5 Gardening Mistakes You Should Never Make

Gardening: It’s a quiet summer and spring pastime, and a way to make your home and land look beautiful. Unfortunately, it’s also a process where it’s easy to make mistakes. Fortunately, you can avoid many of these by simply understanding what the most common gardening mistakes are, and developing a plan to keep them from happening to you.

5 Gardening Mistakes Most Homeowners Make

From stepping on a downed rake to planting the wrong combination of vegetables, flowers, and fruits, these five gardening mistakes can put a damper on your season.

1. Putting the Garden in the Wrong Spot

The location is everything when it comes to a garden. You want a place that’s not too sunny, not too shady, and not too damp. Before you commit to digging a hole in your lawn or putting in a raised bed, chart the hours of sun a spot gets every day and ensure the drainage and access to water are both ample.

2. Pulling Your Sprouts in the Spring

When spring comes around, it’s understandable that you want to get outside and get your hands dirty. Unfortunately, this eagerness can lead to sub-par garden decisions. Namely, mistaking your sprouting plants for weeds. Instead of getting pull-happy when the sun starts to shine, look at pictures of your plants as seedlings, so you know which shoots to pull and which to leave alone.

3. Drenching the Garden

If you live in a hot, dry climate, the temptation to over water is natural. Unfortunately, plants need a mix of soil, water, and air to survive, and overwatering compacts the soil and suffocates them. With this in mind, use a smart controller to inform your garden’s watering habits and adjust your watering based on the plants and vegetables in your garden.

4. Not Protecting Your Bulbs

Bulbs make for beautiful flowers in the spring, but they’re a tasty temptation for animals like deer and squirrels. To prevent your bulbs from predation, cover your bulbs with a wire mesh after planting, or look for rodent-repellent varieties like winter aconite.

5. Blocking the Sun with Tall Plants

Even if you choose a smart spot for your garden, you can still cheat some plants out of ample sunlight if you plant tall items, like tomatoes, on the south side of the garden, where they’ll cast a shadow on everything else.

Gardening Mistakes Be Gone!

This year, plant a beautiful, successful garden, and keep it that way by avoiding these common gardening mistakes. While they may be easy to make, they can have a disastrous effect on your harvest and the health and wellness of your garden. By avoiding them from the get-go, you can enjoy a happier and more beautiful outdoor space.