Your garden should be your oasis, a place where you go to escape the hustle and bustle of daily life. And you want your little patch of greenery to be impeccable, but you’re not exactly sure how to achieve that. No worries. You do not need to be a horticulturalist, or a good shed company, to have a nice garden.
With a little bit of knowledge, some hard work, love and care anyone can create and enjoy their perfect garden. So read on about some of the basic things, such as call up Elk Grove arborists for garden care, every startup gardener should know.
Make a Solid Plan
First thing’s first. You need to decide on the type of garden you want. If you’re a busy bee, working all day long and there’s no one to give you a hand, then you’ll want a small, manageable garden that won’t be time-consuming. Also, do you want an herb, vegetable or flower garden, or perhaps a mix of all three? Either way, some basic knowledge is required regardless of your decision. Once you’ve got that figured out, you can proceed to the next step.
You Need To Take Location & Climate into Account
When you’ve decided on the type of garden you want to grow, be mindful of its position – it needs to be in a sunny area but sheltered from the wind and with an easy water access. However, if a sunny garden is not possible (so there is less than 6 hours of sunlight in your area), root plants like onions, potatoes, carrots can prosper despite limited sunlight amount.
Another thing to consider when planting certain species is the climate of the area you live in. In case you have any doubts take a look at the plant hardiness zones.
Create Raised Garden Beds
Once you have designated the area for growing plants, you need to make garden beds. After you’ve turned over all of the sod in your garden, you need to break off most the dirt. Some gardeners may tell you to put that dirt back in the bottom, but it’s inadvisable because you may regrow the grass or the weeds that were there. It’s better to just put those earth lumps in the compost pile. In order to make good growing soil and a bed for your garden, you have to dig some 12 to 18 inches. This is what is called double digging. So, dig a hole, take all the dirt out and do this all the way down the length of the bed you’ve decided to create. Then put a good amount of organic material and mix it with dirt. And there’s your mounted bed.
Optimal Irrigation
The optimal time for watering the garden is when the winds and the temperatures are low. So, either around sunrise or before sunset. This way the soil can absorb all the water and there will practically be no evaporation. Just be careful not to drench your garden because too much moist brings about all sorts of fungi and weeds.
Also, if you’ve got a small garden it would be best to water it manually. For small surfaces, all that is needed is a hose reel. Many gardeners opt for Hoselink retractable garden hose reel because with it they can control the amount of water.
Protect Your Garden
One of the key elements to keeping your garden nice and neat is to cover it with plastic gardening sheets. They can help prevent weeds from spreading and infesting your plants. If you think that these plastic sheets are cramping your garden’s style, you can always put some mulch on top of them. Nevertheless, weed is persistent and no matter what precautions you’ve taken you’ll still need to check for any sign of it from time to time.
What to Plant?
As already mentioned, the climate and the area you live in play a major factor for what will prosper in your garden. Therefore, if you live further up north, you can plant some leafy greens, lettuce, kale, radishes, and onions. These vegetables are edible between 30 and 60 days after planting and grow pretty quickly.
If you live in a sunnier region and want to plant some flowers, it’s better to stick with native plants if possible. They have the best chance to succeed. But then again, there are some types of plants that prosper in most areas such as daylily, blanket flower, yarrow, purple coneflower and so on.
So there you have it. These were some of the basic guidelines on how to start gardening. Just follow them and you’ll have your lean and green garden in no time.