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At a time when sustainability is more important than ever, growing your own produce is becoming an increasingly important pursuit and skill. It’s also a hobby that can challenging to start, especially if you never learned the basics in school. Taking the wrong approach here can lead to long-term frustrations, but start simple, and you’ll be surprised at how easy the process can be.
Beginning with some of the very basics, we want to break down what newcomers should keep in mind as they begin their gardening journeys. From soils to finding the right home for the job, here’s what you need to know.
Not All Soil is Equal
Gardening begins in the soil, and this element alone can make or break what you can grow and how easy it is to proceed. As discussed at Horiba, different plants will have different needs, most commonly seen in pH values. While lower pH values in the 4.0-6.0 range are great for growing the ever-useful potato, anyone interested in growing tomatoes or cucumbers will need pH values in the 5.0-7.5 range.
The exact suitability of each soil to each planet should be investigated beforehand, as even different strains of the same plant can have different needs. From here you’ll need to run a pH test of your soil. You’ll also need to test for crucial elements like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, and look up local reports to see if dangerous elements like caesium have been found in nearby areas. Each of these elements can be modified in the soil as well, with a little work.
Lighting and Weather
With soil understood, the next concern is sunlight and the affecting weather. Even if your soil is perfect, the wrong sun or heat exposure can upset growth potential. Tomatoes are a perfect example here, which according to GrowVeg, do best with a minimum of eight hours of sun a day. If you live in a shaded area, or one where the light can be cut off in different seasons by buildings or trees, this can be a problem. A greenhouse can solve the problem, but this is a more drastic approach which brings us to our next point.
Leaning into a Major Change
It’s almost always possible to retrofit a home to include some kind of garden, but the best potential will always come from a property properly suited to gardening. If you’re serious about taking your gardening game to the next level, this means keeping an eye out for already well-suited properties that can then be modified further.
This approach can be aided through streamlined modern sales options to find buyers for your existing home. Services like Sold provide free cash offers and the ability to sell in your own timeframe, so you can take advantage of rare opportunities when they do appear. Selling homes all over the UK, don’t overlook platforms like this.
Our final piece of advice is to understand that everyone makes mistakes. You will inevitably lose some crops, but as long as you learn from the experience, this can still be turned into a positive. Be open, learn from others in your community, and there’s no telling how far your gardening journey will take you.