10 Gardening Tips Everyone Should Know

1.Growing season

Knowing how long your growing season is can make all the difference. Pay attention to when the last frost in spring is and when the first frost of the fall will be. This will help you plan which plants to grow altogether. If the growing season is not long enough, some plants will not be able to grow at all.

2.Deadheading

Deadheading, or pruning, wilted or spent flowers will tell the plant to create more flowers. Additionally, it can tell that plant to devote more energies to certain aspects such as root growth. By clipping the dead flowers, you are giving the plant new life.

3.Eight Hours Direct Sunlight

Vegetables need 8 full hours of sunlight each day. Make sure to look for the sunniest areas within your garden to plant vegetables so you can yield the most amount of veggies as possible!

4.Soil Quality

Only use composted, rotted manure that has cured for at the very least 6 months. Manure that is too fresh will actually kill new plants. Rich soil is important for plant growth and plant health. Make sure your soil has enough nutrients to support the plants you are specifically trying to grow.

5.Transporting Container Grown Plants

When you transport container grown plants to an outdoor garden, make sure to dig a larger hole than the soil ball attached to the plant. By digging a larger hole, you are giving the roots room to grow and establish themselves in the new location.

6.Proper watering

Most plants need a deep watering of about 1-2 inches once or twice a week rather than a light watering every day. If you are not getting significant rainfall, make sure to give your plants a deep watering. This soaks the soil all the way through the roots and does not encourage roots to grow upward.

7.Weeding

The best course of action for weeding is by hand. This keeps the weeds from seeding and growing even more. Pulling weeds by hands also do not disrupt any of the other plants too much. Weed early and often to keep your garden beautiful and uninterrupted.

8.Create a non-stick Shovel

Creating a non stick shovel will be more valuable than you could imagine. The shovel become more efficient and causes less effort on your end. Spray the head of your best shovel with a Teflon or silicone lubricant. This will cause all the dirt to slide off the shovel and creates less of a mess!

9.Restrict aggressive plants

There are certain types of plants that grow very aggressively and can tangle up roots and take over too much space. An easy way to prevent this from happening is to cut the bottom off of a plastic planter and place the aggressive plant in there. The planter contains the roots and forces them to grow down as opposed to spreading outward.

10.Protect your bulbs

To keep pests from eating your bulbs between seasons, place chicken wire over top the bulbs and keep it down with tent spikes. This will keep your bulbs safe and sound! When it comes times for the bulbs to start growing, remove the chicken wire.

How to Be an Effective Tutor

High quality tutors are a student’s best resource for obtaining assistance outside of the classroom. As a tutor, it is their duty to provide excellent service and experience to grow their student’s knowledge and understanding. There are some specific qualifications and personal attributes needed to be an effective tutor.

Establish expectations

The students seeking out tutoring need to understand they will not be experts overnight. They also will not see their grade change dramatically after the first tutoring session. Building understanding and proficiency may take time. Additionally, depending on the state of their grades, it may take more time to bring poor grades up.

Know the student

Not every student learns the same and a great tutor will take that into account. When tutoring, the same techniques or lesson plans should not be applied to all students. The reason they are there is to receive personalized, individual help and they deserve to get it.

Lay Ground Rules

Just like a classroom, a tutoring environment should have rules. It is important to have structure and to stick to it. Those rules are in place to help the student stay on track, get the most out of the session, and give the tutor hard lines to refer to in order to keep the session going well. These rules should be discussed and agreed upon by the student so that both student and tutor are on the same page.

Build and Maintain Trust

A student needs to know they are in a safe environment and that they can trust their tutor to do right by them. Tutors are committed to success of their students and that mutual trust should be there. Be willing to adjust your teaching style to help them and refrain from condescension. Negativity does not breed success and will ultimately hurt the student.

Give Positive Feedback

By giving positive and consistent feedback, the student knows how they are doing. They can use this to evaluate their own success and recognize that they could be doing better. Tutors should also encourage and let their students know when they are succeeding. This encouragement will only have them work even harder!
Tutoring should be a fulfilling experience for both student and tutor. The student should be gaining a greater understanding of subject material and the tutor should be seeing their attention and care having a positive effect on the student. Tutoring will not always be easy, but it will always be rewarding.