Are
you fond of gardening? Are flowers, fruits, and vegetables excites you? But, don’t know how to start? Gardening is not a rocket science. With a
little guidance and patience, you can start your garden. Don’t get confused if
you are starting your garden first-time.
I am sharing you with gardening tool lessons for first timers. I hope that these lessons
will prove beneficial to you.
1.
To know what to grow
Understand
the type of soil, climate, rainfall, and sunlight in your area. These factors
will help you to decide what kind of plants to grow. You can take the help any plant guide in your area, or even websites who sell seeds online can have some tips.
2.
Pick your plants
Do you want to grow fruits, vegetables or
flowers?
Select the plants as per your preferences. As a starter, I will advise you to
grow lettuce. You can grow the seeds in a container or the garden. Harvest
outer leaves. You can also start with tomatoes. You can get many tomatoes from
just a single plant.
For
selecting the plants, you can check online or seed catalogs. Read the plant
descriptions carefully. The selected plant must fit into the soil, light and
other growing conditions in your location.
3.
Tools for gardening
Take
a good shovel for digging and hand trowel for small work. Also arrange tools
for harvesting, deadheading, and pruning. Get knife for taking out weeds and
gloves to protect your hand.
Chainsaw is a very important tool for every gardener, used for
pruning and cutting. Without it, things can become really unsightly. So to make
sure nothing will get in the way of your work, you must know how to start a gas-powered chainsaw correctly, which is one of the most common problems that can occur. Read the
safety precautions and instruction manual thoroughly.
4.
Garden plot size
You
can start with 16 by 10 feet space. You must always pick the plants that are
easy to grow. If interested in the vegetable garden plant beans, beets, carrots
or cabbage. These plants give more than one crop in a season.
5.
Grow plants at best spot
Grow
your plants in the place where there is access to water, quality soil and
sunlight or shade. As a beginner, start with small containers or raised beds.
Containers are best to use if you have less space for gardening.
Plant
the vegetables in a sunny area. They require 6 hours of direct sunlight. More
sunlight they receive the better is the taste and harvest.
6.
Make the soil suitable
Roots
penetrate in soft soil. The texture of your soil must be loamy. There must be
the proper drainage. You must make your soil fertile by adding fertilizer rich
in nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.
You
must know the quality of your soil. If the soil has a lot of clay, sand or
rocks add compost and other organic matter. This affects the quality of
drainage of the soil. 8-12 inches of soil is sufficient if you are growing
plants in the garden.
7.
Put the plant
Read
the plant tag and plant them according to instructions. Stick these tags next
to each plant. In this way, you will remember that how much water and sunlight
they require.
Just
like watering your plants is regularly required, weeding out the unwanted plant
is vital as well. Weeds don’t allow the plants to grow. You must grow your
plants at the proper spacing. Corn needs a lot of space and can overshadow
shorter vegetables.
8.
Water your plants
You
must provide less quantity of water to seeds or seedlings. After they have
grown to some height, few cups of water are sufficient.
9.
You might be worried that
how your neighbor garden is better than yours?
Don’t
worry; you have just started growing plants. There are many things that you
will learn from your experience. Next year your garden will also be as good as
your neighbor’s garden.
10. Listen to the experienced gardeners
The
experienced gardeners have experienced more things than you. They know how to
grow plants and what kinds of problems come. So, always listen to them, take
their advice and implement.
11. Start with seedlings rather than seeds
Planting
a seed and watch them grow is very amazing. But as you are planting the seeds
the first time it cannot grow as per your expectation. It is very disheartening
if you are waiting for the sprouts to come after six weeks and they don’t come.
Start
planting seedlings instead of seeds. They have the great chance of survival and
boost your confidence as a first-time gardener.
12. Learn from your problems
While
you are working in the garden, try to find the solution for every small thing.
Try to understand the cause of yellowing of leaves and provide the solution. It
can be due to less water, more water, or spider mite infestation.
Author: Emily Taylor