More and more people want to produce their own vegetables, plant a few fruit trees to have an orchard, create a pleasure garden to enhance their outdoor space. The least we can say is that gardening is on the rise, both in the city and in the countryside. But despite all the goodwill in the world, it is necessary to know the basics to obtain encouraging results. Here are 9 tips to follow to get started in gardening.
1 – Set achievable goals
It is better to start with limit the number of plantations when you take your first steps as a gardener. The first year should serve as testing period, if only to make sure of his level of motivation. You should know that neophyte gardeners sometimes let themselves be trapped by their overflowing enthusiasm, but become disillusioned after only a few months. It’s a shame because you learn a lot from your first mistakes and the second year should take place under better auspices…
To avoid disappointment, it is in any case essential to be able to include gardening work in your schedule, month after month, because a garden lives whatever the season and needs someone to take care of him. In other words, it is highly preferable that the attraction for this engaging activity is not just a flash in the pan…
2 – Start with a small plot to garden
So as not to feel quickly overwhelmed by events, you learn gardening by cultivating only a small area of your land. We can start with some vegetables undemandingone or two fruit trees, or a few flowering or decorative foliage plants as well as grasses, to be installed in the ground and/or in pots, a story of get your hands dirty. The beginner gardener will be much more encouraged by opting for species and easygoing varieties because success is almost guaranteed. He will thus be able to quickly reap the fruits of the efforts made.
Among the species recommended to start gardening, we can for example mention:
- In the vegetable garden : carrot, radish, tomato, zucchini, pepper, snow peas, lettuce, potato, strawberry,
- In the aromatic garden : basil, parsley, mint, thyme, rosemary, sage,
- In the orchard : cherry, apple, pear, plum, walnut, hazel, olive,
- In the pleasure garden : crocuses, lavender, tulips, narcissi, geraniums, pelargoniums, pansies, roses, California poppies, grasses, lilies, petunias, irises, and for decorative trees and shrubs, mimosa, lilac, honeysuckle, bamboo, St. John’s wort, for example.
No need to limit yourself to growing vegetables and fruits shunned by all the members of the family. On the contrary, it is necessary to sow or plant those that young and old like to consume regularly. In this way, we learn to garden by doing pleasure to everybody. It’s very rewarding. But whether you are embarking on gardening by creating a vegetable garden, an orchard or a pleasure space, you must always choose plants adapted to the local climate to avoid failures capable of nipping the greatest of motivations in the bud.
3 – Equip yourself well
Gardening is like DIY, drawing, music… you can only get good results with adapted material. This also allows to do not tire yourself unnecessarily and of protect your back because if the task turns out to be too hard physically, there is a good chance that the gardener will give up. For a good start, we recommend investing in good quality tools and accessories. The gardener’s panoply must, a minimabe constituted:
- From a wheelbarrow,
- An 11 liter watering can with removable sprinkler head,
- A garden hose with adjustable jet nozzle,
- From a hoe,
- With a towel,
- With a spade,
- Of a shovel,
- With a rake,
- From a bulb planter,
- From a transplanter,
- With a cord,
- With a pruner,
- With a branch cutter,
- Of some guardians,
- A container with a vaporization system to be reserved for the use of phytosanitary products,
- From a composter,
- Protection such as gloves, masks and goggles.
Thus adorned, the spirited gardener who begins this wonderful activity of gardening should have enough material on hand to sow, plant, water, stake, weed, prune and transport his plant debris to the place. where he plans to drop them off. Some are to be left in the open air, others can be put in the composter.
4 – Identify the soil in your garden
It is crucial to know which vegetables and other plants to grow on your plot. We therefore start by knowing if the soil is draining or on the contrary if water stagnates there easily but also if it is peat, sandy, clayey, siliceous… We do not plant in a heavy ground the same species as in a sandy soil for example. the pH is also decisive in selecting plantations. This is the Hydrogen potential. Thanks to him, we can know if the soil is acidic, neutral or alkaline.
5 – Stock up on gardening information
No need to go blind if you want get good results. On the contrary, it is essential to set aside a short period to accumulate a host of gardening information. The literature on the subject is incredibly rich, and some seriously well-documented sites are of great help to gardeners, whatever their level of expertise. It is by reading that one acquires a maximum knowledge on this captivating subject, and the enrichment is limitless.
We can therefore start by documenting the varieties of vegetables to grow in our geographical area as well as fruit trees and decorative plants, on sowing and planting periods, on fertilizer from the store and homemade compost, on the parasites and the maladies plants as well as preventive and curative solutions.
Through this the neophyte gardener can also learn how to modify the structure of the soil or even discover the art of pruning shrubs and treesthe different types of grafting, pollination, fruiting…
It is also necessary to learn what are the plant needs that you want to grow in particular, both in terms of soil, exposure and care. To know the toxicity of certain species is also essential when you plan to start gardening, and even more so if you have children or pets. No need to plant plants that represent the slightest danger for his family or for his dog and cat.
6 – Observe your garden before planning your plantings
Exposure being a very important criterion for each type of plant, it is important to look at your garden at different times of the day but also at each time of the year to know exactly which areas are the sunniest, the most shaded. and those in partial shade. This way it is easier to draw a plan (which is highly recommended) taking into account the needs of each species to be grown. In the same way, one indicates on his sketch the places very exposed to the prevailing winds where it is not recommended to install his vegetable garden.
Of course, you have to take into account thedrop shadow on the crops by a surrounding wall, the house, a high and well-stocked hedge or even by the few large trees in the land or in the neighboring gardens. If you set up your vegetable garden under permanent shade, the harvests are likely to be very meager.
7 – Select your seeds and plants with rigor
When the time has finally come to think about what you want to grow in the garden, the gardener thinks a little with his wallet, and this is completely legitimate because he has already spent a small fortune on tools and accessories. . However, the price of seeds and seedlings should not be the only selection criterion. It is first of all their quality that counts.
Buy some seeds to sow low-end seeds that will germinate with difficulty and will therefore have to be replaced end up costing more than investing directly in carefully selected seeds. It’s the same thing if you want to buy plants in pots ready to be transplanted. You have to keep an eye on the price tag of course, but above all on the appearance of the plants. Soft stems, half-wilted or stained leaves do not bode well, contrary to what one can hope without fear with young plants that are already very green and bushy, with proudly erect stems.
8 – Wait for the right period for sowing and planting
We don’t plant or sow when we feel like it. There are particular periods for this (spring, summer, autumn) and they vary according to the plant species but also to the geographic sector since the climat local plays a significant role in this area.
If sowing and planting in March-April is possible in the Mediterranean regions, it is often necessary to wait until May, and more precisely to wait until May 11, 12, 13 (Ice Saints) have passed, in the regions most at East and North because late frosts are still numerous and sometimes severe. A early planting can under these conditions be doomed to failure. This is why it can be very interesting to buy a tight or craft a frame with recycled materials in order to carry out its sowing or its plantations under shelter.
9 – Dose your water intake
It is undoubtedly at the level of watering that beginner gardeners commit the mostfatal errors. They tend to drown their vegetables, their young fruit and aromatic trees or their flowering plants for fear of seeing them run out of water. However, excess moisture leads to rot roots and promote many maladies cryptogamiques (or fungal) caused by parasitic fungi.
L’fluid intake must be carried out when necessary, and the frequency of watering varies according to the plants, the outside temperature, the frequency of rains, the exposure of the plants, the type of soil… It also differs according to that the plant is dormant, growing, flowering or fruiting.