Tips from the Experts for Gardening Hobbyists
Are you a first-timer to gardening? Or are you a casual gardener who wants to keep a small with lovely blooms or vibrant greens? Either way, you’ve likely run into a pest problem or soil issue you’ve never had before. You may be feeling lost on how to fix it.
But don’t stress! Every gardener experiences this. Even experts and professionals on plant care have their own concerns.
To help you along, we’ve put this practical guide together! You’ll also find answers to the most pressing questions on gardening. You’ll also find top techniques every gardener needs to know!
Here, we give you a brief list of pro gardening tips and tricks for rookies and hobbyists. You’ll learn about planting your first plant seed. You’ll find out how to give daily treatment to your plants. You’ll discover how to move your seedlings to your plant bed. You’ll also learn how to cultivate your soil and pick your herbs.
Whatever your worries are, we’ve got your back! This practical guide has all the fundamental know-hows for any budding gardener.
Interested in a formal course? Want to get certified as a gardening expert? Look into organizations offering classes in floristry, like:
- American Institute of Floral Designers
- National Gardening Organization
- American Floral Endowment
- American Horticultural Society
Prepping Your Garden Bed
Before doing anything else, all gardeners need to prep their garden beds! Other gardening practices like building soil can get complicated without a good foundation. But no worries, we’re here to help!
Natural light, healthy soil, and water are the standard needs of any garden bed. But if you want to go all out, there are a number of steps you need to follow.
Clear away weeds, grass, and other vegetation from your desired area.
Wet the soil until it is moist. See to it that it’s not soaking wet.
Work the soil to about 12 inches deep.
Insert compost into your bed.
Cover the bed with mulch.
Top off with more compost to preserve moisture.
Prepping your garden bed varies with the kind of plants you wish to plant. But these are the fundamentals you can follow to ensure your bed is healthy! From here, you can get your lawn ready! You’ll soon have a garden of the best flowers and plant edibles!
Seed and Seed-Starting
So you’ve prepped your lawn or yard into a nourishing garden bed. Now you’re all ready to start planting seeds and cultivating them to fully flourish! With the proper care, you can look forward to radiant blooms and harvests of herbs and edibles.
To accomplish this, here are a few pointers from professional gardeners on seed starting! You’ll see the best ways to bury a seed into the soil and start them up on their growth progress.
Some gardeners think it’s alright to let your seed grow wild in any way they want. But experts don’t agree.
Years of experience with caring for our own gardens tell us otherwise. We say it’s best for beginners to start their gardens in a confined space. It’s much better for both you and your plants that you keep a close eye on them at all times. With this, you can adapt to and care for their needs in a more efficient way.
That said, here are a few practical tips for rookie gardeners sowing their first set of seeds into the soil!
Scatter your seeds in the bed and avoid overcrowding at all costs.
Store your supply of seeds in a dry and cool spot for longer shelf life.
Pat down the soil to make direct contact with the seeds.
Provide proper airflow and water drainage to prevent pests and plant disease.
Water them every day, and feed them well with a healthy mixture of fertilizer and plant food.
Give time to let your plants get used to direct light to ward off unwanted wilting.
Mulch
Both flower beds and vegetable gardens benefit a good deal from mulch. It gives your garden high levels of moisture retention and soil temperature regulation. It also helps ward off weeds better. You could never get these at top-notch quality with any artificial product or formula.
Every gardener needs to know when to use mulch and what amount of it to use. This is because mulch belongs to the most essential things a garden needs to thrive!
Whether you’re using grass clippings, wood chips, pine needles, stone, and rocks, or dyed mulch, here are the pros’ answers to some FAQs on mulch.
Should I steer clear of any kind of mulch?
Avoid grass trimmings from any lawn that’s been treated with weed killers in the past three to four weeks. If you have pets, particularly dogs, don’t use cocoa hull.
Aged mulch vs. New mulch?
In general, older mulch is better. It won’t sap the soil of its much-needed nitrogen and other nutrients. This is because they’ve already started decomposing.
When should I apply mulch?
Gardening pros say it’s best to apply the mulch in your flower garden bed in the early summer. Otherwise, you’ll risk damaging the roots of any plants you put in after.
How deep should the mulch go?
The standard rule on how deep mulch should go is a couple of inches from above ground. Experts say this is best for your plants. Top tip: Keep the mulch about at least a feet from your house’s foundation to prevent bug infestations.
Composting
The method of composting has been around about as long as flower gardening has. It’s only fair to assume everyone has at least a fundamental idea of composting or building good compost.
No matter what you know about it, here are a few tips to catch you up on the basics of composting!
We recommend that you set aside a dedicated workspace for your composting. With this, you can put compost in a bin to stock for longer use.
It’s also essential to optimize your compost for your garden bed. Start by moistening each layer as you put them in your compost bin and speed up the process.
Now you want your compost to be top quality. Compost is best when it has a balanced composition of brown (dry) and green (wet) materials. Otherwise, it can either heat up or smell bad.
So if one of these things takes place, examine the balance of green and brown in your compost. If it isn’t in proportion, add a bit more of whichever compost is less than the other. Make sure the perimeter of your workspace doesn’t block water and lets it drain out with ease.
Photo by Behzad Ghaffarian