Tips for Gardening

Being relatively new to gardening I don’t have a vast knowledge bank so am sharing more actions I have taken and what has helped along the way!

Tip #1 Be Planned

Over winter I sat down with a few gardening books and sketched up a rough plan of showing what I wanted to grow as well as how I wanted the garden to look, including a gorgeous archway in the middle as a bit of a feature. I also wanted to plant flowers in the garden which the plan shows. I considered shade as well as bee-friendly plants that would help with pollination. This has been really helpful and I have mainly stayed with the plan. It has been especially helpful as sometimes I forget what I have planted where! I will revise the plan next Autumn and work out what worked and what didn’t for the following year's plan.

Tip #2 Be Vigilant

The biggest challenge I have faced is the ever-present assault by pests. We are overrun by rabbits so this year it was a top priority to fence the garden and attach wire mesh around the perimeter. The mesh also keeps out the chooks which will happily scratch up a row of new seedlings quite happily! I have used a variety of mesh covers to protect the new seedlings from birds, the strawberries are very well protected! Our garden is slug central, so I have liberally blitzed the garden with Yates Blitzem to try and keep the creepy crawlies at bay. We did try the beer idea but needed to bring in the big guns, Blitzem was it!

Tip #3 Be inspired

I follow various different Facebook groups and blogs where I am inspired to grow new things as well as great tips and tricks. The Yates website is simply amazing for gardening inspiration and ideas. Of course, the Yates growing community is a great place for inspiration and hearing what works and what doesn’t! For inspiration on what to grow when planning the vege garden over winter, I hauled out the recipe books and thought about our favourite dishes. This basically gave me a list of must have’s in the garden! I have had a go this year and trying to grow veges like garlic and strawberries for the first time which has been fun!

Tip #4 Bee Friendly

This year I have planted a variety of wildflower seeds, sunflowers, plus borage and lavender to attract the bees and provide a food source for them. Bees are really important in the vege garden to assist with pollinating plus their numbers are dwindling so it is nice to be able to make the vege garden as bee-friendly as possible.

Tip #5 Be Hydrated

The best tip is to be able to have a glass of your favourite tipple at the end of the day in the garden where you can do some watering, light weeding or just have a general look around and enjoy watching the plants grow! As far as plants being hydrated, I have used pea straw to retain as much moisture in the garden plus have a worm bin which doubles up as great for food scraps as well as providing a supply of worm tea to nourish the plants. My horse poo stew also keeps the plants well-nourished and hydrated!