Outdoor plants

Proper garden care can increase the quality and longevity of your outdoor plants, fruits, and veggies. Not only is enough sunlight a must for nearly every plant, but different plant species require different levels of care. If you want your outdoor plants, crops and beautiful flowers to withstand all seasons, it’s important to take good care of them. We know this all too well at Horticentre, that's why we have a wide range of outdoor plants and everything you need to keep them in good shape.

How to Care For Your outdoor plants

Plant care can be simple when you know what to do and when to do it! That's why we listed a few key care tips for maintaining a vibrant and healthy garden all year long:

1. Check the health of your outdoor plants

Whether your growing your outdoorplants from seeds or bulbs or  you've got them from nurseries. Always fully inspect your outdoorplants to make sure they are pest and rot free. Bringing in infected or diseased plants can harm your whole garden. Aside from diseases, plagues like aphids, gnats, and whiteflies should be eliminated using a enviromental friendly pesticide or other effective sustainable extermination methods.

2. Water your outdoor plants properly

Overwatering can lead to unhealthy plants with issues like: fungi growth, leaf spots and rotten roots. So only water as often as necessary during the growing season for your specific plant species, and let the soil dry between waterings to keep from oversaturating. The trick is to keep your garden well-watered but not soaking wet. It's important to avoid wetting the foliage. Water your outdoor plants directly onto the soil staying clear of their leaves. This is easy to do when watering by hand, but if you want to automate things, opt for a drip irrigation system.

3. Keep the soil of your outdoor plants in good condition

Soil degrades over time and needs to be refreshed every so often. You can buy new quality soil. Make sure to check the quality of your garden soil and replace when necessary. Adding mulch is also useful for retaining the soil moisture of your garden. Mulch will keep weeds down while also supplying organic nutrition to your soil when it begins to degrade. Fertilizing your garden is another method to keeping your outdoor plants happy and healthy. Depending on the type of plant species you’re growing, use the right amount of fertilizer and apply appropriately to make sure you don’t overstress your plants.

4. Clean your gardening tools to keep your outdoor plants in the best shape

Garden tools should be cleaned to control disease and prevent transferring any bacteria, weeds or other unwanted elements into your garden. In addition to the other methods of garden care, clean tools can help keep your garden healthy longer!

5. Perform outdoor plant maintenance

Prune, and cull your plants as needed. Deadheading removes old flower blooms to encourage new growth. Pruning is cutting back the branches of your plants to control growth. Culling your plants will clean up the unhealthy bits and also create more space. These gardening tricks all promote growth, clearing out any possible hidden pests or undesirable parts, increasing room for your outdoor plants like flowers or vegetables to flourish. 

6. Destroy the weeds in your garden

Weeds are garden killers. Not only are they unpretty eyesight. They can damage the roots of your healthy plants and harbor all sorts of pests. Weeds take up space and resources that your plants could be using, so weeding your garden is a must to keep it healthy and growing.

7. Protect your outdoor plants from animals

 Set up a barrier around your garden bed, like a wire fence, to keep cats, birds, critters and other garden pests from destroying your plants. Wire fencing keeps your garden safe, while also keeping it visible and exposed to the sun!

8. Stake your outdoor plants when necessary

Staking your plants involves fixing sticks into the ground and tying your flower stems or other garden crops to them with garden wire. Staking your vegetables—like cucumber, pepper, or tomato plants—reinforces the stems and keeps them from bending or breaking, keeping them upright and healthy.

9. Companion plant your garden

Companion planting, or intercropping, is when you plant a variety of different crops together to increase growth, provide pollinators, ward off pests, and control the habitat for beneficial insects. Companion planting is a great way to keep your garden and flower beds in great shape by surrounding them with the right plants that will enable their successful growth.

10. Try raised beds in your garden

Adding raised beds or garden containers to your garden plans can increase your plant’s longevity. Raised beds are great if you want to start small, or plant a variety of sections like seedpotatoes or other bulbs. Raised beds come with a barrier, provide the necessary drainage, and help keep your garden bed safe from pathway weeds and other menaces.

Buying outdoor plants at Horticentre

At Horticentre we have a passion for outdoor plants and gardening. Come to our garden centre in Overton if you're looking for some expert advice on how to start, maintain or grow your garden. We're glad to help you with any questions you might have about outdoor plants. In our webshop you'll find the wide range of outdoorplants we stock. Have a look and have them delivered to your home.