How to Start a Garden: 7 Easy Steps

Having your own garden is pretty good to do. Growing plants on your own can be beneficial both for your mind and your body. It doesn’t matter whether you want to plant a vegetable garden, a herb garden, or a flower garden. Either way, you’ll be doing something amazing. Investing your time and energy into something like this and watching your plants grow will be more than rewarding. If you don’t know where to start this amazing journey, worry not! Keep reading and find out what to do, when, and how.

Decide what to plant

Some of your options are a herb garden, a flower garden, or a vegetable garden. The herb garden would be a great choice if you want to grow plants that you could use in your kitchen. The same goes for vegetables. The best thing about this is that you’ll know for sure that you’re eating healthy food.

On the other hand, if you want a garden full of beautiful colours and fragrances, you might want to plant some flowers. You could choose among annuals or perennials or even go for a combination of these two. Either way, you won’t make a mistake.

Pick the right spot

The second step in planting your own garden is picking the right spot. This is a pretty important step since most flowers and all vegetables need to be exposed to full sun for at least six hours a day. That means that you’ll have to pick a spot that receives enough sun.

Some of the plants also like shady spots, so make sure to plant them properly as well. Your garden should also be on a flat spot since that’ll make the planting much easier, quicker, and cheaper. Make sure to check for some win breaks and water accessibility and you’ll have no issues whatsoever.

Clear the ground

The next important step you need to make is to clear the ground. You’ll first need to get rid of sod in the area you plan to create a garden out of. Make sure to slice under it with a spade and cut it into sections – this will help you remove all of it.

After that, you can use it for your compost pile. To prepare the ground, you should get five sheets of newspaper and cover it. With a 3-inch layer of compost over the newspaper, you’ll have a ground ready for some plants within four months.

Pick the plants for your garden

The next step is picking the plants you’d like to have in your garden. At this point, you should have already decided on whether you’ll go for regular or vertical gardening. That will also help you choose the right plants.

The first thing you need to consider is the climate you live in. Not all plants can survive in each climate and you should be well-aware of that. You should also adapt your choice to the type of soil and exposure to the sunlight you have. Plants that are great for beginners are calendula, marigolds, and sunflowers of annuals, daylilies, and pansies of perennials, and tomatoes and peppers of vegetables.

Start planting

Finally, you can start planting. However, it’s pretty important when you’ll do this. For instance, some plants prefer warm temperatures; which means you should plant them in spring. On the other hand, plants like kale and pansies tolerate cold; which means that you could plant these in autumn or late winter.

Before you get the seeds into the soil, make sure to read through the seed packet where you’ll found out important information about planting time, spacing, and depth. All of these are important for good results. Follow the instructions carefully and you shouldn’t have any issues.

Water regularly

After you plant the seeds, you shouldn’t neglect your garden. Instead, you should water it regularly to prevent any drying out of the seedlings. You should water your garden daily, especially in the beginning.

After a while, you can check out the soil, humidity, and rainfall to decide on how often you should water the garden. The safest way to check whether your garden needs watering is to feel the soil. If it is dry 3 to 4 inches below the surface, make sure to water it.

Protect your garden

Lastly, you should protect your garden. The best way to do so is by covering the soil with mulch. A couple of inches should keep any weeds out of your garden, but it will also keep the moisture in.

You can choose any type of mulch for your garden. For instance, an organic mulch will nourish the soil. If you need mulch for perennials, go for some that will last longer, and for vegetables, you could use some that would decompose in just a few months.

Conclusion

Starting a garden is a rather interesting activity. You invest a bit of your time and money, but you get much in return. Make sure to follow these tips and get the most of your garden!