Saturday, March 8, 2014
Garden Landscape Adjusting The pH Level In Your Soil Is The Key To Success
To have a beautiful garden landscape, the pH levels in your soil are key to the success or failure of your garden project. You dont want to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on garden landscape materials, only to fail because the shrubs you planted cant get the proper nutrients. To know where your gardens pH levels need to be, you first have to know where the pH levels currently are. The ideal pH range is between 6.5 to 7.0. When changing the pH of your garden soil, the first thing you need to do is test your soil. You can test the pH of your garden soil at home using a do-it-yourself pH kit or with a portable soil probe/pH meter. Both of these can be bought at your local garden shop. You can also send a pH sample to a lab for a more in-depth analysis. Sending your pH sample to a private lab will give you the most comprehensive analysis of the pH levels, although its more expensive than sending it to your local extension service.
The pH in your garden soil can be balanced fairly quickly if they are not too far out of the ideal pH range of 6.5 to 7.0. Make adjustments by applying soil amendments such as dolomite limestone or gypsum. The best way to adjust pH levels in your garden project is to incorporate compost and mulch. There are dozens of materials that you can compost, and compost can be bought fairly inexpensively at your local landscaping supply. A ton of compost is usually less than $30.00. Adding organic matter to the soil tends to make both acid and alkaline pH levels more neutral, while applying chemical fertilizers makes the pH level of your soil more acidic.
If the pH in your soil is too acidic, you need to add alkaline material which means you must raise the current pH level. to raise the pH level of your soil you must add lime. The most common "liming" material is ground limestone. Ground limestone breaks down slowly, but it does not burn plants like "quick lime" does. Apply it to the garden and lawn in the fall to allow time for it to act on soil pH before the next growing season. A rule of thumb for slightly acid soils is to apply 5 pounds of lime per 100 square feet to raise the pH by one point.
Applying a thin layer of wood ash will also raise soil pH in your garden project. Wood ash contains up to 70 percent calcium carbonate, as well as potassium, phosphorus, and many trace elements. Only a thin layer is needed to raise the pH, because it is powdery, wood ash is a fast-acting liming material. Be careful, a little goes a long way. Limit your application to 2 pounds per 100 square feet and only apply it every other year in a particular area.
If your pH level is to high, you need to add a source of acid. Options include pine needles, shredded leaves, sulfur, sawdust and peat moss. Pine needles are a good source of acid and mulch. Peat moss with a pH of 3.0 is often recommended as a soil additive. Before you use it though, consider the other options, because peat moss is nutrient-poor, expensive, and its a nonrenewable resource.
Get more garden landscape design tips and tricks at Garden Landscape Design. Hundreds of do-it-yourself videos to walk you through step-by-step in creating that beautiful garden landscape design.Monday, March 3, 2014
The key to maintaining low Fri
You can easily manage front yard landscaping from a professional gardener in your area or you can do it yourself. If you can maintain front yard landscaping done some work, beautiful look will last all year. If you do not use the professional landscaping the front yard, you should tell him that your ultimate goal has a farm, which requires very littleMaintenance.
If you have less grass in your backyard landscaping then you will cut out a lot of maintenance. mowing the lawn, a lot of time and energy as the grass kept to a minimum is a great way to save on labor. You can talk to experts on landscape alternatives that you use for your garden looks great with a small lawn.
Some propose Tampa Landscapers, cover with a floor in many situations.
A ground cover is best viewed in a bed and / or treesor shrubs. Not only reduces the estimation of cut grass, should be very useful (on a slope or in the shade) and looks very attractive.
Most varieties of ground cover tend to spread. So you need to maintain some sort of fence around them to crawl around the yard.
Watering the garden can be a great effort as well.
This is why many people are equipped with automatic sprinkler systems in their landscape design front yard. This will save time and money. This is aof the easiest ways to keep your garden healthy and well-watered and dry in the warmer months of the year. No sprinkler or hook to drag out the hose.
You can create a professional, to develop one of these systems for your backyard landscaping front and really fast, or you can get a DIY kit and install. I suggest having a professional way, if you have this kind of thing. A loss could be some serious flooding, mold and costs. Thiscould end up costing much more than Tampa Landscapers professional attitude.
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