Backyard gardening is one of the trending activities most people have embraced to earn a living and also manage their expenditure on food. If you are one of those that have taken on farming as a livelihood, below are some mistakes to avoid.

Don’t use fresh manure

Teopista Acheng, a backyard gardener said gardeners use fresh manure, which hasn’t dried. This is wrong because such manure that is still in the process of decomposing contains worms that could damage your plants, hence giving you poor yields. She advises gardeners to use manure that has dried and is worm-free so that their plants can grow well.

Improper knowledge of backyard farming

Acheng noted that learning doesn’t stop, so no one knows it all. “Keep reading and learning new things so that you can keep up with the trends in backyard gardening. This will help you do things the right way, which will help you increase your yields.”

Not knowing how to propagate

For continuous growth and accumulation of plants in your backyard garden, you must understand the art of propagating your plants because most plants have no roots.

This fact is also not clear to most backyard gardeners who may sell or eat everything in their gardens, thus ending up with no seedlings. “Many end up incurring costs where they pay other gardeners to propagate their gardens on their behalf or sell them more plants. Propagation leads to growth and accumulation of plants in backyard gardens,” she said.

Placing plants on ground

Maureen Bisaso, a gardener said most backyard gardeners have not realised the danger of placing plants on the ground. This causes them to lose their plants to pests and insects.

Bisaso noted that placing plants on the ground exposes them to damage from rats, insects, worms, and running water. Besides that, some plants like Rosemary don’t do well when placed on the ground. They need sunshine which they can get when raised up.

Not taking care of the backyard garden

“Not taking care of their backyard garden is one of the greatest mistakes gardeners make. They leave their gardens under the care of a maid or children, who only spoil the plants,”

Margret Katono, a gardener at Acrocrop in Magere said. She added that taking care of your backyard garden involves so many things that the people you delegate it to might not execute aptly.

Some of the activities involve checking your plants to see if they are growing well, weeding the garden, watering it, and examining your plants daily. Let us be passionate about our backyard gardens so that we attend to them with love and care for better yields,” she said.

 ­Not spraying plants

Katono noted that plants that are not sprayed are most likely to be destroyed by pests and insects. So, spray the plants and follow the instructions.