Top Gardening Tips for Beginners

With Spring and Summer fast approaching, it’s the perfect time to consider starting your own vegetable and flower gardens! If you’re someone who loves to cook with fresh vegetables, herbs, and fruit, then you’ll be amazed at the flavor you can achieve by growing your own produce. Plus, gardening isn’t as hard as you might be thinking. By following just a few simple tips and tricks, you can start your own garden, even if you have limited space, or live in an apartment. Let’s get started! 

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Gardening for Beginners

1. Master Easy-to-Grow Vegetables and Plants, First

While you might have dreams of a sprawling, blossoming garden that bears exotic fruits and flowers, you’ll be better off starting your gardening journey with easy-to-grow vegetables and perennialsOnce you more comfortable with your gardening skills, you can try your hand at other plants.

2. Understand Your Region

Different plants thrive in different areas and climates. Make sure you know your growing zone before you purchase any seeds or plants. Knowing your zone will help you determine which plants do well where you live. You can check your zone here

3. Test Your Soil

This step might seem inconvenient, but it can make or break your garden. As soon as you decide where you’re going to start your garden, you’ll want to have your soil tested. Why? Different plants need different pH balances in their soil, and providing your plants with the good soil will give them the best chance at growing optimally. Simply take a sample of your soil to your local Home Depot, Lowe’s, or local nursery, and they’ll be able to tell you how acidic or alkaline your soil is.

Once you get the results, you’ll be able to determine what you should plant, based on which plants do best in the type of soil you have. Or, you can ask them how what you can do to improve your soil.

4. Purchase the Right Gardening Supplies

When you start your garden, you’ll want to have the basic tools. You’ll need some garden gloves to protect your hands, a handle shovel, a trowel, fork, spade, pruning shears, and a garden hose.

5. Buy High-Quality Seeds or Plants

This step is essential. If you don’t purchase high-quality seeds, you’re going to have a tough time producing plants from your garden. Check out your local garden nursery for high-quality seeds and plants. You can also get organic seeds online from reputable sites like Seedsnow.com and GrowJourney.com.

6. Plant Seeds During the Appropriate Season

Weather plays a big part in how well plants grow. Plants do better when they’re planted during the right season. Every plant has different needs, and some might not do well with too much, or too light sunlight, humidity, or frost. Do a little research on your plants and vegetables before you purchase any seeds, and you’ll avoid any problems.

7. Space Your Seeds Out Properly

Make sure you follow spacing instructions on seed packets and plant tabs so that you give your plants enough space to grow. The last thing you want is your plants competing for nutrients and room to grow their roots.

8. Learn How to Water

One thing you definitely want to avoid is under or over watering. Each plant has specific watering needs, and it’s important to meet them if you want the best results. Make sure to water in the early morning so that the water has a chance to reach deep into the soil before the hot sun has the chance to soak it up. Also, avoid watering in the evenings, as this can lead to fungus overgrowth. For best results, read up on how much and how often your plant needs watering, and adjust your watering schedule accordingly.  

9. Get Rid of Weeds
Weeds can wreak havoc on your new garden before you know it. Make sure you understand what weeds look like – they’re often mistaken for actual plants. Plants and flowers do best when they’re well taken care of, and this includes deadheading, pulling out weeds, pruning, and riding the soil of any debris.

10. Learn to Get Rid of Garden Pests

No one like to deal with garden pests- they can eat away at your flowers, vegetables, and herbs if you don’t take control of the situation. You can get rid of pests naturally and inexpensively. Read this post to learn how to make your own natural insecticide that will help you get rid of pests like slugs, snails, aphids, and beetles.

Extra Tip:

Enjoy the Process

Gardening is fun, therapeutic, rewarding, and motivating. It’s why it’s such a popular hobby for people of all ages. But it is a process and you can’t expect to see a blooming plant growing from your soil the day after planting a seed. Let me tell you that there’s nothing better than looking out at your garden and seeing the fruits of your labor. Knowing that you were there to help it grow every step of the way is a satisfying feeling. Enjoy the gardening process and be patient; you’re vegetables and flowers will grow with a little TLC.

Now that you’ve read through these tips for gardening newbies, you’re closer to starting your very first garden! Don’t feel intimidated by what you don’t know, because there’s plenty of information out there to get you through your first few months of gardening.

If you’re interested in growing your own veggies, this post lists sixteen delicious and easy-to-grow vegetables that you can even grow in containers. If you want an endless supply of fresh herbs, check this post out. And if you want to beautify your yard with low-maintenance flowers, here are 18 gorgeous perennials to get you started.

Happy Gardening!

3 Comments

  1. Hi Rose,

    Are they planted in the shade? Do they get enough water? Astilbes aren’t drought tolerant and can burn under intense heat, so it’s likely that the brown blooms are caused by dry soil. Hope this helps!

  2. I’ve been given some potted plants recently, and now that my husband and I are about to have our own home, I am excited to begin gardening and having a relaxing space where I can sit and pray. I’ve already learned so much from your website and will be coming back! Your writing is informative and clear and the pictures are helpful. From this article, I learned about my zone, (8a in Texas!) and as soon as we have a home (we made an offer today!) I can get the soil tested. Thanks again!!!

    I have a potted seedum succulent plant, and also have a bunch of lavender seeds. How would you recommend starting those lavender seeds?

    1. Hi Corinne,

      Your first home – that is so exciting!! Congratulations and good luck with your garden!
      I am so happy to hear that you’ve found my blog helpful – that really makes my day! I’m currently working on a post about growing lavender, it should be up soon 🙂

      I recommend reading my seed starting post (the link is down below), it will teach you how to plant seeds indoors. Seed starting occurs indoors in late Winter and it gives you a head start on the growing season. Lavender is a perennial and it’ll usually come back for 3 – 5 years, so taking the time to start seeds indoors next Winter can really pay off! Here’s the link: https://natalielinda.com/start-seeds-indoors/

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