Craft Gossip

The largest independent craft review site since 2007

Advice For Beginner Gardeners

by

There are few better hobbies than gardening. Gardening allows you to improve your living space, be outside enjoying the sunshine and fresh air without leaving your home, and it is an active and rewarding hobby. These are just a few of the main benefits of gardening as a hobby, but it is also something that can be challenging to get started with. Therefore, it is helpful to be aware of a few tips that will help you to get started with gardening and hopefully allow you to enjoy these many benefits. Keep reading to find out a few handy tips for beginner gardeners.

Create A Plan

Before you get started, it is important to get to know your garden and then plan how you want to use it. You need to know important factors like areas that get the most (and least) sun, what direction it faces, and the type of soil that you have, just as a few important factors. With this information, you can then create a floor plan for your garden and figure out what to plant and where and how to really make the most out of the space.

Learn How To Plant & Nurture Plantlife

Gardening is all about knowledge, so you need to make sure that you know how to plant and look after different types of plant life to make sure that they grow properly. Fortunately, the internet is a brilliant resource for gardeners as you can find out how to grow just about anything online with various different websites, blogs, and podcasts. Additionally, you might find it helpful to join online communities where you can get advice, ask questions and engage with other gardeners.

Protect Yourself

When you start spending a lot more time outside and in the sun, it is important that you protect yourself. Being outside is good for you in many ways, but there are dangers, so you should always wear sunscreen, try to avoid spending too long in the sun, and wear UV contact lenses. UV contact lenses will protect your eyes from harmful UV rays and prevent you from needing to wear glasses, which will often fall off when gardening.

Start Off Small

As with any home improvement project, people often get over excited and bite off more than they can chew when it comes to gardening. Instead, you need to start off small by simply working on one area at a time. This will make it much easier to manage, help you to stay organized, and gradually improve your garden. You also need to avoid overdoing it as gardening can be physically demanding and tiring, so taking regular breaks is important.

These tips should come in handy for anyone that is looking to start gardening as a hobby. Gardening can improve your home and your life in many ways, but it is also a hobby that can be tricky to get started with, and you will want to know these basic tips before you begin.

Read These Next

Have you read?

A Beautiful Way to Keep Your Head Warm

I haven’t knit a lot of hats, because I don’t wear hats that often, and because I don’t wear hats that often, the ones I have knit tend to be pretty basic and utilitarian. There’s nothing wrong with that, but there’s also nothing wrong with treating yourself to a lovely hat that takes a little more time to knit but will also be a joy to wear whenever you need to.

I think the Two Grey Hills hat from Tressa Weidenaar is an example of that second kind of hat. With its allover colorwork design and use of DK weight yarn, this is going to take you longer to knit than, say, a ribbed hat in bulky yarn. But you’ll also get that time to enjoy the process and reflect on the meaning behind the colorwork, which is inspired by Navajo weavings.

The pattern calls for two colors of DK yarn and is available in two sizes, adult medium and large. Two colors with a nice contrast will be helpful for seeing the design, which is somewhat intricate in places.

Despite that, this isn’t a difficult pattern if you’ve done stranded knitting before. You need to know how to cast on, knit, purl, work in the round, do colorwork from a chart and decrease stitches to make this hat.

Make this hat with a soft yarn and you’ll want to wear it all day, every day when the weather is cold. You can grab the pattern on Ravelry, and also check out the Rug Weaver’s Headband, which has a different look but is also inspired by Navajo weaving. The headband might be a better choice to knit if you don’t live somewhere where you need a winter hat that often.

Looking for more hats? Check out these hat knitting patterns that use worsted weight yarn leftovers.

[Photo: Tressa Weidenaar]