Organize Your Brown Thumb into a Green One

Organize Your Brown Thumb into a Green One

By Professional Organizer Lea Schneider, CEO of OrganizeRightNow.com

If you’ve ever felt that your plants die, while the neighbor’s look glorious, then this article is meant for you. That seriously brown thumb you’ve got can easily be organized into a green one.

As a former gardening professional, I know that one of the best ways to begin gardening is with porch pots- or container gardening. With a container, you control the situation from the get-go. You don’t have to “fix” the soil, worry about weeds and guess at watering.

Believe it or not, this all has to do with being organized. Gardening has some exact steps to follow that make you successful. Think of it as a checklist to a green thumb.

Choose Your Location

Where will you set those pots? That is the single most important thing to know. Some plants like hot sun. Others like shade. You need to know exactly where your pot will sit to choose the right plants. Look at that area a couple of times on a sunny day. Is it sunny in the morning but then goes shady? Is it sunny all day? Is it sunny only in the afternoon? Or perhaps, it is under a porch and in the deep shade all the time? You need to know this before you head to the nursery.

Choose Your Container

Most of the time, when people don’t have success growing things in pots, they have chosen a small pot. A small pot won’t hold enough moisture and the plant will dry out quickly. It also won’t allow enough room for roots to grow. Choose a pot that is at least 14-inches in diameter or larger. It can be made of light weight foam, clay or pottery as long as it has a drain hole. If you buy the foam kind, you can easily make your own drain hole with a drill or hammer and nail. Make your drain hole at least 1-inch across- or make several smaller ones.

Get Quality Soil

A good bag of potting soil costs a bit more but is well worth it. You are paying for the nutrition. If you buy cheap soil, use top soil, use old soil from last year or dirt from the yard, you deserve the brown thumb you will get. Either buy homemade potting soil from a local nursery or buy a bag of brand-name soil. (The voice of experience is telling you cheap dirt doesn’t work!) If your pots are going to be in the afternoon sun or all day sun, then buy a bag of potting soil that says “moisture control” because it will help hold water on the roots.

Close the Gap

Place a piece of broken pottery, crushed aluminum cans or Styrofoam pieces in the bottom of your pot. The water can still drain out but it helps keep the soil from draining out. Top with your bag of potting soil- but just fill it up to about 6-8 inches from the top so you have room to set in your plants.

Add Plants

At a local nursery, you’ll find lots of advice on which plants to choose. If you shop at a big-box store, it is harder to find help so be sure to read the tags. Here are some basic guidelines:

• All day shade: Buy plants marked shade or low light
• Morning sun but afternoon shade: Buy plants that say shade or partial sun.
• Afternoon sun or all-day sun: Buy plants that say sun or hot-sun.

Place plants in the pot, add soil between gaps. Only fill up your pot to about two-inches from the edge. You don’t want the soil to wash over the sides when you water. Only lightly push the soil around the plants. Don’t pack it down hard. Plants need air too.

Water and Feed

Add some time-release fertilizer. I am a big fan of Osmocote, because I add it when I plant, according to package directions, and then just once again in the middle of the summer. Help remember by writing a note on your calendar.

Water well. I recommend you water, wait a few minutes and water again so that you know the water has washed all the way through the pot. As summer progresses, be sure to water the soil- not the blooms. A water-breaker on the end of the hose will help disperse the water so you don’t wash it off the roots or “dig” a hole with the running water. Stick your hose into the pot and hit the dirt. If you water the blooms, you’ll knock off your pretty flowers. Try to have a routine for watering. The hotter or windier it gets, the more water they need. Usually, you will move from watering two to three times a week to daily in the heat of the summer. Find a routine such as each day when you come in from work or in the morning when you put on your coffee.

Enjoy

Other than watering, you’ve not much too do but enjoy. Do deadhead when you water. Deadhead means to pick off the dead blooms. First of all, they look ugly, but removing them encourages your plant to make more blooms. Don’t be afraid to cut things back. If in the later summer, the plants look heavy and are dragging downward and blooming less, they are just two heavy. Get some scissors and cut each plant back half way. Water well and in 10-days to 2-weeks, they will be beautiful again.

Happy Organized Gardening!