Best Foods To Grow At Home

We all wish that we could grow all of our own food in our backyards, and almost all of us attempt at least once to fulfil this dream. Yet 99 out of 100 of us will fail. Our failure is often a cumulative result of a lack of time, knowledge and patience.

And although it may be too great a task to grow all of one’s food ourselves – we would need close to 1/6 of an acre (674m2) to feed 1 person eating a vegan diet, or 5 acres to feed 1 person eating an omnivore diet; we can grow an abundance of greens and herbs for a whole family in just a few square meters.

In fact two square meters is all it takes to grow all of your herbs and spices, for all of your meals, all year long. Add another two square meters and you’ll supply your whole family (of four) with enough salad and cooking greens for every meal of the day.

And best of all; herbs, spices and greens, are the most nutritionally dense foods available in our diet. Eating just 1 serving of greens every day will exceed the majority of your recommended daily intakes of minerals and vitamins.

Unfortunately with store bought herbs, spices and greens, most of the nutrients are lost from the drying or processing, and are further declined by long storage or time in transport. Vitamins in particular rapidly reduce after just a few hours of picking a leaf from the plant.

Ironically herbs, spices and greens are the easiest vegetables to grow and rarely suffer from pests or diseases – due to their high mineral and vitamin content. They are also one of the most expensive food items to buy at the store, due to their high perishability and labour intensive harvesting (they have to be picked by hand). They are also ready to begin harvesting after the first 4 weeks, and can continue to be harvested for several years. So start your food growing adventure in just four square metres of highly productive and health promoting greens, herbs and spices. For more information about gardening in Perth contact Mitchs Gardening.  

The Secret to Growing a Beautiful Trouble-Free Garden

Now you may be expecting me to talk about low maintenance plants, efficient water use, maybe even ground breaking landscaping practices – but I’m not. Quite simply none of that matters, unless you get the most important crux of all your gardens success right. What I’m talking about is soil.

Gardening Services Perth wa

            Gardening Services Perth wa

And nowhere is creating good soil more important than right here in Perth. Every day as I drive around town quoting and managing jobs I see hundreds of gardens absolutely struggling – lawns yellow and full of weeds and garden beds filled with sickly looking plants.

Listen in closely. You’re missing the most crucial key to gardening success. You’ve likely never been told about it, everyone’s heard about mulch, water wise irrigation and planting the right plants. But almost no one talks about soil texture.

Water repellent, dry dusty SAND. That’s your problem. The fix is easy though, when you know some basic soil science. Here in Perth we have just that – SAND. Our “soil” has no clay or silt, and because of that all of the precious organic matter we keep adding just blows away in the wind. There is nothing there to hold onto it – no silts or clays.

Thankfully sand is the easiest of soils to work with. It’s much easier to add clay and silt to sand than it is sand to clay based soils. Another great thing about sandy soils is that because they are so loose, they almost never have any excesses – with the exception of calcium, if the soil has limestone in it; or sodium if the water we are irrigating with is salty, which most of our older Perth bores are.

Being so open and leachable isn’t a good thing though because ALL of the nutrients are leeched out of the soil, not just the excesses. Which means we need more fertilizer and our plants need more specialized care.

Clay, clay, clay! Add it to your sandy garden soils. The best clay I’ve used is Kaolin clay, followed closely by its very similar cousin bentonite. Both clays will permanently change your sandy soil to dark rich loams that will build in fertility year upon year - without much input from you.

Garden Services Perth

Garden Services Perth

The best builders of soils are plants, a story for another article. But you need to start the process by balancing your soil first and foremost with the correct amount of clays and silts.

For vegetable gardens and tropical gardens which have plants that demand deeply fertile soils I recommend mixing in 10-15kg of clay per m2 – don’t go over 25kg though, or you’ll end up with gluggy, wet clayey soil.

For Mediterranean and exotic gardens (roses, perennials etc) aim for 7-10kg per m2. And for native gardens adding just 5-7kg per m2 will be enough to change your water repellent dusty soils into free draining, water absorbent goldmines for natives.

Mix the ratio you choose into the top 30cm of the soil for new garden beds or rake it into the top 15cm of soil around plants in established gardens. Remember to always water the soil to help the clay bind to the sand and organic matter – this will jump start the soil building process.

Finish the project with a 100-150mm layer of course wood chip mulch and within 6 months you’ll have the richest soil for Garden Services in Perth. You can then grow anything to your heart’s desire without a worry.

Power Training For Plants

Gardening Services Perth wa

With every cut you are training your plant. That’s the best pruning tip I can give you, aside from the technique it’s all about the purpose behind every cut you make. Plants are extremely predictable and the most obedient and easy to train organisms on earth.

So before you use your tools, take a step back and think about what you want this plant to look like in 50 years, 30 years, 10 years, 5 years, this year and next year – in that order. Start with the end goal in mind, then work backwards to what you need to do today to achieve it.

If everyone planted a tree with the intention of that tree growing into its maturity, we would all treat our young plants very differently. You see good form and strength in a mature tree is established and then maintained from the day you plant the tree – it’s not something you do for the first time 10 years after you’ve planted it. The first 5 years are the most important pruning years.

So what are the principles we are pruning to, well here’s my list ordered from most important to least.

1.    Removal of suckers from base

2.    Correcting the overall form and shape of the plant

3.    Correcting to the desired size and away from hazards

4.    Removal of overcrowded or unwanted growth

5.    Removal of damaged, diseased, fused or weak growth

So why is this best order? Well each of these points has a flow on effect. Suckers from the base of the tree if left to grow will ruin the form of the plant. Poor form makes it hard to prune to the desired shape and away from hazards, the suckers also tend to grow much faster than the rest of the tree.

With such fast growth and poor form branches becomes overcrowded and start rubbing and hitting each other. As branches are damaged by each other they lose their protective layer – the bark; and become susceptible to diseases.

Following these 5 points whenever you are pruning or training a plant will ensure that the plant will continue to flourish for years to come. We'll cover each of these points in greater detail in the following blogs so you have a firm understanding. Click here to know more.

How to Achieve Higher Rental Returns FAST

You've done your research, purchased in a good suburb and now your property is tenanted and covering your costs ... and hopefully a little extra too! But how can you maximize your investment and get the best return on your money?

Tenants love low maintenance and low responsibility. Your property probably looked immaculate when you put it up for rent; gardens were weed free, hedges straight and lawns lush and green. You put a lot of work into making sure it looked its best. 

But in all likelihood your tenants won't love your garden as much as you do. They may keep the house in order; to keep the agent happy on the next inspection but the gardens are another story…

 

Garden Services Perth

Garden Services Perth

Research by REIWA found that rental properties with well-maintained gardens rent up to 4x faster than untidy properties. Tenants were also far more likely to search for properties with neat gardens in a flooded market. So it pays to ensure your property is looking its best when you put it up for lease. In another study researchers found that tenants are 83% more likely to extend their lease if the property has a gardener maintaining the gardens regularly.

In today’s world everyone is busy, stressed and desperately running out of time. It’s no wonder that tenants are snapping up rentals that have regular gardeners. And it’s easy to see why these properties can charge a premium.

 Remember, if you are thinking about hiring a professional gardener to maintain your rental property, make sure it’s written into the tenancy agreement and the rent is increased to cover the costs of garden maintenance – otherwise you might be left short changed. 

Regular garden cleaning services & maintenance is a win-win. It keeps tenants happy for longer, and increases the value of your property allowing you to attract better tenants and a higher rent or resale value.

Garden Maintenance = Higher Rental Returns

Your investment is making a return. You've done your research, purchased in a good suburb and now your property is tenanted and covering your costs ... and hopefully a little extra too! But how can you maximize your investment and get the best return on your money?

Tenants love low maintenance and low responsibility. Your property probably looked immaculate when you put it up for rent; gardens were weed free, hedges straight and lawns lush and green. But in all likelihood your tenants won't love your garden as much as you do. They may keep the house in order; to keep the agent happy on the next inspection but the gardens are another story..

 Research shows that rental properties with well maintained gardens rent up to 4x faster than untidy properties. Tenants were also far more likely to search for properties with neat gardens in a flooded market. So it pays to ensure your property is looking its best when you put it up for lease. In another study researchers found that tenants are 83% more likely to extend their lease if the property has a gardener maintaining the gardens regularly.

 It’s no wonder that 71% of property owners in 2012 had their rental properties maintained by a professional gardener once a month. Keeping the gardens looking great not only increased the length of the tenancy and the satisfaction of the tenants; but it also increased the net profit from the property - even after gardening expenses were paid for.

 In today’s society everyone is busy, stressed and desperately running out of time. It’s no wonder that tenants are snapping up rentals that have regular gardeners. And it’s easy to see why these properties can charge a premium.

 Remember if you are thinking about hiring a professional gardener to maintain your rental property, make sure it’s written into the tenancy agreement and the rent is increased to cover the costs of garden maintenance. With regular maintenance the gardening costs will decrease over time, as the gardens become easier to maintain; but the perceived value of the property will increase, allowing you to increase the rent, and your net profit.

 Regular maintenance is a win-win. It keeps tenants happy for longer, and increases the value of your property allowing you to attract better tenants and a higher rent or resale value.

Tips to Grow Best Foods At Home by Experienced gardeners in Perth

                       

We all wish that we could grow all of our own food in our backyards, and almost all of us attempt at least once to fulfill this dream. Yet 99 out of 100 of us will fail. Our failure is often a cumulative result of a lack of time, knowledge, patience.

And although it may be too great a task to grow all of ones food ourselves – we would need close to 1/6 of an acre (674 m 2) to feed 1 person eating a vegan diet, or 5 acres to feed 1 person eating an omnivore diet; we can grow an abundance of greens and herbs for a whole family in just a few square meters.

In fact two square meters is all it takes to grow all of your herbs and spices, for all of your meals, all year long. Add another two square meters and you’ll supply your whole family (of four) with enough salad and cooking greens for every meal of the day.

And best of all; herbs, spices and greens, are the most nutritionally dense foods available in our diet. Eating just 1 serving of greens every day will exceed the majority of your recommended daily intakes of minerals and vitamins.

Unfortunately with store bought herbs, spices and greens, most of the nutrients are lost from the drying or processing, and are further declined by long storage or time in transport. Vitamins in particular rapidly reduce after just a few hours of picking a leaf from the plant.

Ironically herbs, spices and greens are the easiest vegetables to grow and rarely suffer from pests or diseases – due to their high mineral and vitamin content. They are also one of the most expensive food items to buy at the store, due to their high perish ability and labour intensive harvesting (they have to be picked by hand). They are also ready to begin harvesting after the first 4 weeks, and can continue to be harvested for several years.

So start your food growing adventure with professional Perth gardeners in just four square metres of highly productive and health promoting greens, herbs and spices.

Practical Approach to Choosing a Provider of Reliable Gardening Services Perth

                       

Not everyone has the time for gardening. That’s why there are commercial gardeners that one can work with in order to achieve their desired gardening goals. Commercial gardeners normally take responsibilities based on their agreements with clients. 

Professional gardeners Perth will provide top quality services and deliver even with no supervision. It’s for that reason that many individuals and organizations seek the services of such gardeners to remove some tasks off their shoulders, believing that such tasks will be performed flawlessly. Commercial gardeners also ensure that they avail themselves whenever they’re needed so that they fit in within the client’s schedule. 

There are numerous companies that provide gardening services in Perth. Every client will therefore have to make a choice on which gardener to work with whether they need garden maintenance Perth or a new landscape development.

So, how should one go about choosing a gardener?

There is no doubt that most people looking for a gardener will first resort to the internet. Of course every serious gardener has a presentable website containing the necessary information for a client to have a clear picture of the company and the nature of its services. Most gardeners provide information about their former and current clients. Such information provides a picture of the kind of clients that a company has worked with, aiding in making a decision.

Although it isn’t a guarantee that a good website means a company is genuine, it’s a good place to begin to know how serious a company is. It however doesn’t have tobe a graphical website made using flash or other powerful graphic software. All that’s important is that the website provides adequate information and is equally presentable. 

For companies that have their profiles on review websites, you may want to check their clients’ feedback. In this case, however, you’ll have to use your discretion to gauge how genuine such reviews are.

After gathering information, you may want to make a few phone calls to inquire more about the gardeners Perth you’ve shortlisted. 

                         

The next thing to ask them is the nature of their design, development and garden maintenance Perth services. In most cases, you’ll need a gardener who’ll be available when you’re around to supervise the progress of the work, particularly when it’s your first engagement with the company.

In case a company mentions that it’s a member of any professional association, you can check it up to see whether they are actually members. Most of the associations have strict membership requirements to ensure that every member company delivers professional services according to their advertisements.

Once you’ve made the necessary research and related inquiries, you can then proceed to request for quotes. This could be based on approximation or accurate pricing after site assessment.

The final stage is making a decision on which gardener to work with. This should be guided by their track record, availability, capacity to deliver, and their pricing. By ensuring that you leave no aspect untouched, you’ll end up with the best service provider.