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Some great tips for starting your next garden

A garden can add not only beauty to your home, but value. Starting one is no easy task, but should prove to be well worth it in the end. Many people believe it to be therapeutic to keep a garden looking great and healthy. This blog outlines some basic steps in creating your very own green piece of heaven!

First things first, mark it out! You want to make sure you have a design before you get going. Without a solid plan, mistakes are much easier to make which will most likely waste a lot of time, effort, and money. After you draw up your plans you can mark the lines with sand, flour, or spray paint.

Once you have your garden marked out, you’re going to want to get rid of the grass. This can be done with a spade or a sod cutter. If you have some extra time mowing the grass as low as possible, then covering it with a few layers of newspaper and several inches of soil, is another way of accomplishing this. After a few days the grass should be dead and you can remove the newspaper. You can always go back afterwards with seed to cover some areas of your garden with grass.

After the grass is gone, now it’s time to start digging. Small roots or weeds can be buried underneath and can hurt your flowers or other plants. If you have poor soil, now’s a great time to also add some nutrients, compost, or organic matter to insure a healthy place to grow.

Creating an edge will keep your garden and lawn separate. This helps prevent weeds from crossing over into your plants soil. About 7 inches deep and a few inches wide will keep even the toughest weeds from invading your new space!

Just like designing your garden’s layout, you want to position your plants before putting them in the ground. Siting your plants before actually putting them in the ground may take a few extra minutes, but in the end is well worth the time and will prevent poor-looking designs. There are a few important tips to take into account during this step. Invest your time in researching and planning the following and the resulting garden will be top notch.

You’ll want to research the mature height of the plants you’ve chosen and make sure the taller ones are not in the foreground of the garden where they will block other plants. Make sure to layer your plants from back to front and increase the number of plants in each successive layer. Finally, make sure to layout your plants in such a way that when grown, your garden won’t appear cluttered. Paying attention to leaf structure and mixing plants up will pay off as you don’t want similar leaf structures next to each other.

Once you’ve accomplished the above research and planning you’ve reached the final phase of planting!

Low maintenance gardens are what new homeowners are currently looking for. One way to keep your plants healthy and your garden low maintenance is to spread some mulch around the plants. About two inches thick should do the trick and will absorb more water to keep your garden looking healthy as ever. After that, all that’s left is a good watering!

Starting and maintaining a garden doesn’t have to be a headache if you follow these steps. We do however recommend if it is your first time creating a new garden, to consult an expert to help start or complete the process!