your garden more efficiently, so you save water and money.
Keep your lawn and garden healthy
A lush green lawn is a garden staple, but it’s not easy to keep looking green. Lawn maintenance is important all year long, but especially in the hot summer months.
Mowing correctly can go a long way. In the summer, make sure your lawn stays at about 4 inches tall. The extra height helps your grass retain more moisture in the searing sun. Learn how to keep your lawn healthy this summer.
Watch this: How to prep your lawn mower for the season
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If your lawn mower has a few years on it, it’s time for maintenance. Brian Bennett shows you how to tune up your lawn mower by changing the oil, sharpening the blades, and more. Sharp blades are important to get a clean cut, which helps your grass stay healthy so it doesn’t die off during the hot summer months.
For a cheap and easy way to keep your flowers and plants looking beautiful, look to coffee grounds. What would normally get tossed out can be used all around your garden to keep pests away, enhance your soil, and beef up your compost pile. Check out Taylor Martin’s guide to five ways to use coffee in the garden.
How to grow vegetables in an apartment
No backyard? That shouldn’t stop you from creating a garden. Plenty of plants are happy grown in a pot as part of a container garden. If you have an outdoor balcony, you can grow tomatoes, green beans and other plants that require a bit more space and lots of sunlight.
If all you have room for is a few potted plants inside, you can still successfully grow herbs, carrots, lettuce and other vegetables. You won’t get as impressive a yields as you would outdoors, but you’ll still have fresh veggies at your fingertips.
Another great option is to use a Wi-Fi-enabled gardening system. They take all of the guesswork by automatically giving your plants the right amount of light and water. These systems are compact, so they can fit easily on a kitchen counter or side table.
Bring the technology outside
Alexa does great outdoors and can be a wonderful gardening companion. You can use Alexa to get gardening advice before you even head outdoors. It can also help you water smarter, but giving you detailed weather information and reminding you when to water your plants. Check out all of the other ways Alexa can help in the garden.
Check out CNET’s Guide to Smart Living all week long for more gardening tips.
