Tips for Beginning a New Garden Project
By: David Cook, UT Extension Agent & Donelson Gateway Volunteer
With any new project, and especially gardening, planning is one of the most important factors if you want to achieve your goals of establishing a healthy landscape, growing beautiful flowers, or having a bountiful harvest of fruits and vegetables. Here are some basic steps for beginning gardening.
Select a Site: It is best to start small. Bigger is not always better when a lot of digging in hard, compacted ground is involved. If your hands are not accustomed to using gardening tools, purchase a pair of gardening gloves. These will become your new “outdoor friend” by helping to prevent painful blisters. Here are some basic questions to ask yourself about the potential garden site: Does this site receive full sun, partial sun or filtered sunlight during the course of the day? Are there large trees or nearby structures that block sunlight from reaching the site? It’s important to know the light requirements of the plants you plan to grow. When purchasing plants, always read and save the information on the plant tags. The plant tag will tell you about the light and water needs of the plant.
Correct Any Soil Drainage Problems: Plants like water, but over-watering or poor soil drainage is one of the main reasons many outdoor plants die before their time. Not all Tennessee soils are alike. The soil in your yard may be totally different than what is in your neighbor’s yard. There are three basic types of soils: sandy, loam and clay. A simple method to determine which type you have is to see how fast your soil drains water. Dig a one gallon-sized hole in the ground and fill it full of water. If the water has completely drained out in about one hour, then your soil is sandy. If the hole is still holding water, come back in about two hours. If the hole is empty, you have loamy soil, which is what your plants will like. If after six to eight hours there is still water, then you have a soil with lots of clay, which is not good unless you want to grow rice. Drainage problems can always be corrected by adding sand, humus (mature compost) or creating raised beds.
Test Your Soil: Before you rush out to purchase plants or put any seeds into the ground, take a soil test. When you get the test results back, you will know about the fertility of the soil (the current mineral nutrients and the pH). Only then will you know if additional nutrients or amendments need to be added. Most importantly, you will know the exact pH of the soil. A soil test is the only way to determine if the soil is acidic, neutral or alkaline.
Know Your Planting Zone: Most of Tennessee is zone 7. This simply means there are certain plants that will grow year-round here and survive the winter cold, the hot summer months and the average amount of yearly rainfall. Plant tags usually provide information about which zone is best for the plant. Also remember that temperature throughout the state will vary from region to region. West Tennessee is usually warmer than Middle Tennessee and East Tennessee usually experiences colder winter months.
Go Native with Tennessee Plants: The benefit of native plants is that they are adapted to grow and thrive in zone 7, so at least consider a few. No matter where you live, there are nurseries and garden centers that offer a wide selection of both native and non-native plants to choose from. One last tip, don’t ever be afraid to ask questions about plants, because that’s how we learn.
