This is your go-to gardening guide now that you want to get into this beautiful and rewarding activity. It allows you to work outside and is great to relieve stress and improve mind and body. Whether you want to grow gorgeous flowers or organic produce, these tips have you covered.

How to get started

If you don’t have an actual yard space, just start a container mini-garden. Even if you do, we suggest you start small. With a beginner container garden, you can easily prevent weeds and ensure the fertility of the soil. Curiously, placing your container near a window or a back door to make you work on it while looking outdoors will trick your brain into start working on a bigger garden eventually.

Soil and drainage

Your container must have plenty of compost, which will translate in having good and dependable soil and drainage. Compost is essential to be a good gardener. And it’s easy to get. Save your food waste, especially fruit skins and cores, as well as egg shells and coffee. To ensure drainage, just make holes in the bottom and line in with rocks.

Location

Location is a top priority aspect. Know if your plant needs more sun or shade. Typically, plants need both. A solution is to have the container on wheels to move it around effortlessly.

The right types at the right time

An amazing resource is the plan hardiness map from the US Department of Agriculture. It will let you know if the plants you’d like to grow will actually do so in your zone. Then, be sure of the right time to plant. You can read that information when you buy the seeds.

The best plants for beginners

Some plants are extremely easy to grow. We’re talking about tomatoes, onions, peppers, bush beans, chard and basil. When it comes to flowers, some beginner go-to choices are sunflowers, roses, dahlias, petunias and clematis.

Watering

Young plants need plenty of water, so pay attention to that. However, never wet the plant’s leaves. It can lead to rot, mold and overall sickness. As they grow, you must keep in mind this golden rule: give the sprouts an inch of water per week. If you start noticing some yellow leaves, that’s a sign of too much water.

Organic choices

If you are doing it yourself, one of the main concerns should be to go as organic as possible. The organic choices come up along the entire process, from soil and seed selection to fertilizing and pest control.

Trimming and pruning

This process is crucial to increase air circulation. It also helps you with the effort of never wetting the leaves.

Get a head start inside

You can start even before getting your mini-garden container. How? By using toiler paper rolls. Just seal one of the ends of the tube and you’re ready to go. Place several on a tray and grow different plants. See? There are no excuses to drag your decision to become a conscious beginner gardener.