Maintenance

Clean and repair garden tools regularly. When pruning infected sections out of diseased plants, be sure to clean the blades of your tool, with a mixture of bleach and water, after each cut, to ensure that you are not spreading the disease or fungus further.

Tend to your garden on a regular basis for early identification of pest problems or diseases, to ensure that soil and water requirements are sufficient to nourish plant life, and to remove unwanted weeds. Ten minutes a day can save you a lot of time and effort in the long run.

Weeds should be dealt with promptly before they set seed, by pulling them out, ensuring that you are removing as much of the root system as possible. As weeds grow more vigorously in bare patches, use ground covers and/or mulch to cover areas of bare soil.

Pruning your plants regularly will prevent them from growing out of control, save you the annual battle, and decrease the amount of yard waste. Just trim off the tips of new growth and let the waste break down into your garden.

If pruning an overgrown plant, never remove more than one-third of the plant. Make sure that you are removing old and new growth.

Certain plants benefit from pruning at different times during the season, so do some research to ensure that pruning is done at a time when it will not hinder the growth and development of the plant. For instance, fruit trees should be pruned in winter or very early spring so as not to interfere with their ability to produce fruit, and many flowering plants need to be pruned regularly to remove dead flowers so that they may produce new ones.