Hi friends! The sun is shining. Spring is officially in the air and I know many of you have decided to start a garden this year. Congratulations! There a few things my husband and I believe every backyard should have.
That’s a garden of some kind and a flock of chickens.
I know that renting and such leaves some limitations, but if at all possible, y’all should get on board. I’ve had a few people ask me for tips or tricks as they set off on this new endeavor. So today I’ve got 5 tips for beginning Gardners. Let’s get started!
Go Small
I know. The saying is usually “Go big or go home!” But for this and most homesteading adventures, biting off more than you can chew is the kiss of death. It becomes overwhelming and can lead to unnecessary feelings of failure.
Instead, plow up a small plot of land. Build a couple raised beds. Plant a few things and do them well. Invest time and effort into them. Become a student of those two tomatoes and row of green beans. Learn about them. You will come out of this season with a depth of knowledge and ready to expand next year. Ready to build on those successes.
I planted my first garden almost ten years ago while on summer vacation from college. My dad did this very thing for me. He tilled a small garden spot. I planted the basics. Three tomato plants, a couple peppers, three rows of beans, sunflowers along one edge, and zinnias the rest of the way around. I was able to keep up on the weeds and watering. It was the prettiest little garden. I left that season feeling accomplished and experienced. I was ready for next year.
Plant Something Pretty
The garden isn’t just for veggies! I always include a short list of flowers in our garden planning. They add so much interest and beauty to a garden. Typically we do marigolds and zinnias along the edge of our garden. I love going out to harvest veggies and coming in with a fresh bouquet for the table as well.
It took my husband a couple years to get on board with “Plant Something Pretty”. He saw the flowers as wasted real estate. But as he grew into his own version of a backyard farmer, he started to see their value. Not just esthetically pleasing, flowers attract butterflies, bees, and other beneficial insects to our garden. Every garden can benefit from more bees! We love going out and seeing that we are providing a well balanced ecosystem. We are nerds like that.
Flowers can also be great for repelling pests. For example, deer do not like the scent of lavender. Marigolds pungent blooms can repel squirrels and rabbits. Sweet alyssum attracts insects that feed on cucumber beetles. There’s a lot of information on the benefits of flowers in gardens!
Plant What You’ll Use
I’ve been there. In the nursery or looking through the seed catalog and wanting to plant and buy all.the.things. We’ve learned over the years though, what we will actually eat and preserve and what we end up saying “What the heck am I going to do with this?!” If we go too off our rocker it ends up being wasteful in the end.
We love how Rainbow Swiss Chard looks in the neat row of our garden. We don’t love how it tastes. So, we took a few years off. We’ve recently added it back, only because our chickens love the dark leafy greens and it’s good for them. We get to have our cake, er chard, and they eat it too.
See? You need chickens.
We love fresh tomatoes, beans and cucumbers, so we plant them a’plenty. It takes a bit of trial and error but you will soon figure out which plants serve you and your family well.
Plant Something New
Maybe this flies in the face of what I just discussed, but I’ve got a reason. If gardening is new to you, it’s a good time to try some new foods too. I guarantee you, a garden fresh tomato will taste vastly different than that store bought tomato. No comparison.
My husband didn’t eat many vegetables when we started dating. But now? He’s the veggie guy. Just the other day he said to me “The more veggies you eat, the more you eat.” Your taste buds change and homegrown just tastes better. Maybe something you typically aren’t a huge fan of could become your new favorite from your garden! I wasn’t fond of cucumbers for years. Now, I have dibs on that first cucumber from our vines.
Last year our “plant something new” was in the version of herbs. We added mint, chives, rosemary, and sage. All things we will use and preserve. Plus they are really pretty!
The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature.
-Alfred Austin
Mulch, Mulch, Mulch
This was my husbands number one tip. We deep mulch our garden and it saves us SO much time on weeding and watering.
We plant our seeds and plants and once they get above the ground we mulch using straw or hay about 1 foot deep. Yes, you read that right. 1 foot. It works fantastically. We do use our grass clippings occasionally but generally that 1 foot of straw does the trick.
In our early garden years we spent time hoeing and weeding but then we discovered deep mulching and it has saved us so much time. Weeds are rarely a problem! We actually get to enjoy our garden more.
Mulch. It’s a good thing.
Support Local Nurseries
It’s really easy and convenient to buy plants at big box stores, I get it. I’ve done it. But whenever possible we feel it’s really important to support your local and small nurseries. These are family owned and operated businesses and your purchase puts food on their table.
There are a few other reasons we try to support our local nurseries. First it’s the quality and vitality of the plants. Usually when you go to a small nursery, the owners have seeded and started the majority of the plants you are looking at. They’ve done the hard work and because the plants have been grown in your local area they should be well acclimated to your climate.
Plants shipped to big box store or some nurseries come from all over the country or even Canada. Our weather is certainly not Canadian. I’ve bought plants that have promptly went into shock when I brought them home. A quick look at the tag shows me that they were grown somewhere with a very different climate and traveled a long distance to me. Not really a sustainable purchase and hard on the plant and the gardener.
The second reason is the expertise you get from the nursery employee and owner. Finding community when gardening is very valuable. There is always something to learn. Asking the owner of the local nursery is an obvious place to start! They can probably help you and if they aren’t sure, I’ve always found them to be more than happy to call or find someone who does.
Got a shady spot but not sure what to plant there? Just ask. They are happy to help. I’ve rarely found that kind of knowledge in a big box store. But that’s just me.
So that’s my 5 tips for beginning gardeners. This was fun! Go on friends, get your hands dirty, you’ll be so glad you did. Maybe we will do more of these types of posts! And if you are a seasoned gardener what would you add?
To nurture a garden is to feed not just on the body, but the soul. -Alfred Austin
Thanks for stopping by!
-Jess