Getting your gardening groove.

I'm going to walk you through  a small course of Gardening 101.

Are you someone who tells yourself the big gardening lie?   You know - the one that  says, "only people with green thumbs can garden successfully?"  I was...nineteen years ago.

I'm tossing in some pictures to inspire you. This is known as Speedwell  or Veronica.

 I had silently crafted myself a kooky version of the lie.   It went something like, "How hard can it be?  Put the plant in a bigger pot or the ground and it'll grow.  DUH."    I honestly believed that my plants would do well simply because I had inherited my Grandmother's green thumb.  Yeah.    Reality got through my hard head when I started to notice how quickly my plants would wane and fade away.   Even the expensive ones!


It made me mad enough to finally take some sensible action.

Roses are not recommended for beginners.  But if you're determined - Make them David Austin Roses!

Seriously.   I wish I could get back all of the money I wasted by walking into  garden centers on random sunny spring mornings;   Buying any plants that captured my fancy  (never even glancing at the little tags that would at least tell what sort of sun that plant required);    Taking them home and shoving them into the ground.     It's almost painful to admit that!   I was young and schtoopid.

This is an annual.   You should try Cosmos.  They're so easy!

I've since learned a valuable little recipe:  dig a $5.00 hole for a $1.00 plant and you will make yourself and the plant very happy.  Now this doesn't mean DIG A REALLY BIG HOLE.  It means - work good compost into your soil.  Now that I have chickens, I'm in the process of making my own compost.   Woo hoo!  But it's perfectly respectable to buy good compost.

So, after a couple years of disappointing results with my flower-growing efforts I was wandering around Home Depot one day and spotted  Sunset's Western Garden Book.   I credit that book  for starting me solidly on the path to becoming a REAL gardener.    It's mostly geared toward conditions here in the West but isn't a waste of money if you can get your hands on it - no matter where you live.

While we're talking about books, one of my gardening guru's is Anne Lovejoy.   Her writing is delightful and she knows her stuff!!  If you run across one of her books  BUY IT.   I own a couple and they're informative and fun to read.  One is Further Along the Garden Path  and the other The Year in Bloom .


Knowing which conditions are ideal for any given plant helps you determine if it's possible to recreate those conditions  in your own yard.   For example -  I live in the High Desert and no amount of soil conditioning and gardening voo-doo is going to make a fuschia look like the one I spotted in San Francisco a few years back.
   Fuschias are essentially annuals in my climate.   (Note:  an annual is a plant that only lives for a season; perennials are plants that come back year after year but usualy look dead during the winter months).   Which reminds me that it's also important to know the difference between annuals and perennials and which plants fit into which category in your area.   Some plants will be perennials in the right conditions  and some are just annuals no matter how well they're treated.   Knowing which is which will help protect your gardeners heart and keep you from developing a complex when your annuals die every year (when they're supposed to) but you blame yourself because you mistakenly believe you've caused it somehow.   The key to becoming a good gardener is knowing when the pitiful plant died from neglect or natural causes.    Neglect would be something you can control:  pests, poor soil, not enough light, too much water, etc...

Once you've armed yourself with the proper knowledge your gardening will begin to yield rewards.

Another abundantly important piece of information to have is the hardiness zone in your area.    Understand, too, that there are micro-climates within any given hardiness zone.  So, while your friend across town can grow tomatoes with very little effort, you may need to find a way to protect yours from chilly evenings.

One of the greatest educational resources you have access to is your local garden center.   NOT your local big box store garden center but a real locally owned garden center staffed by real gardeners who know your local climate better than any gardening book you'll ever own.      After asking your questions and getting some valuable professional input  PLEASE spend some money at that establishment.   I'm not saying you need to get all of your materials from them but at least buy the one item they recommend (if it's in the budget, of course).     We have a local garden center here whose owner is a local legend.   He's a delight to talk to and even has his own radio show on Saturday mornings.   His greenhouse sells an organic fertilizer that they blend themselves  and I buy a big bag of that every year as a way of thanking Doug for helping me be successful in this dry climate with moon dust for soil.


Start small.  Do not charge ahead planning to re-do your entire yard this summer (unless you can afford to pay someone else to do it).   Pick one bed and focus on that.   Probably your front entry would be perfect.   If you live in an apartment, use a nice container.  If you have a front door with a little flower bed area nearby - start there.   Make your entry more welcoming with a plant or a grouping of plants.

With any grouping - odd numbers work better visually.

I could go on and on.  If you have specific things you'd like for me to address - leave a comment.  I promise to get right back to ya  or even to create a post in response (if it seems that there is enough interest).

Are you ready to get planting?