There is nothing more thrilling than seeing the first shoot peeping out of the ground of a once bare garden. Starting gardening from scratch can be a rewarding experience that brings not only great pleasure but also gives you the joy of enjoying a beautiful flower garden or eating the produce of your own land. Not everyone can be a successful gardener for gardening requires patience, perseverance, dedication, resilience and a lot of hard work and planning.
A person may mourn that they do not have a green thumb if their garden is not successful. Actually this may not be the case and the person may have failed simply because they did not research and plan their garden properly before venturing into it. Here are a few requirements to be a good gardener. He or she must know:
When to till and cultivate the land
What to plant
When to plant i.e. the season
What soil each plant type requires
How much of water
How much of fertilizers
How to weed, trim and prune the plants
As we see, there are so many details that go into being a complete gardener and it does involve tremendous amount of work. So, if you do not have the qualities to be a good gardener, do not venture into it. Of all the tasks involved in maintaining a garden, one is to know the Seasonal plants/crops. If you have a vegetable, fruit or flower garden for personal or commercial purposes, knowing which plant can grow in which season can help you have all year produce. Seasonal planting requires knowledge about each type of plant and a lot of planning.
This kind of information is easily available on the Internet or in gardening magazines. One can also get this information from the local horticulturist you may visit to get your seeds, fertilizers, garden tools and garden other supplies. Seasonal gardening involves fully utilizing your garden with careful planning. Strategic planning will allow you to rotate plants so that you can make the most use of your garden space.
Even if your garden is meant for pure personal pleasure, why not have a flourishing garden all year round? Spring and summer are not the only seasons to have a lovely garden and if you look carefully, you will find vegetables and flowers that will thrive in autumn and winter. The reason why knowledge of seasonal crops is so important is that some plants require warm, hot temperatures with a lot of moisture, while others require cool or even cold temperatures. This will automatically influence the planting pattern, their growing and flowering pattern.
Here are some tips on having a successful vegetable garden that will follow natural harvest time so that you have all year produce. Start by preparing the ground which should be sunny with plenty of drainage. Prepare raised beds, add fertilizers and organic nutrients. Allow enough space so that plants will grow freely without encroaching into each others space. Now, start to think seasonally, grouping vegetables that grow in the same season together. Start your vegetable garden in April/May and decide if you prefer to start with seeds or plant cuttings.
Vegetables that ripen in late spring include asparagus, spinach or peas and most berries. Root vegetables like carrots, beets and radishes are ready for use in May/June. Reserve the best area in your garden for perennial plants like onions, tomatoes, broccoli, herbs, beans etc. They require all year maintenance so that they will be healthy and give a bountiful produce usually from June-August. Late-summer vegetables need to be planted between June-August depending on the growing time. In mid-summer, you can replant favorite vegetables like carrots.
Keep a small part of your garden for an herb patch where you can grow basil, thyme, parsley, mint and other herbs that are favorites cooking ingredients. The garden should be well maintained even in winter by topping the soil with compost, mulch and covering with newspaper or hay so that the frost does not penetrate and spoil the healthy soil. Some seasonal flowers include - tulip, daffodil and crocus favorite spring bulbs; summer perennials like geranium and fuchsia; autumn foliage like barberry or witch hazel and winter flowers like winter jasmine, honeysuckle and holly. So, you see there is a plant for every season and you can enjoy a bountiful garden all year round with careful and thoughtful planning.
