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Looking for tips for lazy gardeners? You're in the right spot!
Gardening is good for the soul. But if you are busy and lacking the time-saving ideas to help manage your garden, you may never know this. All you need to be a successful gardener is to be smart with your energy and time. Here are the main tips that you need to succeed in gardening without spending much time watering, digging, and weeding.
🤚Before we dive in, I want to give you a FREE guide that will help you grow your best garden yet! Grab your free copy of the From Seed to Supper guide here and grow a bountiful garden this year!
Weeding is one of the most dreaded tasks in gardening. You can achieve a lot by doing it for at least 30 minutes regularly. But if you do not have the time, find the best weed eater.
You can also do one or a couple of the following to save your time without reducing the yield:
-Kill weeds using black plastic and carpets
-Plant in a double row
-Mulch
-Use the no-dig method to create garden beds
-Hoe off the weeds before planting
-Lay cardboard or membrane and pile chips on top
-Stop weeds from bearing fruits
Many people who love gardening or agriculture always try to avoid digging. This work can be back-breaking. But you can prevent it by using the no-till method.
In this case, instead of digging the soil, you lay cardboard and compost on the ground to allow worms to do the work on your behalf, which can concurrently improve your gardening and landscaping.
If you choose, you can also plant inside straw bales or grow your vegetables in containers.
This is one of the best tips for lazy gardeners. Fertilizing the soils requires a lot of effort. But you can save your time by getting the right types of fertilizers that you can apply only once.
For example, you can choose to dump the right amount of bone meal and blood meal in the soil in the spring when the soil has dried enough. After that, you cover the fertilizer in about 4 inches of fresh compost. If necessary, add nematodes. Once you figure out the right amount of fertilizer, you can engage in eco-gardening and reap more than you think.
As a busy gardener, you can plant some vegetables and fruits that aphids and other insects love to hammer. I know this may appear counter-intuitive, and you are asking what sacrificial plants have to do with the productivity of your garden.
But those who understand how gardening helps the environment may see why it is necessary. The insects can play a role in the fertilization process and produce the air that plants need. Of course, you should be on the lookout to avoid letting things from getting too ratty.
This is one of the easiest ways to keep pests like the Japanese beetle off of your valuable plants.
If you do not have a drip irrigation system, you can reduce the need to water every too often by doing it heavily regularly.
The process is simple. You can just partially turn on the hose and walk away. The hose produces a lot of water over time and allows deep watering. As such, your plants’ roots grow deep to access more water when the amount on the top surface of the soil has dried up.
Of course, a drip irrigation system is a major time-saver.
Most modern gardening plants are primadonnas. To flourish, you need to supply them with lots of water and nutrients. But you may not be able to provide the required amounts if your area of residence has reduced rainfall or you have little time to water them.
The good news is that you can sink various terracotta vessels like ollas into the ground and keep them topped up with adequate water. Since they are porous, your plants will be able to draw water from the vessels with ease.
Other watering options that you have to include:
-Growing drought-tolerant plants
-Mulch
-Water the soil only
-Use a drip irrigation system
-Use self-watering plants
-Grow potted plants
Why is gardening good for the environment? By ensuring you maintain your soil’s quality, you reduce the amount of fertilizer that your garden needs. Deliberately add lots of compost to the garden regularly.
Well-rotted manure, mushroom compost, and composted leaves often play a great role in improving the structure and fertility of the soil. These two qualities may be responsible for your constant increase in harvest. With fewer vegetables or fruits to produce more food, your workload will be less. You will use eco-friendly fertilizers, and, eventually, gardening will save the world.
If you have chickens, you can also recycle the manure from your chicken coop to make rich garden fertilizer.
People who have a lot of fall bulbs to plant and are concerned about the time they require to do this can resort to fast bulb planting. The best way to do this is to use the right gardening accessories.
Choose a drill with a spade bit. It should be approximately half an inch wider than your bulb plants. This way, you will have them bulbs planted within an incredibly small fraction of time.
You can also use a small auger attachment on a drill, like you see in the video below:
As a lazy gardener, you can quickly feel that the world ahead of you is too much. And this alone can be enough reason for you to keep procrastinating when you improve your garden. On this ground, I hope you can see why starting small is an important tip.
By starting with a raised bed, container garden, or a small garden, you can learn many new skills without overworking. You will not be like the many new gardeners out there who overestimate how much garden work they can do and the amount of produce they can get without taking the right action.
As you feel motivated to do the work and understand the types of crops that guarantee you a bounty harvest and the amount of time you require, you will plan well and save a lot of time. When you eventually increase your garden’s size, you will use the same skills to realize your goals in time.
When you make gardening enjoyable, you become more efficient.
Put a bench in the garden where you can rest whenever you take a break. To make the break interesting, you can engage in snipping your herbs or picking lettuce.
Gardening tools serve best and for longer when they are clean. Use the fastest way to clean them. For example, you can opt to make a self-sharpening and self-cleaning garden tool holder. You can achieve this by using sand and mineral oil and mid-size terracotta pot.
Choose to plant vegetables that are easy to grow, and you will find gardening naturally easy. Cherry tomatoes, peppers, beans, and onions are some of these that require little effort but are delicious.
As a lazy gardener, you want to reduce your workload but get the biggest yield. With the required gardening know-how, you can enjoy gardening despite which gardening guide you followed last time or the amount of time that you have.
Just start small, and your passion for growing green things will bear fruit.
If you haven't yet, grab your FREE copy of the From Seed to Supper guide and learn how to start growing delicious, fresh vegetables and herbs!
This post was provided by Archie of homemakerguide.com. Archie was a builder for more than 40 years. Mainly after his retirement the enthusiastic electrician works in the garden and writes for a blog Homemakerguide.com to keep himself occupied. His many years of experience can get you the right tool reviews whether it is a drill, welding machine or something else. An impressive fact to note about him is that almost everything in his house is a representation of his skills made by his hands.
Founder of Garden. Farm. Thrive.
I'm a multigenerational homesteader, former high school and college agriculture teacher, and your guide for embracing a simpler, more traditional lifestyle. Come along as I teach you how to grow your best garden, raise chickens and other livestock, learn traditional skills and create the homesteading haven of your dreams.
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