Not everyone has a beautiful garden, but you should not be discouraged by gardening. New fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers will make your yard healthier and better off within your budget. But if you are a first-time gardener, you must know many things before planting. Here are 21 specific gardening tips and tricks to start your home garden. The following content also has some reference value for raised garden beds.
Let's start to see what are the 21 simple gardening skills and techniques for beginners.
1. Choose what to plant
Effective gardening starts with knowing which plants can grow in your place of residence. Packaging seed and plant labels will tell you what grows best in your field.
In family gardens, some people prefer to grow vegetables. Others may be more interested in transforming their yard with beautiful flowers. However, most people still like to plant flowers, vegetables and fruits in the garden as a comprehensive solution. First, understand your intentions and choose the plants you want to plant in your field.
A more useful information is the length of the plant growing season. This is an annual cycle, and the temperature is kept above freezing point during the day and at night. Knowing the growing season is especially useful for growing annual plants, such as most vegetables in the garden and some flowers that only live one year.
2. Select the best growing place
Knowing what you want to plant will give you a better idea of where the best place to have a garden is in your yard. Some plants prefer direct sunlight, while others prefer shade.
3. Soil testing
Use a household soil test kit to test the pH of your land, or send a sample to the laboratory to ensure that your soil is safe enough to grow plants. Most fruits and vegetables (except melons, potatoes and eggplants) can tolerate different pH values, but they are usually between 6.5 and 7.
Testing soil nutrients is a key step in effective horticulture. In addition, testing these different nutrients, including potassium, nitrogen and phosphorus, is also essential in this step. If your test results are incorrect, you need to take some time to fix these shortcomings.
4. Think of the elevated garden bed
When you are not familiar with gardening, you want to prepare for future success, and the elevated garden bed may be the most sensible method, although it may require more preliminary work.
In the elevated garden bed, you can better control the soil and more easily control weeds and pests. Most horticultural service experts also recommend that inexperienced gardeners make elevated beds. They are very helpful in separating plants as needed. You will plant various plants on the elevated bed, and all plants will gather in their respective parts.
5. Design the basic structure of the garden
Now that you have known your soil conditions, the types of plants that can be planted, and the location of the new garden, take some time to design before starting work. It will enable you to carefully examine the proper optimization of the space.
6. Get some equipment
In the modern world, a great deal of equipment and infrastructure help to improve the efficiency of horticultural activities. But they don't need a lot of resources or a lot of investment. You don't need all kinds of equipment to train gardeners, but gardeners need some important types of equipment to start.
If you don't have the necessary equipment or tool kit, you can easily fall into serious confusion. Breathable waterproof gloves, pruning shears, pruning shears, hand trowels, shovel, rakes, hoes, garden forks, hoses with adjustable nozzles, watering sticks or buckets, and trolleys are some important items.
7. Don't forget to use the Seed Starter Kit
Using the included seed kit is a simple, almost reliable way to germinate your plants. These single purpose or multi-purpose trays provide the best conditions for your seeds to germinate.
This can help you start the planting process indoors when it is too early to plant outdoors, and then put it in the field when it is good enough.
8. Labeling plants in your garden may benefit
9. Use planting partners
Associated planting Various crops are planted in the same area for various purposes, including optimizing space utilization, providing nutrients and preventing pests. Some species thrive when planted close to each other, while others hinder each other's growth.
For example, tomatoes (when they do coexist with basil) produce higher yields, catch mosquitoes and fly away. Some of tomato's allies are asparagus, cabbage, marigold, parsley, spinach, celery, onions and lettuce. Stay as far away from beets, corn, fennel, dill, potatoes, cabbage and rosemary as possible, and away from enemies.
10. Start with simple small steps.
Taking care of plants requires some time and dedication. It's easy to get carried away with the enthusiasm of planting everything in the sun, but it's better to start with simple and small plants so that you can take care of every plant as much as possible.
11. Mix different plants to create your garden
You don't have to be limited to growing vegetables or strictly planting herbs. When it appears on your plant, please feel free to change it. Keep growing your vegetable garden with these herbs. Some plants are natural partners and do not always grow the same flower.
12. Provide enough space for normal growth of plants.
Plants, like human beings, have personal space. They hope to have enough space for normal growth, because if other crops are too close, they will stagnate and spread diseases, unless they are accompanied by their plants.
13. Composting is the best solution for your garden
Composting is a natural and organic solution that you can apply to your garden to support plant growth. This can be anything from eggshell powder, tea bags, coffee grounds to ashes, grass dust and clothes.
Adding these things to the soil helps to maintain moisture, prevent pests and diseases, and promote the healthy growth of bacteria. Seeking ways to reuse waste can often reduce the carbon footprint.
14. Don't be afraid to use proper fertilizers - gardening techniques
Even if you decide composting is not your business, you should not skip soil improvement. Adding nutrients and minerals is an important step in land fertilization.
15. Weed removal - gardening techniques
Planting is just the beginning of garden work. You must stop the weeds. Weeds are bad for your garden because they will compete with the plants you want to grow for nutrients in the soil and valuable space in the greenhouse.
16. Mulch may be your closest partner - gardening skills
You may need to consider mulching based on the plants you are planting. Covering helps to provide nutrients to the soil, thus preventing erosion. The mulch also helps to remove weeds from the new garden.
17. Remember watering needs - gardening techniques
In addition, when planning your garden, how much water and watering frequency do each plant need to meet your needs. Plants need well water.
Just as fresh food can prevent you from withering in the sun, plants also rely on good use of nearby water resources to maintain pride and health. In some areas, your garden needs to be watered regularly to keep plants healthy.
18. Wait patiently for the beautiful garden.
Usually, good things take some time. According to this, planting plants takes time, so keep calm and wait patiently while you tidy up your garden.
19. Organize your seeds - gardening techniques
To ensure that the seeds are kept clean and not lost or discarded, find a way to store the packages correctly. A smart choice is to put them on the cover of a small album. In this way, you can turn the page and see exactly what you have, and they are all overwritten.
20. Properly store your seeds - gardening techniques
Keeping seeds alive requires proper storage. According to most studies, you want to keep the seeds at a constant temperature and humidity. Ideally, seeds should be stored at temperatures below 50 degrees Fahrenheit and humidity below 50 percent.
21. Don't forget crop rotation - gardening techniques
The way you grow has a significant impact on the soil around you. Planting the same plant in the same place every year means you are consuming the same nutrients every year. Crop rotation helps to replenish the garden soil.
Crop rotation can also upset common pests because their food supply changes every year. Instead of planting basil year after year, consider planting plants and flowers that you don't know you can eat.