Your Complete Spring Gardening Guide

By theadmin

We’ve rounded up our best gardening tips, hacks, and know-how for your convenience.

4 Garden Guardians

These creatures are all part of our beautiful Texas ecosystem and have many positive effects on your garden. Turn your garden into a haven for wildlife with these tips.

Butterflies: Butterflies add more than beauty and movement to a garden; as pollinators, they are key to your ecosystem. Check out our list of what to plant to attract different butterflies.
Hummingbirds: These darting, jewel-bright birds are the tiniest and prettiest additions to your garden. Make them feel welcome and protect them from predators by starting a hummingbird garden.
Owls: While you sleep, owls hunt rodents that can wreak havoc on your garden and home. Build a special owl box for them to nest in with these instructions.
Bats: Bats are an essential part of the Texas ecosystem, as they eat disease-carrying mosquitos. Like owls, bats will be grateful for a little box to nest in.

Grow Your Own Produce

With a little help from your green thumb, you can create a rainbow in your garden and add homegrown flavor to your family’s meals.

Growing herbs: Herbs are an easy entrance to gardening and can be grown almost anywhere. Start simple with two or three kitchen herbs such as basil, oregano, and thyme on the windowsill. Or, for a different cup of tea, try chamomile and mint. Up your herb garden game with inventive ideas that take up zero ground space.
Growing berries: Sweeten your homemade pies, jams, and ice cream with homegrown blueberries and blackberries. Learn what varieties to plant and how to harvest successfully.
Growing vegetables: Add to the spring mix by cultivating a vegetable garden. The easiest, most compact way? A square foot garden. From leafy greens, stalks, and root vegetables to nightshades, squashes, and bulbs to melons, flowers, and herbs, you can fit a specified number of each plant in its own little square. Gardening has never been so efficient.

Perfect Your Gardening Game

Save your pennies — and your plants — with these homemade gardening hacks. Spruce up your soil with simple household ingredients such as apple cider vinegar, orange peels, cinnamon, and coffee.

Pecan-shell mulch. Crush nutrient-rich pecan shells to use as mulch and stimulate plant growth.
Baking soda-vinegar soil test. Find out your soil’s pH, which will dictate what kind of additives will result in optimal growth, with this easy test: If you add vinegar and it bubbles, it’s alkaline. If you add baking soda and it bubbles, it’s acidic.
Citrus oil spray. Steep 2 cups of soaked orange peels in 4 cups of boiling water in a covered pot until cool; strain to create a powerful, all- natural pesticide.
Lemon-seed starter. Grow seeds in lemon rinds with the pulp scooped out and a few holes poked in the bottom for drainage. When the seedling is ready, simply pop the lemon rind right in the soil; it will degrade over time and nourish the plant.
Coffee-ground fertilizer. Save your used coffee grounds and add them directly to your soil for an effective natural fertilizer.
Cinnamon root stimulator. Stimulate root and stem growth and protect against fungi by sprinkling cinnamon on your soil.
Garrett juice. Fight off pests and fertilize your soil with a simple concoction of 1 gallon of water, 1 cup of compost tea, and 1 ounce each of liquid seaweed, apple cider vinegar, and molasses.

Create Your Own Ecosystem

Native Texas plants last longer, conserve water, and enrich your soil. They also preserve the natural environment of your region. Here are three steps to creating your own little ecosystem.

Plant native. Native species preserve your area’s ecosystem and the local wildlife’s habitat. They also conserve water and respond to changing seasons better while helping prevent invasive plants that damage or overrun local ecosystems. Read more about ecological gardening here.
Collect rainwater. Lower your water bill by simply buying a rain barrel or leaving a large bucket outside. Texas even incentivizes rainwater collection by exempting the equipment from sales tax. Use these instructions to build your own.
Compost. Perhaps the best fertilizer you can use is one made from trash — literally. Create a compost at home to generate carbon- and nitrogen-rich organic material.

Reduce Your Water Use

The average family uses 60 to 80 gallons of water per person per day. During Texas droughts, that gets tricky. There are several ways you can take action to conserve water during a difficult drought season.

Recycle water. Boiling eggs in a pot of water? Use it to water your plants once it’s cool
Water by hand. Use a hose rather than sprinklers to double your efficiency and save more than 12,500 gallons a year.
Schedule an audit. If you use sprinklers, hire a certified irrigation specialist to check them.
Don’t over-fertilize or over-mow. Leave your lawn at 3 to 4 inches during drought months. It’ll help shade roots and reduce water needs.
Water less when it’s overcast. The water will evaporate more slowly.
Time your watering. Water between 4-9 a.m., before the sun is too hot.
Upgrade to drip lines. New technologies water directly your plants’ root zone.
Hydrozone. Plant varieties with similar water needs together for more efficiency.
Use a rain gauge. Measure how much water you really need to give.
Mulch early. It’ll reduce evaporation and keep soil cool.

Keep a Drought-Free Foundation

Texas’ notoriously elastic clay soil and unpredictable weather combine to make dangerous conditions for your foundation. To prevent your foundation from becoming too dry, watch for cracks and other changes in surfaces both inside and outside:

Window and door corners
Caulked drywall and plaster surfaces
Along concrete blocks (look for a staircase effect)
Ground floor, siding, and brick exterior
Gaps surrounding baseboards, cabinets, and outdoor trim
Areas where your exterior walls and foundation meet
Outside perimeter of the home

Contact your Texas Farm Bureau Insurance Agent to get the right policy to protect your home from any weather.