Gardening is a wholesome and healthy hobby that anyone can take part in. If you have been curious about how you can become a gardener, or you simply want to improve your skills, the best thing to do is some research. Here are some tips to help you start a garden in Los Angeles.
Be Aware of Local Species
Different plants do well in different regions because of differences in weather, temperature, and even soil type. For this reason, it is important to know what species do well in your area. Knowing what will thrive when you plant goes a long way in making you a successful gardener.
There are 30,000 species of weeds, 10,000 species of insects that eat plants, and 3,000 species of nematodes. When you plant a food crop, it has to compete with all of those, and so you must know which plants are best placed to survive threatening species.
Consider Los Angeles Weather
As mentioned, the weather plays a crucial role in the plant types that will thrive at a specific place. The best time to plant heat-loving plants in Los Angeles is in May because by this time, the cold is all gone and has been replaced by warmth that will last well into August. Since the cold will start to settle in late August, this is the month in which you should start to plant crops that do well in cooler weather.
Use Water Wisely
While watering your crops is important for their survival, you need not overdo it. With a report from Nielsen done in 2018 saying that 81% of consumers around the world strongly feel that companies should protect the environment, it is important for us as individuals to do the same. This could start with watering plants and cleaning up after gardening. Since water runoff from residential areas ends up in the oceans, it is important to make sure that harmful cleaning agents and toxic weed killers are not part of this water waste. Also, give the plants just enough water because some plants actually rot from an excessive amount.
Plant Foods You’ll Actually Eat
You may decide to go all out and plant every seed you come across, but what will you do with the harvest if there is no one to give it to, and you do not want to eat it? This will result in a wastage of resources that could have been put to better use. When you plant foods that you will eat and that will improve your health, you will get a great return on the investment of water and other things that went into growing the crops.
Make It a Family Effort
Involving your spouse and children will make it more fun and worthwhile, and the children may put up less of a fight eating their greens when they grew them themselves. Their health is bound to improve thanks to consuming more vegetables with fewer chemicals in them. With 88% of Americans marrying for love and romantic reasons, introducing a hobby that can involve your partner will result in quality bonding and may decrease any stress you have between the two of you. Since it won’t be expensive to get the supplies you need, this is an activity that you can try out with minimal investment.
Starting a garden is a great hobby for a number of reasons, chief of which is that you will be able to feed yourself with the results of a garden you planted, improving your health. Few things offer more gratification than starting a beneficial hobby, so think about starting your Los Angeles garden today and skip a few trips to the grocery store!
