Home 06 July 2021

Gardening Tips to Get your Garden/Balcony Looking Great this Spring

Gardening Tips Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels

I’m willing to bet my house, with all my beloved family, pets, and plants inside, that you are as fed up with the past year as anyone else is.

Hopefully, you got through everything untouched, and you’re ready for a new beginning. With spring right around the corner, it’s high time you started working on your garden.

These several handy tips will put you on the right track and make your garden or balcony shine its best light as soon as possible.

Get the necessary tools

The type of gardening tool you’ll need depends on the nature and size of your garden. The list of available gardening tools may seem overwhelming at first, but don’t despair. Let’s focus on several essentials that are universally needed and applicable. These will always come in handy:

  • Trowel
  • Spade
  • How
  • Rake
  • Pruning shears and knife
  • Gloves
  • Gardening goggles

They all come in different sizes, shapes, and price ranges, and you will have to choose according to your garden specifics and wallet depth. The best way to go is to consult a shop assistant in a nearby gardening store.

One thing is sure, don’t go over your head with your initial shopping. The mid-priced tools will surely do the trick. After all, you can always opt for a higher range once these become obsolete or gardening becomes your go-to hobby.

Start simple

Some plants require almost 24h attention to prosper, while others can go into full bloom with little or none of your help. The latter ones should be your starting choice. As you improve your knowledge and skills, you will move onto a more demanding selection of plants.

Next, start with the annual plants and not the perennial ones. This way, you’ll witness and learn first-hand the entire life cycle of a plant.

Also, being a novice, it’s natural that you are uncertain about plant choice. Annuals are easy to replace, and next year you could go with a completely different selection.

Finally, it’s natural that you are eager to see the results of your gardening efforts as soon as possible. Going for the early spring bloomers will enable you to enjoy the fruit of your work very soon.

Less is more

One of the biggest mistakes novice gardeners make is to have too many plants and decorations. That is wrong on several levels.

First of all, you don’t want your garden to look like a depot. And it will believe me, I’ve been there!

Next, you surely wish your garden to prosper. It won’t happen if you stuff your plants immediately next to each other. They need space to grow and develop and enough sun and water to thrive. Just like us, humans ;)
### A little voyeurism never hurt anybody I admit I love peeking into other people’s gardens while walking around town. There’s nothing kinky about it; I love getting inspired by what other gardeners do.

I enjoy talking to them about their approach and pick up useful advice and new ideas. And try and take the things I saw and learned about to another level at my place.

I met a lot of people this way, too. Some of them are my best friends now and a continual source of tips and ideas on gardening, which is always handy when you lack inspiration for the current or next year.

Experiment

Although there are specific rules to follow when choosing plant pots , there’s no law saying that you need to use only those made in stores. A touch of creativity and experimentation will give contribute to your garden’s unique appearance.

For example, a household object can serve as great decorative pots. Painted in vivid colors, a washing-up bowl can be an excellent container for growing monochromatic vegetables. Not only will it provide sufficient space, but it will also make a markable contribution to the overall color scheme.

Spice things up

Little or big, your garden can also be a great source of nutritional health. Here are a couple of ideas.

Regular and cherry tomatoes are successfully grown in almost every corner of the world, just as redcurrant and raspberry. The former will take as much sun as they can get and reward you with yield accordingly, while the latter prefer living their lives in shade.

If you are more into spicy vegetables, jalapeno peppers would be a great starting point. It takes only around 75 days from the moment you saw them to the first meal you can use them in.

There’s obviously no point in making any big plans for the time being. Still, there’s always room for small personal and positive steps.

Investing time and effort into preparing your garden or balcony for the upcoming spring brings a twofold benefit.

You’ll get your mind of everyday burdens and be rewarded in a matter of weeks with the fruit of your work.

A win-win all the way through!