Spring is coming and gardening season is beginning. This week we interviewed our very own Agriculture teacher Mrs. Barling about her gardening suggestions, tips, and tricks.
Plants that are the easiest/low-maintenance are succulents and geraniums, but it all depends on what you're doing with your said plant. These plants don't require as much watering, but as said before, it all depends on what you're doing with the said plant, for decorations, or just to grow. The easiest plants, herbs, and flowers to grow in Illinois can change depending on what time of year it is. Mrs. Barling said that if you want to grow vegetables from seeds it’s best to start inside during February and then plant them around Mother’s Day so you’re safe from the frost. The easiest plants to grow in Illinois are parsley, cilantro, basil, peppers, onions, tomatoes, and pretty much any veggie.
For gardening you need your standard gardening soil, you don't want to buy big bags of potting soil because it has a different makeup. So when you are purchasing soil, make sure it says topsoil or ground soil. Mrs.Barling likes to use Miracle Grow but there are others, but that's your most standard one. For fertilizer, you're going to want a basic fertilizer that is high in nitrogen for veggies, and for flowers, you would need something high in phosphorus.
For a watering schedule, it depends on what time of year it is, if it’s not going to be as hot, water at least twice a day, Once in the evening, and once in the afternoon. The gardening tool that Mrs.Barling suggests, is a basic trowel, or shovel, you don't need anything fancy.
For Mrs. Barling's tricks and tips, she says to read flower labels, because they tell you everything that you need to understand where the light is hitting them in the summertime, so if it is a shady plant you want to make sure that your plant it on the northeast to the east side because it's not going to get that aggressive afternoon sun. If it's a sunny plant, then you can put it pretty much anywhere. Don’t forget to fertilize because that's often the part where I was watering it and everything was going well but now it's dying because it didn't have food. And if you are having problems with bugs, there are two different kinds that you could put you could do a systemic where you put it on in the early spring and then it absorbs into the plant. Or there's a topical that you just spray on top a name brand called Sevin is a common one that you’ll come across.
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