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Grow a Great Garden!
23
items I've been gardening since 2015 and over the years I've gathered a lot of experiential wisdom. Some plants die, some thrive, but most importantly you gotta keep growing. Stay open to the idea that you can keep learning better. Here are the best tips a...
Sections
3
The Compost
Preparing the Garden Bed
Plants
The Compost
This is the first and arguably most important part of any thriving garden. You should be composting year round. That means prepping for your garden whether in winter or summer.
Just plain dirt. Pull it from anywhere, try to not choose too much clay but honestly if you set it up with the right decomposers, anything will do in my limited experience.
St. Louis Topsoil
These compost tumblers are a great option, but if you can't afford them even just a plastic storage tub will work, but you'll have to manually flip your compost. It's easier with these because u just spin it.
Outdoor Composting Tumblers
I save these guys from Walmart from being fishing bait. They make excellent compost workers!
Red Worm
I also introduced night crawlers. These big guys do great work and they live peacefully with the big reds.
Shop Nightcrawlers and Worm Baits for Fishing in Sports & Outdoors
Educating yourself on what you can and can't compost is arguably the most important piece. No meats or non organic materials. Also depending on soil content you will want to compost certain things. You may want more nitrogen rich soil or more acidic ...
A comprehensive guide of what you can and cannot compost.
Preparing the Garden Bed
The first step you'll take in the spring is preparing (or even creating) your garden bed where you will put your fertile compost soil.
A double sided garden hoe/rake tool is perfect for loosening up soil if you need to remove the packed down previous season's soil or even for creating a brand new garden bed.
Garden Hoes in Digging Tools(1000+)
Lowe's offers a great variety of stones to create the wall of your garden with. Using more flat sided bricks will also allow you to put multiple layers for a slightly raised garden bed style that still offers plants the ability to reach roots into th...
Edging Stones - Decorative Garden Borders
You don't have to do this many layers, but depending on what you want to grow, look into what layers you could put down before laying your compost and top soil down. I personally like putting a layer of dead leaves underneath.
Lasagna Garden
Lowe's has multiple brands of good top soil and various price points. This isn't as important as the compost since it isn't where ur plants will get most of their nutrients. You put top soil as the very topmost layer.
Top Soil - Improve Your Garden & Lawn Quality
These curly garden hoses are great and get kinks way less than regular ones! You're going to want to water the soil down so it's soaked before you plant anything.
Coil Hose
These are great for digging out holes for your plants and for weeding your garden by hand.
Digging Gloves
Plants
Once you've prepared your garden bed and filled it with your rich compost soil, it's time to pick your plants. Maybe you want an herb garden or a vegetable garden. Maybe you want flowers. The most important part here is researching what plants will d...
Tomatoes are a great vegetable to grow. One of the key secrets I've learned is being able to determine male from female branches, the females will grow flowers that turn to tomatoes while the males will not. Break off up to 50% of your male branches ...
Tomato Vegetable Plants for Garden Beds
Cherry tomatoes can be a bit heartier than large tomato plants so for newbies maybe try these instead. Don't forget to frequently harvest your tomatoes!
Cherry Tomato Vegetable Plants at Lowes.com
Purple basil is a hearty herb plant that can grow quite tall and strong when planted in ground. Also tastes great in pasta dishes! Especially with tomatoes!!
Purple Basil Seeds
Marigolds are multipurpose because not only are they beautiful but they also help attract pollinators while helping repel pests from vegetables. They also drop their seeds at the end of the gardening season so you can either collect them or leave the...
Marigold Flower Seeds in Seed Gardening(103)
These are beautiful flowers that help attract pollinators to a garden. I've seen huge bumblebees, rare butterflies, preying mantises, and beautiful moths enjoying these.
Celosia Plants, Bulbs & Seeds at Lowes.com
Chamomile is a great plant to grow if you love making your own tea. They're also so whimsically beautiful.
Bonnie Plants 2.0 -Pack Chamomile Plant in Pot
You can start from seed or sapling, but rosemary is a wonderful garden herb. On top of its smell helping increase memory, it tastes great when used fresh in cooking.
Rosemary Plants, Bulbs & Seeds at Lowes.com
Lavender is another great garden plant for tea lovers. Mix this with the chamomile for a delicious, relaxing tea.
Lavender Plants in Perennials(126)
Strawberry plants are great in the Midwest. I bought them once and they've survived multiple winters. I love going outside on a summer morning and plucking some strawberries for breakfast!
Strawberry Fruit Plants for Containers
Cucumbers are a bit tricky sometimes since they're a vine. You'll need lots of space and/or a trellis to grow them vertically. But I love eating cucumbers fresh from the garden!
Bonnie Plants 1.0 -Pack Cucumber Plant in Pot
Bell peppers make a great garden addition. My son loves eating these. The cool thing about these is they start green, then they turn yellow, then orange, and finally red which is the sweetest tasting version of bell peppers. But be careful, if you le...
Pepper Vegetable Plants at Lowes.com
Coneflowers are a beautiful flower to add to any garden that will help bring pollinators.
Coneflower perennials