5 Tips for the Best Garden Ever

The bright sunshine is shining down on us once again. The animals are waking up from their well-rested naps. Old man winter has packed up his winter chills and mother nature has taken his place with a welcoming warm hug. The birds are singing together in the longer days. As well, the plants have popped up from the dampened earth. Yes, spring has sprung yet again and with the warmer, brighter days we, as well as many other living things, are feeling the urge to get outside back into our natural habitat of the great outdoors. And one fun activity that many people are excited to start doing again is is gardening! Flowers, vegetables, and fruit, oh my! Gardening is an excellent activity to start get interested in as it gets you to be active while producing the freshest produce that you will ever taste in your life. That being said, however, gardening can be a bit difficult if your new to this common past time. Luckily enough, here are 5 tricks for your best garden ever.

1. Pick plants that match your zone

Credit: Global plant hardiness zones for phytosanitary risk analysis

This trick shouldn’t be too hard to follow as the plants that are regularly available at your local gardening center should have zone appropriate plants for sale. A zone is an area of land that is classified by its climate, soil type, weather patterns, rainfall amounts as well as other environmental factors. Each zone is different with different flora and fauna which thrive best under those unique and specific factors. Therefore, in order to have the best garden ever, you should strictly stick to growing plants that are suited for your zone. In simple terms, you can’t grow a cactus in the Arctic.

2. Pick plants that are suited to your level of expertise.

A common and well-known saying is the professional in everything was once a beginner. This is true as well for gardeners. Keeping this in mind, some plants are harder to grow than others due to their needs such as how often they need to be watered, whether or not they need to be trimmed, and other characteristics that are required by that specific plant. Therefore, if you are new to gardening, you might not be able to take care of a high demand plant. To sum things up, start growing small and simple to take care of plants and then slowly graduate to the bigger and more difficult to maintain plants in order to have the best garden ever.

3. Keep your garden tidy

Although weeds may seem like harmless plants looking for a nice garden to call home, they usually are not the best friends to whatever plants you are trying to grow. Weeds often compete with cultivated plants by stealing their much-needed sunlight if the weeds get too large, entangling roots, eating up all the nutrients in the soil and drinking up all the water. So, in order to ensure that your desired plants are getting all the love that they deserve, you should kick these weeds to the curb by doing regular rounds of weeding in your garden.

4. Wait until the last frost is over

Spring fever hits many of us hard. Although our first instinct on the first day of warmth after a long, cold winter is to get outdoors and start digging, you should refrain yourself from doing any planting until you know that the last frost is well over. The last frost is a period of time where the temperature stops dipping below a certain point. This means that your plants will be able to grow since it will be warm enough as the cold temperature can severely stunt a plants growth and could kill it altogether.

5. Show your plant that you love them

This trick is obvious, but probably the most important as well. A baby can’t survive on its own after it’s first born. That’s what moms and families to a greater extent are for. Babies need to be fed, cleaned and loved in order to grow into healthy, strong, and functioning adult. Plants are no different. Plants, like children, are a commitment and a responsibility that you chose to take on. These responsibilities include watering your plant, ensuring that it is protected from harm, giving it the right nutrients, and a bunch of other actions that must happen, by you, to ensure that you have a healthy and strong plant and, in turn, the best garden ever.