20 Live-and-Learn Garden Tips I Share with My Friends

If you were to walk into my garden today you'd see every one of these things at work. These are the tips that usually end up being the answer to any of the gardening questions I get from friends and family.

 Why is garlic hanging on the fence?  To introduce you to your first tip. There are also tips within the tips which of course makes this much more exciting.

This is a big post with a lot of information but it's all easy to remember if you just write it all down, 5 times in a row and then memorize it.

Tip #1 - Curing Garlic & Onions

Garlic and onions needs to be cured for 2 weeks outdoors in the shade. Doing this lets the outer skins slowly dry out while the inside retains all of its moisture. Curing extends garlic and onion shelf life so they'll store longer.

At this very moment there are tomatoes ripening on the vine.  Potatoes are growing under the soil, strawberries are bursting with colour and Honeydew melons are  sweetening by the day.  

This is how it will go until the end of summer when I have to contend with the massacre. The massacre being the influx of voles, raccoons, rabbits and cabbage moth.  I've done whatever possible to stop all of these pests.  It was a lot of work to do what needed to be done, but it'll pay off by saving me time and vegetables later.

My garden is classic rows mainly because I actually prefer the look and feeling of long rows in a garden. It feels nostalgic to me.

There is a central path that runs from the front gate to the back gate. Off of either side of the path are 16' rows each planted with a variety of things.  

You can see the beds are raised but they aren't boxed in with wood. The advantage to this is cost and effort.  Boxing in that many huge raised beds would cost hundreds of dollars and they'd all start to rot in a few years.  I'd then have to deconstruct the beds, get rid of the massive pieces of rotting wood, buy more and rebuild the beds.

The disadvantage is the soil can fall around the edges so you can't plant as close to the edges as you can in a traditional, boxed raised bed.  The REAL disadvantage to raised beds without sides though is that weeds grow on the sides of the beds so it's a lot more weeding than you'd have with a boxed raised bed.

Tip #2  - No dig gardening

I've been no dig gardening since 2017. I mean, you know, for the most part. There's only one Charles Dowding.

No dig gardening means you do not till, poke, prod, lift or disturb the soil. This benefits the top layer of soil and all the microbes, worms and other crawlies that are keeping your soil aerated, fed, and healthy.

Each year to feed the soil you add a few inches of compost on top of your beds and plant directly into that.

A word about weeds and no dig

No dig also helps eliminate weeds because if you aren't moving and disturbing the soil, you aren't exposing any of the thousands of weed seeds that are in your soil to sunlight and rain.

Every time you turn over a shovelful of soil, you're exposing all the weed seeds that were deep in the soil to the top of the soil. These weed seeds had no intention of sprouting until you flipped the soil and put them in a front row seat to rain and sun.

ALTERNATIVE - This year in particular I didn't have enough compost to cover all of my garden beds with a thick layer so instead I dug large planting holes and filled the hole with garden compost or sheep manure compost. Then I squished the seedling into that compost filled hole.

The bean trellis! How do you do it?

Tip #3 - Trellising

To make a bean (or cucumber) trellis that'll last a year or two buy some wood 1 x 1's.  Either hammer them into the soil or dig a 1' deep hole and place a length of wood into each hole.  

Add another piece of wood lengthwise across the top of your 2 staked 1x1s and attach it by screwing it in.  You can either run string back and forth between the wood to create a trellis or use plastic netting or chicken wire for the plants to grow on.

You can also use metal T Posts which will last for years and years and years and years and years until you don't even like beans anymore.

Tip #4 - Weed suppresion

To stop weeds in either beds or paths lay down a layer of newspaper then top it with 2-3" of natural, cedar mulch. The newspaper eventually decomposes at which point you just need to top up your mulch every year.  

Alternative - You can use professional grade landscape fabric on paths to control weeds. It works well but is slippery when wet and doesn't look as pretty as mulch. BUT it lasts longer and doesn't need to be replaced for many, many years.

Tip #5 - Corn

Don't grow corn in a single row.   Each corn stalk pollinates those around it and it does a much better job of that if it's grown in a clump.  

So a square bed of corn will be way more successful than a long row.  

Also, don't grow two varieties of corn near each other (especially ornamental and edible) because they'll cross pollinate and you'll end up with some weirdass corn.  

Tip #6 - Carrot germination

You can just barely see the plywood on the ground here.  A more religious woman would use it to kneel on to pray to the Gods for carrot germination.  I use it to guarantee carrot germination.

To get carrots to germinate, plant the seeds into watered soil and then cover them up for a week. Flat wood is your best option because it presses down and helps the seeds maintain contact with the soil but you can use burlap as well.

The wood or cloth helps keep the seeds damp and in darkness which they like.  

Carrot seeds are temperamental.

Tip #7 - My favourite tip

Boxes, bags and baskets.

Keep bags or baskets for carrying vegetables RIGHT in your garden at all times.

ALWAYS keep something in your garden for putting vegetables in to take home, whether your home is 20 steps away or a 5 minute drive.  How the hell do you think you're going to carry it all?  And if you think you'll always remember to bring a bag or basket whenever you go into the garden you're wrong.  We're not that smart.

Bonus harvesting tip:  Don't wash your vegetables right away if you want them to store well.  Brush the extra soil off of them and leave it at that.  Wash them just before you're going to prepare them to eat.  

Tip #8 - Row Cover

To keep crops clean use row cover.

You can either just "float" it right over the plants, holding the edges down with rocks or wood or you can make hoops out of flexible plumbing pipes.

Hoops are more necessary for tall vegetables like kale.  To make the  hoops, hammer rods or bamboo sticks into the ground on either side of the bed.  The rods/sticks must be smaller than the inner circumference of the plumbing pipe so the pipe can slip over the rod.  This will hold the hoops in place.  Then just drape the row cover over the hoops and secure with rocks or strips of wood.  

Or you can buy premade garden hoops in a variety of heights and widths.

Types of Row Cover

Generally I work with mesh insect netting or a medium weight row cover. The heavier the row cover, the less light can pass through it. That's good for protection from frost but not good for allowing enough lights to get to the plants to grow well.

I use Agribon medium weight row cover.

Tip #9 - Potato hilling

If you don't have it in you to hill your potatoes ... don't.  I have never noticed any huge loss of potato production from not hilling.

Potato hilling is most necessary when you have planted your seed potatoes either on top of the soil or in the first few inches.

If you have planted deep (9-12") there's no huge advantage to hilling.

The other big hit in the garden with kids are the melons.  You haven't experienced life if you haven't sat down in a garden and consumed a just picked Honeydew still warm from the sun

Tip #10 - Sweeter Melons

Don't water your melons as they're getting to the point of ripening.  You'll just dilute them.  Less water when ripening = sweeter melons.  

The more melons ripening on the same vine the less sweet they'll be because they all have to share the sugars the vine leaves have produced.  

If you have 2 or 3 melons of around the same size growing on the same plant pinch 2 of them off if you want a really sweet melon.

Tip #11 - Weeding habits

Every time you step foot in your garden pull some weeds.  Make it a habit.  

The more you weed the less weeds you'll have.  Weeds flower and go to seed quicklyyyyy.  THIS is the crucial point. If you don't pull the weeds before they go to flower and seed, those seeds will drop all over your soil and start the weed cycle again. It will never end.

If you take the time in the spring and especially for that first year to get rid of all the weeds as they appear and never let them go to seed you'll make every subsequent year more and more weed free.  

Whenever I walk into my garden I keep my head down and just weed for 10 minutes. I don't even look around to see what has grown or if there's a giant pyramid of raccoons anywhere - I just weed.

Tip #12 - Pumpkin leaf recipe  

Pumpkin leaves are one of the many edible leaves we tend to just ignore. A lot of the weeds we pull are excellent for salad or as sauteed greens.

With pumpkin leaves only pick the smaller, more tender pumpkin leaves, boil them in water with some baking soda (to help soften them) for a couple of minutes, then sauté them with tomatoes and onions.  The boiling also helps get rid of the prickles on the squash leaves and stem.

All pumpkin leaves are edible but the ones with the white veining are the ones my fellow gardener from Zimbabwe told me they eat.

I think we need to take a break here so I can let you know I realize this is probably the least hysterical post I've ever written.  But there's a lot of information to get through and my brain is focused on teaching.  If I can muster up the energy I'll throw in a knock knock joke later on.

Tip #13 - Cabbage harvest

Cabbage will grow 2 or 3 more small heads after you harvest the initial large head.  Just cut the cabbage off just above ground level instead of pulling up the whole plant.  Within a couple of weeks it'll start growing a couple of new heads off of the base of the stalk which are a FAR more reasonable size for eating.  They're perfect for roasting as a side dish.

Broccoli TIP - Broccoli will also do the same thing. Just cut the large head on the top of the broccoli stalk when it's ready. Keep the stalk of the plant in tact just removing the head. The broccoli will continue to put out smaller broccoli florets from the leaf nodes along the stem.

This year I'll be cutting my broccoli way back like I do a cabbage head to see if it will produce another primary head. It's an experiment. I like to experiment.

Tip #14 - Make things convenient & comfortable

Keep a chair in the garden so you can sit on something civilized as opposed to the dirt.  Or a snake.  ALSO I keep an overturned bucket in every corner of my garden so when I'm weeding I'm never far from a bucket to throw the weeds into. They them get dumped onto the compost pile.

I also eliminated all compost bins in my garden because they aren't convenient. Instead I keep a huge open pile of compost that I can easy add to, remove from and turn.

She's not pretty but she produces beautiful compost.

Tip #15 - Rabbits, Raccoons & Deer

The best way to keep rabbits out of a garden is to dig heavy metal fencing 6" or so into the ground around your garden.  Rabbits will dig but generally not that deep.  They'll chew but generally not through heavy metal.  

The best way to keep raccoons out is with flimsy fencing.  Building a sturdy tall fence will do nothing other than give the raccoons something sturdy to climb.  Flimsy and lightweight is hard to climb.

So the perfect fence is one that has a base of hardware cloth dug at least 6" into the soil around the bottom, with 6' high loosely hung deer netting or hardware cloth on top.

Note: Deer netting is inexpensive and easy to work with but will rip over time and birds and snakes can get caught in it. Hardware cloth is really expensive to surround a garden with but it will last a long time and nothing will get caught in it.

Tip #16 - Snakes

If you aren't terrified of them, you should time-share your garden with snakes. Why?

Snakes will scare mice, voles and other rodents away from your garden plus they eat bugs.  Also if there's anyone you don't want visiting you in your garden, having a plot full of snakes is the most discrete way of making sure they never show up.

To attract snakes to your garden leave piles of wood around.  You can see this one coming out from underneath the raised bed.  They love to hide in the cracks of stacked wood and sun themselves on top.  They also love to live in compost piles.

Tip #17 - Work Surface

You need somewhere to put stuff.  Gardening requires stuff and if your garden isn't a few steps away from your shed then you realllyyyy need somewhere to put stuff. What stuff?

• Seedlings
• Harvested vegetables
• Tools can lean against it
• Water bottle/coffee

I made this garden table out of scraps of wood and donated lumber. AS of 2024 it's in its 8th year and going strong.

Tip #18 - Keep planting

You can keep planting a lot of seeds throughout the season to make sure you have a continuous crop.

When you pull a crop out because it's done (garlic in mid July for instance) you're left with an empty bed. Plant something in it right away so the bed doesn't go to waste and doesn't become a massive bed of weeds.

Carrots, lettuce, beans, onions, spinach, radishes, zucchini & cucumbers are all things you can reseed if they fail the first time or as a succession planting.

Tip #19 - STRAWberries 

There's a reason they're called "straw" berries.  Put a layer of straw underneath your strawberry plants to help keep dirt dwelling insects and moisture off of the berries.  Your berries will rot less quickly and never have any dirt or guck on them. You'll be able to pick them clean off of the plant and pop them right in your mouth.

NOTE: Straw can also be a happy haven for slugs, so watch for them and act appropriately with a Slug Chug.

No tip here.  Just a pretty picture to entice you into growing your own vegetables if you don't already.  Green and purple kohlrabi, fresh pulled garlic and the ubiquitous zucchini.

Tip #20 - Bed Size

Garden beds are typically 4' wide but if that's too wide for you and your short little freak-show arms, then do them 3'6".  When designing your garden make sure it fits YOU.

Also, try to have at least one path that's wide enough for a wheelbarrow if you plan to use one and make sure paths between the beds are big enough to walk and kneel in.  You don't need much more than that but you do need room to walk, turn around and work.

 I keep paths the width of my 18" rake, which means I just need to do one swipe with the rake to clear or clean the path.

If you really love gardening then take the time to make your garden nice and grow what you like.  Or what your friends and family like.  Make it a place that's fun to be as opposed to a place you resent being it. It may take a few months of gardeners rage and resentment before you get to the "fun" place but as long as you eventually get there you'll be able to work through the rage.

Bonus Tip - Don't forget the pretty

Europeans have understood the beauty of vegetable gardens for centuries.  Potager type gardens evolve outside the kitchen doors of homes in England, France and Italy.   There's a beauty in growing your own food and your garden can reflect that.  

Keep it simple, keep it weeded and keep it alive.  Also ... keep the back of it full of flowers.  When all else fails you'll have your zinnia to look at.

Let's end today with a knock knock joke.

Knock knock.

Who's there?

Just some old ho.

Perfect.  I have a bed right here for you.