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Garden · May 27, 2022

Garden Prep Guide for Beginners: Get Ready to Grow

There’s nothing better than harvesting homegrown food and flowers. Even better is getting multiple successions of plants from your garden. If only there were an easier way to start your growing season off early enough for succession harvesting…

You’re in luck! There are all sorts of ways to get a head start on the growing season and to get the best germination rate among your seedlings. Even if you aren’t looking to succession harvest, you can use these tips to grow your seeds to seedlings before it’s time to get planting.

The first thing you want to do before planting anything is to make sense of your space to grow in.

The best way to ensure your garden is weed-free is to tear out everything that isn’t a winter groundcover as soon as the soil is workable. Then it will be easier to keep track of the weeds that pop up from week to week without having to fight established root systems next to your new plants.

If you are planting in containers, be sure that all organic material is pulled and that your soil is well fertilized. This will keep your plants happy as they don’t have to compete with weeds for resources.

Aeration:

Aerating the soil in a garden is key for healthy root growth and is particularly helpful with growing root vegetables like potatoes and carrots. Once every couple of years we will pull out the rototiller but most years we just overturn the soil in each of the raised beds. This breaks up the soil and turns it over as a rototiller would, so stays aerated for a while.

Growing groundcover plants in the off-season can help keep down weeds and continue the growing cycle with roots breaking up the soil. Having groundcover has helped immensely in balancing our soil, though it cannot prevent weeds completely.

You can get a head start on weeding by turning your soil as soon as it is workable. It is still necessary to weed the garden often to prevent them from taking over your growing spaces as the season progresses.

Composting:

Adding compost to your garden space is a natural alternative to using potent commercial fertilizers. A spinning composter is helpful for families looking to get started with composting their food waste. If you are looking to compost your yard waste too, a compost pile may be better for large quantities of green matter.

Adding compost is not necessary for every garden bed every year that you choose to grow. Some plants are heavier ‘feeders’ than others, meaning they use more of the nutrients in the soil they are growing in. Potatoes, tomatoes, and sunflowers. Replenishing the nutrients once part-way through the growing season and once during the off-season to help with groundcover plants.

Compost can be turned over throughout the soil or buried in a layer under the topsoil. Once your compost begins resembling soil, you can transfer it to your garden and clean out your composter.

When the soil is properly aerated and you know it is nutrient-dense, you can begin planting. Consider how hardy your plants are and if they will require full sun, part shade, or full shade. If you are looking to start growing your seedlings earlier in the season but do not have space indoors with enough light, here’s a resourceful solution for you!

Use old milk or water jugs, juice containers, or other clear plastic containers you can poke holes into the bottom and remove the top. Slicing through the center of the container and poking holes in the bottom allows you to fill the bottom with soil and make a mini-ecosystem. Leave one side unsliced to add a hinge to your container.

Excess water will flow out the bottom to prevent rot and mildew, while the lid keeps enough moisture in for the seeds to germinate properly. Leave the containers outside and check them often to know when to water them if getting dry. Having condensation on the lid is okay, but the soil at the bottom of the container does not need to remain saturated.

Remove the lids after the plants start to grow well and transplant them to your garden beds, once they have acclimated to the temperature outside and your beds are fully prepped.

Looking for more content to grow your green thumb?

You can follow along with my garden bed prep and how my plants are growing under the Gardening highlight on the TUO Instagram or find Garden Inspiration on the TUO Pinterest page!

Posted By: byshannonamos@gmail.com · In: Garden

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Comments

  1. נערות ליווי israel-lady.co.il says

    August 1, 2022 at 9:52 pm

    I wanted to thank you for this excellent read!! I definitely loved every little bit of it. I have got you book-marked to look at new stuff you post

    Reply
    • byshannonamos@gmail.com says

      August 4, 2022 at 1:29 am

      I’m happy to hear you enjoyed the post! Feel free to share any gardening topics you look forward to reading more about.

      Reply

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this little butterfly garden never ceases to amaze this little butterfly garden never ceases to amaze me ✨
When I asked, you delivered! Thanks for all your f When I asked, you delivered!
Thanks for all your feedback about merging my earring curation with TUO. Nothing is live to the site yet, but there’s lots of updates to come to #TUOstyle 😊

These designs will be amongst the first to go live along with a few style guides to give lots of outfit inspiration for pairing with a set of statement earrings 🙌
Getting ready to add compost so these babies will Getting ready to add compost so these babies will be ready for planting (2022) thankfully spring came early this year so the ground was much easier to work with. plus, we didn’t have to add compost this year since we did last, and the soil has retained much of its nutrients since.
Who else is ready for their garden to start lookin Who else is ready for their garden to start looking like this again? 🙋🏻‍♀️

This is the kale & bok choy bed from last years harvest and it’s a staple in our garden every year. I pick each of our plants weekly to gather a continuous harvest all season long 💪
Even if the weather makes your blooms fall, they’re not a lost cause! 

Take it as a sign to cut them and give them a new home inside 🌼 so you can keep enjoying them for longer and give them a break from the cold
I’m not sure about you, but the first crocus is I’m not sure about you, but the first crocus is the first genuine sign of spring for me. Unlike the snowdrops that peel out before anyone else, or the daffodils that are eager to bloom early every year, these lil guys are always right on time.

We’ve only got the one for now, but I know an encore is soon to come and I cannot wait! 🙌 this guy is wild in the yard but I’ve been tending to our garden beds as I get the chance

Get ready for more TUO garden content, including a new way to grow your green thumb with minimal effort 😅
My lawn is full of stuff that others would conside My lawn is full of stuff that others would consider weeds. We’ve got weeds in shades of blue, white, yellow, and purple, but I don’t think of them that way. 

To me, they keep the bees going until our gardens fill out. I don’t mind seeing breaks in greenery if it means having speckles of color spotted throughout. Pick your battles, but I don’t mind having them around if that’s all the harm they do.

What about you? 🤔💭 Do you bother with all the little things or just focus on the big picture? Prioritizing the big picture helps me stay sane 🙋🏻‍♀️
With daffodils, blue bells, iris, snow drops, and With daffodils, blue bells, iris, snow drops, and tulips popping up all over our gardens, I’m sure to be out more often and sharing to the TUO Garden tab 🤩

I can’t wait to share my plans for the gardens this year as there will be big changes, so stay tuned! Until then, head over to my profile to see what I’ve been up to recently 😊
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