Diana Menzel is an avid gardener, enjoying nothing more than spending a peaceful afternoon caring for and tending to the vegetation she has spent so much time carefully planting and cultivating throughout the growing season. Below, she seeks to provide several helpful tips to those seeking to get the most from their initial foray into the gardening experience.

Choose Your Focus
It’s important, at the outset, to select the type of garden you want to create. Vegetable gardens, flower gardens and herb gardens can all provide the aspiring green thumb an incredible opportunity to create something special, as Diana Menzel knows, but it often helps to have a set idea in mind so as to avoid making care for your new plot too complex an undertaking, which may only serve to fail or dissuade you from gardening in the future.

Choose Your Spot
The spot you choose to begin your garden depends on what you’ve chosen as your focus. Certain types of plants require different amounts of sun and exposure, as Diana Menzel knows, making it important to know which areas of your yard will serve your plants most effectively. It also helps to select a space where your garden won’t be ignored in the future, such as near your mailbox, just outside the back door or near a window.

Clear the Area
It’s essential to remove any sod or intrusive vegetation that may impede your ability to successfully cultivate what you want to grow. Be sure, says Diana Menzel, to remove any sod away from the area you’ve chosen to grow, and spread a fair amount of compost across the area several months beforehand in order to ensure a more effective gardening foundation.

Soil Improvement
Do your best to boost the soil’s potential with organic matter, which can work its way into the soil and provide the nutrients and growing power you’ll need to become a successful grower. Such items as dry grass clippings, compost, decayed leaves, old manure and more, says Diana Menzel, are all effective organic materials that can have an enormous impact on the growth potential of your plot.