10 Tips for Beginner Gardeners

Lada - Beginner Gardener

Many people want to start a garden to grow organic and fresh produce but do not know where to begin. What, where, when to plant, what soil to use are common questions that need to be answered. 

Like everyone else, we (SpurTopians) had to start/learn from scratch when we arrived in Australia six years ago, as climatic conditions and the way of growing fruit and vegetables is different from Europe. Now, in our small backyard we grow over 100 types of vegies, 25 different herbs and 25 varieties of fruit trees (see a list of garden plants),  providing us with 50-75% of our fruit and vegie needs. Any excess we share with other tenants and neighbours. On average we spend just one hour a day in the garden, so it is not really time consuming. In fact, gardening provides us with great physical and mental exercise as well as  a connection with nature.

Here are "Ten Tips for Beginner Gardeners" which, from our experience, were most important when we started gardening.

Tips for Beginner Gardeners

1. Start small and simple. (even if it's just a self-watering planter box with a few herbs and lettuces)
2. Plant 'easy to grow' things. (eg. cherry tomatoes, radish, lettuces)
3. Grow plants appropriate to a season. (eg. don’t plant snow peas in summer, use a planting calendar)
4. Buy a good basic gardening book. (eg. “Organic Vegetable Gardening” by Annette McFarlane or "Planting Guide", a brochure published by  BOGI - Brisbane Organic Growers Incorporated)
5. Join a local garden club and/or enlist the help of an experienced gardener. (eg. BOGI - there is a wealth of gardening knowledge and heaps of friendly gardeners)
6. Position your vegetable garden where it will get sufficient sunshine (most plants like at least 6 hours of sunshine a day)
7. Source good organic soil to get started. (Hardware stores for a few bags, landscape suppliers for larger quantities or make your own soil)
8. Use mulch to retain moisture - exposed soil gets so hot that you can not stand on it with bare feet.
9. Take care with watering -  Better to do a deep (longer) watering as opposed to a shallow (short) sprinkle. Preferably use rain water. Overwatering can do as much harm as not watering.
10. Remember to feed your plants regularly with an organic fertilizer (seaweed, worm juice, or compost and chicken litter)  

Garden produce is so fresh, healthy and yummy

• Don't be discouraged by first failures, seek advice/help and start again. It's worth it.
• Don't get bogged down by too much detail, (eg. ph of soil, varieties of readily available fertilizer or what to put into compost etc) deal with details later when you are more experienced.
• Don't make excuses and start - it's worthwhile and you will be rewarded with organic, fresh and healthy food.

We run Workshops - "How to Start Gardening" for people who are keen to learn how to begin. So come along for our next available workshop to learn and see first hand how to start a garden and how we grow an abundance of garden produce.

Happy Gardening

Our Garden Produce