My Top 12 Simple Gardening Tips

I love gardening and getting into nature. When a garden is maintained well, it can become a lovely relaxing outside space which you can enjoy. As they say, “Never underestimate the power of a healing moment in the garden”. It really can provide you with a lovely peaceful space to relax or enjoy time with family. Use the 12 tips below to help transform your garden or even to help maintain it with minimum effort.

First, start with accessing some great gardening resources

1. Gardeners World is a very accessible resource when spending time in the garden. The website gives you some great advice and tips, such as what vegetables and seeds to sow at the different times of year and what you should be focusing on in your garden right now. For example, early Summer is a great time to plant seeds and grow some crops. Just visit their website here, and browse through their extremely helpful website.
2. Another great resource is YouTube. If you’re unsure about how to prune your shrubs and plants, just search pruning videos on YouTube and enter in the plant you need advice on. You can then watch and follow the video’s direction. Once you’ve learnt it, you will remember how to do it every year, or if not, YouTube is always there for a refresher!

What tools and equipment will make gardening easier? 

3. Purchase a green bin from the council. Using this is an excellent way of keeping on top of your waste, saving you endless trips to the local tip. You can find more information on the green bin service, including payment details on the council website here.
4. Invest in some good quality tools- this will vastly affect how well you can do your gardening. Get tools which share battery packs so that you don’t have leads lying around. I use WorX branded tools, I can’t recommend them enough.
5. Using extending handled loppers are brilliant so that you don’t over-reach.
6. Padded kneelers are great as they protect your soft tissue. If you have mobility issues, there are a number of garden aids available to make gardening easier and more accessible.
7. A reusable garden waste bag with strong handles is a must. There is nothing worse than the handles tearing and you ending up having to pick everything up again!

Here are some of my other top gardening tips:

8. Rather than tackling a huge area all at once and exhausting yourself, plan a small amount of work each day.
9. Have you heard of the ‘No Mow May’ challenge? By leaving your lawn to grow and letting flowers bloom across it, you will be helping your local wildlife. This creates enough nectar for up to ten times more bees and pollinators so it’s worth holding off the entire month of May. After that, most lawns will want to be mowed once a month or so during the growing season.
10. Hedges shouldn’t be managed during the growing season and also the nesting season, (which has been particularly hard to adhere to this year!) You can keep on top of the errant growth by only taking off steps which are poking out. Depending on the plant, if you go back too far in the growing season you can end up killing the plant for good and it’s very difficult and expensive to replace shrubs. Make sure to look up, online or in books, what shrubs and plants should be trimmed and when.
11. Dependant on the room you have and your patience, you can grow from seed or buy amazing trays of plants for your garden. Why not use a mixture of the two?
12. By planting different types of bulbs between other plants, you ensure that there will always be something coming out of the ground. Think about the seasons and what beautiful flowers can flourish at different times; snowdrops, daffodils, bluebells and tulips. These are all great to plant and watch as they come up in turn. You’ll have something to look forward to then throughout the seasons.

I hope that these tips have helped you. Don’t forget to always wear a sun hat and sun lotion, even in cloudy conditions. It’s amazing how powerful those UV rays are! Keep hydrated too by drinking plenty of water.

If you would like to become greener in the rest of your life, and not just the garden, have a read of my blog here to read tips on how to become more eco-friendly. 

Gardening really is a fantastic hobby once you get into it. However, sometimes it can be difficult to find the time and motivation to get into gardening. If you would like any non-contact help with your garden, please do get in touch as this is something that I offer as part of my Dorset Companion services.