Over the years, I’ve learned a thing or two about what makes a garden look good not only throughout the year but from one year to the next. In fact, I’ve distilled it down to five steps to your best garden ever. And why what you do now matters most for getting there.
Get the FREE resource guide: Five Steps to your Best Garden Ever-Why What You Do Now Matters Most, or simply text “BESTGARDEN” TO 44222.
It all comes down to following these guiding principles to creating and keeping the garden you always imagined:
1. Right Plant, Right Place
Plants are genetically predisposition to grow (and thrive) in certain environmental conditions. Knowing what those are putting them there, will eliminate 90% of potential future problems. Putting them elsewhere will increase your potential problems by up to the same amount.
2. Feed the Soil (and let the soil feed the plants)
The only true way to a thriving, sustainable garden is to get your plants off a junk food diet of synthetic chemicals. Instead, feed them the equivalent of a whole foods diet, to build the health of the environment where the plants live. Focus on building soil health, and your plants will naturally be healthy too. Are you feeding the soil, or feeding your plants?
3. Add Mulch
There’s no single thing that does more for your overall garden and landscape than adding mulch. From weed suppression, fewer diseases improved soil structure, and overall beauty, mulch does so much. But there’s more to mulch than meets the eye.
4. Space Plants Properly
We all want instant gratification in our landscapes. Who has the time to wait for plants to fill in on their own? When we pack them in, we reduce much-needed sunlight and air circulation getting into the plants. And that can create many long-term problems. There’s a better way.
5. Water Properly
It sounds like a simple task. More plants die of over-watering than under-watering by hand. Moreover, it can take much longer for plants and trees to establish in the landscape under trying environmental conditions—something we are experiencing more of today than ever before. Find out the tricks and tips for knowing how to tell if your plants are getting the right amount of water, and how to automate the process.
Soaker hoses like this saved my prized Japanese maple and helped it establish after being transplanted.
In this episode, we talked about the following topics with links to go deeper on each subject:
- Getting a soil test.
- Where to get a soil test from your county extension.
- How to utilize livestock panels to make a planting grid (info starts around 6:45 in the video).
- The step by step info to make a quick planting board.
Get the FREE resource guide: Five Steps to your Best Garden Ever-Why What You Do Now Matters Most, or simply text “BESTGARDEN” TO 44222.
Watch all past and current episodes of Growing a Greener World on our companion website free.
Leave us a message or ask a question right from this page! Check out the “Send Voicemail” tab on the right side of this page. We’d love your feedback and might even use it in the show.
You can also email us directly.
Like what you hear so far? If so, we’d love to have your say so iTunes podcast page. Your comment and rating help us get the word out so other gardeners can find us too. And we could really use your help for that! Thank you!
Links & Resources
Episode 074: How to Have and Care for a Healthy Lawn: Top 7 Non-negotiables
Episode 073: How to Create a Resilient Garden: 10 Key Principles
Episode 072: Creating an Eco-friendly Garden & Landscape: 7 Key Tenets
Milorganite® : Our podcast episode sponsor and Brand Partner of joe gardener®
