There is no shame in being a newbie. Everyone has to start somewhere, and gardening is mostly a learn-by-doing hobby. So with that in mind, I’ve shared five tips that I wish I had known when I was potting up my first plant. Hopefully other experienced gardeners will also add a tip or two in the comments, to make this post really useful to newer gardeners.
- You’ve probably read many gardening books that suggest putting a pot shard over the drainage hole. You can ignore that advice. In nearly a decade of container gardening, I haven’t noticed a difference in pots with a shard and those without.
- Most of the time, the “right” time to water is when the top two inches of dirt in a pot feel dry. It seems that a lot of new gardeners want a more precise watering schedule, like “every other day,” or “once a week.” Gardening is more fluid than that sort of schedule. Plants need water when they’ve used up all the available moisture, not because it’s Monday.
- Use only potting soil in your containers. Garden dirt is too dense, and often times harbors pests, weeds, or diseases.
- Keep a journal. You’ll be surprised how much you can learn by paying attention to patterns and cycles in gardening.
- Get involved in some sort of gardening community or club, be it online or in the real world. Gardeners are generally a very supportive bunch, and it’s good to have a group of friends who won’t be annoyed by hearing about how incredible your iris blooms are, or who can help you when something goes wrong.
