Top Tips for Novice Gardeners for a Thriving Garden

Gardening can be a great way to enhance your property, be it residential or commercial, and it can also be a great hobby that gets you outdoors and into nature. But sadly, not everyone is green-fingered, and many people forgo a thriving, beautiful garden simply because they can’t or don’t have the time or skills to tend to it constantly.

It doesn’t matter if your garden is a glorified window box alive with colourful blooms or if you have an extensive garden that stretches for miles. Being able to keep it looking its best with minimal effort is a great goal, and finding ways to keep your garden without the massive care and upkeep that isn’t above your skill set is possible.

This post will look at some ways you can still have a stunning garden, even if you’re not a skilled gardener or if your fingers are more black than green.

Hire Help

The first and most obvious way to still have your cake and eat it is to get someone to do it on your behalf. Whether you have a landscape architect come in and overhaul the space and then a gardener to keep on top of the upkeep regularly or you simply have someone come in to do the bare minimum, e.g., mow the lawn, is entirely up to you.

Outsourcing the care for your garden can be a breath of fresh air, relieving you from the burden of constant upkeep and allowing you to enjoy the beauty of your outdoor space.

Automation and Smart Gardening

Automation is a great way to help you care for your garden. From drip feeders and irrigation, you can set up and program to do the work for you, to robotic lawn mowers to cut the lawn.

Thankfully, there are many tools you can use to automate the upkeep of your garden and help you reduce the grunt work from some of the tasks you need to do on a regular basis.

In addition, you can get automatic sprinkler systems, smart lighting, and even robotic weeders. Gardeners using smart gardening processes also use weather stations to monitor air temperature and soil testing kits to determine their soil type, which can improve planting and results.

Go Artificial

If you are not convinced you can grow plants and flowers, or if you don’t want the hassle of planting them only to have to remove them again when they inevitably die, you can opt for artificial options instead. You can buy extremely realistic artificial plants and flowers to adorn a more hard-landscaped area, and all you need to do is clean them from time to time. You can find a range of different artificial plants, trees, and climbers to decorate your outdoor space with.

From adding oversized planters to smaller plant pots, outdoor units, and flowerbeds, you can create decorative spaces that still invoke the feeling of nature without the upkeep.

Start Small

There is a big misconception that if you are going to have a “garden,” it needs to be big. It absolutely does not; it can be a small section of your space you start with while you build your skills and learn your craft. It can be a small planter or raised flower bed you learn to get to grips with before branching out into bigger spaces, or you can start with lawn care and upkeep before moving on to plants and flowers. But you don’t need to bite off more than you can chew. Baby steps, small spaces, and less is more are all mottos to keep in mind when you’re learnin g how to be a good gardener.

Get The Right Tools

One way in which you can make gardening infinitely harder on yourself is by using the wrong tools. Tools that aren’t fit for the task you are using them for or don’t fit your body or abilities can be hard work and make things more complex and difficult to master. Research the right tools for different jobs and have them on hand when doing any gardening work.

Watch tutorials on the best practices, how to use them correctly, and the optimal times and conditions for specific tasks. Then, try to find ergonomically designed tools that can make things even easier, from raised pads to kneeling on too long-handled tools to avoid bending and stretching to having your flowers on higher shelf units, not the ground, for ease of access. Get all the tools required to make life easier and use them correctly for maximum impact.

Low Maintenance Plants

If you are concerned you’re not going to water your properly or forget about them entirely, then you need hardy plants that don’t mind a bit of neglect and cna thrive in any environment. If you can kill a cactus, a plant that can thrive for multiple years in an arid desert but doesn’t last months in your home, then you need to find the equivalent of this for your garden.

Look for varieties such as coneflower, lavender, catmint, peony, and hardy geranium while you figure this out. They don’t need a lot of fuss and TLC, and they can survive even the most inept novice gardener. Then, once you get more skilled at gardening, you can look into other varieties that you can nourish and help thrive. Remember that you need nurturing to thrive, too, before you try this in your garden.

Being able to cultivate a thriving garden even if you are not skilled in this area is something you can most definitely work towards, but remember you need to be mindful of your skills and the time and decisions you can offer to the outdoor space at home or even work if applicable.

Start small, get the right tools and look for ways to make life easier. You don’t need to go from being the worst gardener to being Alan Titchmarsh overnight; slow it down, break it down, and learn your craft slowly and carefully for optimal results.

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Adam Regan

Deputy Editor

Features and account management. 3 years media experience. Previously covered features for online and print editions.

Email Adam@MarkMeets.com