I always love your state of the garden posts! Do you have any advice for someone who wants to start gardening but has no background or knowledge of what to do? (I live in zone 8a if that matters.)
Thank you! I’m always happy to encourage someone to pick up the hobby! This is all based on the assumption you have some kind of yard, but a some of it still applies to container gardening. I really enjoy helping plan a garden, so if you want something more specific, let me know.
1. Start small. I love my garden, but it is work and you have to be willing to keep up with it, because it can get out of hand very quickly and become overwhelming if you don’t. If you don’t have beds already, now’s actually a great time to make them out of a grass lawn. You can lay out newspaper or cardboard (overlap & leave no gaps!) where you want the bed, spread a generous three inches of mulch on top, and let the lack of light and summer heat kill off the grass. By late October or November, you’d be able to dig through the paper and plant bulbs if you want. Come spring you’ll be able to plant like normal. Again, though, start with a small plot. You can always expand later.
2. Think about what you want from your garden. Lots of color? Greenery? Food (depending on what you grow, you might need a planter for safety)? Do you like the semi-wild cottage look or the more cultivated estate look? Be realistic with yourself about how much time you want to spend on it (see point 1).
My garden is the result of (1) hating to mow and (2) wanting to attract pollinators and birds. So I plant native as much as possible for #2 and since they’re already adapted to Virginia weather, they need very little attention once established (related to #1). My garden also does not get watered unless there’s an extended dry spell and things start to look stressed.
At the end of the day, it’s your garden. Do what will make you smile when you look at it.
3. You will lose plants. Seeds will not sprout (or will sprout randomly years later). Plants or trees you thought you dug up or killed off will come back for years. Don’t stress about it. You’re not a bad gardener, that’s just nature doing its thing. Also don’t worry if you try something and end up not liking it. If you go back through my gardening tag, you’ll see that I’m always editing and thinking about what to do differently next year.
5. Know your light. That means hours of and morning versus afternoon. Full sun needs at least eight hours of direct sunlight. Partial sun still needs at least four. Partial shade can mean it like sun but tolerates shade or that more than a few hours of morning sun will fry it. Full shade are the vampires of the plant world. Direct sunlight is not a fun time for them. Plants that say full sun to full shade are almost always liars. They are sun lovers that will survive but not thrive in shade, or shade lovers that cannot take the full blast of afternoon summer sun.
You can make a pretty garden with whatever light you have, you just need to work with it.
6. Know your soil. Sandy? Loamy? Clay? If you don’t know, your local nursery will and can tell you what's best suited for it. Also know if you have any spots in your yard where water sits after a downpour. You don’t want to put a bed there.
4. Mulch. Mulch again. Number one thing you can do to improve your topsoil and give yourself a fighting change against weeds. When spreading, don’t put it up against your house or concrete structures like steps – taper it off.
6. Think seasonally. Don’t fill your garden with what’s currently blooming at the store. You’ll end up with all the visual interest in one month, and then nothing the rest of the growing season. Do not fill up your garden with permanent plants your first year. Pick a few things and let how the season goes tell you what you need the next year. You’re going to have to play the long game.
Tools
You need very little to start. Garden gloves, hand trowel, pruning shears. A regular shovel if you’re planning on planting bigger items (bushes, trees), or to potentially scoop mulch. A watering can if you don’t want to commit to a hose & attachment yet.
Not strictly necessary, but makes your life easier: tub or bucket of some kind to throw weeds in as you go, hand weeder. You can spread mulch by hand with a small bed, but anything larger and you’ll want something to help. I dump a bag at a time and use a small foot-wide rake so I can maneuver around plants.
Bulbs
Great for beginners and require very little maintenance. Plant in the fall, cut the leaves back after blooming in the spring once they start to yellow, forget till the next spring. Ordering season has already started, and they’ll get shipped to you in the fall based on your zone. Pay attention to the bloom time if you want flowers all through spring. General bloom order: (early) snowdrops, crocuses, rock irises, (mid) daffodils, hyacinths, tulips, (late) alliums.
Plants
You pay for time. Seeds are the cheapest because you’re starting from zero. That gallon pot will look great the moment you plant it, but you’ll pay out the nose for someone else getting it to that stage. Annuals grow fast, so if you have a tight budget, don’t be afraid to get them in those inch six-packs or three inch pots. They’ll fill in as the growing season goes on. Just make sure you know your frost date and don’t plant annuals until it’s passed.
Perennials can be slower growers, but they'll survive the winter and come back year after year, so if you’re willing to be patient you can get them for cheap(er). (See my hydrangea bush that was first planted four years ago from a three-inch pot that is now five feet across). Both annuals and perennials will need to be watered daily for at least the first week after planting. You lose less water in the evening to evaporation. When it’s humid, it’s better to water at the base of the plant as the leaves may not be able to dry properly.
Groundcover
Your best friend against weeds. If you have empty space in your garden, something will want to grow there. Empty space is normal with a new planting area, and you do want to leave room for things to fill in, but if you have a big empty space, consider something that stays low and spreads.
What my year looks like in zone 7:
March: mulch (ideally before bulbs are more than an inch above ground)
April-May: every week or two, go out and weed as necessary. Plant frost-hardy perennials.
May: Plant annuals & new perennials.
Late May-June: cut back bulb leaves as they yellow .
June-August: weed when it’s not too hot. Accept that I will fall behind. Water as necessary.
July/August: order bulbs if planting new ones that year.
September: catch-up weeding.
October/November: plant any new bulbs, bushes, or trees. Also when I’d move any of the aforementioned or other perennials.
Mid-late November: pull out any remaining annuals, cut back perennials. Mulch again.
December-February: garden rests. Order any new perennials for spring arrival.
