Some people are born with green thumbs, others aren’t.
You don’t need to be a professional gardener to have a natural affinity for plants.
Gardening can be as complicated or as simple as you want it to be.
In this article, we’ll share with you some of the best gardening tips and ideas to bring more greenery and nature into your life.
If you have experience, the knowledge, and time to create an elaborate garden, then go for it!
However, if you are a busy person with a limited amount of space and lack a green thumb, you can still have a garden.
There are so many benefits that you can experience from adding some plants to your property such as free food and herbs,
cleaner air, and an increase of beautiful creatures in your yard such as birds and butterflies.
These gardening tips and ideas will help you learn more about your garden your garden.
Take Texture Into Consideration
Having texture in your garden is great if you want a contrast a good visual aesthetic.
Try to place plants with different textures close to each other to bring out the characteristics in each one.
For example, a spiky, tall agave plant would look great next to a colorful geranium with leaves that resemble scallop
Raised Beds
If you want to grow some food but you don’t want to commit to digging up your lawn, raised beds can be a great option.
They are also great for backyards that have poor soil, or no soil at all.
You can buy raised beds from most garden stores or you can even try making them yourself.
Another benefit of raised beds is that you get to choose where they are placed! Just make sure to pick a spot in your yard that gets enough sunlight.
Raised beds typically don’t get nearly as many weeds, the main con with them is that the soil dries out quicker,
so you might find yourself needing to water more frequently during the hotter months.
Pocket Plants
If you are limited on ground space, pocket plants will make an incredible addition to your garden.
If you have an old canvas pocket organizer or even a hanging shoe organizer, it can make a huge difference in your garden space.
You can also buy a brand new pocket planter if you don’t have anything lying around that you can use.
Hang it over any fence or outdoor walls that you have.
Next, fill the compartments with soil. You don’t need to worry about holes for drainage unless it’s a very thick fabric that water can’t get through.
After the pockets are filled with dirt, it’s time to have fun and transplant whatever you want into the pockets.
You can do succulents, ferns, herbs, or a mixture of everything!
Use As Much Potting Soil As Possible
This tip is referring to container plants. Whether you are growing flowers, herbs, or vegetables in containers, potting soil is so important.
There are many people who will recommend that you fill your containers with things like packing peanuts to make the containers lighter.
However, even though the container will be lighter, the plants will be harder to maintain overall.
This is because the less soil you have, the quicker it will dry out.
On the other hand, the more potting soil that you put in the container, the more water the soil will retain.
This frees up time and allows you to water the plant less frequently.
Grow In Bags
Most people are familiar with two alternative gardening methods: raised beds, and container gardening.
However, did you know that you can grow plants in bags too?
And it can actually be better for the plants, and easier for you?
Sounds like a win-win situation!
Grow bags can be purchased from any garden center.
The main benefits of these bags is that they are breathable and allow for root expansion.
It’s also hard to overwater plants in these bags.
When growing plants in a container, you need to worry about things like drainage, and you need to ensure that you have enough space for the roots to expand.
With a grow bag, it already comes with drainage, and the plants and soil can breathe instead of being trapped by a plastic container.
You can get them in any color you want, or you can stick to a natural color such as tan. These bags work for vegetables, herbs, and flowers.
They come in many different sizes too. You can even use burlap bags for a more natural look in your garden.
Let’s move to the second part of our clever gardening tips and ideas!
Provide Your Plants With A Calcium Boost
Not everyone has the time, patience or space to have a compost bin.
This simple trick will give your plants a boost of nutrition and it only takes a few minutes.
If you eat eggs, you can save the eggshells and use them to put in your garden.
They do need to be ground up first. Just like chewing your food makes it easier to digest, grinding up the eggshells makes it very easy for your plants to absorb the calcium in them.
You can do this with a mortar and pestle, or the simplest way is in a blender.
You can take your crushed egg shells and mix them in with your soil for healthier plants.
Save Your Coffee Grounds & Teabags!
If you regularly brew coffee or drink tea, this is a great thing for your garden.
Instead of discarding the coffee grounds and teabags, you can actually use them to improve your soil.
They are great for acidifying the soil for those plants that love acid such as camellias, gardenias, and blueberries if you have a bush of them.
All you need to do is sprinkle around 1/4 inch of the coffee and/or contents of the teabag to the soil around the plants once a month.
This will help to keep the soil’s pH a bit more acidic, which is perfect for acid-loving plants.
Also, if you have tomato plants that you want to transplant, sprinkle some coffee grounds directly onto the area where the roots of the tomato transplant will grow.
This will promote big, busy and productive tomato plants and give them a boost of nutrition.
And trust me those two gardening tips and ideas will enhance and fertilize your garden soil for free!!
Take Advantage of the Shade
If you have a backyard that doesn’t face the south sun, it can be quite discouraging seeing the amount of shade you have compared to sunlight.
Instead of fighting with the shade and having plants die from a lack of sunlight, focus on plants that thrive in shadier areas.
There are many different types of plants, especially foliage that do great with minimal sun.
Two great examples of these are hostas and dwarf oakleaf hydrangea. They can make a gorgeous addition to your garden!
Companion Planting
There are some plants that do well when planted together, and other plants that suffer when planted together.
Companion planting is the practice of growing plants together that thrive off each other and contribute to each others growth.
Companion planting can also provide shade for plants that need it.
It is also a form of natural support for sprawling crops, and it improves the soil quality. Additionally, companion planting can protect your plants from pests and diseases.
For example, when you plant dill and basil beside tomatoes, you protect the tomatoes from tomato hornworms.
Marigolds are commonly planted with vegetables to repel beetles and nematodes.
Zinnias attract ladybugs, which are a natural form of pest control for your plants.
There are many other examples of companion planting, these are only a few.
Only Water In The Morning
Many beginner gardeners are confused about the best time to water plants, which is completely understandable with all the information out there.
It can get very easy to become overwhelmed! If you water your garden early in the morning, this will help to conserve moisture.
It will also prevent fungal diseases from forming such as powdery mildew, which is often spread by high levels of humidity.
Grow Tall Plants If You Are Short On Space
If you have a limited amount of space available, taller plants such as garlic, chives, leeks, and shallots are great for your garden.
They can easily be planted in containers (or bags) and don’t require a lot of space at all.
On top of that, they typically don’t have many insect or disease problems. Especially chives, they are actually an insect repellent.
Conclusion
We hope this article full of easy gardening tips and ideas was useful to you.
Even if you only implement a couple of these suggestions into your garden, you will notice a difference in the way your space looks and the health of your plants and soil.
Gardening is a fun way to connect with nature and be more sustainable.
It’s also a wonderful way to save money, especially if you grow herbs and vegetables.
Not to mention it looks beautiful.
It’s not as hard as it looks, and if you have the determination, you can do it!