ISO Gardening Advice
Hi everyone!
I moved into an apt with a HUGE, extremely overgrown backyard a year ago. It was infested with mosquitos over the summer and unusable. I have some gardening experience but this is an enormous project. My priorities are:
1. Make the yard less habitable for mosquitos by 1) weeding, 2) planting species they don’t like.
2. Planting native and pollinator-friendly species
3) Starting up compost.
Looking for any and all advice on free/affordable tools, soil, seeds and plants, tips on composting in brooklyn, best practices for weeding, mosquito control, etc.
rebecca3green
in Garden 1 year and 2 months ago
2
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sjdv | 1 year and 2 months ago
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Congrats on the garden! Getting rid of any standing water definitely helps with the mosquito issue — although neighbors may not always cooperate. I haven’t found supposed mosquito repelling plants to really work, although citronella scented geraniums are nice in a container near a patio for the scent and the illusion of control. There is a great book called the Northeast Native Plant Primer that has info on hundreds of native/pollinator plants and I find it very helpful when doing some plant dreaming. It is available at BPL for checkout. The Brooklyn Botanic Garden offers classes on garden basics – not free, but many are reasonably priced. For composting if you have a community garden nearby they are usually a great source for composting tips. GrowNYC also occasionally has virtual workshops. Also worth seeing if you have a neighborhood plant exchange group – I’ve been able to get some free cuttings and seeds that way.
cate | 1 year and 2 months ago
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Hi there and welcome. Something that does wonders to keep down the weeds is to cover them with cardboard and mulch for about three months or longer. We did this for about four months over the winter one year. Worked wonders. Keep covering with mulch every six months or so, and do weed every spring and fall but there will much less weeding and less often. Our very bad mosquito problem was solved when standing water in neighboring gardens was removed. Fans help.