7. Keep Your Herbs from Blooming
Supplies Required: Knife or clean, sharp scissors
Making It: $10–$15* In relation to herbs, here’s another tip for you. While it may be tempting to allow herbs to flower as soon as possible because many of them contain edible blossoms, you shouldn’t do that if you want them to have a long life cycle.
Keep your herbs from flowering.
When a plant flowers, its life cycle is almost over. Prevent flowers by cutting back the herbs so they are only concentrated on growing leaves. Allowing an herb to flower too early in the growing season is not a good idea. If you come across any, use a knife or a pair of clean, sharp scissors to cut off the flower buds.
8. Give your plants a morning watering before it becomes too hot.
Supplies: watering can; estimated cost: $10–$15*
Given the warmer climate in the South, this trick is really useful if you live there. Water your plants first thing in the morning if you reside in a hot climate or in the North during the summer. In addition to keeping you from getting too hot in the garden, more water will seep into the ground rather than evaporate into the warm air.
Give your plants a morning watering before they become too hot.
When plants are watered in the morning, the stems, leaves, and flowers dry out faster. This allows the water to be absorbed more completely but also reduces the likelihood of it sticking around and encouraging the growth of fungi. Irrigate the plants carefully to reduce runoff and allow the water to seep into the soil.
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