5 Pieces of Advice Every Gardener Needs To Hear
Whether you’ve been living off the land for years or you’re planning out your first garden, gardening is a great hobby anyone can enjoy. But, before you break ground this spring, there are a few things that experts say you should know to get the most out of your garden.
From sun to soil, here’s the advice gardening experts think everyone needs to hear.
Start Small
Starting your first garden can be exciting and it’s easy to want to fill up all of your garden space with vegetables and flowers right away. But gardening experts advise that you start out small with your first garden. If you start out with a large garden, it’s easy to become overwhelmed or burnt out and lose your passion for gardening.
Start with a few flowers or a couple different kinds of vegetables first, and then gradually add more plants as you get more comfortable and confident in your abilities. That way, you’ll know how much time and energy you can realistically put into your garden, and how many different plants you can actually manage.
Know Your Planting Zone
When choosing what plants to grow in your garden, you must first consider the conditions of where they’re going to be growing. Does it snow in the winter? How cold or hot does the temperature get? It can be confusing to try to figure out what plants will grow best in your area versus what plants won’t grow at all. Lucky for you, knowing your USDA hardiness zone makes this easy. All you have to do is look up your state or region to easily find your planting/hardiness zone.
Your hardiness zone determines what plants will grow best in your area and what plants will whither and die. It will also tell you when to expect the last frost of the year, so that you can know when to start planting vegetables, fruits, and flowers after winter in your area. Knowing your hardiness zone is helpful when buying plants or seeds from a nursery. You can check the care instructions on hardiness zones to know how to care for the plant, including if it needs to be brought inside for winter or not.
Don't Forget About The Sun!
As important as hardiness zones are, they’re not the only thing that determines what’s going to survive in your garden. You also need to consider the sun! If you want to put in a backyard garden, you need to take a look at how much sunlight your backyard gets. Are there lots of trees that provide shade, or does most of your yard get full sun all day? Sun exposure determines not only what you can plant in your garden, but also where you want to put your garden.
You need to match the natural conditions of your space to whatever plants grow best in those conditions. For example, when planting a vegetable garden, you have to consider that most vegetables need at least eight hours of direct sun every day. So if your backyard is shady, it might be better to plant something different that can thrive in the shade, like cool-weather crops. Or, you could find a better spot to put your vegetable garden that gets more natural sunlight.
Soil is Important
Soil is another important part of your garden that you probably need to be paying more attention to. Contrary to popular belief, soil quality is more important than fertilizer when it comes to growing the best plants. The best soil for gardening has a structure that is crumbly and easy to dig, easily accepts water, and is loose enough that oxygen can get to the plant's roots.
While not all soil is right for gardening, there are things that you can do to get your soil to where you want it. If your soil isn’t right for gardening (too dry, too hard, etc.), bring in garden soil and mulch to lock in moisture. As you garden, the surrounding soil can become healthier and support your plants, but it’s important to start with healthy soil first.
Transplanting Perennials
Finally, no matter if you’re growing your own starters or picking perennials up from your local nursery, every gardener needs to know how to transplant these plants properly. First, make sure you dig a hole that is twice as wide as the soil ball of the plant so that the roots have enough space to get established. Make sure that when you place the plant in the hole it is sitting at the same depth that it did when it was in the container. Then, fill in the area around the plant with the same soil that you dug out to make the hole instead of adding new bagged soil.
Remember, it takes three years for perennials to reach their full size. The saying ‘sleep, creep, and leap’ describes how you should expect most perennials to grow over the first three years after you plant them.