Spring is just around the corner, which means it’s time to start thinking about your garden. Before the ground thaws and the weather warms, you need a plan to make this year’s garden your best yet. Follow these gardening tips and tricks to help you succeed and watch your garden flourish.
Using Raised Beds
Raised beds gardening tips are popular because raised beds offer many benefits when it comes to gardening. One of the main ones is that they allow you to start the season a little earlier. Because these beds aren’t dug into the ground, the soil is warmer, which means you can begin planting seeds earlier than you would with a traditional garden.
The height of garden boxes and raised beds allows for better drainage to help keep plants and vegetables healthy. Plus, since the beds aren’t at ground level, tending your garden will involve less bending over and less back strain. If you want the benefits of height without investing in or building a raised bed, you can use pots for container gardening and place them on a garden stand.
Hand-Weeding like a Pro
Nobody likes weeding, but it’s necessary if you want to keep your garden healthy. Weeds can steal nutrients, sunlight and water from the plants and vegetables you’re trying to grow. Plus, they can be unsightly.
A common mistake novice and experienced gardeners alike make is deep hoeing to cut down the time it takes to weed. However, hand-weeding is the way to go. Hoeing the soil can cause more harm than good by bringing weed seeds to the surface and spreading them, which results in more weeds. Hand-weeding allows you to have more control and causes less of a disturbance.
You don’t necessarily have to be on your hands and knees to hand-weed, though. You can still get the control you want with a no-bend weed grabber. This device allows you to easily pull weeds without disrupting the soil like you would with a hoe and without straining your back.
A New Use for Long-Handle Tools
Do you have a long-handle tool you use often? Maybe an extendable garden shovel (Pictured to the right) or a rake? If you do, we have a creative new use for that tool that will make your gardening life easier. All you need is a ruler and a permanent marker.
This is one of our best gardening tips for beginners, experts and anybody in between. Take the ruler and mark off inches, feet, centimeters or whatever measurement you prefer on the handle of your tool using a dark permanent marker. Now, you have an easy-to-access measuring stick on hand. This will help when it comes to measuring the distance between seeds while planting or how deep a hole you’ve made is.
A Comfortable Gardner is a Happy Gardner
We cannot stress enough how important it is to stay comfortable while gardening. If you’re straining joints, hurting your back or just feeling uncomfortable in general, you’re likely to rush through your work and risk making mistakes. That’s why we have some comfort-focused gardening tips for you.
Gardening can involve a lot of bending over, sitting and kneeling. Whether you’re hand-pulling weeds, planting seeds or admiring what you’ve grown, you’re going to end up spending quite a bit of time close to the ground. Luckily, there are ways to make this easier and more comfortable.
A gardener’s knee rest is the perfect way to take some of the stress off your body while gardening. The padded rest is gentler on your knees than the hard ground and it will be easier for you to get up after spending time planting seeds. Another great option is a garden seat (Pictured to the right) that can be adjusted to your desired height. This lets you kneel or sit and helps take the strain off your back from bending over.
Keep Your Tools Organized
An often-overlooked gardening tip is the importance of tool organization. There’s nothing worse than spending time searching through shelves and drawers in your shed or garage in an effort to find that spade you need.
Keeping your gardening tools organized will make it easier to find the tool you need when you need it. Consider purchasing a corner garden tool rack (Pictured to the right). This rack fits perfectly into the corner of a shed or garage and can hold up to 20 tools, including rakes, shovels and shears. It’s the perfect way to keep your tools neat and easy to access.
Save Time with Seed Mats
When it comes to planting vegetables, you’ll definitely want to take the time to make sure your seeds are spaced out and buried in the right amount of dirt. When it comes to flowers, however, there are some shortcuts you can take.
Pre-seeded flower rolls are a great way to save a little time and effort during your gardening adventures. Flower mats contain hundreds of seeds that you simply have to roll out. There’s no digging or hand planting. It’s quick and easy and gives you more time to focus on other gardening tasks.
Finding the Right Tools and Supplies
A gardener is nothing without their tools. At Miles Kimball, we have a wide selection of affordable gardening supplies to help you kick the season off right. From planters to flower rolls, we’ve got what you need.
