We’re happy to announce gardening is not like fashion – you don’t have to sacrifice functionality for beauty. In the garden, we’re doing both, with the help of SJ Mag resident gardener, Toni Farmer.
Over the past five seasons of “The Goal is to Become a Gardener,” Toni has shown SJ Mag’s Marianne Aleardi plenty of ways to spruce up the garden while staying sustainable and practical. So we gathered some of our favorites.
Raised Beds
“The Goal is to Become a Gardener”
Season 1, Ep 2
There are a million reasons to build raised beds in your garden. But we’re not going to list them all here, we’re not that extra. So here are our top three.
One: they’re gorgeous.
Seriously, go watch us tour Toni’s garden (Season 2, Ep. 3), and try to tell us those black raised beds aren’t masterpieces. Raised beds are an easy way to elevate your garden aesthetic and add a little of your own creativity to the space.
Two: they’ll help your back.
No one wants to be on their knees, bent over, picking tomatoes all summer long. Let’s bring the produce to us – at least a little – by lifting the garden off the ground. You can choose your own height, too, whether you just want a few inches tall or all the way up to hip height.
Three: they help your soil.
Soil health is so important, we know this. (If you didn’t know this, we recommend brushing up on our soil health episode – there are worms!) So why not protect your soil from the elements, aka that harsh native South Jersey soil, in a pretty package: your raised beds.
Soaker hose
“The Goal is to Become a Gardener”
Season 1, Ep 2
As temperatures rise, giving our plants enough water is becoming the most important part of the gardening season. And we can’t be alone (can we?) in saying it’s our least favorite part of the garden.
No one wants to stand over the garden for an hour holding a hose – we’ve got things to do! So Toni shared a genius hack in season 2 of The Goal is to Become a Gardener: a soaker hose. Installing a soaker hose – a long hose with holes throughout the tube – under your soil ensures your soil will get a continuous stream of water that will keep your plants hydrated, keep you well-rested and keep your garden free from any not-so-beautiful above-ground sprinkler systems.
Plus, while you can buy a soaker hose, you can also DIY one by poking holes in an old hose.
Pole Lights
“The Goal is to Become a Gardener”
Season 4, Ep 2
Whether you’re hosting a garden dinner party or having a quiet night reading in the garden, bistro lights are the perfect finishing touch to give your yard a twinkle of ambiance. Except, we live on the East Coast, and weather isn’t always sunny and bright, and that can put those lights at risk.
No need to worry, though, with Toni’s pole light hack, you can have temporary bistro lights that are easy to install and remove whenever you want. All you need is PVC pipe, quick-setting cement, a hook and your lights. Dig a hole and fill it with cement around a small piece of PVC pipe to create an easy holder for your decorative poles – that you can also easily remove – to hang your lights on around the yard.
Want a tutorial? Check out “An Instagram-worthy Backyard” on SJ Mag’s Facebook page.
Bamboo Trellis
“The Goal is to Become a Gardener”
Season 6, Ep 1
Peas + the ground = unhappy gardeners. The same goes for tomatoes, raspberries, beans, squash and certain other crops. So we build trellises to keep these foods away from the soil.
While there are lots of options for your trellis, like DIY string tied to a wall or wire tomato cages you can buy at the gardening center, this is another opportunity to add some dynamic, eye-catching features to your space.
Enter the bamboo trellis.
In the latest episode of “The Goal is to Become a Gardener,” Toni shows off her DIY bamboo trellis, which can be built to a variety of sizes and only takes a few tools to complete. The biggest of which, the bamboo, can be free because it’s an invasive species in South Jersey. So not only are we installing a cool and useful feature to our garden, we’re helping control the population of bamboo in our area. Just make sure you ask the property owner for permission before you harvest any bamboo you found.
Season 6 of “The Goal is to Become a Gardener” has begun! Check out all 5 seasons, plus the newest episodes, on SJ Mag’s Facebook page.
