Sometimes we only feel alive around our hard fed plants and loyal pets. In the modern era, we all feel empty inside and we strive for making something worth remembering to live by, peacefully and full of positivity. Homes are where we rest and reform or take rebirth every day. Plants are one of the reasons many people still live today, they find purpose in life by nurturing them, something to live for, something to feel life again. If you are planning to take an initiative in building a home garden, this blog is for you. Read well everyone 😊
1. By Location and Method
A. In-Ground Gardening
- Select the Proper Location: Choose a place that is drained well and fairly level because your plants will not be much happy standing in water. Make the garden more visible, it helps you spot any problems in plants like pest eaten leaves early on, easily maintainable before getting out of control.
- Design with a Vision: Spend some time there, envisioning the spot, that is, how you want it to look like. Use the graph paper to plot out the dimensions by measuring the space first hand. Divide the spot into beds not more than 4 feet, if it covers a wider area and without having to step on the soil, you can easily reach across to plant, weed and harvest.
- Research the Plants in Mind Wisely: Work in your mind what you wanna plant and grow in the selected area. Make it clear first and find out what grows well in your area and plan things ahead accordingly. List out vegetables and herbs you would like to eat and add to your garden plan, being keen about how much space each plant will need, considering even that requirement will change plant to plant.
- Get Rid of the Existing Lawn: It is time to inspect the area according to your plan and measure out your garden beds. Outline them by sprinkling some flour or fixing stakes in each corner and connecting them with strings.
- Improve Soil Conditions: For thriving and producing well, plants need good soil. What if your current soil isn’t rich enough to support your garden requirements. You need a better soil plan then. Contact your local garden soil supplier and let them know your conditions and they will assist you the best.
B. Container Gardening
- Since many people don’t have the space for a traditional garden but have the burning desire for a vegetable bed of their own, a container garden could be their best choice.
- Some vegetables and fruits that can be grown in containers are potatoes (In 5 gallon buckets or other large containers), herbs, radishes, onions, lettuce, carrots, strawberries, tomatoes and so on.
- Pick the veg or fruit that best suits your living area because there are many varieties present in the world based on their locations and some fruit and veggies only grow in selected areas. Do research and find the best pick.
- Choose the right size for your containers because it is a bit crucial in growing healthy and nutrient rich plants. Try not to plant corn in small containers. There are many things to consider and you will learn on time. Switching tomatoes to larger containers like above 3 gallons could help in a better yield. In the case of herbs, they don’t need deep containers, plan container size accordingly.
- To add proper drainage, drill holes under the container if your containers don’t have them already.
- Compared to back yards, container gardens need high nutrient mix soil because the scarcity of nutrition in soil is present. A high nutrient soil mix is recommended.
- Make sure you strictly follow the guidelines provided by the seed company and pick the right seeds based on your season and the zone from which you live. Otherwise, you should be creative in your approach; Greenhouses or Hydroponics are different solutions present for you currently.
- Container gardens need a lot of water because the water drains out easily during the day time. Like a plant in the container may need to be watered every 3 days but in the case of a plant in the ground of a back yard, they may need water only in 5 or 6 days.
C. Vertical Garden
- Instead of horizontally along rows in the ground, a vertical garden is a garden that is installed along vertical supports. Different names of vertical gardens are: Living wall, green wall, vertical wall, moss wall and plant wall.
- The four constant characteristics of a vertical garden are, a vertical structure, a container, a plant and soil. They are appealing because they save space and help us be creative in growing food or ornamental plants outside the traditional way.
- Perfect for limited space like apartments and urban areas, where efficiency matters more than rural, wide backyards. While you make the soil, look for a good potting mix that consists of peat moss, perlite and vermiculite. If you think the soil needs more drainage add more perlite to the potting mix. But if you believe the soil doesn’t hold enough water, add a bit more of vermiculite, peat moss or coco coir so the soil can retain more water.
D. Indoor Garden
- As the name suggests, indoor gardens are more convenient and you can grow plants inside your home from herbs for cocktail hour to beautiful orchids. We humans have been practicing indoor gardening for years, despite the abundance of gardening gadgets available these days. Even the great author Mark Twain had a conservatory, which his three daughters nicknamed “the jungle”.
- Even when you have outdoor space or not, it is so satisfying to see your indoor plants thrive and which is also beneficial to boost our mental health as well. The main technique is to plant in potting soil, which has an adequate drainage hole or an aero garden with proper inside air circulation.
- Tropical plants are the safest and easiest option for indoor gardens. Some examples are, snake plant, devil’s ivy, philodendrons, spider plants or ZZ plants. Always remember to place your trees in front of a bright window and some plants may need high humidity levels even in inside home conditions. Such plants need to be placed in bathrooms for better growth and they are ferns, begonias and calatheas.
E. Water Garden
- You may probably think water gardens are for professional gardeners but the reality is even different like it’s easy to believe, a landscape feature so extraordinary with rippling waterfalls, swinging cattails and floating water lilies must be impossible to install and maintain in your own yard. But even a noob gardener can maintain and nurture a water garden and spend time enjoying soothing sounds and wildlife after a hectic day.
- Also known as aquatic gardens, they display various waterborne plants and are water features which pleasures the eye and will feel fun spending our time around them. It also consists of fish ponds or garden ponds, but primarily the aquatic plants that make it a water garden. As many aquatic plants are sensitive to depth, most water gardens are shallow, even though deep ones can exist as well.
- Study the plants first before introducing them to your water garden because most plants survive if they are immersed only a few inches deep and they die if the crown is too far below the water surface and remember water plants are depth sensitive.
- Some floating plants are duckweed, water lettuce, water lilies, lotuses, water hyacinth and spatterdock. These are a good pick for your water garden and you will love and praise their aesthetic in a few months, believe me 😊
F. Hydroponic Gardening
- The method of growing plants without the touch of life brings soil and it’s a way to grow and nurture a wide variety of edible plants like herbs, veggies and even some fruits as well. The “hydro” means water in Greek language and “ponos” means work; so, it’s basically a “working water”, because in hydroponics water does the work, and that’s the literal meaning as well.
- For growing a plant healthy, they need water, sunlight, carbon dioxide: usually from air circulation and nutrients. Compared to the traditional garden, where plant roots dive deep in the soil for hunting nutrients for the growth of the entire being, in hydroponics the nutrients are dissolved in the water that surrounds the roots, so plants get what they want easily without doing much work and the result, they grow big and fine very quickly.
- There are many variants of hydroponic systems present in the world. In some, plant roots actually float in the water circulation and in other types, plants grow in some kind of soil substitute like peat moss, coconut fiber, aged bark, perlite or clay pebbles. Miraculously, some hydroponic gardens, compared to traditional gardens, actually require less water.
G. Raised Bed Gardening
- Rather than amending what you already have, which is probably not ideal for vegetables, raised beds allow you to start fresh with healthy soil. They stay warmer than the soil in the ground and in the spring and fall, it allows you to extend your growing time.
- They look like your own private oasis and even when nothing is growing, it’s a beautiful hardscaping piece, which adds depths of aesthetics to the space.
- Sunlight: First and foremost, consider the light exposure of the area like more than 7 hours of light is needed for a better growth of the plants. Mainly you position your garden on the south side of any tall buildings like tall sheds, homes, garages and this way you can yield maximum in winter months; and this works mainly for people who live in the Northern Hemisphere.
- Water: Consider better water proximity, like placing your raised beds in a, if possible, near a spigot, a rain barrel or a location where it can become in connection with an irrigation system because plants love deep and consistent water supply.
- Convenience: Set up raised beds where you feel most convenient such as, closest to your kitchen and look for sunny locations near the back door, front door or even next to a driveway. Because the herbs or plants you grow are in your reach wherever you need them the most, like some herbs for dinner or a bit of lettuce leaves for lunch.
- Aesthetics: Make your raised beds fit closely with your overall landscape because your garden should feel like an extension of your home. Keep that in mind when planning like line it up with existing elements of your home or yard and position your garden near prominent structures.