Top Ten Steps to Prevent Diseases in Your Garden

Having a garden is a wonderful opportunity to grow your own fresh vegetables and flowers. But, gardens also tend to bring diseases to plants, as bugs and germs love the green as much as we do.

Here are the top 10 ways to prevent garden diseases from striking your garden.

1.Have a clean garden. When you're planning your seed planting this spring, start with an area that's clean and free from last year's vegetables. Diseases can harbor on old plants and then easily transfer to your new growing plants.

2.Buy a high quality seed. Sure you can run to Wal-Mart and pick up seeds for 10 cents a package, but what good is the money savings if your plants don't grow? Pick a high quality seed, and don't use seeds from your previous year's planting. They can harbor left over diseases that will transfer into your new garden.

3.Rotate your vegetables. If you can, try to use different areas this year over where the same plants were last year. If potato bugs are present for instance, you want to move your potatoes away from their previous breeding ground and give them a chance to die off.

4.Plant at a time that's right for your zone. Don't plant your seeds to early. It will slow growth if it's too cold for your seeds. This gives plant bugs and diseases and opportunity to find your seeds before they germinate.

5.Mulch your plants. When you water your plants, you can prevent diseased soil from splashing up onto your plants by applying mulch near the base of the plant. It also holds in moisture, which is great for the roots.

6.Keep space. Don't plant your plants too close together! This can harbor disease in wet and moist soil.

7.Water early. Water as early in the day as you can. Watering at night keeps the soil wet longer, which damp soil can promote disease.

8.Remove diseased leaves. Removing diseased leaves, plants, vegetables or fruits as soon as it is noticed will prevent the disease from spreading to other plants.

9.Fertilize. But don't over-fertilize! High levels of nitrogen will harm young plants, making them susceptible to disease and bacteria.

10.Keep away bugs. If you notice insects have hit up your plants, remove or treat those plants immediately. Bugs promote disease in your garden.

In a perfect world, our gardens would be naturally disease and insect free. Reality is, bugs and bacteria are out there. If we want to insure our garden is at it's healthiest, you need to stay diligent and keep the disease out of your garden. It can be done!