{"id":9889,"date":"2019-04-07T13:08:46","date_gmt":"2019-04-07T21:08:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernhowl\/?p=9889"},"modified":"2019-04-07T13:08:46","modified_gmt":"2019-04-07T21:08:46","slug":"six-quick-tips-for-beginning-gardeners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/six-quick-tips-for-beginning-gardeners\/","title":{"rendered":"Six quick tips for beginning gardeners"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/files\/2019\/04\/GardeningTips-1024x842.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"347\" height=\"285\" class=\" wp-image-9890 aligncenter\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/files\/2019\/04\/GardeningTips-1024x842.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/files\/2019\/04\/GardeningTips-300x247.jpg 300w, https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/files\/2019\/04\/GardeningTips-768x632.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 347px) 100vw, 347px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>Rebecca Meyers<\/strong> | Lifestyle Editor<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Confusing weather patterns, allergies acting up and restless seniors are pretty good indicators that spring has arrived at Western. With the sun finally making some appearances again, it\u2019s the time of year that plants begin to bloom. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Planting a garden, whether for purely aesthetic purposes, for growing fresh food or a little of both, is one of the many opportunities that comes along in springtime. Since everyone has to start somewhere, here\u2019s some tips for those just starting out with their own gardens. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Make sure you have everything necessary for maintaining a garden. Is there enough space for each plant? Are there steady sources of water and sunlight? <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Try starting small or easy. Some plants require more time and management to keep alive and healthy. According to <a href=\"http:\/\/finegardening.com\">finegardening.com<\/a>, some of the easiest plants to grow include snap peas, sunflowers, cucumbers and zinnias. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Include the timing in the overall planning. It might be nice to imagine the whole garden blooming at once, but some plants peak in spring and early summer, like blueberries, while others grow best in late summer and fall, like squash and pumpkins.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Start building the habit of taking care of the garden. Add watering, feeding and checking for weeds to your routine to avoid forgetting to take care of plants and risking their health.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Do some research to find out if it\u2019s a good idea to buy different soil or mulch for the garden. While not necessarily a requirement, they can make it easier to maintain the garden overall. Nutrient-rich soil can help plants stay healthy while mulch helps keep weeds away. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Be patient. Whether starting from seed or a small plant, produce plants often won\u2019t yield much in the first year. They will need time to grow and a committed gardener. Flowers can be nice because they give the satisfaction of the quick and near guaranteed payoff of blooming, which can be encouraging to beginning gardeners. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Contact the author at <a href=\"mailto:howllifestyle@wou.edu\">howllifestyle@wou.edu<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Photo courtesy of Ashlynn Norton<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rebecca Meyers | Lifestyle Editor Confusing weather patterns, allergies acting up and restless seniors are pretty good indicators that spring has arrived at Western. With the sun finally making some appearances again, it\u2019s the time of year that plants begin to bloom. Planting a garden, whether for purely aesthetic purposes, for growing fresh food or [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1094,"featured_media":9890,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"modified_by":"The Western Howl","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1094"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}