15 Smart Gardening Tips and Tricks
Gardening ideas to save time and money.
- Plan your garden before starting
- Get all the equipment you need
- Tend to your crop
Gardening provides nutritious food and a beautiful landscape. Many people turn to it for a welcome return to outdoor living after a long winter. Year-round indoor gardening helps provide cleaner air in your home and makes for an interesting hobby. Gardening provides a connection to nature to nurture a deep feeling of satisfaction. There are also several health and wellness benefits that include:
- Lower stress levels
- Improved mood
- Better memory
Gardening is also an excellent exercise and physical activity. If you're incorporating gardening for health, wellness or sustainable living, here are 15 smart gardening ideas and useful reminders to help you save time and money.
Plan ahead.
Don’t put gardening gloves on just yet. The first step to a bountiful indoor or outdoor garden is a plan. The work you do beforehand results in a more plentiful harvest.
- Decide what you want to grow. Growing food that you and your family want to eat helps motivate you to get those hands dirty. If the kids won’t eat Brussels sprouts, you might not want to waste time and energy in growing them and instead focus on something they will eat, like tomatoes or squash.
- Figure out what grows well in your area. Talk to the neighbors to see what flourishes in their gardens. Grow native plants that thrive in your environment. Look for species that fit your schedule too. There are also several landscape plants that add beauty without requiring much care.
- Determine the sunny spots and shady areas around your home. Remember that not all plants want full sun. Some thrive in partial or full shade.
- Try to work with a space that is highly visible and easily accessible. Having your garden in sight keeps the act of gardening in mind. If the garden is on the other side of the trees behind the garage, it might become a forgotten space. Besides, with all the work you've done, you should enjoy the garden.
- Re-imagine your lawn. Rather than treating them as separate entities, envision the lawn and garden as a combined ecosystem. Is the lawn occupying some of the prime sunny spots that would make a garden thrive? Reducing the footprint of the lawn saves time, effort and resources.
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Get equipped
As the proverb says, a poor carpenter blames the tools, which is why a smart gardener plans for success by getting the best garden gadgets. Gardening tools old and new that have smart technology built in can enhance your gardening game. Read on and see.
- Starting your seeds indoors saves time and often produces a bountiful yield. You don’t have to wait for the first days of spring if you have an indoor garden. These smart gardening devices start growing herbs, fruits and vegetables on your countertop. Then, you can transfer seedlings to your outdoor garden for year-round produce.
- Treat yourself to quality garden tools. Shovels, pitchforks and tillers do the job, but modern engineering provides durable and lightweight construction. A small investment in top-notch tools endows you with superior performance.
- Manage your water use with smart sprinkler and irrigation controls. Your plants won’t be thirsty while you're at work or away at the beach. Elite app-driven models control multiple zones for watering plants and lawns. Many feature sensors that detect precipitation, so you won’t waste time and resources watering a lawn that’s already soaked from rain.
- Look into containers and raised beds. These help if you're short on space around your property. They fit on porches, patios and some roofs. Containers make a perfect landing spot for your seedlings and protect against rabbits who might try to sample your handiwork before it's ripe.
- Mobility has its advantages. If you have limited sunlight or shorter growing seasons, maximize your produce with wheeled containers or smaller planters that can move with the sunlight.
Tend to your crop
What is a smart garden? In short, a smart garden incorporates state-of-the-art connected technology for maximum harvest results. A smart garden is also one that weaves modern technology with proven methods of cultivation. You’ll also find that the importance of good soil is on every complete list of vegetable gardening tips.
- Make your own garden soil by composting, a sustainable living method that repurposes yard clippings and plant scraps. Compost is a healthy fertilizer that holds moisture and nutrients for fertile soil. Consider a counter-top composting unit for convenience. Do you find that there’s no time to compost? Save coffee grinds and old tea leaves to raise the acidity of your garden soil for plants that need a lower pH level.
- Rich mulch protects root systems from dehydration and low overnight temperatures. Compost doubles as a mulch layer. Top it off with straw or grass clippings to keep your garden healthy and environmentally friendly.
- Keep your garden tools clean to extend their life and viability. Even the finest equipment is subject to corrosion, so clean the dirt and moisture from tools between uses. It’s also helpful to find a storage spot for them close to the garden to save time and to stay organized.
- Use garden tools to trim and prune your plants. Fruit and vegetables need leaves for sunshine, but too many leaves sap energy and nutrients away from the edible parts of the plant. If you have evergreens, trim late in the season to cut down on pruning throughout the following year.
- Stagger plantings. Some plants produce fruit early in the season. Others yield in the late summer or even early fall. Use the natural cycles of your plants to your advantage. You can manage your crops more efficiently if there are 2- to 3-week gaps between plantings.
Check out the tools and equipment that can help you raise healthy and nutritious plants and start planning your garden today.