Safe and Effective Gardening Tips for Beginners

Gardening. Even saying the word out loud feels refreshing. Gardening can be a hobby, but avid gardeners would disagree. For them, gardening is almost part of their life.

Not everyone will understand the joy that comes out of gardening. Gardening is a cathartic experience that can be felt only by gardening lovers.

Gardening is a very easy hobby to start but a hard one to master. A person can start gardening in their backyard or even indoors.

Beginners should learn an enormous amount about gardening before starting. Gardening is easy to start, but if you have the basic knowledge about certain things, it will be better and easier.

I mean, it is never wrong to learn about something you want to do, right?

Learning how to garden is not enough. You also need to know about the potential dangers of gardening and how to protect yourself from them.

Some Rare Gardening Tips for New Gardeners

When it comes to tips, many will tell people about how to pick the right tools and how to choose the right plant for you and such things. We need to be a little different, so we will discuss some rare tips that many will not tell you.

You can get these tips only from your grandpa and grandma.

Beer

No, don’t drink it.

While the thought of drinking beer while gardening is tempting, it is not for that.

You can use beer in gardens for so much more. If you know about the good things beer can do, you will love it more.

Now, think about it, what is a constant problem that almost all gardeners deal with?

Yes, slugs and snails.

It is really irritating to see that slugs and snails are eating up all your hard work.

I mean, you water these plants, and you grow them as one of your own, and snails eat the leaves and fruits and flowers. No one can tolerate that. Beer is the solution to that problem.

Fill an empty tin with beer and leave it near your garden. Snails and slugs will be attracted to the smell of beer and will drown themselves in the jar.

The perfect trap.

One more thing a beer can do is attract pollinators such as bees and butterflies.

You know how good bees and butterflies are for plants, right?

You can attract them with beer with the same procedure. All you have to do is fill a tin with beer and keep it in your garden and wait. You can get two good things done with this one simple trick.

Coffee

Again, not for drinking.

Coffee grounds can be used in multiple ways in a garden. If you have a garden, you will have a compost bin.

You know there should be a proper mix of brown compost and green compost. Using a 4:1 ratio of brown compost and green compost is the best way. Four parts of brown compost and one part of green compost is the way to go.

Now a question has to be asked. Is coffee brown compost or green compost? Definitely brown because of the color, right?

Nope. Coffee is a green compost since it is rich in nitrogen. So, basically, things that contain nitrogen, potassium, calcium, and magnesium are classified as green compost. So, you can use coffee as compost, but with brown compost.

The next thing you can do with coffee grounds is use them as fertilizers. Just sprinkle used coffee grounds on the ground directly.

Banana Peel

Please do not think I am just listing my favorite food items and beverages. I swear these are useful stuff.

The first thing you can do with banana peels is make tea. Yes, you can make tea with banana peels.

Just add banana peels to boiled water and keep it away for some days. After a week or so, pour this tea on your plants and give them a mineral boost.

Next up, obvious use of banana peels–use them as compost. Like coffee, banana peels are also green compost.

You can use banana peels as mulch. Mulch improves the quality and health of the soil. You can just cut the banana peels into smaller pieces and keep them directly in the soil.

Dangers in Gardening

Beginners will be so excited to start gardening that they will forget about the potential dangers of gardening. Everyone must be aware of these dangers and must protect themselves against them cause some of them can cause serious damage.

Clostridium Tetani

No, not a Harry Potter spell. It is a bacteria that causes Tetanus. This bacteria lives in the soil and can get to you through open wounds. If you are a person who deals with thorny plants, you can be in danger of this disease.

Thorny plants can cause open wounds through which the bacteria can get in and cause Tetanus. Tetanus is a very serious disease that can cause muscle spasms and even death in serious cases. You can protect yourself by wearing thick gloves.

Ticks

Borrelia burgdorferi is a bacteria that can cause Lyme disease. This bacteria will infect ticks, which can attach to humans and cause Lyme disease in them. Lyme disease can cause rashes and flu-like symptoms. This is not as deadly as Tetanus, but we still should be careful.

To protect yourself, check yourself before coming back home. Clearly verify yourself for ticks, then go home. Cover yourself completely.

Chemicals

It’s not a secret that a gardener uses a lot of chemicals. Just for pesticides, you can use a lot of different chemicals, which can be harmful to you.

The problem is some are not aware of these dangers. For example, take Vermiculite, which is used in soil to improve aeration and moisture retention. It contains asbestos.

We know what asbestos exposure can do. Yes, it causes mesothelioma, a type of cancer. There is no cure for this disease. You can improve life expectancy, but your health will get worse as you progress through the mesothelioma stages.

Whenever you are in the garden, wear masks and gloves. Never make direct contact with any chemicals.

Final Thoughts

Gardening is soothing and a great experience, which everyone should feel at least once in their life. However, you need to learn the essential things about gardening. As you read, it can be dangerous sometimes, so be careful with gardening. Regardless of the dangers, once you get the hang of it, I am sure you will never leave it. Happy gardening!