Create a Holistic Garden Plus 16 Gardening Tips

In addition to technological, medical, and psychological advances in research, there has been a resurgence in natural therapies and treatments.  Treating the body and mind holistically provides a connectedness with the self, but a major component for many in healing is a connectedness with the environment and creating an environment that facilitates the healing process.  Gardening is one way of connecting the mind and body to the environment and the spirit, and including the five senses into the garden provides a bridge for these connections.

A multisensory garden incorporates sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch.  Sight is the most obvious sensory experience of a garden, but there are many other senses engaged in the experience of a garden.  Enriching a garden to engage each sense removes sterility in life and creates a connection between the brain and the body.

This Instructable describes ways of incorporating the senses into the garden for a holistic experience that goes beyond landscape design.  This Instructable does not presume to show how the garden should be used for specific psychological or spiritual healing.  The gardener should tailor the garden to meet individual and personal needs and create a conscientious space filled with meaning and life experience.

This Instructable also includes a few tips and tricks to make gardening easier.  While the labor of gardening certainly adds to the experience of a garden and is frequently gratifying, gardening is not always easy.  It can be tiring, painful, and difficult, but there are places to make the work easier.  When you can catch a few breaks and work smarter, not harder, you have more time to spend enjoying what you've created.  Hopefully, there's at least one tip that you didn't know already.

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Outline:

Multisensory, Holistic Gardening (Steps 1-6)

Sight
Sound
Smell
Taste
Touch
Remember Wildlife in the Garden

Gardening Tips and Tricks (Steps 7-22)

Tip 1:  Overwinter in Jars
Tip 2:  Paint Garden Tools
Tip 3:  Take Cuttings for Overwintering
Tip 4:  Prevent Plant Tag Fading
Tip 5:  Stake Graptopetalum and Other Succulents
Tip 6:  Clean Tools with Sand and Oil
Tip 7:  Mulch Potted Plants
Tip 8:  Make Custom Tree Hangers
Tip 9:  Create a Landscaping Cheat Sheet
Tip 10:  Share Cuttings with Neighbors, Friends, and Family
Tip 11:  Plant after Putting down Weed Barrier and Mulching
Tip 12:  Increase Drainage if Water Is Love
Tip 13:  Create a Hose Guide with Rebar and Wine Bottles
Tip 14:  Prevent Potting Soil from Falling Out
Tip 15:  Scorch Weeds
Tip 16:  Fertilize in a Tub

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Step 1: Sight

As sight is the most obvious sensory experience of a garden, it is an appropriate beginning.  Sights within a garden range from plants to ornamentation to architectural structure, and each component should be considered for the overall visual experience.

Plants:
With varied plants, there are varied sights.  Plants can be green, blue, red, white, purple, etc.  They can be small or large.  They can be deciduous or evergreen.  Consider what you will see through each season of the year when selecting plants.  Bulbs might be great for spring through fall, but a yaupon with berries won't disappoint during the winter months.  Additionally consider foliage in addition to the blooms and vice versa.  There are many colorful leaves that can be enjoyed throughout the year, and there are a great many varieties of blooms, berries, and seeds that are beautiful in each stage.  The seeds of a canna are just as intriguing as the blooms.  Select colors that are special to you.

Ornamentation:
Ranging from the fantastic to the understated, garden ornaments add focus, personality, and charm.  You can select gazing balls, beautiful boulders, pots, and even the much maligned garden gnome.  This is the easiest place to add instant personalization to a garden and provide reminders of the healing process.  You can add signs with special meanings or reminders of positive experiences.  You can keep it serene and minimalist to eliminate distractions and provide a space for meditation and personal reflection.

Architectural Structure:
You can build a retaining wall out of stone or metal.  Your pathways can be hardwood mulch or flagstone.  You can fence with split rails or glass bottles.  These largely functional structures still add to the visual impact of a garden and will last for months or centuries with proper maintenance.  Make conscientious choices when selecting materials and placement, and imagine their functionality and aesthetic for garden experiences.

Step 2: Sound

Sound in a garden can be the traffic of a busy intersection near your home, but it's potentially preferable to have the crunching of gravel as you walk along a path or the melody of a wind chime as auditory fodder.  There are a variety of sounds to experience within a garden.  Some of these sounds include: the rustling of leaves and blades of ornamental grass, a fountain or stream, or acorns tapping the ground on their descent from a tall oak tree.

Note on Wind Chimes:
For those of you who may be turned off wind chimes because of past experiences, try some of the more expensive varieties if your budget allows.  My favorite manufacturer of wind chimes is a local company called Music of the Spheres, and they offer a large variety of chimes with a large variety of sounds.  I am not paid to talk about them or anything, but I was a nonbeliever in chimes until I heard these.  There are other excellent manufacturers as well.  This just happens to be one I'm familiar with.  I have mine outside my bedroom window where I can hear it as I go to sleep and listen to it when I'm wandering the yard.

Step 3: Smell

Fragrance is too often overlooked in favor of larger, brighter, longer-lasting blooms which is why so many flowers at florist shops smell like nothing, and scent is often forgotten entirely when selecting plants generally.  Sweetly scented roses and lavender are sensory explosions, but beyond blooms, there are also sweetly scented leaves such as artemisia and canyon daisy.  Brushing by either will release a gorgeous perfume into the air, and for those with a deer problem, they are deer resistant as well.

Step 4: Taste

In order to graze as you gaze, you have to include a few edibles.  Herbs are by far the easiest to incorporate into a garden, and some very attractive ones include rosemary, purple sage, and chocolate mint.  For some non-herb edibles, there are pansies, nasturtium, rainbow chard, dinosaur kale, variegated satsuma, blackberry bushes, and dandelions.  Even weeds can add sensory delight in a garden.  Packing edibles among ornamentals is more engaging than ornamentals or edibles alone unless you have a panache for beautiful French kitchen gardens.

Step 5: Touch

Tactile sensations run the gamut in a garden.  There's the wind and sun against your face.  There's the transition from flagstone to soft grass.  There's the velvety softness of lamb's ear and the cat's-tongue roughness of a lantana leaf.  Contrast heightens the sense of touch and brings it into consciousness.  Consider what you will feel sensually within the garden and what your plants and materials feel like.

Step 6: Remember Wildlife in the Garden

To cover many sensory experiences in a garden, consider the impact your garden has on wildlife and encourage a variety of wildlife to be a part of the experience.  Buzzing, darting, pollinating, twittering, crawling.  If insects like bees are attracted, then you probably have some sweetly scented plants with bright blooms, and because of global declines in bee populations, it's probably a good idea for the planet to encourage as many of them to feast on your plants.  You will see them, hear them, smell what they smell, touch what they touch, and eat what they pollinate.  If you get the bees, you will probably get a large variety of other insects such as dragonflies, butterflies, moths, wasps, and ladybugs.  Not all of them will exactly be great news, but it means your garden is doing well.  In defense of wasps, I should mention that they are great pollinators and help control pesky bug populations that might be destroying your plants.  You might want to discourage them from nesting near your front door, but don't flatter yourself too much - they really aren't that interested in you.  And of course, there are always birds which are easy to coax into the garden with some seed and fresh water.

Step 7: Gardening Tip 1 Out of 16

Gardening Tip 1: Overwinter in Jars

When it comes to overwintering, one of the trickiest things is water and humidity.  For small plants, you can easily place them in jars, terrariums, or fish tanks to keep humidity high and the plants thriving. 

1. Water the plants well. 
2. Allow the pot to dry slightly. 
3. Place the potted plant on a bed of horticultural charcoal. 
4. Cover.
5. Place jar/terrarium/tank in a bright window.

You will need to check on the plant periodically, but it should do better in a higher humidity environment protected from heat and drafts.  This works especially well for small succulents that should not be watered during the winter or should be watered very infrequently.  The Haworthia in the images has been in its jar for a year.  Although it has not grown much, it also hasn't required more than 4 waterings during that time.

Step 8: Gardening Tip 2 Out of 16

Gardening Tip 2: Paint Garden Tools

Hand tools are incredibly easy to lose, especially if you're as absent-minded as I am.  Paint them a bright color that stands out in the landscape.  White, metallics, and red are unusual colors in a landscape and stand out easily against greens and browns.

1. Clean the tools well.
2. Sand very lightly to remove rust and debris.
3. Wipe down.
4. Apply several coats of spray paint.

Painting the tools also helps to preserve them and keep them in your gardening arsenal longer.

Step 9: Gardening Tip 3 Out of 16

Gardening Tip 3: Take Cuttings for Overwintering

Coleus is an immensely popular annual, but you're never guaranteed the possibility of finding the exact same one next year.  Each variety comes and goes with the gardening fashion and trends, and if you really enjoy a variety, your only sure way of ensuring you keep it is to overwinter the plant.  Rather than overwintering entire plants, consider overwintering cuttings which are much easier to recover from a planting bed and require far less room.

1. Cut a fresh, healthy, succulent portion of the stem.
2. Remove lower leaves only leaving a few on top.
3. Place the stems into fertile, fast draining soil so that the upper leaves are just above the soil line.
4. Water.
5. Tent if humidity is low.

You will have to maintain the cuttings just as you would a houseplant.  When nightly lows are comfortably in the 40s, you can start acclimating them to the outdoors.

While I'm using coleus for this example, you can do this for a large variety of plants.

Step 10: Gardening Tip 4 Out of 16

Gardening Tip 4: Prevent Plant Tag Fading

It's near impossible to keep a plant tag looking nice, but I got a great tip at a nursery once for keeping plant tags readable for a good long time.

1. Clean off the tag.
2. Write the label with permanent marker.
3. Do a quick coat of clear spray paint.
4. Apply a couple more coats after the first quick coat has dried.

If you try to apply all the coats at once or a heavy coat in the beginning, the marker will run, and you will have to start again.

Step 11: Gardening Tip 5 Out of 16

Gardening Tip 5: Stake Graptopetalum and Other Succulents

Graptopetalum is one of the EASIEST succulents to propagate.  All you need is a good, healthy leaf.  However, leaves tend to migrate in a pot, so consider fencing your leaves with a few toothpicks.

1. Place the leaf where you would like it to grow in the pot.
2. Stick a few toothpicks around the leaf.

When the new plant starts to grow, remove the toothpicks and throw them in the compost pile!

Step 12: Gardening Tip 6 Out of 16

Gardening Tip 6: Clean Tools with Sand and Oil

Gardening tools, especially pruners, become horribly rusty very quickly with only a little bit of neglect, but there is an easy way to remove rust and prevent it in the future.

1. Fill a container with sand.
2. Add a bit of oil (e.g., mineral oil).
3. Mix.
4. Stab tools into the sand/oil mixture.
5. Wipe away sand and residue.

It might be best to keep the sand/oil mixture in a container with a lid just in case it tips over.  One of the large buckets with lids sold at Home Depot or Lowe's work wonderfully and are sturdy enough for a job like this.

Step 13: Gardening Tip 7 Out of 16

Gardening Tip 7: Mulch Potted Plants

Mulch does a lot of things.  It helps retain moisture and prevent evaporation.  It helps to keep soil in place.  It prevents soil from splashing onto plant leaves during a heavy rainfall.  It just plain looks good.  For all the reasons you mulch a garden bed, you should also mulch your potted plants.  You can use glass pebbles, stones, hardwood mulch, seashells, wine corks, beads, and just about anything that will stay relatively in place and won't hurt your plant.

Step 14: Gardening Tip 8 Out of 16

Gardening Tip 8: Make Custom Tree Hangers

Tree branches range all over the place.  They can be close to the ground or really, really high in the air which makes premade hangers a bit tricky to use.  When I was visiting Zilker Botanical Garden in Austin, I finally looked to see how their staghorn ferns were hanging under a gorgeous oak tree, and wow, their hangers were ingenious.  They protected the tree, could be used on low or high branches, allowed for branch growth, and kept the baskets at a waterable height.

1. Remove the valve section of a bicycle inner tube.
2. Roll a bicycle inner tube back onto itself.
3. Cut both ends to a reasonable length removing the middle portion of the tube to allow water to escape.
4. Run a length of chain through the tube and attach a carabiner.
5. Place the inner tube portion over a branch and clip the carabiner to the hanging portion of the chain.
6. Hang a potted plant at the desired height from the ground.
7. Cut excess chain.

I bought a pail of chain and did not cut the chain until I had the height right.  I kept the chain a bit on the long side because you can hide the excess in the pot but can't make a pot go lower.  I also considered how easily I could water each pot because watering is a daily thing during the summer when it comes to these.  Some of the hangers are made from inner tubes, and others are made from an old garden hose which makes use of materials that are difficult to recycle.

Step 15: Gardening Tip 9 Out of 16

Gardening Tip 9: Create a Landscaping Cheat Sheet

It's always a nightmare to go inside the house after a tiring day of working in the garden only to discover the phone is out and suddenly remember that where you were digging was right near the phone line. I'm just saying theoretically of course because it's obviously never happened to me...  So I created my very own Landscaping Cheat Sheet so I'll always know approximately where the utility lines are and whom to call should anything go wrong.  Just print it out, fill out the details, and mark the utility lines on your property.

Step 16: Gardening Tip 10 Out of 16

Gardening Tip 10: Share Cuttings with Neighbors, Friends, and Family

It pays to be generous even if the generosity comes with a motive.  For one reason or another, no judgment, plants don't always make it through the winter, which is why it's best to hedge bets on plants potentially making it through the winter at the homes of other people.  During the fall, when temperatures are still warm enough, share cuttings of plants with neighbors, friends, and family.  This will give the plants enough time to root and get comfy without the strain of summer or the agony of the great indoors.  If your plant doesn't make it, perhaps you can get a cutting of the plant in the spring. 

Step 17: Gardening Tip 11 Out of 16

Gardening Tip 11: Plant after Putting Down Weed Barrier and Mulching

I have tried several different tactics when it comes to weed barrier and planting and have finally decided that it's best to put down the barrier and the mulch before the plants with the exception of large plants such as trees and shrubs.

1. Put down weed barrier and mulch.
2. Place plants where you would like them.
3. Scoop away mulch from the planting spot.
4. Cut an X into the barrier.
5. Shovel dirt into a wheelbarrow or bucket.
6. Plant.
7. Add appropriate amount of dirt back into the hole.
8. Smooth barrier around the plant.
9. Return mulch.
10. Water.

It seems like a lot of steps, but it is very difficult, not to mention back-breaking and time-consuming, to plant and THEN add weed barrier and mulch.  When planting, factor in settling and the depth of the mulch.  It's better to plant a bit too high than a bit too low.

Step 18: Gardening Tip 12 Out of 16

Gardening Tip 12: Increase Drainage if Water Is Love

If you're the type of person who believes water is love and just can't understand why all of your plants don't appreciate your love, then you might want to add some extra drainage to your pots.  You can add perlite, vermiculite, sand, rocks, grit, etc. and use unglazed terracotta pots.  The goal is to allow the soil to drain away some of the excess lovin' that your plants might not enjoy so very much.  If you can't change your gardening behavior, you can at least tailor the soil.

Step 19: Gardening Tip 13 Out of 16

Gardening Tip 13: Create a Hose Guide with Rebar and Wine Bottles

Running over plants with a heavy, water-filled hose is not what plants like best.  What plants like best is a hose guide, and there are a huge variety of them.  One very simple and inexpensive one is a wine bottle.

1. Plot where your hose needs to travel to reach all your plants.
2. Pound a piece of rebar into the ground with a rubber mallet at each change of direction.
3. Place a wine bottle over the rebar.

You can use 1-2' long pieces of rebar which are very inexpensive especially compared to fancy clay sculptures.  It will also last longer than the clay guides as well.

Step 20: Gardening Tip 14 Out of 16

Gardening Tip 14: Prevent Potting Soil from Falling Out

Martha Stewart is keen on shards of pottery for preventing soil from draining out the holes at the bottom of a pot, but I'm not.  I like the water to drain as quickly as possible and the soil to stay in the pot as much as possible which is why I use a piece of metal cage wire and a bit of gravel.

1. Cut a piece of metal cage wire to fit in the bottom of your pot.
2. Hold in place with a finger.
3. Add gravel to just cover the hole or the bottom of the pot.

This works wonderfully especially for succulents.  It's a good thing.

Step 21: Gardening Tip 15 Out of 16

Gardening Tip 15: Scorch Weeds

Some weeds are just about impossible to dislodge especially if they've found their way into small cracks in the pavement.  You can certainly use herbicides like horticultural grade vinegar or small prying tools like a screwdriver, or you can go for a high-propane approach and scorch them to death!  It's immensely gratifying and very, very easy.

1. Attach a propane torch to a tank of propane.
2. Ignite the propane.
3. Adjust flows.
4. Burn weeds until black.

Naturally, you should keep a hose nearby, and you shouldn't do this on windy days where debris can fly and the fire can spread.  I got my propane torch at Harbor Freight for about $25.

Step 22: Gardening Tip 16 Out of 16

Gardening Tip 16: Fertilize in a Tub

Many potted plants and hanging baskets are in near constant need of fertilizer, and fertilizing them can be tricky.  The fertilizer and water can run out.  The plant might get too much or too little.  It's hard to know what to do with left over fertilizing solutions.  Stuff.  However, a tub makes the process much simpler.

1. Fill a tub with a diluted solution of fertilizer and water.
2. Place the plant in the tub to absorb the solution for a few minutes.
3. Remove plant and place near a landscape plant that also needs fertilizer.
4. Return plant to its spot.
5. Fertilize remaining landscape plants with the remaining solution.

Using a diluted solution allows the mixture to not burn roots and to be used on a large variety of plants, and soaking the plant ensures the fertilizer reaches all the roots.  Fertilizing near landscape plants that also need fertilizer prevents the solution from being wasted or reaching waterways.  You may have to repeat this process more frequently for heavier feeding plants.

Step 23: More Gardening Tips and Ideas

For more gardening tips and ideas, please see my other Instructables:

Confessions of a Serial Plant Collector

Make Your Own Pot Lifter

Remove Cactus Thorns with Ease

Coastal Floral Arrangement with Succulents

Turn Your Front Yard into a Garden

Grow Onions from Discarded Onion Bottoms

Garden in the Hell Strip

Grow a Lawn of Truncata for the Holidays (and the Rest of the Year)

Comments

[valerie.dubord.3]

Great projects for spring. I collect seeds in the fall. This year I will add Mullein to my garden, burdock, chicory, and other medicinal herbs. I harvested Calendula petals and just finished a batch of lotion. Very easy to do. Looking forward to herbal crafting, making tinctures, and infusions.

Thank you Angry Redhead, feeling inspired!

[alexward]

As soon as my small garden got some sunny look I will post a photo.
home repair Raleigh

[padawanspider]

Very helpful instructable - good tips on actually *planning* a garden! This will come in quite handy if we manage to finally close on the house we are trying to purchase... almost two acres to learn the art of gardening :D Thanks for the great tips!

[MissDaisy]

Hi, I've just discovered you :) I am sooooo following you... hehehe.

Actually, I'm new to the site and I'm so glad I found it.

Like you, I'm an avid gardener... and go to extremes. Unfortunately, where most of my gardening is done is in a zone 3. So cutting back is currently in the process. Snow is upon us :((((

Love your tips. And was glad to see the "torching of the weeds". We just bought one a month ago. Used it a couple of times but it was scary since the weeds/grass was burning. But from your pic., I see it's OK :)

Thank you for the great tips, and especially the one about painting your tools. Lost a number of them myself. I'm so painting this weekend :)

[sam.dating360]

Martha lives in Connecticut. Not zone 8: Texas or central Florida.

[sam.dating360]

Except for tomatoes. Bury them deep.

[sam.dating360]

In the old days, used motor oil from lawn mowers or cars or farm equipment was suggested for the sand/ tool bucket. I never did it personally, but I read it in tips sheets. A lid makes great sense.

[tinker234]

could grow it in florida right

[panascakes]

Mulching pots? Genius!

[AngryRedhead]

Thanks!

[Creativeman]

Hey Angry: thanks for posting all this information...as a semi-avid gardener myself, I use information like this all the time...unfortunately, have forgotten some of it over time, so thanks for the update. You have done a great service here, keep it coming.

[AngryRedhead]

Thanks!  I wasn't sure how this would be received by gardeners since I've heard several complaints about gardening tutorials in the gardening blogosphere, so I'm a bit relieved to read your comment.

[belsey]

This instructable made me really, really sad... I don't have a garden, and no prospect of ever having one, but I am an avid would-be gardener and read through the whole instructable. Did you know Thomas Jefferson followed your "share the cuttings" tip? Apparently he had a neighbor who was much more skilled at keeping plants alive, so Jefferson's generosity paid good dividends... Really good pictures and writing! Very well done!

[AngryRedhead]

Oh noes!  I'm sorry for making you sad, but there are ways to garden without a single family home.  There are cooperative gardens where you can get your own plot.  There are balcony gardens.  There are indoor gardens.  Several people at the garden club I'm a member of live in apartments and garden inside their homes or on their balconies.  One person I know works in a nursery and is surrounded by plants all day and then volunteers to help maintain the fern beds at the local botanical garden.  I know it's not the same, but there are ways of getting your gardening fix.  Would it be helpful if I did an Instructable on indoor gardening and creating a garden in the home?  It would give me an excuse to buy a few plants I've been wanting for a while now.  ; )

And no, I had no idea Thomas Jefferson did that!  What a neat bit of trivia!  It makes me feel all patriotic and colonial.

Thanks for the compliments and the comment!  Much appreciated!

[belsey]

After reading this instructable I can only encourage you to write more.... especially if it will give you the excuse you need to get more plants! I don't have a balcony (just a fire escape, and it's illegal to put anything there) but I do have an interior garden of sorts. Still, it's not the same as going outside and digging on your hands and knees, and smelling the earth after a rain shower.... Eating blackberries still warm from the sun...

[AngryRedhead]

Ohhhh, I see an orchid, cyclamen, citrus, pothos, and maybe an aloe and a caudiciform? Very lovely selection!

[belsey]

No, it's not an orchid, it's a bizarre brazilian iris which blooms about three or four times a year. This amazingly fragrant and beautiful flower lasts only 12 hours... Someone in my neighborhood had made cuttings and left them on the sidewalk for people to adopt with a note about their origin, we took one (it's turned into 4 or 5) and they seem to enjoy my windowsill. Here's a better picture

[AngryRedhead]

What a cool plant! Reading up on it, I can see how you were able to find it for free and have 4-5 already. Heavy producer of new plants!

[Ninzerbean]

Fabulous!

[AngryRedhead]

Awww, thanks, N!