September 11th, 2019 | Updated on October 28th, 2021
Gardening is a fun and useful hobby. You enjoy attending to your plants and trees and in return, you have a beautiful and functional garden.
If you’re new to gardening, don’t worry too much if things become overwhelming. It’s common for people to have no clue what they should do first and how to do it.
While gardening may seem simple, you still need to be careful on how you’re doing it. Plants and trees have specific needs and if you don’t attend to them properly, they might not get healthy enough and won’t make your garden as pretty as you imagined it. To start, you have to be familiar with some of the dos and don’ts in gardening.
1. Do Thorough Research
Before you start with your gardening endeavors, you need to do your research first. This is to prep you up when you’re actually doing the task.
Research will also help you plan on what plants, flowers, and flowering plants you’re going to put in your garden.
Check out different types of plants and see their needs, like how much water they need and how often.
This is for you to provide their needs so they can grow beautifully. This will also help you in choosing plants if you’re capable of meeting their needs or not.
2. Do Make Your Garden Beautiful
One main function of gardening, whether you’re going for an indoor or outdoor one, is to make your home more appealing. This means that you also have to focus on other elements that will give life to your garden.
Some examples include using colorful planters for your plants, herbs, or flowers; adding a few birdbath fountains for your garden to invite your feathered friends; putting antique seats and tables; and painting your fences with new colors to give them a new and unique look.
3. Do Choose Useful Plants
Planting herbs, fruits, and vegetables will not only make your garden beautiful, but it will cut your grocery costs.
For fruit and vegetables, you can plant bell peppers, cabbages, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, garlic, cucumbers, blackberries, and raspberries.
For herbs, you can go with thyme, basil, mint, parsley, dill, rosemary, coriander, sage, fennel, and french tarragon.
If you have pets at home, you need to research first which plants and herbs are safe for pets.
Some of them, like chamomile and lavener, are harmful to pets that may lead to allergies, bleeding, and vomitting.
4. Do Pay Attention To Lighting Needs
You cannot simply plant your seeds anywhere in your garden. All plants need sunlight, but the amounts of sunlight they need are different. When buying plants, always check their requirements.
This will help you in setting up your garden map and determine where you need to place each plant.
5. Do Control Your Plants
When you’re new to gardening, it’s hard not to be overly excited. However, you must be careful not to over plant.
Start small that you can manage easily and with time and experience, you’ll eventually have a bigger garden you can enjoy.
Another reason for this is overplanting will affect the proper growth of your plants. If you have too many of them and you plant them close to each other, they will compete with the nutrients which will hinder their proper growth.
Also, if you have trees, occasionally check if they are growing properly. Get rid of unnecessary twigs and bushes that could hinder their proper growth. You can use a portable wood chipper to make the task simpler and more successful.
6. Don’t Water Too Much
When we love something, we tend to give too much. As you may already know, this doesn’t do any good and your plants are no exception.
If you’re using a sprinkler, make sure to adjust it accordingly to avoid watering the lawn too much. The key is to connect with them.
Feel the weather. If it’s too hot, then they might need more water than usual. If it’s cold, then you might want to ease up a bit on the watering.
Also, it’s better if you water them early morning or late afternoon. Don’t water them in the middle of the day as the temperature at this time is changing and might affect the roots.
7. Don’t Use Aggressive Fertilizers
Using too much fertilizers will cause your plants to grow rapidly, which will cause stress to them. This is also not good on your part as it will mean more maintenance work for you to control their overgrowth.
8. Don’t Use Chemicals
It’s stronly discouraged to use pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides as they will likely cause more harm than good.
Besides, natural soil has its own way of getting rid of pests. There are also natural solutions of driving those pests away, like using cracked eggshells around your plants. They serve as a rugged barrier against snails, which are the nastiest pests any garden could have.
9. Don’t Ignore Tree Stumps
For some backyards, tree stumps serve a purpose. Some homeowners turn these woods into tables and stools.
However, if they’re just there because they weren’t included when trees were cut, they’ll eventually cause problems.
They consume space, which you can use for other useful things. If you leave them, they’ll start to rot, which will invite many pests to come in your garden. Moss and wild mushrooms will also start growing, which are harmful to children and pets.
Conclusion
Taking care of your garden is very beneficial. Not just to your home, but to you as well. Gardening is a rewarding hobby and having a clean and beautiful backyard contributes to your overall well-being.
Take note of the do’s and don’ts and you’ll have the prettiest garden even before you know it.
