20 Tips For Do It Yourself Gardeners!!

Enjoy!

1. Let all your planning ahead be for your plants; 
a year ahead for annuals, two years ahead for the biennials, an indefinite number of years ahead 
for the trees. — Christopher Lloyd

2. Walk through your garden to scout for insects and diseases at least once per week; caught early, problems are easier to treat. — Stephen Westcott-Gratton

3. Try to get a plant in the right place the first time around. Given the proper conditions, the plant will be happy and you’ll save yourself a lot of transplanting work.
— Karen York

4. Never plant trees that will become large with age too close to your 
house. — Stephen Westcott-Gratton

5. Consider your garden private territory. Critics are not welcome! Be honest about 
what you want, and don’t be concerned with what others may 
see. If you like woody plants, design a four-season shrub border. Besotted with peonies? Make 
a peony walk. Grow plenty of what you love; you don’t need an excuse 
for excess. Are there ever too 
many rose petals? — Judith Adam

6. Set your lawn mower blades at 7.5 centimetres or higher, and allow your 
lawn to go dormant during periods of drought. — Stephen Westcott-Gratton

7. Light in a garden is a quarter of the battle. Another quarter is the soil of the garden. A third quarter is the skill and care of the gardener. The fourth quarter is luck. Indeed, one might 
say that these were the four Ls of gardening, in the following order of importance: Loam, Light, Love and Luck. — Beverley Nichols

8. Don’t be afraid of change. Gardens, and gardeners, are always evolving. It’s part of the process 
so step in boldly and revamp that rockery, yank out those overgrown shrubs or transform that border into a veggie garden, a pond, 
a knot garden—wherever your imagination takes you. — Karen York

9. Always spend five minutes doing some warm up stretches and bends before undertaking strenuous garden work, and never do one task for too long at a time. — Stephen Westcott-Gratton

10. Climbers are among the most useful plants in any garden. They take up little ground space, and they can be employed for many purposes: to clothe a boring fence, to scramble over a dead tree, to frame an archway, to drape a wall, to disguise a shed, or to climb lightly onto a pergola. They demand comparatively little attention, once they have taken hold of their support, maybe a yearly pruning or a kindly rescue if they have come adrift in a gale. — Vita Sackville-West

11. Always water in the early morning; 
it reduces loss to evaporation 
and foliage dries off more quickly (helping to discourage disease problems). — Stephen Westcott-Gratton

12. Observe and chart where the sunlight falls in your garden throughout the course of one day 
in late spring, mid-summer, and early fall. Most people think they have more sunshine 
than they actually do! — Stephen Westcott-Gratton

13. Clean, sharp tools are 
easier to work with, and they do a better job. — Stephen Westcott-Gratton

14. For optimum plant performance, feed the soil with leaves and the soil will feed the plants. Cover all exposed soil with small or shredded large leaves. Stuff leaves under the skirts of shrubs. Dig leaves into vegetable beds. Leaves are the best nutrition for plants. — Judith Adam

15. If you were to ask me for my top kitchen-gardening tip, I’d say that you’d do far better to grow half the amount, but grow it twice as well. — Alan Titchmarsh

16. Select disease-resistant plants for a healthy garden. Many plants have inbred resistance to diseases, including some roses, phlox, bee balm and tomatoes. Plants that remain healthy all season produce more and better flowers and fruits. — Judith Adam

17. Pay attention. Look closely at your garden to understand nature’s complex web of plants, soil, sun, water, insects and wildlife. The greater this awareness the better you’ll know what to do and, more importantly, what not to do. — Karen York

18. Feed your soil (compost, composted manure, shredded leaves, seaweed)—it’s the foundation of every successful garden.
— Stephen Westcott-Gratton

19. Plant trees, shrubs and flowers that encourage wildlife in your garden to keep nature in balance. — Stephen Westcott-Gratton

20. Know the ultimate size of any plant and allow it space so you don’t end up fighting it, moving it or removing it. — Karen York

Thanks To Chateline and Canadian Gardening