How did you first begin?

[TripkeHughes]

How did you all get started? What did you grow, what time of year, how much, what kind of garden did you have? I would love your stories and suggestions for getting started. Remember I can barely keep my house plants alive.

[Chanley]

Ok my first garden, I was really into enthobotany (reading alot about religions and the plants used for such by groups of people). SO naturally I was into plants.

I worked for a nasty lady in CA because she had an amazing garden. Sadly I spent more time learning how to make a bed "properly" than in the garden. But her yard set the seed of desire in me.


When I got my first yard in Indiana, I began with the staples of course. Tomatoes, cukes, bell peppers, cantalopes, daturas, brugmansias, night blooming jasmine, umm some other things.

My ex did a lot as well, in fact our whole dining room that winter was a plant room.


i have learned as I go, my current husband is amazing as a gardener. He kind of thwarts my learnign tho, I can no longer screw up on my own, he steps in and tells me why what I am doing is stupid. Well without stupid, I cant be smart. soo... but that is another post.

[TripkeHughes]

great ideas, please keep them coming.

[lapinagile]

Gardening is my greatest love.... besides my family, of course. My advice is to start with some easy things like cukes, stringbeans, sunflowers......these are hardy plants. Tomatoes are a bit tougher since they are more prone to disease but I'd go for it anyway. Once you grow your own tomatoes you'll never go back to buying them. My second bit of advice is this: preparation!!! Prepare your garden plot before you buy your seeds, before you buy that first seedling. Nothing puts a damper on gardening faster than weeds. And once they get out of hand you may as well just till everything under. Solarize the plot if you can to cook any dormant seeds. Double dig to aerate the soil. And then mulch your seedlings to keep moisture in and weeds at bay.
I usually start my seeds in late Feb or March. I use the plastic six packs germination kits you can get anywhere. I put my flats on regular heating pads on the lowest setting. I do lots of peppers and herbs and just a few tomatoes since my dh doesn't like them. (huh???) Warm weather: Stringbeans, polebeans, zucchini, cukes. Best done in cool weather: lots of different types of lettuce, spinach, kale, peas, and chard. Let me know if I can help you out....I love talking garden. Can't you tell? Hth, Susan Oops, failed to mention....I'm in Virginia.

[jempd]

I got into gardening rather late in life. (thirties). I joined a community garden right near my home in NYC. That's right, in the big bad city. My mother is a superb gardener of the first order, the kind for whom stuff just grows, but I kind of eschewed it I guess because it was her thing and because I was so intent in going off to cities and getting away from all that country stuff but in a funny way wound up right back with it and found that a lot of knowledge had clung to me without my even knowing it. For example, I knew what to compost and what not and how to deadhead and all these things I'd forgotten I'd ever known. And I found it to be a wonderful way to counteract the stressful way of life in the city. Seriously, I will come in from mulching all afternoon covered with sweat and soil and I live in Manhattan. So after a long circuitous route, I've found out that gardening is very very satisfying. One sad thing is that with the particular garden I'm a member of, politics have gotten to the point to which the strife is beginning to outway the enjoyable aspects of it. Sigh.

[FarmerCathy]

My mom and dad always had a garden growing. I've always wanted to be self-sufficient and grow ALL my produce. Slowly, I'm trying to do what I can with what space I have. I companion plant. I highly recommend the book "The Gardener's A-Z Guide to Growing Organic Food." Here is a website about companion planting: http://www.tinkersgardens.com/vegeta...onplanting.asp

HTH, what everyone suggests are all easy to start. Feed your soil some compost (4-6" if you can). Then plant away.

Here is a great guide for growing tomatoes. If your thinking about it. I'm going to add compost then dig a 2' hole like she says then put 1/4 c. of egg shells and a dose of pelleted fish emulsion. Then fertilize with fish emulsion again when they start to bloom. I'm not going to go find a fish head and all that. If it has disease from all that I'm doing already so be it. Will add some epsom salt too to my paste tomatoes.

Ok, I've given you enough info to confuse you enough.

[lightheart]

My dad was a green's keeper on a golf course so from an early age I remember going to work with him, mowing and planting fairways and greens...

age 12 I made my own flowerbed with these old red block on end as edging that were laying around (filled the holes and planted in them too), had marigolds (still my favorite flower) and zinnias andded some lemon balm because it smelled nice....

age 18 was dating my hubby and I came over here while he wasn't at home and started planting... mostly flowers, some mints, a sedum... it was still early in our relationship and he sorta freaked when he saw how much ground I had worked up especially since he had other plans for those areas (later he said he couldn't get rid of me after me planting because he'd had to rip out all the flowers so he wouldn't be reminded of me and that he would of hated to destroy such pretty flowers ).... next year we got married. 13 almost 14 years later I'm still playing in the dirt.

My gardens have changed over time from a scatterbrained all over the place type planting to a more contained in an area type of planting. I mainly work "my garden" and don't mess with the other areas of the property as much... there was a time I sewed seeds for most of the 1/2 mile driveway and little areas here and there... with age and kids just can't keep up with that. although this year I have ventured out of my little area and am hoping to get back into the patch type gardens.

For suggestions, start small and start with the things you love to eat and the flowers you like to see. Bulbs are good for flowers. Marigolds, Zinnias, Tomatoes, Green beans they are easy ones too.

keep a notebook, nothing fancy, might be only a couple pages written every year but see what works for you, what plants and seeds you planted and when and where so that next year when you try it again you can look back and say oh... don't do that or do that!!

Don't think that you have to jump in spending tons of money for garden gadgets or spend a zillion dollars on bags of soil and soil building stuff to build beds with. If you have ground, a shovel and a pack of seeds or a 4 pack of tomato plants that's all you really need, just plain dirt is pretty amazing. ... I know having beds with 6-12.... 100 inches of rich black soil is the ultimate goal of many folks but that all comes in time.

[FarmerCathy]

Yes, I forgot about the notebook thing. I draw my gardening plans in it every year, what seeds I ran out of and need to order next year. Where I planted, when I planted or started seeds inside and whether I need to adjust that for date for next year. Oh, and new things I'd like to try. And what perennials I'm going to plant when we buy a house.

[lmonter]

Originally Posted by TripkeHughes

How did you all get started? What did you grow, what time of year, how much, what kind of garden did you have? I would love your stories and suggestions for getting started. Remember I can barely keep my house plants alive.

The summer after we moved into this house, so about 4 years ago I think (2004). Planted tomatoes. Harvested raspberries from the patch the previous owners had haphazardly put in. Think that was about it. I had grand plans at the seed section at Lowe's, but we were still figuring out the house and dealing with the oldest kiddo who was still pretty little.

Year after that, we had tomatoes, but I can't remember what else. Blueberry bushes and a solitary grape vine come to mind. Oh, and strawberries.

In summer 2006 I started going a little insane. Tomatoes, raspberries, pole beans, peppers, zucchini, cucumbers, a few basil plants, thyme, parsley, and maybe something else. Hubby did a bunch of the planting since we had another newborn.

Summer 2007, now that was spectacular for me. Tomatoes that I'd started from seed (although I didn't start them early enough and didn't hardly get a harvest, but still, live and learn), peppers, *lots* of pole beans to can, some peas for fun, lettuces, carrots, green onions, Walla Walla onions, zucchini, cucumbers, pattypan squash, strawberries, beets, radishes, potatoes, basil, dill, cilantro, parsley, marigolds, and I think that was about it.

Now this year? Summer 2008? Heehee. Yeah.
Potatoes, carrots, onions, celery (who knows whether that'll work or not), peppers, tomatoes, basil, thyme, dill, cilantro, green onions, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, peas, green beans, and I can't remember what else. Keep in mind I've got 2-15 varieties of most of those things, too (purple and green peas and beans, 15 kinds of tomatoes as I'm still trying to find my favorites, 2 kinds of celery, etc.).
And we've added blackberries, more blueberries, green and purple asparagus, one more apple tree that we planted in the fall, and I think that may be it. For this year. We'll probably plant another apple tree or two in the fall as well.


As for how I technically got started? Slug hunting and blueberry picking with Grandpa in my early years. I was his go-to blueberry picker when visiting as I was better at it than my uncle that lived across the street from him and Grandma - I only picked the ripe ones.

That and the drive to have good tomatoes, and now spend less at the grocery store (well, or now, at least the same and not more). I'm slowly working on producing enough stuff from our backyard to last the entire year via canning/freezing and such - so I don't have to resort to those awful frozen strawberries or raspberries from the grocery store out of desperation in February. Knowing I'll have two teenage boys, possibly three, has put the fear of feeding them in me...

[root*children]

When I was about 16, I couldn't understand why my mother in wealthy white suburbia didn't want veggies in her garden She finally let me have a very small patch of land in the back corner of her propery (up against privacy fence of course, so her neighbors wouldn't think poorly of her). I grew strawberries, broccoli, tomatoes, and I can't remember what else... probably some kind of squash... it really was a small patch!

Then when my husband and I got our first rental, we didn't have any yard to mess with (zero lot), but we lived next door to a small apartment building. I asked the tenants over there if I could use a strip of land (maybe 20' x 4') that was against our fence line. They said yes, and I also constructed a very small chicken wire & stick-built compost pile in a corner of our lot. I spent at least a couple weeks just cleaning the plot - picking out thousands of pieces of broken glass, rocks, breaking up dirt, amending it, etc. I was filling our compost with our scant amount of produce leftovers, and grass clippings and leaves that I took from other people's garbage in the alley. Anyhow, I grew corn (I don't think any of it actually grew!), strawberries, squash, peppers, etc. I did have a partially shaded place, about 4' x 2' in our own yard that I filled with herbs.

That was about 8 years ago, and we've since moved all over the country with SO many different situations of gardening, and have learned so much, I wouldn't trade it for anything

[Collinsky]

: Just starting a garden this year... so this is all awesome.

[Jojo F.]

Growing up my grandmother always had toms and green beans, that's it. My mom and dad didn't grow veggies, only flowers. When the time came for me to finally have my very own garden I was excited to say the least. My first garden was in southern Indiana about 5 years ago a little after DS was born. Oh how I miss that garden, great soil, nice and big, sigh....

I had red/yellow/and cherry toms, eggplant, corn, summer green and yellow squash, winter squash, cucumbers, pole beans, snow peas, hot and bell peppers, cantelope, basil, chives, and parsley. And an awsome compost pile to boot- open hot pile. Some friends of ours used to live in Humbolt, CA and tried to grow a garden between the 5 of them, it didn't work out too well. When they came back home and saw my garden they were amazed one person could do all that work! I said, "What work?! I LOVE it!"

Now we live in RI and it was a lot of work getting the soil amended. My garden is much smaller then the old one and I no longer can have an open compost pile. We are on year 4 this year and my soil is great, I get more, and I seem to find more space, I have no idea HOW but I do!

Now I have- red and yellow toms, hot and bell peppers, pole beans, snow peas, lettuce, beets, carrots, cucumbers, summer and winter squash, spinach, potaotes, garlic, strawberries, sunflowers, chives, parsley, oregano, sage, marjoram, lavender, calendula, yarrow, and evening primrose. I even planted some toms upside down this year, it's my first time so we'll see how it goes.

With trial and error over the past years I have really learned a lot and still have more to learn and can't wait! One of these days I will be able to have 15 varieties of everything like the other mamas, lucky ducks

[mindymom]

I've only been gardening for a few years, but here are some suggestions from another newbie:

Start small. I know, I know, easier said than done! I can't even really say this with a straight face! But really, if you have any doubt that you'll keep it up it's better to keep the potential for disaster small.

Maybe start with some containers or small raised beds so that you can fill them with "good" soil to start with and not have to worry about preparation and acidity and compost and all that jazz right away. Don't get me wrong - that stuff is fun! - but it's more fun when you have the winter to learn about it.

Put your garden where you will look at it every day, like next to your driveway or the door you leave through most often. That way you notice right away when it has needs or something is ready to harvest.

Grow things that are easy to grow in your area. Other posters have made great suggestions, but what/where/when really depends where you live.

Look for a garden club in your area, or maybe just a neighbor with a good garden. They can suggest things that will probably do well in your climate and soil, and where/when those things should be planted. They can also warn you about local critters and how to avoid donating your garden to their appetites or wanton destructive binges. (Grrr...I hate raccoons! At least eat the food if you're going to pick it half-ripe!

Good luck to you!