How to Make Gardening Easier Than Ever
Whether you are trying your hand at growing your own fruits and veggies at home or are simply trying to make your outdoor space look a little nicer, there’s no denying that gardening requires a lot of hard work and effort.
As such, it is hardly surprising that many people claim that they are simply too busy to garden! Fortunately, there are plenty of steps that you can take to make gardening easier and less time-consuming, so that you can reap the many benefits of this hobby.
How to Make Gardening Easier Than Ever
Why is making time for your garden important?
There are many reasons why making time for your garden is important. For example, various studies have found that “people who spend time in the garden report better physical and mental health levels than those who do not.” In addition to this, getting your children involved in the fun is a great way to teach them a wide variety of skills, such as patience and the value of hard work. This is because the results from their gardening efforts may take a little while to bloom. Not only that, but it also means that you can spend more quality time together outdoors, which is a welcome change from watching them sit in front of the TV all day long.
Finally, gardening can help you to keep your home’s outdoor space looking its best. This prevents costly maintenance and also adds value to your home. For example, if you were considering moving, “approximately 70% of home buyers would pay more for a property with a nice garden,” which means that your current gardening efforts could be selling your short.
How to Make Gardening Easier Than Ever
Focus on low-maintenance plants and flowers:
Focusing on low-maintenance plants and flowers will make gardening a lot easier because it reduces your potential workload quite considerably. This is because, for the most part, they take care of themselves, especially if you focus on local/regional plants and flowers. However, other easy-to-grow plants include tomatoes, radishes, potatoes, perennial flowers and eucalyptus plants.
Invest in the right tools
Having the right tools and accessories to hand can also come in handy when making gardening a little easier. This is because it can allow you to work more efficiently (and quickly). For example, instead of spending hours raking up leaves, you could achieve a similar result using a leaf blower (in a fraction of the time). As such, this is something well-worth investing in.
Set up a self-watering flower pot
Setting up a self-watering flower pot may take a little time to begin with, but it means that you can ensure your plants are getting access to the water they need to thrive without having to water them manually.
Make sure everyone in the household helps.
A job shared is a job halved! As such, you should make sure that your entire family helps to keep your garden in top condition, as opposed to taking on all of the (quite literally) dirty work yourself. This means that you should assign age-appropriate tasks to your children, who can take on duties such as pulling up weeds and watering plants. This is a great way to ensure they spend time outside, too!
You can get children excited about the concept of gardening by offering them some kind of incentive or reward for getting involved. For example, this could be the way in which they start earning pocket money!
Write down to-do lists
Writing down weekly and seasonal to-do lists can make it easier to stay on top of garden management. This is because you’ll know exactly what tasks you need to complete and when you need to complete them, making it easier to fit this activity into your schedule. Having a written list in place will also come in handy when it comes to assigning tasks to the whole family, while also ensuring that no task goes uncompleted.
Consider hiring a gardener.
If your garden is in bad shape, then you could make the process of transforming your outdoor space much easier by having a professional come in and tidy it up. You can then take on the rest of the gardening duties moving forward, having been given a blank slate to work with (and minimal extensive work to carry out). Alternatively, you may want them to stop by once a season to spruce things up, while you carry out basic maintenance in the meantime.
They will also be able to provide you with specific advice on how to maintain your garden, based on its current condition, local weather and more. This puts you in the best possible position moving forward.
Watch gardening tutorials
Watching gardening tutorials or reading guidebooks can also be helpful when it comes to making gardening easier. This is because it will provide you with ample opportunity to further your skills and understanding of basic (and complex) gardening techniques. This means that you’ll be able to carry out any garden task with confidence and precision.
If you want to take this one step further, you may want to enrol in gardening classes. You should even be able to find family gardening classes, which allow your children to join in on the fun (and develop useful skills), too.
Don’t put too much pressure on your shoulders
Your garden does not have to look perfect. Letting go of this ideal and instead learning to appreciate a space that is well-cared-for and a little rough around the edges will make gardening much easier moving forward. This is because you’ll feel less pressure to make things perfect, allowing you to enjoy yourself a lot more.
Final thoughts
There are many benefits tied to gardening, both individually and as a family. For example, it is scientifically proven to reduce stress, anxiety and other negative emotions, while also making sure your outdoor spaces are both functional and visually-pleasing. Furthermore, there are plenty of steps that you can take to ensure that gardening is as easy (and fun) as possible – from watching online tutorials to investing in the best tools!
