Gardening is easier with these tips and tricks. It’s almost time to dig out your gardening gloves and tools to prepare for spring planting. Whether you’re a beginner gardener or someone who’s been at it for years, we can all use a few tips to make gardening easier, right? We’ve found some terrific gardening tricks for everything from testing your soil composition to starting your seeds and beyond. Check them out! And don’t miss our post with tips to get rid of weeds and out garden DIYs to make your garden the envy of the neighborhood.
Gardening Tricks You Need to Know to Become a Greenthumb
Even if you are a beginner to growing anything. These tips will help your garden grow faster than you could have imagined! AND with better results!! Produce!!
1. Fork Your Garden to keep the critters out.
Plastic forks inserted stem side down into the ground can help keep little critters away from small plants. Use biodegradable forks (not pictured) plastic can leech into the soil. We want your plants to be as healthy as possible. Totally going to try it this year to deter our annual bunny invaders.
2. Add Calcium to your soil with eggshells
Place eggshells around the bottoms of plants to add calcium to the soil – an added perk, the shells also discourage pests and small bugs. Plants in the species: Brassica oleracea are especially hungry for extra calcium, those are plants like broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts, and more. To help the eggshells be absorbed more quickly into your garden – stick them into the blender and powderize them. Your garden will thank you.
3. Use Garden Tarps to protect and prepare your garden.
Plastic groundsheets are a gift if you are an early planter. They make terrific raised bed covers, as well as even ground heating! You can start seedlinigs with translucent cover, and if you are in a cold climate you can even use a black cover sheet to warm up the soil before you put your seeds or plants in the ground.So many ways your garden will thank you with just plastic sheeting and binder clips.
4. Clever Garden Tip: Wrap Tomato Plants in Plastic
Insulate tomato plants with plastic wrap if you live in a cooler climate. It creates a greenhouse effect and warms up the plants to help them thrive. (We have more plastic wrap hacks!) Your tomato plants will have a head start so you will have more tomatoes all season long!
5. Beginners: Do a quick mason jar soil test
Knowledge is power, in life and in gardening. Determine if the soil composition of your garden space, is sandy, clay, or silt – even degrading compost. Know what your soil makeup is using a mason jar “test” and then you can make adjustments as necessary.
6. Protect Your Garden from Pests.
Do you have a lot of rabbits? Even raccoons?? They can decimate a garden in mere hours. One of the best tips to avoid having your garden munched on, is to stake a rope just 4-5 inches off the ground. It is low enough to deter small animals, and not high to make it hard to tend the garden.
7. Don’t over-water your garden.
Using a watering can is better than a straight hose. This is especially important with young shoots, when you are first planting your garden. Gentle watering is imperative. Make your spring gardening chores easier with a DIY watering can. It’s the perfect size for watering seedlings and small plants.
8. Create a Self-Watering Garden
Super EASY gardening tricks: If you are going out of town and want to make sure that your plants get enough water while you are gone?? Use an old water bottle or even a milk jug. Poke small holes into the sides of the bottle. Then, you can bury it in the ground, so that the water doesn’t evaporate as it drips slowly into the soil. Your plants will thank you when you go on vacation.
9. Gardening Idea: Start Seedlings in Eggshells
Looking for new ways to start your garden?? Consider using biodegradable items from your kitchen. You can start your seeds in eggshells. By starting your seeds instead of buying plants that have already begun to grow, you can save big bucks on your gardening costs. Beans, squash, cucumbers, melons, all of them are easy to start in eggshells. When it is time to plant them just lightly tap the shell to crack it before planting the entire egg, shell and plant into your garden.
10. Start Acidic-loving Plants in Citrus Rinds
Create your garden seedlings in citrus rinds. Yup! Don’t throw out those citrus peels. You don’t even have to pull the seedlings out — just plop them into the ground, peel and all, when they’re ready to be planted. Turnips, peppers, tomatoes, and TONS of other plants thrive with acidic soils. Using a peel gives them a solid start to a long healthy plant-life. When its time to transplant them, just plant the peel and all into your garden.
11. Seedling pods help your plants get a healthy start
Create your own seedling pods using newspaper. You can fold origami paper cups – they take mere seconds to make! Then fill them with soil, some seeds. Added perk of using newspaper, you will be able to tell if the plant is getting too much or too little water as you can see the moisture in the paper. SHMART! Newspaper disintegrates fairly quickly making it a better choice for fast-growing plants. We’ve used newspaper pods for our beans and melons.
12. Help new plants have a solid start and be protected.
Use a gallon milk jug. Cut the bottom out of your milk jug and place this around your new plants. This helps those plants who are between the seedling phase, but not yet strong enough for all the elements and storms (or rabbits!) to have a great solid start. Be sure to leave the lid off your jug so the plants can breathe as they grow. You only need to use the jugs for a week or two in your garden.
12. Keep hanging plants watered.
Hanging plants have a tendency to dry out quickly. Water pours through the planters it is hard to keep the soil in them fertilized… and with the sun beaming on the soil, often plants struggle. No more. Put a diaper in potted plants to help them retain moisture. Neat! The silica in the diaper retains the moisture and waters the plants consistently. We would suggest using organic chemical-free diapers if this is for an edible plant. You should also sprinkle some fertilizer into the bottom of the planter. Retaining moisture and nutrients is the hanging plant’s biggest struggle.
13. Create a Bug-Free Baby Zone While You Garden
Want to bring the baby out with you to the garden? Put a crib sheet over the pack and play to provide shade and to keep bugs away. This allows your kiddo to enjoy the outdoor sun while helping you focus on the garden, knowing that your kiddo is safe and content outside. Added perk, they cant throw their toys out of the playpen!!
14. Repurpose Winter Sleds to Drag Dirt, Stones & Landscaping Items
Use a sled to easily transport heavy items to and from your garden shed. After moving literally DOZENS of bags of dirt and mulch last weekend, let me tell ya, this easy-to-do gardening hack will help you more than any other!! Your back will thank you!
15. Store your gardening tools – In the garden!
If your mailbox has seen better days, replace it and put the old one near your garden to store your garden tools. With this clever gardening storage tip, you won’t need to go all the way to the shed to grab a tool, they will be right there, where you need them the most.
16. Contain Gardening Tools with an Old Golf Bag.
Use an old golf bag as a caddy for your garden tools. Upcycle your old bag instead of throwing it away. Golf bags are extremely durable, and they stand up, meaning your gardening and weeding tools will be contained with a minimum amount of floor space being used! You’re garden and tool shed will thank you. Perfect for rakes, shovels, hoes, and more.
17. Gardening Tricks – Create a Patio Garden using Tubs.
Is yard space limited? Hack Rubbermaid containers to grow your own container garden on your back porch. They’re large enough to accommodate just about anything you’d want to plant.
18. Label Garden Plants to Remember What is Planted Where.
Garden markers can help you easily identify what’s planted where. We love these wine cork and fork garden markers. You can use them as decor in your potted plants, too! (See more wine cork projects.)
19. Wash Lettuce in the garden.
Lettuce can be excetionally dirty in the garden. Do your initial wash with the water you will water your plants with!! This keeps the dirt IN your garden beds. AND it is a total time saver… Wash your produce right after you harvest them to save you from taking dirty fruits and veggies into the kitchen. This tub and colander (affiliate) combo is the perfect tool.
20. Clean veggies with Vinegar
Use a mixture of two parts water and one part of vinegar (here is a recipe/instructions). The vinegar will kill the bacteria on the produce… AND if you let the vegetables soak in vinegar it will remove the pesticides as well (but it can effect the flavor – with strawberries and some fruit this will sweeten the fruit, with other veggies you may taste an after taste). We suggest using Apple Cider Vinegar.
21. Gardening Tricks: Pair plants to Help them Grow
Pair your garden plants together. Plants can have soul-mates just like people! And they can compliment each other so well. Research the plants you are putting into your garden and pair or group them together so they help each other. Like Corn and Beans! They love each other and promote each others growth… but dont plant them beside beets or they will stunt each others growth. Research your plants and pair them with their soulmates.
Gardening Tricks and Tips to Help Your Spring Planting Season Be The Best Ever
Even newbies to gardening can benefit from some of these ideas. Your garden will love to grow when following these gardening tips. Do you have tips that we missed?? Let us know on our Facebook page!! We love to get more ideas and hacks from all of you!
