Learning To Garden...

May I suggest you take a look at the Better Homes and Garden website? They have tons of information, all zone specific... Also, buy the best implements you can afford and take care of them. It's really aggravating to work with cheap tools.

We garden and the thing to do is plan your patch,dig it ,weed it and see what your soil is like to see if you need compost. make your veg rows six inches apart ,put a string out on a stick and get a straight line plant your seeds and plants six inches apart in a straight line or according to the packet instructions,put tin foil twisted in the string or something that will keep the birds off otherwise they will eat your seeds or nibble your new plants,keep watered but not drowned.It you can get plastic tunnels that is even better.You will need a spade,fork and a hoe .It is time and patience and don't weed when the seeds start pushing through the earth other wise you will disturb the roots of your veg,if you have a green house or shed put your seeds in seed boxes with compost and sprinkle your seeds in cover them up with compost,then water and leave them alone ,only watering when dry.when they are showing let them get quite big and strong then transplant into weed free earth with string line and like I said don't plant them to close keep the rows six to eight inches apart enough room to walk between the plants to keep weeded or harvest ,good luck ,egg shells scrunched up will keep the slugs off.Good luck and I hope this helps.xxx

This year will be my first real garden, too. So I can't really tell you anything but I'll be sure to come back often and read all the replies! Thanks for starting this!

Well I am pretty new to gardening to. I am only 22 so I don't have to much experience. When I was 16 living on my own renting a house, I decided to grow a garden. I dug out a 10 foot by 10 foot garden and made some rows. I had carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, squash, pumpkins and some beans, peas, and peppers. They all grew and I was able to have a few good meals with them. I didn't try to make mass amounts of the veggies I just wanted to see if I could do it. After years of doing this every year I just pick up a new vegetable or 2 to try. The key is to just have fun doing it. Plant it and it will grow. With water of course. There are so many different types of seeds to it will be hard to pick. I remember buying pea seeds and seen about 5 or 6 different choices. I had no idea which ones I wanted so I planted a few of each to try and see. Make sure you mark it down what you plant and where just in case you really don't like something or you love it and never want to forget what it was. Get a little binder and keep track of your growing so for future years you can look back and figure out a new plan. Place things that take the same a mouth of time to harvest int he same area. My garden binder is about 1inch think so far after about 6 gardens. I always look back in the spring and try to plan a new garden for the coming summer. Psst don't forget to have fun while trying to out grow your dad. :) Good luck

dear, u don't want me . my aunt told me years ago i had a brown thumb instead of a green one. i do wish u luck w/it.

I'm not really good at gardening yet. I grew sunflowers last summer. They came out well. This year I'm going to plant a vegetable garden. First, I'm going to have to rent a tiller because I ain't using no shovel to soften up my soil, like I did last year! Talk about a sore back. My husband is just going have to rent a tiller. March is suppose to be the time to start getting the soil ready. Then after the ground warms up a bit, plant the seeds. Weed and water them and hopefully they will grow fine. Now, I just need to figure out how to keep the bugs off my plants. Did your dad have something he liked to use to ward off those pesky insects?

Good luck with your new green thumb. One little tip is that melons take a lot of space.

i am new to gardening. I have strawberries for 4 years, and my tomatoes garden was first last year. I would start with something easy. I have learned that it is all about space you have. I will keep my strawberries, maybe tomatoes, but I am all into perennials now. I may add some bushes to my yard. I have raspberries and blueberries, but it is time to have more bushes. HUGS

I love a nice garden, but I hate gardening, so I'm not the right person to ask. I hope that you have a lovely time doing it. We had a veg plot once, that was great getting fresh veg everyday, the best thing to grow is tomatoes and sweetcorn, very tasty

Twoey: I don't really have any advice for you. I just want to wish you good luck and to let you know that you shouldn't be too scared about gardening. About 15 years ago, we bought a house and I eagerly started a garden. There was an obvious garden spot in the yard though it had not been gardened for years and was filled with wild roses, crab grass and other really nasty weeds. Not being in really good physical shape, I spent two hours night digging the space by hand and getting rid of most of the roses and all of the weeds. It was pretty tough stuff and hard work as the roses and some of the weeds spreed by runners under ground and digging one plant up you would need to dig deep and for yards to get all the roots. But eventually I got the space dug up and fairly nicely tilled. Then I planted a few rows of corn and beans (the rows were only about 4 feet long. I bought herbs, tomato, eggplant and tomato plants. Everything grew well except for the eggplant. One of my friends told me that they did not grow well next to peppers. The main thing I want to emphaize is that I had no gardening experience. My folks had garden some when I was a toddler but stopped when I was older. So I just took what little information I had, asked questions of the people I bought the plants from (I bought most of the herbs at a University plant sale on their agricultural campus--I was lucky in that I lived in a University town.) and I just dug up the garden and planted it. I did some weeding, not a lot. I always intended to get some straw to put around the plants, as I read somewhere that if you put a foot of staw around the plants, you would not need to garden. The kids down the street stole the corn the day after I checked it and thought that it could stay on the stocks for a couple more days when I would have more time to prepare it and cook it right after I picked it, thus I have no idea how the corn turnned out, but it grew well and looked good. As I said before everything else turned out well and I had a lot of tomatoes and peppers that had to be given away or preserved. I had lots of salsa for the next year. The gist of what I wanted to say is that if you plant it and water it the garden will grow and if you give it a little attention you will have lots of food and flowers or whatever you plant. You can spend a lot of time on the garnden, but if you don't spend a lot of time it will still grow. The hardest part of my garden was preparing it the first year and cleaning it up at the end of the season. In subsequent years I just thew my compost pill on the garden, got someone with a rototiller to till the compost in and then I planted the garden. I never had much luck when I planted lettace, but everything else I planted worked well. I think I didn't pick the lettuce often enogh. Good Luck, I'm sure you'll enjoy it, both the gardening and the results thereof.

I hear that marigolds are a very good bug deterent and make a nice border. I think to start off with I would start with the earth. Tilling the soil and putting it in a sunny location are important factors. The soil may need to be added to with such as posphorus and such elements. Good idea to go online and check for the correct elements you will need. Some good information. And buying the plants instead of seeds might be something to think about also.

Hi,twoey. I am sorry but I have a black thumb instead of a green thumb when it comes to growing things.(LOL).I think it would take a pretty big spot of land to grow that much stuff,but I really do not know..Sorry I can't help you.I wish you luck and God's help with your garden..

The first thing you will need is a spot large enough for the garden away from any trees. The sun must hit the garden at least most of the day. Also trees pull moisture away from your garden. If you have a place like that then I'll try to help you get started. I can't seem to find where you are posting these topics. Email me direct and let me know. artcorbit@cox.net Art

I would advise going to the Library and borrowing a few books. There are many different ways to garden. There's Nitch gardening where you plant things all over your yard. Some people get out the rototiller and till for hours and hours. Some use black plastic and some do container gardening. I like Lasagna gardening where you use layers of newspaper cardboard, different clippings and leaves for mulch and to keep the weeds down without having to do a lot of pulling. Good luck, and keep us updated.

Hands up when it comes to gardening. I do not have green hands. I have tried to plant a small plot of vegetables in my backyard but did not turn out successful as most of my vegetables wilted before I can harvest them.

Is your gardening just for leisure time? If yes, gardening is a good teacher in understanding nature. So, in every move and decision you make, jot it down to be use as reference in the future. Trial and error is fund and worth experiencing! 1. Select your area, examine the soil, research the type of soil and the plants suited to it. For sticky soil, mix it with pounded egg shells (recycle your wastes). 2. The land must be tilled 3 times to smash and soften it. Allow the expert to do it. 3. Make rows, 2 feet in width will do and the length depends on you. You can insert rotten leaves, rice husks, or sow dust one inch below the soil, water it for a week, before you plant your seedlings. Ask the seller of those seedlings about the distance in planting it. 4. Water it every morning and late in the afternoon. 5. Remove some weeds that will grow later. Can these tips help you? Am just a small gardener at home and it's a nice hobby.

Wow. For a first garden you are planning on planting alot! But it all sounds great. Several here have given you good advice. You will need some wire cages for the tomato plants, a hoe to keep the area weeded, and possibly some small trellis for the beans to grow up - depending on what kind you plant. As everyone said you need to avoid tree areas, and pick a spot relatively flat and in the sunshine. Considering how large your garden is going to be (since you want to plant so many things), you should rent or borrow a tiller to till the land the first time. Because if you try that large a space with a hoe you are going to be at it for weeks. Now I'm sure you know some of those things don't do good frozen. Such as lettuce and cabbage. But I've frozen tomatoes before and they work really good for winter soups, chilli and such. I would also recommend an organic fertilizer. Because the stronger the plants the more veggies you will receive. One thing to be aware of is melons and squash take up ALOT of room. They send out runners and you may have a large area of plant taking up space. Also I'm sure you know to plant things like carrots, peppers, cabbage and lettuce in rows. Its good to mark each row so you know what you planted where also. I'm also hoping to put in a garden this year at my new place - if I can get moved in time. I haven't had one in years and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm planning on putting in a strawberry bed also. I know with strawberries you don't get fruit the first year, so I want to get them planted this year. Good luck with your garden, and I hope you keep us updated on the progress later this summer.

Tomatoes are easy to grow and you can sun dry them for the winter. You can also make tomato paste and preserve it. As long as you keep it covered in oil, it won't go bad. Another option is to pickle them. Most veggies can be par boiled and frozen. Use the freezer section of your supermarket as a guide. If they do it, you can. If they don't theres a reason, so don't even try. Large quash like pumpkin and melons take a lot of space and a lot of water.

Looking at your dads picture I think the person to ask should be your dad. However it has been a long time since I did a garden. As mentioned you need an open space with lots of sun. Since this is your first garden, do not get too ambitious or you will get discouraged. Gardening is always a learning experience. I would certainly start with the easy stuff like radish and leaf lettuce. Radish you can have several sowings so it give a continuous supply. Leaf lettuce you can just pick leaves off without pulling the whole plant, have several sowings of those too. I would buy tomato plants already started as the growing season is usually too short and it extends your growing and harvesting season. Expect to stake your tomatoes to keep them off the ground. Peppers are easy to grow, buy them started too. Melons and squash you need huge areas to grow them and a good source of water. Peas you must start really early as it tends to grow in cooler weather. Green beans are easy to grow as are carrots. I would stay away from brussel sprouts and cabbage at first as they tend to get lots of bugs around here anyways, but you can try them to see how they turn out. You will probably need to spray them or pick off the bugs. Read up on what kind of pests you can expect so you will recognize them when you see them. If it is a small garden you can pick off the bad bugs so get used to squishing them or drowning in a can. You have a lot of learning to do and a lot of work but it can be fun and rewarding. It tends to be time consuming when doing things like weeding, but then you do not need to spend a half hour on the tread master afterwards so it is good exercise. You will need some basic gardening tools like a hoe and a shovel and a rake. Read all you can about gardening to get you started. It is impossible to teach you how to garden in a few lines in a board like this so good luck.

To get started, you can get a free reprt called "intro To Gardening". It's a great little beginners guide. You can get it by going to http://yardandgardentips.com Good Luck and keep us posted.