Spring has sprung and now it’s time to bust out your gardening tools and enjoy the fresh air. So many rewards come with gardening, but starting your very first garden can feel very overwhelming. Luckily, gardens can be surprisingly forgiving and the best way to learn is by diving in. Here are 10 tips to help get a new garden off on the right foot.
1. Jot Down Your Goals, Style & Design Ideas
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- Start searching the web and social media platforms (like Pinterest, Instagram, TikTok, etc.) and write down any ideas that inspire or speak to you. See if you can find a common theme that incorporates your favorite design ideas. Some themes could include an Asian-inspired Zen garden, simple yet cozy Cottage garden, or an Modern Industrial garden. Once you’ve locked down a theme/style, take a moment to jot down the activities and features you imagine enjoying in your landscape. If you have children, you may need a lot of open space for running around. Or perhaps you dream of relaxing in the middle of a big wildflower meadow — whatever it is, write it down.
2. Explore & Get to Know Your Gardening Site
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- Consider some of the following ideas that will help you get familiar with your property before starting your garden: Take a leisurely stroll around your property with a notebook and make a rough sketch of the existing planting areas. Create a garden “map” and note which areas get the most sun and which are shaded. Buy a simple soil test from your local garden center and it will tell you whether your soil is well-balanced in nutrients and pH. If you plan on growing fruits, veggies, herbs, etc. be sure to test your soil for any lead. You can send your soil samples to the Lead Safe America Foundation for a free lead test. Make note of your existing plants, fences, and paths and decide what is staying and what is going.
3. Make a Plan
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- No matter how big or small you want your garden, having a plan is key. If you’re not sure which plants to buy, visit a local nursery and take photos of the plants you like and might want to put in your garden. Look at the tags and note when they bloom, sun requirements, and water requirements. Pulling this information together into a sketched-out plan takes a little extra time, but will make for a more successful garden in the end. Choose plants that bloom in different seasons for year-round color, and be sure to pick plants with similar sun and water requirements to plant together.
4. Start Small
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- The bigger the garden, the more time and energy it will require to maintain. Examine what you want (say, a vegetable garden) and then scale it down (for example, plant one raised bed rather than six). You can always expand next year! This is also true for purchasing plants. It’s easy to get seduced by the bountiful plants at the nursery and come home with far too many. Remember, planting takes time, so buy only what you can comfortably get into the ground within the next day or two.
5. Acquire Basic Gardening Tools
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- Having the proper tools makes garden chores more pleasant — but don’t think you need to buy out the store on day one. Just a few tools and supplies should keep your garden running smoothly. The basics include: gardening gloves, shovel, trowel and weeding tool, long garden hose and spray nozzle, hand pruner, metal rake, and a leaf rake.
6. Mix Up Perennials & Annuals
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- A common beginning gardener mistake is to grab too many plants from the “annuals” section at the nursery, making for a garden that dies back within a single year. For longevity and color, go for a mix of perennials (plants that come back year after year) and annuals (plants that bloom and die within a single season).
7. Repeat Plants for a Cohesive Garden
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- One great way to give your garden a professionally designed look is to repeat the same plants and hardscaping materials in different places throughout the landscape. Avoid picking one plant of each type, as this tends to appear jumbled — even in a wild English cottage-style garden, plants look best when repeated or planted in clusters. The same goes for other materials: Choose just a few hardscaping materials for paths, pots, planters and outdoor furniture, and repeat, repeat, repeat.
8. Seeds + Starts = Affordable Mix!
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- Starting an entire garden from seed can save money, but it can also be incredibly frustrating. Purchasing only started plants is not only expensive, but it also may limit your choice of what to grow. The best option is usually a combination of the two: Pick up some started seedlings at your local nursery and start some of your own from seed. Good plants to start from seed yourself include lettuce, beans, radishes, marigolds, cosmos, sunflowers, and zinnias.
9. Grow What You Like
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- I know this may sound simple, but it’s something that even the most experienced gardeners tend to look over and forget. Just because it’s squash season, if you don’t like it, don’t grow it! Try devoting extra garden space to family favorites like snap peas, radishes, Tuscan kale and mini pumpkins for Halloween.
10. Further Your Garden Education
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- Seek out local workshops to learn more about gardening and connect with other gardeners in your community! Check plant nurseries, community gardens and botanical gardens in your area for free or low-cost workshops on a wide range of topics like using native plants, attracting pollinators, composting, container gardening, and creating a water-wise garden. Gardening is a lifelong learning experience, and even the most seasoned gardeners are learning all the time — so don’t beat yourself up if it seems that there’s too much to know. Just begin somewhere and take it one season at a time. The wonderful thing about gardening is that there’s usually room for do-overs.
I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your March! Until next month!
Resources: Houzz.com
