8 Gardening Tips for Beginners

Hello everyone, if you are a beginner at gardening or planning to start gardening then this post is for you guys. I will tell you some basic tips which will help you in every manner. So let us begin

1. Proper Drainage hole in the pots: This basic tip is very important for proper growth of plants. Various types of pots are available in the market and such pots mostly are equipped with proper drainage holes. So just ensure if those have the holes. If you are using a bucket or any container as pot then obviously it wont have the hole. So in that case just make some holes at the bottom surface. In absence of holes, plants get dried up because water remains trapped in the pot and damages the root system. Be careful while planting succulents, they require more number of holes as compared to normal plants.
2. Perfect Soil Mix: The soil used for planting the plants should be good and should have required nutrients in it. I suggest you to use normal garden soil mixed with organic fertilizer, the composition of soil could be 20% and fertilizer composition has to be 80%. Accurate pH of the soil vary for different types of plants: well lets not get into it. Soil with good humus content is usually recommended.
3. Transportation of Seedlings: Since seedlings are so delicate that planting them in a medium sized pot won't be a good idea. So initially grow seedlings into small 1-2inch pots. You may even use any small plastic cup or anything that serves the same purpose.

   

   Photo by Jametlene Reskp
   

   Don't forget to make a hole even in them if they don't have one. The soil mix should be perfect. While removing the seedlings from original location pluck out the seedlings along with the soil trapped by the root system carefully. After transplanting into desired area water them and keep it under shade for 4-5 days . Now they must have grown some long so it's the right time to transplant finally into the main pot like 3 inch pots.
4. Maintain proper Distancing: When you initially plant make sure to have 'At-least 1-2 feet gap' between plants. You may require to vary the distance according to the type of plants, like big plants would require more space and smaller one would not.This is done so that each plant gets enough sunlight, nutrients and soil to expand their roots and shoot. Like the humans don't prefer standing in a densely area the same is the case with plants.
5. Water Timings: Water your plants either at early morning or at evening time. Avoid watering plants at mid day especially if you live in countries like India which gets a good amount of sunlight

   

   Watering plants
   

    Succulents require very less water, so water them once a week in summers or may be once in 15days.
6. Loosen the soil: If you want that your plant gets maximum amount of nutrients present in the soil, then you must loosen the soil once in 15 days. You may do it by the help of khurpa or may use hoe if you are doing in a big open area. This way weeds can be removed and on loosening the soil roots will get proper air.
7. Use Organic Fertilizer: I always tell to use organic fertilizers, as they won't harm your plants even if you overdose them. Any organic fertilizer could be used such as vermicompost, leaf mould compost or home made compost but if you manage to get the mixture of them; that would be excellent. I would recommend you to use 1/2 cup of it every month. Then just water the plants. For liquid fertilizer about 100ml per plant per month is enough. Before using liquid fertilizer make sure the soil is dried up. Stop watering the plants 24 hrs before the usage of liquid fertilizer.
8. Have proper arrangement of Supports and stakes: If you wish to grow vines, climbers or that with soft stem then you would need to have something that would support them. This is important because what happens many times during rainy season is that the branches or the fruits get detached from the plant.

That's it for now.

Some of you may ask why the list is so short?

Well the main reason is that these things were from my side and mostly personally tested so once I have reviewed some more tips then I'll update you there.

If you want to ask anything related gardening, planting do comment us. Hope it would help you. And do comment your suggestions.

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