Do you love gardening and you are thinking about How to Start a Garden? Starting a garden from scratch as a beginner can be challenging but you can ease of this stress by breaking the process into manageable steps. Let’s guide you on the steps to having and enjoying delicious flavors and colorful blooms.
How to Start a Garden?
Although the fundamentals of gardening might change depending on your location, the season, the microclimate in your area, the type of soil, and the plants you choose, we’ve provided some general guidelines below to assist you in creating your first garden from scratch.
Consider What to Plant
Do you want to plant a vegetable garden? An herb garden? A flower garden? When selecting vegetables and herbs for your garden, consider what your family will eat or be open to trying new ones.
When choosing flowers for their color and scent, consider whether you want annuals that bloom for the majority of the summer but require yearly transplanting or perennials that bloom for a shorter period but come back year after year.
Both types of flowers, or even a combination of them, create beautiful gardens but will require different levels of care.
Pick the Best Garden Spot
Numerous kinds of flowering plants and almost all veggies require 6 to 8 hours of full light per day.
To determine whether areas of your yard receive full sun vs partial or full shade, you must examine it throughout the day.
If most of your yard is shaded, don’t panic. While many plants (such as hostas and outdoor ferns) will thrive in the shade, tomatoes cannot be grown there.
Test Your Soil
Until you are certain that the soil you have is suitable, there is no need to plant anything.
For container gardens, particularly those that are brand-new, soil testing may not necessarily be required, but it is crucial for raised beds that already exist and for all in-ground gardens.
Clear the Ground
Remove any sod and weeds from the area where you want to plant. Cut it out if you want results quickly—for instance if you want veggies this summer but it’s already spring.
Use a spade to cut beneath the sod. To make the sod removal process easier, cut it into portions.
The lasagna gardening method is easier to apply for a longer-term project: Five sheets of newspaper should be spread over your future garden; if your lawn is St. Augustine or Bermuda grass, double that amount.
Cover the newspaper with a 3-inch layer of compost or a mixture of topsoil and potting soil. Wet everything and bide your time. The paper and compost will take around four months to break down.
However, if you begin in the fall, you’ll have a ready-to-plant plot with lots of rich soil, no weeds, and no grass by spring.
Prepare Your Planting Beds
Before seeding or planting, loosen the soil in the new beds to facilitate the growth of new roots and provide them access to the nutrients and water they require.
There are two approaches: manual excavation or tilling with a machine like a rototiller. When a lot of adjustments need to be mixed in, the first way works well.
It’s simple to go overboard, though, and doing so can harm the structure of the soil. Small beds are easier to prepare by digging.
In either case, only work the soil when it is sufficiently damp to form a loose ball in your fist and sufficiently dry to crumble when dropped. It is more difficult to dig in too-dry soil, while too-wet soil might cause structural damage.
Pick Your Plants
While some spend months poring over catalogs, others just go to the garden center and pick up whatever catches their attention.
Selecting plants that are suited to your temperature, soil, and sunshine is crucial in either case. Here are some beginner-friendly plants that are easy to grow:
- Annuals: Cosmos, geraniums, marigolds, sunflowers, zinnias, impatiens, and calendula.
- Perennials: Black-eyed Susans, daylilies, lamb’s ears, pansies, phlox, purple coneflowers, and Russian sage.
- Vegetables: Cucumbers, lettuce, peppers, and tomatoes.
Start Planting
You can grow certain plants in the fall or late winter, such as pansies and kale, as they can withstand the cold.
However, because they like warm weather, tomatoes, and most annual flowers should not be planted until after the risk of frost has gone in your location.
The best periods to plant perennials are in the middle of spring and the fall.
Direct sowing of seeds in the garden yields easy results for many annual plants. Make sure you read the seed packet carefully to find out the planting depth, spacing, and time.
If you’re a daring novice, start indoor seeding a few weeks ahead of the last frost date to gain a head start on the growing season.
Garden centers sell containers or flats made specifically for seedlings and soil mixtures for seed starting.
Water at the Right Time
Water your seedlings every day so they never dry out. As the plants become larger, they taper off. Watering transplants frequently is also necessary until their roots take hold, around every other day.
After that, the frequency of watering will vary depending on your soil, humidity, and rainfall, but starting at once a week is an excellent idea.
You won’t need to water clay soil as frequently as sandy soil since clay soil dries out more slowly. Soil dries out faster in sunny, windy days than in cold, overcast ones. Still unsure? Three to four inches down, feel the earth.
It needs watering if it seems dry. For the water to soak in rather than run off, apply it gently and deeply. Water in the morning to reduce evaporation.
Mulch Your New Garden
Add a few inches of mulch to the soil to help keep moisture in and weeds out. You won’t need to water as frequently, and you’ll stop the germination of weed seeds by keeping sunlight off the soil. Just be careful not to cover your desired seeds with mulch, because otherwise, they might not sprout as well.
Pick from a broad range of mulches, such as river rock, shredded bark, and straw, each with specific advantages.
Bark, compost, or straw are examples of organic mulches that will feed the soil as they break down. If you’re planting a vegetable garden or an annual bed, pick a mulch that breaks down quickly. Use a mulch that will remain longer for perennials, like bark chips.
Maintain Your Garden Regularly
Keeping up with garden chores will help your garden realize its full potential as it starts to flourish. Prior to the plants wilting, water them. Before they go to seed, pull weeds. Remove any sick, dead, or dying vegetation.
Get rid of harmful insects by hosing them off, using insecticidal soap that can be bought at a garden center, or picking them off the plant and putting them in a basin of sudsy water.
Use a trellis, stakes, or tepee to support tall plants (like tomatoes). Harvesting vegetables as soon as they are ready is also advised.
Conclusion
You’ve made a great start toward creating a successful garden. With commitment and care, your garden can thrive and provide you with pleasure for many seasons to come.
Recall that gardening is an educational and exploratory process. Don’t be afraid to try new things, welcome the unexpected, and most of all, have fun!
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