Beginner gardener tips

Have you started looking at plants and get overwhelmed or are you more carefree? Do you need some vegetable and flower garden tips? It can be difficult as a beginner to navigate since there are so many different kinds of plants and just as much information about them.

I consider myself a beginner gardener (I’m only three years in) and a reformed plant killer. I love learning all things gardening, flowers, and homesteading. It can be so exciting figuring out works in your growing zone, what variety is your favorite and the characteristics of each plant. 

Learn from some of my beginning mistakes:

• Look up spacing needs
  • Figure out if your vegetable is determinate or nondeterminate
  • Don’t overplant and overcrowd
• Know watering needs
• Sunlight needs
• Add pollinator-attracting plants
• Fully clear out previously used garden beds
• Powdery mildew awareness

Spacing needs

Almost all of the plants you buy from the store or plant nursery have a tag giving the variety name. Most tags will also include the basic care needs such as spacing, light, and watering needs. If your tag does not include it, be sure to look it up. It can be exciting to begin a garden, but it is easier to start small and add more plants as you go.

Determinate vs nondeterminate

Different varieties can grow in different styles. This is determinate or nondeterminate; it tells you the growing capacity of the plant. A quick answer is determinate only grows to a certain point and produces a predetermined amount of fruit versus a nondeterminate has a higher capacity for growing more with a longer fruiting season. Gardeners Path has a great, more detailed post about non/determinate plants if interested. It isn’t something I’d dwell on too much if a beginner, but just something to keep in mind. 

Overcrowding

When plants get overcrowded they can be stunted, therefore producing less fruit or vegetable, or the faster growing plant will dominate, possibly killing the smaller ones. They compete for sun, water, and soil nutrients. Simply survival of the fittest. As a beginner gardener, I planted zucchini, tomato, and cucumber within 3 feet of each other. The cucumber was the smallest and was not guided up a trellis so it had nowhere to go with being so close to the other plants. It gave maybe 3 cucumbers and died. The tomato only produced on 1/3 to 1/2 of the plant, was side heavy, and needed substantial support to not fall over.

My mistake this year was planting flowers too close to my indeterminate cherry tomato. I didn’t realize my tomato was indeterminate and it invaded the flowers. I could have pruned, but I love my garden snacks too much.

Watering needs

As a beginner, I wish I paid attention to the watering needs of plants before planting. This year I planted sunflowers midseason directly from seed. The seed packet is indicates to “promote deep roots and strong stems, water deeply and infrequently”. My eyes were opened to the lazy gardener lifestyle and I’m never going back since I hand water. I’m going to primarily shop for drought-tolerant plants for future gardens.

 I find it more efficient on watering days to have similar needs next to each other so I don’t have to drag the hose around. Instead, I can just focus on needier plants that are close together most days and my hardy plants will be fine for 4 or 5 days at a time. Also, keeping similar water needs plants together I won’t accidentally forget to water them.

Sunlight needs

All the needs for plants are important. If the plant is not getting enough sunlight required, it won’t grow. The tag that comes with your plant will indicate how much sun your plant needs. The main categories are full sun (typically 6+ hours of sun), partial sun ( about 4 hours of sun), and shade (indirect sunlight or morning sun). 

Get to know your gardening space before you plant. Is it getting the appropriate amount of sun for your plant ideas? Is your flower bed by the front door going to be in shade all day? Sure, the raised bed would be out of the way by a big maple in the backyard, but is it getting enough sun there? 

Also, be mindful of the height of your plants and the surrounding plants. If you are growing tall plants in full sun, chances are they could be shading your other sun thirsty plants for part of the day. For example, your corn is getting full sun, but its neighbor basil could be getting too much shade because the corn is blocking the sun. My growing space right now has two buildings blocking the morning and evening sun so I am trying to be mindful of what I plant.

Attracting pollinators

Pollinators are what helps your plants produce. They share pollen from male to female flowers. Some beginner, and even experienced gardeners, don’t realize the impact of having flowers near their gardens space. Yes, your vegetables and fruit flowers will attract pollinators, but intentionally planting flowers bring in an even larger array of pollinators to your garden. More pollinators mean a higher chance of fertilization to happen.

Clearing out old bed

We sold our house and moved into a triplex at the beginning of winter. The triplex shares a common space with a quadplex with three raised. Two of the beds were closer to my section of the building, were overrun with two different varieties of mint, and at the beginning of spring, nobody had claimed them so I did! Both of the beds were only half taken over so I just left the mint in the back and just weeded the front. I probably should have added some manure or other healthy soil compounds, but I was too eager to garden with my small children. 

When I did clear out the back sections, it was pain. I highly doubt anyone had paid attention to the beds for several years and the roots were deep. Unfortunately, some of the roots had grown into where I had already planted my zucchini and tomatoes. I would rather pull the random peppermint shoots than disrupt the zucchini and pumpkin roots.

PSA: Only plant mint in containers unless you are ok with it to overtake that area.

Powdery mildew

I’m in zone 8B and this year is the first year (out of three) I’ve had powdery mildew. So what is powdery mildew? Powdery mildew is a fungus that presents with white/grey, talcum powder-like spots on the leaves of plants. It attacked my squash this year. It spread from zucchini to my pumpkin. I had one pumpkin growing despite the powdery mildew so I just left it thinking all would be well. Nope. The ground contact spot of the pumpkin had lost its orange shell, turned white, and was growing mold. I was disappointed in myself for not taking action. 

I don’t use any sprays on my plants so I just clipped all of the leaves affected by the powdery mildew. New leaves have grown in their place and will hopefully have some small pumpkins for October.

**UPDATE** It was not recoverable and ended up pulling all the squash.

Thank you for joining me in this beginner’s gardening tips. 

What is your favorite gardening hack or tip?

Happy gardening,

Love Heather

---