10 Simple Gardening Tricks to Save You Time and Effort

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Gardening is one of life’s simpler pleasures, but gardening can be as much work and time as you are willing to commit. The hours slip by between watering, weeding and keeping plants happy. However, what if you could capitalize on your garden time, but without dedicating a full time job to it? From the expert green thumb to the total beginner exploring green things for the first time — here are some clever tricks for keeping your garden happy and healthy, all without working up a sweat.

Making your garden work for you and not the other way around isn’t hard, with a little bit of planning and some handy shortcuts available. Are you ready to trim down the effort and still groom a flourishing yard? Let’s break into some easy gardening tips that should save you time, effort, and even a bit of a headache.

Use Mulch to Prevent Weeds

Brown Soil in Orange Plastic Bucket — Photo credit: Greta Hoffman/Pexels

Mulch isn’t just for keeping your flowerbeds nice— it’s also one of the best things to get rid of weeds! Laying down a lot of mulch around your plants will keep the sunlight from getting through to weeds. The more weeding means the less time for sipping lemonade on the porch.

Control your soil quality with Raised Beds

Green Plants on a Plant Box — Photo credit: Ian Probets/Pexels

Raised garden beds mean you can create better soil within your raised beds and plant healthier plants with less effort. Filling your plants with nutrient rich soil from the start is a good thing because it will set you up to succeed with much fewer headaches down the road.

Drip Irrigation System installation

Green Plant on Brown Soil — Photo credit: Chand sharma/Pexels

If you’d like to go hands off about the watering, then install a drip irrigation system. It gives water directly to the roots where it will do the most benefit, preventing overwatering, and simple hours of hoisting the garden hose. And it will save you hours with garden hose. It’s relatively simple to set up, and then it pretty much runs itself!

Join Plants with the same needs

Companion planting of purple zinnia with sun gold cherry tomatoes are a perfect combination. — Photo Credit: Shutterstock

It saves time and energy to group plants by what they need to grow — water, sun and soil. This way, when you water and tend to your garden, you’re not having to do each plant individually. In essence, it’s the plant version of setting up your own plant neighborhood watch!

Plant Drought-Resistant Varieties

Gardener’s best friends are drought resistant plants. Hardy plants that require less water of course are more likely to survive even in tough conditions. Succulents, lavender, and sage are just a few plants that are pretty low maintenance and will require no constant watering.

Use Save Coffee for Compost

Rather than tossing those coffee grounds in the trash, toss it into your compost pile. In fact, they’re full of nutrients your soil craves and that plants will love. And, using kitchen scraps for composting is less waste and a healthier garden — again, win-win!

Water in the Morning

a person watering plants with a watering can — Photo Credit: Karolina Kaboompics/Pexels

There’s no reason not to water your garden early in the morning, especially as it’ll save you time later down the line. Cooler temperatures make plants absorb water more efficiently and absorb less water too evaporate. What’s more, a morning routine strengthens and keeps them healthy, so they don’t have to be worked in and maintained later.

Let Nature Handle Pests

Close up of Hummingbird — Photo credit: MICHAEL MCGARRY/Pexels

Invite some natural helpers to take out some pests instead of your doing it by yourself. For example, aphids are a ladybug favorite, and some birds are definitely great for controlling caterpillars. Planting native flowers and avoiding harmful pesticides and these creatures might run away is you can discourage them.

Use Epsom Salt for Healthier Plants

Epsom salt won’t only do you a world of good by soaking your weary feet and body after a day in the garden. It’s also easy to take a pinch of some and sprinkle it around your plants, which can — when taken internally — provide a magnesium boost to your greenery and help make your leaves greener and your blooms more abundant. This is a good, easy, low expense trick to get the most use out of your garden without much effort.

Plant Perennials for Less Upkeep

Save yourself to the headache of redoing everything every spring time, Perennials come back year after year. After you’ve staked them out, annuals need less attention than you, with a thriving garden that’s pretty much on its own.

Disclaimer: This list is solely the author’s opinion based on research and publicly available information.