What Every Gardener Should Know (10 Tips)

there are just some things that every gardener should know the sooner you learn them the sooner you'll have gardening success so stick around as I share 10 things that you really should know [Music] hi I'm gardener Scott and I discuss everything gardening today it's the importance of some basic information that all of us really need to know as an experienced gardener sometimes it takes years to figure out how all of these factors play together and as a brand-new gardener the sooner you know these individual pieces the sooner you can get to that point where you become an experienced gardener you've probably noticed that I've got snow around me we had a light snowfall last night which is typical for this time of year it's winter in my garden and I thought it would fit well with this first piece of information which is hardiness zone you really need to understand what hardiness zones are and what your hardiness zone is if you've been gardening for a while I have no doubt you know what it is but you might learn something here is I tie in a lot of other important pieces of information as this video progresses if you don't understand the hardiness zones or you don't know your zone I'll put a link in the description below that can help you out with that the basic idea is that a hardiness zone in the United States identifies the lowest point of the winter in the 1960s the USDA took years worth of meteorological data and determined average lowest temperatures to then establish this system of hardiness zones throughout the United States it really caught on and most plant growers now will put on their plant tag what the plant is suitable for as far as the zone and there are similar systems that have been developed since then throughout the world in the UK it's the royal horticultural society that has determined the hardiness zones and even in Australia the national Botanic Gardens has established the appropriate hardiness zones much of the world uses a system very similar to the USDA system it's set up in the US into 13 different zones and each of those zones is divided into an A or a B sub grouping I'm in zone 5b that tells me I'm looking at a plant that might be suitable down to 7b well it might not actually survive the winter in my garden and that's actually quite common at big-box stores when you go in the spring and look for plants it might be growing in that store in your city but if you look at the tag you may soon realize that it's really not suitable for the winter in your city that's a big reason why you need to know what your hardiness zone is understanding your hardiness zone though is just one piece of information you also need to understand how it plays in with your climate now my zone 5b garden has the same hardiness zone has a garden in Portland Maine I'm at almost 7,000 feet elevation the summer is extremely dry with very harsh winds Portland Maine is at sea level right on the ocean it's very humid and there are winds aren't near as strong as ours are if I look at a plant tag that says zone 5 it's not an automatic that that plant will do well in my garden without taking into account the climate plants that require a lot of humidity and maybe more moderate summers just won't do well here but they may do well there take for instance Seattle Washington they have the same hardiness zone as Austin Texas well the dry conditions of Austin Texas are the complete opposite of the wet conditions of Seattle Washington what is the same hardiness zone you have to start putting a lot of this information together to really have the best success in your garden and to understand that climate is prevailing weather conditions over long periods of time typically about 30 years so one summer or one weather event won't determine whether the plants will survive for you you have to look at this long-term climate that's prevailing in your area sitting out here with the snow around me leads into another climate related piece of information that's important for your garden and that's to understand your frost dates in the spring there's a point that you can expect it's not gonna be cold anymore the frost is done that's your last frost date and in the fall there's a point that you can expect with the weather getting colder freezes might start happening that's your first frost date and much of the growing season is built around those two dates in fact when you look at seed packages it'll often say so after the danger of frost or start indoor six weeks before your last frost date well you need to know your last frost date to be able to determine those points and I'll I'll put a link below to help you find out that information as well and I do have another video that goes into it in much more depth but your last frost date and your first frost date really helped define your growing season and the schedule of your plantings now you don't need to guess about your frost dates you don't have to keep track on the calendar because it's already been done for you years and years of meteorological data have been compiled and there are easy links I'll put one below that you can access and in the United States you just put your zip code and it will tell you what your frost dates are it's important because it ties in with the length of your growing season the point from your average last frost date to your average first frost date well that period of day we'll determine what you can grow my growing season is about a hundred and thirty four days long so I can only grow plants in my vegetable garden that can survive within a hundred and thirty four day window on average I have to cut that back just to be safe so for most of the plants that I grow I give myself a 100 day growing season when I buy seeds I have to look for how long it's going to take for that plant to reach harvest you need to do the same thing if you've got a very short growing season you might not be able to grow some plants that take a lot of days to grow if you're in a higher Zone in the United States like a zone 8 or a zone 9 you've probably got a very long growing season which now opens you up to a huge number of plants that are an option in your garden by understanding the length of the growing season you can really define the plants that you're growing and avoid growing something that just won't survive to harvest and that leads us into a discussion of the difference between annuals and perennials now an annual is a plant that will start from seed grow flower produce more seed and die in one year and perennials typically will grow flower they might seed but when cold weather comes they'll either die back or go dormant so then start the process over again the following year well in our gardens because of climate that most of us have when that cold weather comes it will kill plants that require warm weather that's why our tomatoes and our peppers and our squashes and our melons are only good during a particular growth season because when the cold weather comes they die but in other parts of the world they might actually be perennials they might be plants that continue to grow and grow because they never encounter those cold freezing killing conditions I've had pepper plants growing in a greenhouse for as long as three years I know a guy that's growing basil on his windowsill and the same plant has been alive for five years so many of us are gardening where we take plants that could potentially last a long time but because of the weather and the climate we treat them as annuals that's okay in our garden we have a plant we only expect it to grow for a single season and then it's done but do be aware that if you can provide the proper conditions for many of these plants they'll continue to grow and grow for long periods of time they really aren't a true annual we've just killed them with our weather and so with an understanding of annuals versus perennials it leads us into a discussion of seeds versus plants there are some seeds that do extremely well if they're sown directly into a garden plants like peas for instance stick them in the ground and they grow you don't have to start them ahead of time the same with a lot of melons and a lot of squashes big seeds stick in the ground they grow and we get a harvest from them but some of those plants that we treat as annuals might not fit within our growing season and so we need to put them into the garden as plants you see a lot of us me in particular that are growing tomatoes and peppers from seed indoors weeks before the last frost date so when we put them out in the garden they're already fully formed plants that can start growing right away because they might take eighty or ninety to a hundred days from the time we put them in the garden to produce the fruit so you can see how all these factors are starting to play together when you understand all of these pieces of information it can help you determine what is best for your garden if I have a pea plant that only requires 60 or 65 days to harvest I can start that from seed but a tomato that takes a hundred days I have to start it from plant if you have a very long growing season you might actually be able to start tomatoes from seed outdoors and let it grow for months before you get your Tomatoes take a look at your own specific conditions and this is where it helps to ask other gardeners and to seek out information that's suitable for your garden because I've also seen many gardeners who come from a region with a long growing season who attempt to grow something from seed in an area like mine and they never have success because they don't understand the differences and how all of these factors play together as I proceed with videos in the future I'll be getting much more in depth as to specific plants and whether it's appropriate for a seed or a transplant I'll try to help but for you you just need to understand that there is a difference and that you need to seek out the understanding for which is best for your garden and so when you finally put all this together and you actually have plants growing in your garden there are a few critical pieces of information that it's helpful to understand the first being that plants need sunlight and I know you know that but there's a lot more to it at a minimum you should give your plants at least 6 hours of sunlight per day sure there are some plants that love shade and that's where it's helpful to understand just exactly what you're growing some plants can't handle that much Sun but most of what we're growing in our vegetable gardens in the summer need a lot of light in fact it's better to have a minimum of 8 hours of sunlight per day and the more you can get the better your plants will do so as you're deciding where to put your beds and where you're deciding to put the plants within your beds take into account the sunlight because if you have a lot of tall plants that are blocking the Sun from the plants behind them well even though the bed might be getting eight or ten hours of Sun per day those plants on the backside art and it's important so all of these things have played together to get the plants in the garden but if you're not giving them enough Sun it's all wasted effort and plants need water now I know that's not a surprise to you either but most gardeners particularly new gardeners just don't water appropriately we water too much or we water too little for most of our plants they require one to two inches of water per week now how you choose to actually put that water into the soil is completely up to you but what many of us do is a very light watering on the surface every single day well the water might only go down just a little bit into the soil it never reaches the roots the plant suffers and now the roots have to come up to the surface to try to find that water and when it's very hot and very sunny that surface dries out and the plant might actually die it's usually better to do a deep watering in your garden only once or twice a week if you can get away with it I live in a very dry region so I do have to do more than once or twice a week but most of you can probably get away with that a deep prolonged watering where it gets all the way down to the depth that the roots are growing in the soil is best for getting a strong plant and the best way to figure that out is with your finger just dig down into the soil to see how moist it is and how deep that moisture goes if you check your soil and it's good to a depth of five or six inches you may not need to water at all if you check your depth and you see it's dry an inch down well then plan to do a really deep soak in that particular bed your plants will like it and you'll like the results and realize after you've done all of this right you've done all the appropriate study to understand where your gardening and how to keep your plants alive understand that plants die even when you've done everything right sometimes the plants just die if you understand that then you can continue gardening and don't take it personally because it might be weather-related it might be climate related it might be because of the type of plant and your particular garden there's all kinds of things that can go wrong just try to learn from them and accept that it's not always going to be perfect you can't keep everything alive all the time except that plants die and you'll be on your way to being a successful gardener and that leads us to the last piece of information that I think all gardeners should know and here it is gardening should be enjoyable you should like gardening if you're not enjoying it then you're doing something wrong and try to figure out how you can make it more enjoyable now I know I just said that plants die well that's part of the process so enjoy the learning enjoy the experience enjoy getting your family involved enjoy whatever aspect of it is most important for you but try to make it enjoyable it's so daunting to watch my videos and other videos where it really has shown how hard it can be yes it's hard but it can be enjoyable along the way I love building I love making this new garden into a future beautiful garden that I'll be able to enjoy at every step do what you'd like regardless of what all the rest of us say and you will be a successful gardener if you have any questions about any of this please let me know in the comments below and if you want to continue on the gardener scott journey with more videos than subscribe and be sure to click on the bell so you know when the new videos are coming out every week if you like this video well give me a thumbs up and share it with others who might be interested i'm gardener scott enjoy gardening [Music]

Channel: Gardener Scott

Views: 25,577

Rating: 4.9864774 out of 5

Keywords: gardening tips for beginners, what gardeners should know, vegetable gardening for beginners, gardening information, garden climate, good gardening advice, garden advice, what to know about gardening, gardener scott, gardenerscott, basic gardening tips for beginners, tips every gardener should know, facts every gardener should know, gardening tips

Id: yvIpHqyvku8

Length: 18min 55sec (1135 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 31 2020