Last week, Jumia House Ghana gave you tips on starting a backyard garden. We believe you have started planning your vegetable garden already. Today, we present more tips on how to maintain a  backyard garden.

Required Tools

To begin taking care of the plants in your backyard garden, you will need garden tools in your shed. Example of such tools include the cutlass , hoe, pruners etc. If you are not really sure of the tools you will need for your garden, just take your time, after a short period of starting your garden, you will know the exact tools you will need.

Watering

Plants need moisture and sunlight to prepare their food in a process called photosynthesis. Your plants should have these in abundance. Make sure the soil never gets dry – at least an inch of water each day is enough to keep the soil moist. Plants that are sown deep down the soil are able to retain more moisture as compared to seedlings planted on raised beds. Raised beds need to be watered everyday because they are not able to retain enough moisture.

Taking care of weeds

Weeds always compete with plants for the available water, sunlight and nutrients in the soil.  It is necessary to prevent weeds from competing with the plants. Weeds can be prevented by being hand picked or stirring the soil. This can be done by using the hand fork or the cutlass. Mulching is also another method of preventing weeds from competing with the plants. Mulching is the process of covering the soil with clean straw or plastic to prevent weeds from germinating and competing with your plants.

Fertilizing

Most people keep backyard gardens simply because they want to be certain of the source of the vegetables. These people prefer vegetables which have been cultivated organically. With this group of people, the most recommendable fertilizer to use in the garden is the packaged vegetable fertilizer. This should be used as directed on the package. Another way to keep the soil fertilized is applying compost during the planting stage.

Controlling pest and diseases

To prevent goats and other ruminants from chewing the leaves of your garden plants, it is very important to fence your garden. Insects can also be prevented from eating the leaves of your plants by using transparent plastic sheets to cover the seedlings when they start to germinate.

Watering of plants should be done early in the morning so that the leaves get dried by night time to prevent fungal diseases. Watering the soil instead of the leaves is another way of preventing fungal growth. Diseases can also be prevented in your garden if you grow disease resistant varieties. If any plant is diseased, dispose of it by putting them far away from the garden. Don’t mix diseased plants with your compost. Vary the location of plants each time – don’t plant the same vegetable at one location all the time. For example, if you plant tomatoes in the left corner of your garden this year, make sure you plant it at the right half the next year. This practice prevents pests from gaining grounds in your garden.

You can also use insecticidal spray to kill the insects in your garden. Larger insects can be hand picked – never mind, they are not that nasty.

Sources

http://gardening.about.com

http://www.bhg.com