Gardening is one of the most exciting and relaxing hobbies you can pick up regardless of age or lifestyle. However, it’s also challenging work to keep your garden healthy and thriving throughout the year.
What do you do if a plant catches a disease? How do you fertilize different plants, and when is the best time to plant each one during the year? Luckily, the internet is full of free and fun resources for you to make good use of. Let’s dive into several educational tools, apps, and resources which will help keep your garden healthy and teach you how to be a great gardener.
- Garden Journal
Experience can be a great teacher when it comes to gardening. To keep track of your garden’s progress, you can use Garden Journal to write notes on your plants. It’s an app specifically designed for gardening and allows you to track watering, fertilization, and harvesting cycles. There is a database of diseases and pesticides built into the app, which will allow you to quickly find out how to help your plants. Email notifications, a gardening calendar, and communication with like-minded gardeners are also possible via Garden Journal, so make sure to check it out.
- All-New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew
Speaking of books, there are a variety of very useful publications on which you can rely on. The All-New Square Foot Gardening book is a gardening guide meant for people short on gardening space. Its tutorials will teach you how to create an amazing garden from square one and keep it as tidy as possible. Written by Mel Bartholomew, a professional home gardener, this book will transform the way you see your garden and help you reinvent it. The author also penned several other gardening guidebooks for veggies, child gardeners, and even a FAQ book based on readers’ questions.
- Epic Gardening
Epic Gardening is a very popular YouTube channel dedicated to DIY tips, tricks, and guides for gardeners. The channel will teach you how to plant different fruits, vegetables, and flowers no matter where you live through simple and easy-to-follow videos. If you also want to start your own gardening channel on YouTube, outro maker can be a useful tool. If you’re a student who is short on time but loves gardening, this is a great resource for you.
- Garden Manager
Garden Manager is a learning app that is perfect for beginner gardeners and anyone with a garden too large to manage without planning. It has a series of questions that will guide you through the initial setup process before presenting you with a thorough gardening plan. Once you select all the plants available in your garden, the app will advise you on how to maintain your plants, when to water or fertilize them, etc. It will also alert you of sudden weather changes and remind you to tend to your plants on a daily.
- A Way to Garden
You can work on your garden and learn how to do it better by listening to podcasts while doing so. A Way to Garden is a podcast produced by Margaret Roach who is a professional horticulturist and Garden Writers Association of America, award winner. She has been working on A Way to Garden since 2010 and has produced over a hundred episodes of the podcast since then. She aims to bridge the gap between gardening and technology and introduce new and exciting ways to garden to her listeners. Her podcast is easy to pick up and learn from regardless of your level of experience, so give it a try.
- How Plants Work by Linda Chalker-Scott
Understanding how your plants “think” is at the core of successful gardening. Meet Linda Chalker-Scott, author of How Plants Work, a book all about easy-to-learn horticulture. The author’s conversational writing style, simple-to-follow instructions, and practical tips will ensure that you have a better understanding of your garden. She has successfully bridged science and blogging in her book, meaning that you don’t need academic gardening education to follow along and learn. How Plants Work is easy to pick up and apply to keep your garden healthy – check it out.
- Plants Map
Plants Map is not an app, instead, it’s a web-based platform designed to gather like-minded gardeners, plant experts, and collectors. What it does is allow you to map out your garden easily before actually going out and buying seeds and saplings. The website features a rich repository of practical plant insight, gardening guides, and even a community that will advise you on how to garden properly. The community on Plants Map is constantly organizing online gardening events which you can participate in to show off your gardening efforts. Plants Map is comfortable to use, and you will have a much easier time planning out your garden thanks to its intricate mapping tools.
- Garden Answers
You may have inherited a garden, or, found a strange new plant in your backyard but have no way of identifying it. Garden Answers is an app made to help you identify plants, pests, and diseases, as well as ask for expert advice straight from its team. Each time you snap a photo of your plant, the app will advise you on how to take care of it properly. This is one of the most popular gardening apps on the market simply because of how practical and straightforward it is to use.
- Rodale’s Ultimate Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening by Deborah L. Martin
If organic gardening suits your fancy, you can pick up this guidebook to learn more about it practically. This encyclopedia is a comprehensive overview of how you can start with organic gardening, take care of your plants, and keep them safe from diseases. The book has over 400 plant entries, which will help you cover all the basics of learning how to keep your garden healthy moving forward. It features plenty of practical advice and tips from real-world gardeners across the US who are experts in different gardening varieties and weather conditions.
Learning How to Keep your Garden Healthy (Conclusion)
A real-world gardening experience is the best way to learn more about your plants. However, with the above-mentioned tools and resources, your garden will thrive more quickly and become healthier. You will find your gardening rhythm over time and discover your gardening likes and dislikes while learning more about your garden. Pick up a gardening book, download a gardening app, and get out there.
Bio: Andrew is a copywriter and editor at LetsGradeIt who has been working in the digital business and marketing industries for years. He spends his leisure time reading about self-growth and gardening.