Maintaining a beautiful garden is a lot of hard work, but you can labor more efficiently—and put less strain on the purse strings—with these brilliant gardening tips.
Gardening tips you’ll wish you’d known sooner

Between the weeding, watering, pruning and pest control, maintaining a garden can eat up a lot of your time—and money. These gardening tips can help ensure you get the biggest return on your investment, so you can spend more of your summer actually enjoying that beautiful green retreat you’ve created in your own back yard.

Plant vegetables in clear sight

Plant vegetables and herbs near your back or front door. Since you’ll see them often, you’ll remember to keep them watered. And they’ll be nearby when you need dinner fixings.

Many plants need shelter from wind and animals. Take notice of who might be out to eat your garden before you do, and pinpoint your sunniest locations. A vegetable garden usually requires full sun (six to eight hours of direct light).

Find the right spot

If you have a flood of light coming in through south-facing windows, or an entryway with plenty of sun and room for both a path and plants, you’re in business. Setting up an indoor space with supplemental light is also an option. Rooftops, decks and bal­conies are great places for a vegetable garden, too. Use walls, fences and hanging gardens to optimize finite space. If your home has limited access to the outdoors, your best bet may be to find a community garden or share the yard of a neighbor.

Get watering right

Soil-level watering helps prevent disease and conserve water. A well-planned drip or soaker hose system with an irrig­ation timer takes the worry out of gardening and reduces your time commitment. There are simple setups that connect to a spigot and can be run along patios, and more elab­orate systems for larger gardens. Nanny pots are perfect for small containers that would otherwise be watered by hand. If you’re away for a long weekend or simply want to guarantee your plants are getting the water they need, fill a bottle with water, flip it over and push the open end into the soil. The soil will seal the opening, and water will flow from the bottle as the soil dries out.

Take cues from Mother Nature

In the wild, water runs downhill. So too should water in your garden. Make sure planters and garden beds have adequate drainage. Tend your soil, adding organic matter to make a healthy home for beneficial soil microbes and decomposers. And plant in polycultures—meaning, grow mul­tiple crops in the same place. Divers­ity will minimize problems with pests and attract pollinators to your garden.