Gardening 101

8 tips to help beginning gardeners be successful

Gardening by the Yard : Episode GBY-1011 -- More Projects »
New to gardening? Master gardener Paul James offers several tips to help newcomers to the world of gardening become successful gardeners:

1. Start small. The surest way to become frustrated with gardening is to bite off more than you can chew. Of course, small is a relative term; in an area of, say, only 100 square feet, you can plant a lot more than you might think.

A shady spot that measures only 96 square feet is one of my favorite gardens. There's a large Japanese maple, a small green one, a shrub yew, dozens of foliage plants, a few flowering plants and some groundcover.

Small gardens are easy to manage, and by starting on a small scale you'll quickly learn gardening basics such as weed control, pest and disease control, watering requirements, and so on without being overwhelmed. As you develop more confidence and skills, you can expand the area or create a new garden bed elsewhere.

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Compost is the single most important ingredient in any garden. It enriches the soil, improves drainage, helps fight off pests and diseases, and makes your plants healthy.
2. Start a compost pile. Whether you choose to build an elaborate bin and compost on a grand scale, create a simple pile in an out-of-the-way corner of your property, or place a store-bought composter in a sunny spot in the yard doesn't matter. All that matters is that you make compost--and use it, of course. Spread a thin layer over your garden beds at least once a year. Mix it with the native soil when planting. Apply it as a topdressing to lawns. Top off containers with it. And use it to make compost tea.

And if you can't make your own compost for whatever reason, remember you can always buy compost in a bag. Many cities across the country make and sell compost in bags or in bulk, producing it from leaves and other lawn refuse collected throughout the year.

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Lay a board across the area to distribute your weight and minimize soil compaction.
3. Maintain healthy soil. The use of compost goes hand in hand with maintaining healthy the soil, but there are other things to consider:

  • Try to avoid walking on the soil in established gardens, because every step compacts the soil, and compaction makes it difficult for roots to grow. Create paths between rows or in beds, or place a board on the soil adjacent to areas where you work to distribute your weight more evenly over the soil.

  • Avoid working the soil when it's wet. Otherwise, once it dries, you'll wind up with big clumps of hard-packed soil. And finally, don't overwork the soil, especially with a rototiller. Good soil isn't powdery; it's a mixed bag of particles of varying sizes and shapes.

    "Personally, I don't use a rototiller because, in my opinion, the tines disturb the soil way too much," James says. "And I rarely turn the soil with a shovel. What I occasionally do is loosen the soil with a broadfork, which aerates the soil without disturbing its complex structure."

    • Also in this Episode
    Gardening by the Yard : Episode GBY-1011
    •Gardening 101
    •Coping With a Fallen Tree
    •After the Fall: Damage Assessment