How to Grow a Garden

Having your own garden at home sets a relaxing ambiance for your entire household. Although having a garden presents an uphill struggle with a lot of requirements to meet, the effects are incredibly rewarding. Gardens are pleasurable to watch as the budding flowers grow into full blossom in spring and as the seedlings turn into a new leaf. No matter what type of garden you plan to build, here are some steps that can help you learn how to start a garden:

1. Find the perfect spot. Before you even think about what to put in your garden, you have to first look for the right place where you can grow your vegetables, flowers or herbs. Oftentimes, experts would recommend an area that has fixed sunlight for at least six hours a day. Strategically, you can situate your garden in a place near a water fountain – a flower garden would look superb near a fountain – or just beside your house. For those who have compost piles, you can arrange the garden in their vicinity in order to achieve better maintenance.

2. Protection. Make sure to pull out any existing weeds to keep them from reappearing. Try to refrain from planting near full-grown trees so that your garden’s soil will not be overrun by its roots. You may also want to take into account any gophers or voles that can destroy your plants. To avoid this,  it is recommended that you build a fence of about two to three feet tall around your garden.  If the area is prone to strong breezes, a windbreak should be built to block the wind.

3. Create a sketch. Draw out how you would like your garden’s plants to be arranged.  Situate the plants from shortest to tallest facing the sun, so that all plants receive optimal sunlight.  Otherwise the shortest plants will be starved for sunlight.  Also you may want to arrange similar varieties of plants together in one area; for instance, different types of tomatoes in one section, all your peppers in another, and tubers in yet another.

4. Prepare the soil. Take a soil sample to nearby plant nursery and find out if they will test the soil to discover which nutrients it is lacking; this may or may not constitute a fee.  Once you have determined which nutrients are missing, take steps to purchase these and follow the instructions to prepare the soil to accept seeds or seedlings. This may take several weeks, so it is best to do this well before the optimal planting season.   In areas that have soil with heavy clay content, you will need to add sandy loam to improve drainage in order to prevent root rot and compacting.  And finally, if needed, consider purchasing a small tiller, either machine-run or manual, to ease with breaking and loosening the soil and mixing in the needed nutrients you may need to add.

5. Start planting. Make sure before you begin sowing seeds, that the soil is watered so that the seed is in contact with moist ground. This helps the seeds to easily nurture themselves through the release of the nutrients in the dampened soil.

6. Avoid over-watering. Newly planted seeds, seedlings and growing plants will need plenty of water, but not too much.  If over-watered, no amount of good drainage will save the plants from being drowned or suffering root rot.  The best defense against too much water is to set up a drip system where lengths of plastic tubing is run along the rows of plants with emitters strategically placed near the plantings to provide a slow release of water.  Alternately one can use soaker hoses, or even a do-it-yourself drip system made with a plastic soda bottle or other such plastic jugs with small holes punched into the bottom and set near the base of the plants.  The advantages to using drip systems of any kind are not only will your plants thrive for not being over-watered, but you will also conserve water and save money on your utility bill all at the same time.

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