Six Gardening Mistakes to Avoid This Spring

With spring coming up soon, now is the perfect time to think about setting up or improving your garden. The commitment to building one requires a great amount of knowledge and practice. Many gardeners spend years figuring out how to tend to each of their plants and most of that time is spent making all sorts of mistakes and learning from them. When you work together with home garden design professionals, it will allow you more time to continue your garden upkeep routine in an improved garden appearance created just for you.

While you learn to care for your flowers and plants, let Northern Virginia Landscaping help you create a home garden design that matches each one of your preferences and needs. With that in mind, here are six common mistakes to ensure you obtain a lush and bountiful garden:

1. Planting Too Early

Our eagerness for the warmth of spring can sometimes get the best of us. A common mishap among gardeners is planting earlier than we should. Before you begin planting, it’s best to wait until the cold season passes. If you overlook the inconsistent temperatures of the early spring, you risk your plants dying from a sudden frost. Most plants also have a delayed growth around cooler temperatures. A good rule for a green thumb: warmer is better. Before helping your plants take root, wait for the weather and the ground to get consistently warmer before you begin building your home garden.

2. Not Acclimating Your Plants to the Outdoors

Some gardeners underestimate how ready their plants are for the outdoor elements, particularly the ones either grown indoors or purchased from a nursery. If your plants have been indoors during the fall and winter, they will need to adjust themselves to the wind, light, and climate shifts outside. This is called “hardening off” your plants. We recommend keeping them on the porch or another protected area during the day, then bringing them back inside at night.

3. Neglecting Your Soil

Another thing people tend to overlook is the condition of their soil. As a key factor in the health of your plant, it is important to know what condition your soil is in before you put your plants into it. If you don’t know the soil’s condition, you can purchase a soil-testing kit online, at any local hardware store, or allow our team at Northern Virginia Landscaping to help you determine the condition of your soil for you. It’s recommended that you test your soil every year to guarantee the health and growth of your garden.

4. Working with Wet Soil

Along with the spring comes rainy weather, which can potentially cause problems for some unaware gardeners. Before you begin planting, it is crucial to keep in mind whether your soil is wet or not. A sign of it being too wet is if you take a handful and mash it in your fist. If water and mud start to drip from between your fingers, that means your soil is too wet to work with and it’s best to leave gardening for another day. If you squeeze and the soil crumbles and can easily be brushed off your hand, then it is dry enough to work with.

5. Overwatering Your Plants

When a plant’s soil is overwatered, its roots begin to rot, causing damage that will take a long time to recover from. The best solution is to install a ‘smart-controlled’ irrigation system in your garden, which will adjust watering levels based on past data and moisture sensors. On the other, less-expensive hand, you can simply take a closer look at your soil. Hardened soil needs water, while loose soil is just right. Another way is to add a plant indicator to your garden, such as a hydrangea or lettuce since they wilt quicker than other plants in the absence of water, which is a clear sign your plants need nourishment.

6. Putting Plants Too Close Together

Placing smaller plants closer to bigger ones will prevent them from getting the amount of water and nutrients they need to grow. To figure out the appropriate spacing between each of your plants, check the instructions on their packaging or even looking them up online is a simple solution. By giving each of your plants the proper amount of space they need, not only will they grow healthy and quickly, but your garden will appear neat and well-organized.

Northern Virginia Landscaping: Quality Home Garden Design

Make your home garden perfect by springtime! Northern Virginia Landscaping is devoted to giving our customers the finest home garden design with everything suited to your exact specification and requirement. With our professional softscaping design services, you will be sure to have a beautifully-designed garden that you can enjoy tending to all-year round. Contact us today at (703)-982-0100 to start designing your dream garden!

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