A list of the gardening tips, techniques, and hacks that lessen the work of vegetable and flower growing so you can concentrate on the harvests and bouquets!
As a gardener, there are few things more cringe-worthy to me than watching a neighbor till up a patch of grass, add a bit of manure or compost, plant vegetables and water with an overhead sprinkler. Because I know what the next few months will bring, no matter how lovely that patch looks when you’re finished – grass & weeds so thick you can barely see the vegetable plants.
Or to watch another neighbor constantly weeding a flower bed all season long. Actually, it may be when I drive by the same bed in August and September when the weeds have taken over because my poor neighbor just got tired of all that weeding.
If it’s someone I know, I’ve been known to strike up a conversation to mention how we use paper and mulch after our first spring weeding so that we never have to weed like that again for the season. But it’s a delicate balance, because I don’t want to come off as a know-it-all, right?
Most weeding issues can be boiled down to this simple fact:
Disturbing the soil (till, turn, plant) brings dormant weed seeds to the surface, providing them with the sun they need and then watering and fertilizing them along with our plants.
Is it any wonder they grow thick? And in areas where there are lots of weed seeds blowing in the wind (rural & semi-rural areas especially), we’ve created some wonderful seed beds for them to germinate. A solution, then, is to cover the soil to attempt to stop the seeds from germinating and to water only the plants.
There are other things you can do, too, to make gardening easier and your outcome better, whether you grow vegetables, flowers, or both.
Over the years I’ve written extensively about how you CAN have an easy care garden by using a few simple and easy gardening tips and techniques – truly. So I’ve compiled them in this easy-to-access list that you can refer to whenever you need (TIP: pin the image at the end so you can find it easily).
Simple & Easy Gardening Tips & Techniques
Planting & Designing Your Garden (Vegetable & Flower Borders)
How to plant a garden the easy care way.
How to design an easy-to-care-for vegetable garden.
9 simple steps to your easiest garden ever.
8 easy steps to a new shrub & flower bed.
Grow Vegetables With Less Work
How to plant a vegetable bed the no-till way.
How to plant & grow a corn patch weed free.
How to plant & grow the best tomatoes.
Why & how to use row covers for broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower.
How to easily ripen tomatoes at the end of the season.
General Gardening Hacks
Easy organic weed control with paper & mulch (video).
5 easy steps to organic weed control.
5 awesome ways to save water & time in your garden.
The DIY garlic-mint insect spray that really works! Plus the garden bug spray video with more information.
7 tips for planting flower pots organically that thrive all season.
How to easily repair soaker hoses (video tutorial).
How to scare birds away from berries naturally.
How to safely use wood ashes in the garden.
Ultimate Vegetable Guides
Specific guides with tips and techniques to grow, harvest, preserve and cook with the following fruits and vegetables:
So – go forth and garden the easy way! And I hope if you have any tips to add that you’ll share them in the comments, on AOC’s Facebook Page, or use #anoregoncottage when sharing garden tips on Instagram or Twitter.
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Angie Rose says
I use that same method to prevent weeds and it works great! I had to remove a bunch of landscaping fabric from my yard, and I’m still finding it in some places. Using paper is so much easier. I’ve really enjoyed planting my vegetables in a raised garden bed. So much easier to weed and a lot less weeds to deal with. I have a strawberry patch that has a bit of an issue with weeds during the late summer months. I’m thinking of mulching my plants in this year to prevent them from getting out of control! The worst is when you can’t decipher a flower from a weed and you get the daily should I leave or pull battle. I still have some mystery flowers in my yard that I need to identify. Great tips that really do make gardening so much easier 🙂
Jami says
Ah, yes the mystery plants! Most of the time I regret leaving something to ‘see’ what it is – it seems to always be a weed. 🙂
Michelle Marine says
You’ve always got such great tips and tricks, Jami. Please remind us (and then come poke me too to make me do it – lol) in the fall to cover our gardens to kill those weeds!! I always forget. 🙁
Jami says
Ha! I’ll try to remember, Michelle!
Shelly says
My neighbor just asked me the other day if I knew of a good way to get rid of aphids. I knew you had a bug spray recipe and I’m going to pass it along to my neighbor so they can give it a try.
I’m also trying the no-till method for two of my raised beds this year. The weeds have been covered for a month now and just the other day, I uncovered them to remove the remains of those dead and dying weeds. I’m keeping them covered for a few more weeks. Fingers crossed it will help to control all those pesky weeds in my garden. Although I do battle weed seeds being blown. 🙁
Jami says
I hope the spray works on aphids! I haven’t really tried it on them because I usually can spray them off with water unless it’s on cole crops and then I just have to cover them or I’d spend all my time spraying, ha!
My fingers are crossed with you on your weed situation. 🙂
Diane says
Hi Jami, We were one of ‘those’ cringe worthy gardeners for a long, long time. My husband trusted his handy rototiller to work up the garden in the late spring, after the wet dried up here. And it grew veggies and weeds fantastically (especially weeds) until he rototilled every fall for our winter weed slow down. Things are better now. We are learning about mulch, (still looking for our favorite one). Using weed barriers (the seeds still blow onto the top though!)
I can see through your links You have much to teach me about gardening easier. I’ll be spending lots of time on your site this year!
Jami says
Your garden is lovely, Diane – I’m honored that you think you can learn something at AOC. 🙂 I tried for years to talk my father-in-law out of his rototill-plant-water-everything method, but his Kansas farm-boy roots would never let him do anything else. Even when his crops suffered and he was drowning in weeds. The no-till method isn’t for everyone, so I don’t push too hard on people I know, but I wouldn’t garden any other way!
pam says
Great tip for weeds in the flower beds. When we bought our house we discovered that the previous owners had used your paper and mulch system. Sort of. They used landscape fabric (hate the stuff) and some sort of wooden mulch that would take 20 years to decay naturally. I spent the better part of two years fixing that by removing what they had and replacing it with layers of paper and garden mulch and now all is right with the world 🙂
Jami says
Oh no! You’re right that fabric-wood bark combo IS terrible – it was left by previous owners of our house, too and took years to get rid of. The poor soil underneath it was so depleted, too. Our plants love the paper-garden compost layers we give the soil- I haven’t ever used anything else to fertilize them. 🙂