Have you not yet gardened during this quarantine period? Or are you still thinking about being a novice gardener with no know-how and experience of gardening? Gardening is not a science, but an art that comes straight from the heart. If you wish but hesitate growing vegetables and fruits all around your yard, we have got you covered.
Below, we have pulled together some surprising tips and tricks to get you started. Read closely to arm yourself with some easy hacks to pro-gardening.
Familiarize with your garden:
Before you start to shovel around your garden and plant crops, build a bond with it. Take a note of your region’s temperature, weather and humidity conditions. Needless to say, not every plant grows everywhere. Learn more about the crops and plants that are best offered by your region and soil type. Peeking into your neighboring garden or talking to an experienced local gardener might help the cause.
The very next step on the list is to test the soil in your garden. Every piece of land retains a different kind of soil with varying nutrient and pH levels. Also, some soils are highly acidic, while others are more alkaline. To know your soil, take up a handful of soil and feel it.
Does it feel too gritty, clay-like, or too dry? In either case, the soil is not ready for planting. Add in sufficient mulch, compost, and fertilizers (if needed). Or you can collect a sample of soil and get it tested at your nearest laboratory. Once the reports roll out, you can add the right fertilizers to fill up any nutrients deficiency and attain a rich and fertile soil.
Take an easy start:
Easy growth is encouraging. Don’t get carried away by the fervor to grow everything at once. Plot your garden and start with easy plants. Growing sunflowers can be a brilliant idea since they are easy to grow and look luscious.
Adding to the list, vegetables can also do justice to your new talent. They demand little effort and grow fast. More importantly, if they don’t grow right, you can start over again without regretting your months-long effort going wasted.
Mapping out your garden:
Offer your shovel some rest till you’ve mapped out your garden. Visualize the big picture of your garden and devise a rough sketch to allot a specific area to each plant. Plot square or rectangular beds and plant seeds at a reasonable distance. Unless they are companions, too close plants can make your garden look over-crowded and congested when fully grown.
Use an artificial turf:
Deal all your gardening woes with artificial grass. If the weather is not so cooperative, or the sun is being too miser to shed some light on our garden, don’t sweat about it. An artificial turf would stand dazzling, with or without sunlight, posing no growth problems.
Further, no more worry about watering, maintenance, weeds, fertilizers, or pesticides but focus more on your plants and crops while you enjoy an all-time-green garden. An artificial greensward makes your garden look fresh and well-maintained at all times. While it seems costly initially, it will save much of your effort, time, and future cost of the upkeep.
Grab the right tools:
Can you imagine a kitchen without a knife, spoon and a fork? Don’t consider your garden any different. Since you can’t chop a radish with a butter knife, don’t try shoveling your garden with a flimsy tool. Investing in some essential gardening tools including a garden or scuffle hoe, gloves, hand trowel and pruners, and a basic shovel is a great idea to start off.
Mulch & compost:
Mulching your garden is inevitably a helpful move since it protects the soil against erosion and keeps it fertile. Or you can use organic compost to maintain a healthy garden for no cost at all. Just slide in all the organic waste ranging from eggshells, vegetable peels, and tea bags to lawn trimmings, into your soil. It fights diseases and pests while keeping your soil moist.
Don’t allow weeds to grow:
To your wonder, the worst enemies of your garden are weeds. These unsolicited volunteers spread around rapidly and rob the nutrients from soil. Make sure to root them out vigilantly as clinging seeds or left-back roots can provoke weed growth again. Use a weed grubber to pry them out of the ground entirely, leaving back no root traces.
You might be a top scorer at your high school, but gardening is different than just cramming. Beginner-gardeners are much likely to forget what they have sown and where. All thriving blurbs are visually similar, and you may end up scratching your head guessing the plant. To save the suffering, label all your crops as soon as you have planted them.
Most of the plants fetch their required moisture content from the soil with occasional watering. Develop regular watering patterns considering the individual needs of all your plants. Watering early morning stimulates the water soaking process of roots, helping the penetration of water through the soil. The rule of thumb for watering suggests watering your plants about one inch per week, in absence of rain.
If you are all set to nurture your garden, put on your neoprene gloves, gear up your gardening toolbox, wear on your gardening attire, and get started. Don’t fuss around becoming a green thumb, but enjoy the canvas of soil, to paint flowers, fruits, anything and everything. Not to forget, a gardener doesn’t make mistakes, but experiments. Happy gardening!