Every day in the garden is a learning experience. Whether you are a newbie gardener or a seasoned master gardener, we learn from nature everyday in our garden. In the process we all stumble upon some garden mistakes but don’t let those mistakes pull you down. The only thing we are pulling out of the garden is those stubborn weeds. Let’s pin down a few mistakes that one can avoid and keep that garden inspiration growing.
- The right spot for your plants: We cannot stress this enough. All plants need their right place in your garden. Read the plant description and find out the amount of sun or shade it needs and place it accordingly in your garden. If you put sun loving Geranium in the shade, it won’t bloom or thrive. Same would be true for your shade loving herbs like coriander or chives if you put them in the sun and it will not grow well. Place your plant babies as per their needs not yours.
- Sowing all your seeds at once: It might be exciting to plant all your seeds in one go and see them grow but what are you going to do if your lettuce is ready to be harvested at the same time or if you decide to keep it in the garden, it will bolt. You will have to get ready to eat it for weeks in every meal. Benefit from succession - growing and planting your seeds slowly in a gap of a few weeks.
- Know your bugs: We all think we will tackle them if they come but honestly it is such a heartbreaker to see your favorite hard worked plant babies get destroyed by these little buggers. Know your local pests and bugs that invade in the garden. Every location gets different ones and you need to keep an eye out and check your plant babies and handle the situation before it gets out of control.
- The right soil: If you plant baby is not getting the right home it’s going to live in, then don’t be surprised if they don’t grow well and bloom. The right soil is so important for your garden. Using the right mix for your container garden v/s using the one that will benefit your garden beds.Finding out if your soil has the right acidity or is it too alkaline. All these factors weigh in on a healthy garden.
- Don’t go overboard: Know your capacity. It is easy to get over excited and get 20 plants and start your garden. But curb that urge to buy every plant you see in the nursery in one go. Start with a few of your favorites and slowly build your garden and stop before it gets too overwhelming and you end up getting demotivated. Keep gardening fun and relaxing rather than a chore that you despise.
- Making time: One weekend, you head to your garden and get into action for straight eight hours weeding, watering, clearing etc. and then life happens and you forget to visit your garden for the next two three weeks. And now when you go, all that hard work seems to have disappeared. It can get disheartening to see that and it does happen because life happens. So plan accordingly, rather than spending back breaking eight hours in the garden at once, try breaking down the chores and spend half an hour a few times a week doing those chores.
It can get overwhelming and a lot of times when we almost give up, thinking we have brown thumbs or we don’t have time, it is mainly just a matter of reorganizing and keeping track of a few things in advance. We all learn from our mistakes, so make them, learn and move on. Thankfully, mother nature is forgiving and your plant babies will survive the tough time just like you.
