7 tips to help you start and grow a successful garden

Are you thinking about starting a garden?

Having a garden comes with a lot of benefits. Apart from the fact that growing your fruits and vegetables helps you to save money at the grocery store, you can also take pride in the fact that you have grown your own food fresh, tasty, and healthy. 

Isn't saving money while eating healthy and improving the quality of your life awesome? 

Here are seven tips to help you start and grow a successful garden:

• Decide What You Would Like to Grow

Think of what your family likes to eat. Understanding which plants your family may enjoy eating will help you choose what you need to grow. Decide how much of this thing you're going to grow and how much space you need for it. Remember that vegetables like tomatoes, squash, and peppers produce continuously, while others, like corn and carrots, produce just once. Sometimes, new gardeners get carried away and go on to create gardens that are bigger than what they need.

• Find the Right Spot for Your Garden

Keep in mind that generally, your garden will do better with a lot of sunlight. The garden also needs to drain well, so you might want to choose the part of your yard that's not soggy. If the area you live in is dry, select the part of your yard that can receive and retain water.

*Be sure to check your lawn for any areas where you may have pre-installed irrigation, so that you do not disturb sprinkler heads as you begin to place plants or containers. You also may want to test the intensity of your lawn irrigation before deciding on a design. You would not want to place anything in the line of a direct blast of strong water.

• Consider the Traffic in Your Yard

Consider the children and pets in your yard and where they play. You want to create your garden in the part of your lawn that won't affect children or pets.

• Choose Good Soil

Get advice from your local nursery about the soil in the area. Having the soil tested is also a good idea. You don't need soil that is too loose (sand) nor too solid (clay). Adding sand or organic matter can also improve the quality of the soil.

*Container gardening is a great way to start until you have the soil in your area figured out exactly. Do you love all of those beautiful raised beds? Well they are a type of container. You completely control the type of soil inside of the container, where your vegetation will grow. You can begin with a raised be or large beautiful pot instead.

• Prepare the Soil

You can rent a tiller to prepare the ground. You can then combine sand or organic material with the soil and rake it all smooth.

*In our area we do not have a hardware store that rents out tillers. However, we were able to catch a tiller on sale at our local hardware store and made the purchase. If you do not want to rent or buy a tiller, you can turn the soil with a shovel, and then rake over the lawn, but I’m telling you, that will be a tedious process in comparison.

• Plant Your Garden

The seed packets would come with directions you should follow. Make sure you space the seedlings correctly and plant them deep enough, but not too deep. Also, plant at the right time and season for your specified zone.

• Maintain the Garden

Make sure you continue to water and weed the garden after planting. Don't overwater, to prevent fungus or mold. You want to, ensure that the soil stays soft, but not muddy.

During summer, drenching your plant twice a week should suffice. Note that deep watering is essential for forming deep roots and healthy plants, while light watering every day may enable shallow root growth.  

It would be a good idea to take a daily look for weeds to pull. Otherwise, they could easily take over the garden. It's best to plant your rows with enough spacing so that your rake can fit between the rows. Using this method makes it easy to drag the rake through and pull out weeds.

Having a successful garden requires some strategic work in the beginning and little amounts of work each day. If you keep putting in the efforts every day, you will find that your efforts will pay off just as you imagine.