Do you want to start a garden, but are unsure how to get going? Don’t worry – in this post, we’ll cover off all the basic steps of gardening for beginners and provide you with the information you need to start the transformation into becoming an amazing gardener.
The key to gardening is planning and patience and with this basic guide, you’ll be able to garden with confidence and have fun while doing so. By the way, did you know gardening has some health benefits?
Your first step is choosing what sort of garden you want. Decide whether you want a beautiful array of colourful flowers, herbs, a nutritious garden, a place for entertainment or a mixture of everything. Whatever it may be, you need to start small and slowly create your dream space.
Once your plan is in place; you need gardening tools. Luckily, there’s only a handful of must-have tools and these are simple enough to use:
- An essential tool for all gardeners is a pair of large scissors. These can be used for cutting back plants and bushes as well as maintaining their health by cutting off dead flower heads and branches.
- When it comes to digging in preparation for planting, you will need a spade, trowel and garden fork. Your spade and trowel will be used to dig the holes for your plants and the fork will break up clumps of soil or will help towards removing the roots of plants and weeds. A rake with metal prongs is also a good tool to have because it’s useful to level soil with and remove stones from plant beds.
- Garden hoses, watering cans and sprinklers are good to have to keep your plants watered and fresh.
The last thing you want is weeds, so make sure you have a forked trowel and a garden knife to get rid of those weeds and allow your plants to grow with ease.
It would be a good idea to get yourself a shed for your yard so that you can keep all your tools and equipment in a tidy space.
Now you’ve got your tools, it’s time for the exciting part – choosing your plants. You should take some time to check the soil, so you know what plants you can grow in your soil – to find this out dig a bit up and see if the texture is sandy or clay-like. You can then decide what plants are best for you.
Plants benefit from nutritious soil and the best advice for gardening newbies is to mix compost into the top of your soil, about 8-12 inches deep, using a fork. The compost will then be broken down in the course of a few months, so we advise that you do this during the winter or at the start of spring.
You’re almost ready to start planting. We just have a couple of final tips before you can get your hands dirty. You need to figure out where each of your plants is going to go, paying particular attention to your spacing. All plants need their own space and if you place young ones too close together, it will stunt their growth and make them more prone to diseases, or they may die out quicker.
Try out these tips in your garden and soon you will be a top gardener in no time and be able to show off your gardening skills to all your friends and family.
