Starting That First Garden

Overview of how to start a garden; for the beginner

Gro-Power 5-3-1 Granular Fertilizer - 8.8 lb bag
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  • Topic: Gardening for Beginners
  • Author: Cindy Bellinger
  • Keywords: beginner, design, Other, gardens, gardening
  • Date: May 2004

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I met a woman recently who bought a brand new house, so the grounds are a little dreary. Showing me around, she finally said, “I can’t leave the place looking like this. How do I start gardening?”

New to Santa Fe, Liz told me she’d always lived in a city apartment and for years yearned for a garden. My first suggestion? Get out the camera. I’ve started enough gardens to know that before and after shots can really boost the confidence when you can see a barren spot transformed over time.

Then I outlined a to-do list to get that first garden underway:

  1. Keep track of things—the first/last frost, the arrival/departure of butterflies and hummingbirds. Note when you buy plants and where you put them—especially bulbs, because when they’re finished, often there is no trace.
  2. Track when you last watered and fertilized, when certain species leaf and bloom and for how long, then note when they begin turning in the fall. It’s a journal of sorts—a calendar used year after year works fine.
  3. Start small. This keeps the enthusiasm up, the discouragement down.
  4. Decide on the ‘feel’ you want—if you like things trimmed and neat or loose and floppy.

When I told Liz the first tool she needed was a shovel, she looked at her hard-packed clay ground. “This sounds like it’ll be a lot of work.”

“It is,” I admitted. “But if you want a garden, you need to start making good soil.”

The Basics

Building soil

Soil in Santa Fe needs help. Preparing soil is actually fun; it’s the earthiest part of gardening because you get to get your hands dirty. And this always feels so wholesome. Our Soil Mender® products—blend, compost and mulch—are excellent for adding organic matter to heavy clay soil.

But careful. When you’re preparing planting beds, think about the plants you want in them. Not all plants, especially some of the very xeric ones, like enriched loamy soil. Different plants have different needs, so it’s wise to group like-minded plants together.

Test soil for its nutrient content. We’ll have a new supply of testing kits in soon or you can get soil tested through the County Extension Service. In Santa Fe call 471-4711.

The main soil nutrients are:

  • Nitrogen—maintains plant growth and the green color.
  • Phosphorus—stimulates root development.
  • Potassium—helps plants resist disease.

These are usually added through fertilizers, and we recommend Yum Yum Mix or Gro-Power. But soils are commonly deficient in specific minerals, and Planters II is a good all-round additive that provides trace elements such as boron, magnesium, calcium, sulfur, cobalt and iron that keep plants healthy.

Further Soil Additives

Once a soil is established, keep it healthy by adding organic matter. This can be in the form of compost, manure, peat moss, or earthworm castings. However you add organic material, your soil will benefit. Then when earthworms start appearing, you know your garden is happy.

Planting

After taking plants out of their nursery pots, be sure to “score” the roots by lightly breaking up the root system. Many plants become root or pot bound and need loosening. You can slit the tightly bound masses with a knife or pruners. If roots have circled inside a pot and they continue to circle, they may starve or rot. Roots need to spread for optimum growth.

And as you head out with your shovel and bags of compost, just remember there’s nothing better for the inside of a person as working outside in a garden. Well, I’ve somewhat twisted what Ronald Reagan once said about horses. But it’s the same idea.