Last Updated on July 11, 2023 by Kimberly Crawford
Keeping a well-organized garden, along with knowing gardening terms, is one of the best ways to ensure you don’t get overwhelmed and that your garden thrives year after year. Keeping track of who owns what, when flowers are in bloom, and which veggies need space for growth will help you keep an eye on things so there’s no reason to panic if something needs attention.
The key is planning ahead. How you do this will depend on your gardening style and level of organization, but the general idea is that the earlier you start planning out your garden, the more time you have to address any potential issues before they take over. It can seem like a small task, but creating a clear structure and boundaries for your vegetable area will help you stay organized throughout the growing season.
Whether you’ve just started experimenting with your green thumb or you’ve been gardening for a while, below is a comprehensive list of tips on how to keep your garden organized throughout the year.
10 Tips For an Organized Garden
1. Use Trellises and Toggles to Control Growing Space
This can be an effective way to bring some harmony into your growing space. It’s also a great idea if you’re looking for ways to upgrade your garden with DIY additions.
Simply use lattice-like wire trellises for your cucumber and bean plants. It’s great for keeping them off the ground and out of the direct sun, and you can also use vertical poles to keep your carrots in place when it gets hot out.
If you have room, consider trellises for your herbs. They don’t necessarily require the height that trellises for vegetables do, and can be used to separate one growing area from the next. Use the left-over wire to create more sturdy hanging baskets for herbs.
2. Stay On Top Of Your Watering Schedule and Make Adjustments as Needed
It goes without saying; plants need a consistent and sufficient supply of water during the growing season. Ideally, you should water your garden at least two or three times a week.
However, some plants may require watering more or less frequently, so be sure to keep track (perhaps through a journal) of how much water each plant in your garden needs each week, when, and how often you should water them.
Depending on the weather and the amount of sun, you can also use a sprinkler to water your garden. This will keep weeds at bay and keep your plants as hydrated as possible, all while saving you from having to rake your garden.
Don’t forget to check the soil often and apply a good quality, non-irritating fertilizer.
3. Utilize Technology to Manage Your Garden
Small home gardens often require a lot of work, so keeping a journal of your gardening activities is an absolute must. However, your gardening activities may increase immensely over time as you start growing new plants and expanding your gardening space.
In this case, simply noting important schedules on a traditional calendar and journaling crucial tasks in a notebook might no longer be enough to keep things flowing smoothly.
From planning your workday routine weekly to keeping an inventory, and keeping track of your goals, managing a garden can sometimes be overwhelming. This is why many gardeners use an excel spreadsheet to keep track of their garden and all that’s happening or needed.
Thanks to today’s advances in technology, there are bunches of other garden tracking software out there that can help make things even simpler and less stressful for gardening enthusiasts. With a tool like Garden Savvy, you can access all your gardening information from your smartphone or computer at the click of a button.
From planting to harvesting, these tools help you stay up to date on crucial things you need to know about your garden even remotely while you’re away at work, for instance, and someone else is in charge of running things.
For example, they let you stay in garden manager tools help you stay ahead of things like:
- Tracking plant growth
- Keeping track of watering, fertilizing, and wedding schedules
- Knowing when certain plants are ready for harvest, e.g. tomatoes
- Monitoring gardening inventory and supplies
- Telling when it’s time take action on pests and disease
Some of the best gardening tech tools also come with helpful features such as resources and guides that gardeners could utilize to make the most out of their green thumbs.
4. Use Tools like Hygrometers and Moisture Meters to Track the Moisture in Your Garden
Moisture is one of the most important things for a growing vegetable garden. It not only affects the plants’ health but also affects their size. If a plant is too small, it may not be able to support itself in the colder months. A variety of tools are available to help with measuring the moisture in your garden.
Hygrometers measure the relative humidity in the soil or atmosphere. On the other hand, moisture meters basically measure the level of wetness in the soil. Some of them even come with electronic sensors with a wireless connection, so you can keep an eye on the soil moisture from your smartphone.
5. Set Up a Garden Shed to Store Your Gear and Supplies
If you don’t have one already, a garden shed is an inexpensive way to store gardening tools and supplies for the growing season. Not only will this save you from having to keep track of dozens of garden tools in your garage, but it will also help you organize your garden by bringing the frequently used tools nearby and making them easily accessible when most needed.
Plus, you can use organizers to keep your tools organized in your shed and to plan your next gardening project, whenever that may be.
6. Consider Using Garden Tags to Help Mark Your Garden
It is not unusual to encounter a time when you’re unsure where you planted which plants in your garden. This is especially when the plants are still pretty young before or shortly after sprouting from the ground. In this case, garden tags serve as a great visual guide, so you can avoid costly mistakes such as overwatering or applying the wrong fertilizer.
Garden tags are simply pieces of durable paper with a unique color that is designed to be stuck directly onto the ground on a stick or the plant itself (for grown plants). These inexpensive labels are also the perfect way to mark the plants that are ready to be harvested, separated by type of flower, and even show you the location of a plant in your garden.
You can buy garden tags at a large number of retailers online, from garden centers and even major home improvement stores. Or, you could also make your own DIY garden tags using sticks and luminous, waterproof paper.
7. Don’t Forget To Rotate Your Crops Each Growing Season
It can be easy to forget to rotate your crops each growing season, especially if you’ve been growing your garden for years. This is especially true if you’re dealing with a lot of different plants, many of which need different amounts of attention.
Essentially, crop rotation allows you to maintain a balanced and natural growing environment without the use of any chemicals. Since different kinds of plants have different nutritional needs, rotating crops in your garden for each growing season helps replenish the soil with the nutrients that the previous crop had consumed.
Noting this down somewhere and including it in your list of things to do at the start of every season can go a long way in helping you stay organized.
8. Remove Garden Junk Often
Do you have rubbish piling up in your garden? A lot of garden junk could potentially be hazardous to the health of your plants, whether it’s lying around on top of your plants or growing around them. It could be plastic bags, foliage, broken twigs, or pretty much anything that’s not supposed to be in your garden. Having such junk can make your garden look messy and disorganized.
So, every once in a while, go around your garden raking and collecting any junk that might be littering your green space. You can even use part of it, like dead leaves and branches to make compost as you burn or dispose of the rest.
9. Prune Plants That Need Pruning
If there’s a plant in your garden that seems like it’s completely out of control, but you can’t seem to get rid of it, you could be letting it grow too much or too fast. It could also be that some of the stems or branches are bent down. If this is the case, your plants could be breaking, and it might be best to take a pair of pruning shears and trim off the parts of the stems that are touching each other, bent, or obstructing the pathways and causing a distorted appearance.
Simply chopping off a few stem or branch tips can do wonders for the appearance of your plants. This works best for perennials, shrubs, and small trees, as well as ornamental grasses. Nonetheless, pruning should always be done the right way to avoid hurting the plants.
The tips below can help you ensure just that.
- Signs your garden needs pruning: Look for warning signs such as dead leaves, broken stems, entangling branches, and obstructed paths.
- Observe diligence: The right method of pruning may vary for different plants.
- Cutting: Observe the right cutting angles when pruning.
- Spacing: It’s essential to ensure your plants maintain an appropriate distance between each other after pruning.
10. Construct Raised Garden Beds
If you are running low on room in your yard, constructing raised garden beds can be a great way to expand your garden space. Garden beds are very versatile and can be used for growing almost anything, from herbs to fruits and veggies.
Below are some scenarios where raised garden beds can help you get organized in your gardening activities:
Garden on Your Lawn:
Moreover, a raised garden bed can also be built directly above the lawn to achieve more gardening space without necessarily causing damage to your turf.
Gardening Indoors:
Grow beds are also an ideal option for indoor gardening, where you want to cultivate herbs, flowers, or veggies inside your home without having to cover the entire space with dirt.
As long as you have proper lighting and a way to keep humidity and temperature under control, you could be surprised at how strong, healthy, and bountiful your garden plants will grow on raised beds.
Backyard Gardening:
A raised garden bed can also be placed in your backyard, where you don’t need to worry about the presence of any animals. With a roof overhead, these beds can be used to grow veggies, herbs, and flowers.
11. Try Hydroponic Gardening
Hydroponic gardening involves using a decent amount of water, light, and heat to produce healthy plants and nutritious food, all while taking the guesswork out of gardening. This growing technique also takes soil out of the equation, and essential nutrients are delivered to the plants through the water.
It allows you to grow microgreens, fruits, fresh herbs, or any other type of veggies without worrying about damage from bugs and pests. The best part is, hydroponics or tower gardening typically takes up much less space than traditional gardening while ensuring that your plants get more nutrients than they would have if they were growing in soil.
With this in mind, adopting this method can help keep your garden organized in many ways. However, starting hydroponic gardening can be a challenging task, especially for novice gardeners.
Being among the most efficient methods of indoor gardening in the modern day, below are a few tips on how to get started with hydroponics:
- Build or buy a hydroponic system that works with minimal space and resources.
- Pick your plants carefully and understand their ideal nutrient requirements
- Choose the right lights for hydroponic cultivation.
- Use sturdy grow media.
- Seek professional advice before getting started.
Now that you know more about gardening techniques, you’ll be better equipped to nurture your plants and see the incredible results you want to achieve.
All in all, the above few tips will hopefully help keep you more organized with your garden this year or the next growing season.
