Womens-Place

Guest Blogger Lynette…Gardening Made Easy!

My dad is one of the best gardeners I know. He takes huge pride in his vegetable gardens and flowers beds. I was raised eating the freshest vegetables and fruits that we had grown ourselves. I, also, always had the luxury of being able to pick giant bouquets filled with many different kinds of flowers. My dad’s love of gardening was definitely passed along to me. Unfortunately, I did not inherit all of his “green” thumb. Mine is really more of a brownish shade with an occasional green fleck. Over the years I have been able to glean a lot of helpful information from my dad and morph that into my own smaller scale style. I have learned that, with just a little work and a few handy hints, gardening doesn’t have to be laborious. It can actually be fun and quite easy.

1. Make a plan on paper first. Using a pencil, draw a sketched layout of your front, back and side yards. Draw in existing beds and any other features in your yard, such as sheds, play structures, etc. Make notes about what plants you already have and draw them into your map. Also, feel free to put your dream ideas for the future down. It never hurts to write those ideas down for “someday,” but if you have a shortage of time and energy then focus on the areas of your yard that are most visible to you and to others. If you start small you can focus on those beautiful areas of your yard, and they will help distract you from the ones you don’t like as well.

2. Determine the sun exposure for all the areas of your yard. Spend a couple days paying close attention to which areas of your yard get full sun, which get sun in the morning or afternoon and are shaded other parts of the day and which areas do not ever seem to emerge out of the shadows. This will make a huge difference in determining where you should plan your gardens and also what you will plant in those different gardens. Vegetable gardens need to be in a sunny location that receives at least 8 hours a day of sunlight. It will save you a huge amount of time and money in the long run, if you do this step now. There is nothing more frustrating than forking out the bucks for a beautiful plant, taking the time to care for it properly, and then having it die anyway because it was a shade loving plant that was withering in the full sun.

3. Be sure you have the correct tools. You will need a soaker hose, hoe, shovel, hand trowel, gardening gloves, fertilizer, old clothes/shoes and for me, a portable stereo tuned to a baseball game or a stack of CD’s for listening. I enjoy my work outside so much more when I am prepared and when I can sing along to a favorite song or cheer on my beloved Mariner’s. I find Home Depotand Lowe’s perfect places for purchasing outdoor tools. They have good quality tools for much less than the price you will find at garden stores. There is also a Home Depot Canada for our friends in the northern part of the region.

4. Prepare your soil first. Make sure you have your beds prepped and ready to go before you venture off to the garden supply store to buy plants or seeds. Once your beds are ready, then you can make just one trip to the store. Also, you may find while working your soil that it needs some beefing up. You can purchase compost or additional fertilizer while you’re there.

5. Determine which plants are correct for your zone. Not all plants are created equal. Plants of the succulent variety are going to flourish in the southwest with its intense heat, where the hale and hearty cruciferous vegetables are much more comfortable in the deep, rich soils of the north that are warmed by the spring sun. To determine which plants will thrive in your area, click on virtual Library for Gardening. There are international, as well as, regional US sites that will help you out.

6. Plant when the time is right. For most of North America, the perfect planting season is right now – springtime. Once the danger of frost has passed, the warmer spring temperatures, accompanied by the spring rain are perfect planting times. It also gives the plants a full growing season to get their roots deep into the ground before winter arrives once again. According to Garden Place.com, the second best time to plant it in autumn before the freezing temperatures hit. If you find yourself wanting to plant during the summer months, choose a cloudy day or plant during a spell of cloudy weather. This will help the young, tender plants so they do not wither in the intense heat.

7. Perennials are your friends. One rule of thumb I have tried to subscribe to in my garden beds is the use of perennials. Although they cost a bit more at the outlay, they take the same amount of time to plant and they will return year after year. The work you did this year, you will not have to repeat next year and can use that time to plant another bed or to spruce up the ones you have.

8. Buy quality One gardening tip that my dad absolutely swears by is purchasing hybrid seeds. They cost only a fraction more, but are so worth it in the end with the quality vegetable or fruit you end up with. I remember all the many seed catalogs that began to arrive in January and how much fun it was to look at all the luscious vegetables pictured on the pages. Although many, many catalogs make their way to his house, he is a long time purchaser of seeds from both Burpee’s Seeds and Plants and Jung’s Quality Seeds, and he recommends both to everyone that asks him about his gardens.

9. Plan your vegetables and flowers, so they will come up in succession. This will keep the harvest flowing from early spring to late fall. Find out the dates in advance and schedule time to plant accordingly. If you are planting a vegetable garden, try peas, spinach and radishes for early spring planting, tomatoes, peppers and summer squash for the summer months, and delicious broccoli will thrive in an early fall harvest. Try a similar pattern with your flowers. Bulbs are perfect to plant in the late fall for early spring color and in the spring, you can plant bulbs for fall color. Take a look at the different perennials in the store and select ones that will peak at differing times, keeping the beauty in your beds throughout the season.

10. Spend an hour or two each week in upkeep. Once everything is planted, you will need to maintain all that hard work by keeping up with the watering, fertilizing, thinning and weeding. By keeping your plants healthy and away from crowding, you will go a long way to warding off needless pests and bugs. Watering is a daily or sometimes twice daily chore. While you are giving your plants a healthy drink, look them over. Pluck any dead leaves or visible bugs, and make mental notes if a particular kind of plant is doing exceptionally well or exceptionally poorly. These notes you can later write down on your yard map for future use.

Gardening is both rewarding and relaxing for people of all ages. It is one of those topics that can cross all generations and will give you something to talk about with your little kids, as well as your grandmother. My hope was that these tips would help make gardening for the inexperienced gardener a little less overwhelming. Gardening is truly about enjoying what nature has to offer, so don those gloves and boots and head on out. The soil is calling you.

For additional gardening links I recommend the following … Garden Web, Organic Gardening, Kid Gardening, Womens-Place Gardening Forum and Better Homes & Gardens.

Check out the Top Must Have Gardening Gadgets and Things!

Lynette is a wife and full time mom of 4 from the Pacific Northwest. After much convincing from her older son, she planted a small garden last year. Since her sons had such a wonderful time tending the garden and picking the harvest, she will definitely be planting again this year.