Preparing the Soil

Before planting, amend the soil in the garden with compost. For potted gardens, choose high-quality potting mix for your container. A fact often overlooked by gardeners is that the secret to robust, pest- and disease-resistant plants is using rich and healthy soil or good quality potting mix from the very start. (Check out GreenHearts' very own soil-less potting mix brands.) When re-using containers, be sure to scrub them clean using a little detergent or bleach as an extra precaution. You never know what diseases it could be passing on to its new tenant.

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Good Air Circulation

Even plants need breathing space. Plants crowded together are prone to disease because of poor air circulation. The muggy conditions encourage a variety of diseases to develop, and pests and fungi spread more easily from plant to plant. Make sure to provide the right amount of space between pots or between plants you put in the garden.

In commercial nurseries, they use large, industrial fans to keep their plants happy with the air they breathe.

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Correct Watering and Feeding

Encourage sturdy, healthy growth with the proper amounts of watering and fertilizing. It is best to water early in the day. If you must water late in the afternoon, do it early enough to give plants time to dry before the sun sets or water directly into the soil and avoid wetting the foliage. Wet leaves provide an excellent nesting ground for disease to grow in overnight.

When fertilizing, follow label instructions carefully. Putting more fertilizer than necessary doesn't mean you get a healthier plant. It could mean you'll end up with a burnt and dead one. Plants constantly on the verge of being over-fed also tend to be more susceptible to diseases and pest problems. The use of organic foliar feeds at the right amounts, however, tends to help improve plants' resistance to diseases and pests.

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Regular Cleanups

Pick off pests and diseased leaves regularly. This prevents a problem from spreading to healthy parts of a plant. Don't leave diseased plant material lying around and don't throw them into the compost pile either. Burn them or send them out with the trash.

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Pruning Properly

Cutting off diseased branches and removing crowded growth is a useful way of limiting pests and diseases. Some infestations are eradicated easily this way and reducing the humidity by decongesting plants prevents the onset of various diseases. When pruning diseased plants, take the extra effort of dipping your pruning tool into household bleach after each cut to prevent spreading the disease to the next plant.

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Mulch

A mulch is a soil cover such as grass clippings, moss, coconut shells, wood chips, ground corn cobs, pebbles or newspaper (black and white pages only) spread around the base of a plant. Among its many, many benefits, mulch prevents dirt from splashing onto the undersides of leaves when it rains thus lessening the spread of soil-borne diseases.