Florist in Salem VA

Gardening Basics and Know-How

Tips from the Experts for Gardening Hobbyists

Are you a rookie to gardening? Or are you a casual gardener who wants to keep a small with gorgeous blooms or robust greens? In any case, you've likely encountered a pest problem or soil issue you've never seen before. You may be feeling a bit lost on how to resolve it.

But don't worry! Every gardener goes through this. Even experts and professionals on plant care have their own concerns.

To help you along, we've put this practical guide together! You'll also find answers to the most frequent questions on gardening. You'll also find top techniques every gardener needs to know!

Here, we give you a quick list of pro gardening tips and tricks for rookies and hobbyists. You'll learn about planting your first plant seed. You'll find out how to give daily treatment to your plants. You'll discover how to move your seedlings to your plant bed. You'll also learn how to build your soil and pick your herbs.

Whatever your concerns are, we've got your back! This helpful guide has all the basic know-hows for any budding gardener.

Interested in a formal course? Want to get certified as a gardening expert? Look into organizations offering classes in floristry, like:

Preparing Your Garden Bed

Before doing anything else, all gardeners need to prep their garden beds! Other gardening practices like building soil can get complicated without a good foundation. But no worries, we're here to help!

Sunshine, healthy soil, and water are the basic needs of any garden bed. But if you want to go all out, there are a couple of steps you need to follow.

Clear away weeds, grass, and other vegetation from your desired area.

Wet the soil until it is damp. Make sure it's not soaking wet.

Work the soil to around 12 inches deep.

Insert compost into your bed.

Cover the bed with mulch.

Top off with more compost to preserve moisture.

Prepping your garden bed differs with the kind of plants you wish to plant. But these are the fundamentals you can follow to be sure your bed is healthy! From here, you can get your lawn ready! You'll soon have a garden of the best flowers and plant edibles!

Seed and Seed-Starting

So you've prepped your lawn or yard into a nourishing garden bed. Now you're all ready to start planting seeds and growing them to fully flourish! With the right care, you can look forward to radiant blooms and harvests of herbs and edibles.

To achieve this, here are some tips from expert gardeners on seed starting! You'll see the best ways to bury a seed into the soil and start them up on their growth process.

Some gardeners claim it's alright to let your seed grow wild in every way they want. But experts don't agree.

Years of experience with looking after our own gardens tell us otherwise. We say it's best for beginners to start their gardens in an enclosed space. It's much better for both you and your plants that you keep a close eye on them at all times. This way, you can adapt to and take care of their needs in a more efficient way.

That said, here are a few helpful tips for rookie gardeners planting their first batch of seeds into the soil!

Scatter your seeds in the bed and avoid overcrowding at all costs.

Store your stock of seeds in a dry and cool place for longer shelf life.

Pat down the soil to make direct contact with the seeds.

Give them proper airflow and water drainage to defend against pests and plant disease.

Water them on a daily basis, and feed them well with a healthy mix of fertilizer and plant food.

Take time to let your plants get used to direct sunlight to ward off unwanted wilting.

Mulch

Both flower beds and vegetable gardens benefit a great deal from mulch. It gives your garden high levels of moisture retention and soil temperature regulation. It also helps ward off weeds better. You could never get these at their best quality with any artificial product or formula.

Every gardener needs to know when to use mulch and what amount of it to use. This is because mulch belongs to the most valuable things a garden needs to flourish!

Whether you're using grass clippings, wood chips, pine needles, stone and rocks, or dyed mulch, here are the pros' answers to some FAQs on mulch.

Should I avoid any kind of mulch?

Avoid grass cuttings from any lawn that's been treated with weed killers in the past three to four weeks. If you have pets, specifically dogs, don't use cocoa hull.

Aged mulch vs. New mulch?

In general, older mulch is better. It won't drain the soil of its much-needed nitrogen and other nutrients. This is because they've already begun decomposing.

When should I apply mulch?

Gardening pros say it's best to put the mulch in your garden bed in the early summer. Otherwise, you'll risk damaging the roots of any plants you insert after.

How deep should the mulch go?

The standard rule on how deep mulch should go is a couple of inches from above ground. Experts say this is best for your plants. Top tip: Keep the mulch about at least a feet far from your house's foundation to avoid bug infestations.

Composting

The practice of composting has been around about as long as gardening has. It's only sensible to assume everyone has at least a fundamental idea of composting or building good compost.

Whatever you know about it, here are a few guidelines to catch you up on the basics of composting!

We recommend that you allot a dedicated workspace for your composting. With this, you can put compost in a bin to stock for longer use.

It's also important to maximize your compost for your garden bed. Start by dampening each layer as you place them in your compost bin and speed up the process.

Now you want your compost to be top-notch. Compost is most ideal when it has a balanced composition of brown (dry) and green (wet) components. If not, it can either heat up or smell bad.

So if one of these things takes place, inspect the balance of green and brown in your compost. If it isn't uniform, add a little bit more of whichever compost is less than the other. See to it that the perimeter of your workspace doesn't block water and lets it drain out with ease.