With Spring right around the corner, the sun shining (maybe) and temperatures rising (another maybe), it is time for one of my favorites hobbies: gardening. If only I had a garden to call my own. Unfortunately, I don’t have one just yet. What I do have though is a tiny balcony. But it’s just gotta make do. It also doesn’t matter how big or small your garden is, or whether you even have one. You can just as easily grow stuff in pots on the balcony or windowsill. And having done exactly that the past few years, here are some easy gardening hacks for beginners (like myself)!
Gardening Hacks: First Things First
Before we get into the more practical gardening hacks, let’s talk organization first…
1. Plan ahead
Planning out what you want to grow is crucial, regardless of your growing capacity. But not only do you need to know what you want to sow, but also when and how. Most seed packets will tell you the right timing and method on the back. To make sure you don’t miss it, you can create a sowing calendar, or put reminders in your diary. Some seeds can be sown outdoors right away, some need to germinate indoors before putting them outside. And that’s why planning ahead is important: you don’t want to find that you should have germinated your seeds 2 months ago.
Another thing to consider is how tall the veggies your planting are going to grow. Not just because you might want to consider building a structure for them to grow on (i.e. for peas), but also because they are going to cast a shadow. If you plant something like strawberries in said shade, they are probably not going to grow as nicely. So before putting stuff into beds, make sure you know where the sun is and where plants are going to cast their shadows.
2. Start small
If you have never done any gardening before, stick to the small stuff. Especially if you don’t have a lot of space or time. It’s easy to get carried away buying seeds (guilty), but remember: they won’t stay that tiny forever. Quite the contrary. Before you know it, you could find yourself knee-deep in plants growing all around you. And that’s when the real work begins, as the plants need watering, fertilizing, cutting back, harvesting, etc. Yes it’s a fun job to do, but you have got the make the time to do it anyways.
3. Pick easy things to grow
Another hack for first time gardeners: pick stuff that will pretty much grow under any condition. Good examples are all kinds of herbs, like oregano, rosemary, thyme, or parsley, as well as leafy greens (spinach, rocket, etc.). But also veggies like zucchini (those need a lot of space tho), carrots, radishes or potatoes. I actually grew some potatoes by chance a couple of years ago, as I forgot one in the cupboard for a few weeks. It took the dark space to sprout, so I popped it into a pot, and was blessed with potatoes a few months later.
4. Learn from your mistakes
If you are new to something, you are bound to make mistakes. That’s a big part of learning. I actually don’t like to think of mess-ups as mistakes, but opportunities to learn and grow. The problem with messing up things when gardening: you might have to wait a whole year to try again. A lot of time to forget what did or didn’t work! So if you find something didn’t go as planned, write it down for next year. That way you can make the necessary changes. Same obviously goes if something went surprisingly well, although that might stick a bit better in your memory.
5. The only way is up!
If like me you aren’t fortunate enough to have something like an allotment garden to call your own, and find yourself running out of space for pots quickly, consider stacking up your plants. Using a ladder and some wooden boards usually does the trick. Or, you could simply buy some open shelves and put them out on the balcony. Both are going to help cover up ugly house facades like ours. Make sure all of your pots get enough light (if they need it). It can also help to rotate the pots as and when.
The practical gardening hacks
And now for the fun part…
1. Make your own fertilizer!
Fertilizing your soil has amazing benefits to growing yummy fruit, veg, and herbs. But if you want to keep them organic, you have to consider the fertilizer you use on them. A lot of store bought stuff isn’t organic, unless specified. However, you don’t even need to buy fertilizer, as you can easily “make” your own. All you need to do is brew yourself a delicious cup of coffee, dry up the used coffee grounds, and mix them in with the soil. Et voila, fertilizing done. Be careful not to use too much though, as the coffee ground will get moldy if they get wet (which they will when you water your plants).
A bonus from using coffee to fertilize your soil: slugs do not like caffeine (how silly), so you can use it to create a protective ring around plants in danger of nibbling. Just be careful not to get it wet.
Another easy way to get some nutrients into the soil is to use the water you used to cook veggies or eggs in. So next time you have broccoli for dinner, instead of draining the water into the sink, pour it into your watering can. Let it cool, then use to water your plants. Saves you water as well. Love it!
2. How to not overdo it
Speaking of watering your plants, they next gardening hack helps you to not drown them. Or it can help you to not dry them out when you’re off on vacation. You can simply fill up some irrigation plugs, and let hydro statics/gravity to the work for you. This gardening hack probably won’t work in beds, but will definitely do the trick in your plant pots. It’s the price you have to pay for a garden ;).
3. Make your own growing pots
I think this is my favorite gardening hack: make your own growing pots. If you plan on germinating some seeds indoors before planting them into beds or pots outside, DO NOT buy growing pots. It is so easy to make them at home with stuff you most likely already have. The easiest option is to use an empty egg carton, fill each little crevice with some soil, pop a seed in, and then move it after it has germinated.
Another way is to use the cardboard of toilet roll or kitchen paper. Cut it in half to make two (or four if using kitchen roll) smaller rolls. Then cut 4 slits into one end, about 1/3 of the way through. Now fold them up and “hook” them into each other, to create a little cup. Fill it with soil, put the seed in, done. Once the seed has germinated you can either remove the remaining cardboard, or stick it into the plant pot and let it decompose. If you’re growing something with long roots, such as carrots or peas, don’t cut the roll in half to allow the roots to go deeper into the soil.
4. Space out your seedlings
You can put multiple seeds into the growing cup from the gardening hack above. If you’re lucky and all of them germinate, you should pick them apart and spread them out, to allow the veggies to grow. A good tip to know how far apart to plant the seedlings is to think about the size the finished plant is going to be. So things like cabbages, potatoes or beets need to be further apart than radishes or carrots.
5. If it’s brown, cut it down
Moving from the beginning of the gardening season to the end: if leaves or other parts of the plant start to dry up or go brown, cut them down. That way you make sure the plant uses it’s energy into growing the fruit/veg or new leaves, rather than wasting it on the old ones. You can then use the cuttings to fill up empty pots/beds (as they decompose they create new, nutrient rich soil) or stick them into the compost. Two gardening hacks in one!
6. How to fight bugs
This next gardening hack is to control for pests on your beloved plants. Instead of buying some kind of repellent, just mix a little bit of vinegar with water, then either water or spray your plants with it. Just make sure you don’t use too much vinegar, as that can kill the plant as well as the bugs. If vinegar doesn’t do the trick, try boiling some garlic in water, let it cool, then spray onto the plants. Either way, make sure you wash the produce before eating it. Raspberry-Garlic doesn’t sound like something I’d enjoy…
7. Make your own rooting powder/gel
If you have some plants you want to propagate your plants, there are a few different ways. Accordingly, there are a few different gardening hacks to try! If you have got a plant with aerial roots (i.e. a monstera), snip off a part of the plant with such a root and put it into water. After a couple of weeks, the root is going to grow and you can put it into soil. Another way of doing it is to put the clipping straight into the soil. To help it root, you can buy rooting powders or gels. Or you could save you money and just dip the cut end into ground cinnamon or honey. They both have anti viral, bacterial und fungal properties, and help to propagate the plant.
I am still very new to gardening and don’t have a lot of space to grow stuff anyway. But that’s not what gardening is about. You don’t need hundreds of square meters worth of beds to be gardening. A few pots around the house can be just as good. And honestly, I find it so therapeutic and satisfying to be able to “harvest” my own produce, even though it’s mostly greens and herbs. So I strongly encourage each and every one of you to give these gardening hacks a try and see how you get on! And also let me know of all the amazing tips I’m unaware of in the comments.
Lots of Love,
Lena
Disclaimer: This post is not sponsored.