Your Suburban Garden Made Simple
Everyone’s looking for ways to make life cheaper and so a backyard garden can give you and your family fresh fruit and vegetables with little effort and only a small initial investment. If you plant perennials, you can be sure of regular crops for years to come, as well as an engaging, satisfying and healthy hobby.
Here’s a few tips to help you to get started
Planning your garden
There are so many ways to plan your garden out, but a lot depends on how much time and money you have to devote to it. Whatever you decide, planning it before you do anything removes a lot of the frustration and confusion, as you’ll have to look at how each different crop “behaves” and what it needs. Mint grows like wildfire, so maybe restrict it to containers; squash will need a lot of water, so plant it away from trees, and so on.
If you don’t have a lot of equipment, then a raised-bed garden will work best, or maybe even gro-bags for plants like tomatoes. If you opt for this method, all you’ll need is a spade, some gloves and a fork.
How to get started
You need your garden to receive at least five hours of sunlight daily, and you should also check your soil type – is it acidic or alkaline, loamy or clay?
If you only have a small space at your disposal, then crops that have heavier yields are the way forward; think about peppers, tomatoes, garlic, onions, herbs and runner beans. Other ideas for smaller gardens include growing crops vertically; this is ideal for plants like cucumbers, runners, squash and even watermelon if you’re lucky with the sun.
Again, don’t be shy about growing tomatoes and peppers in bags or even hanging baskets if need be. If your soil isn’t suitable for these plants, this option is particularly effective, as is growing resilient herbs like mint and rosemary in bright, attractive pots – who could fail to be cheered up?
