Aryn and Kim Page
Leafing Out
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All new to this. Gardening for the first time. Any tips? How is everyone?
new!!
- Thread starter Aryn and Kim Page
- Start date
Nyboy
Garden Master
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Welcome from NY lots of tips here. Where are you, do you know your zone? What do you want to grow flowers vegetable both ? How big is space you will be using?
Ridgerunner
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Welcome, glad you joined us! We're all so different with our own microclimates, soils types, gardening methods, and what we grow. Tell us about your goals and what you want to do and maybe we can help. But in general start kind of small to learn what's involved, then expand when you are ready. But start.
digitS'
Garden Master
Welcome to the forum, Aryn and Kim Page.
We have talked a little about general advice for beginning gardeners. Probably the best ideas are do START but keep it SMALL.
A garden is a commitment, at least a season long.
Pleasant spring days bring enthusiasm for being active outdoors. But, plants are living things and there is a hope that they survive and flourish for more than a few days. Domestic plants cannot usually do this on their own. The gardener has to show up and tend them, not always at times convenient for the human.
Often, it's fairly easy to start in a bigger way than an inexperienced person can sustain through the months of the growing season. So, what is small?
I might have problems keeping up enthusiasm for something like 32 square feet of vegetable plants. Maybe not. Gardening should be "aspirational." And, it's a personal decision on what is the reward but obsessing over what would be such a small contribution to my diet is likely to seem as something other than gardening to me, more like owning pets, house plants.
Still, forcing seed into some loose soil is no special accomplishment. Especially if I was to just walk away from it for the remainder of the season. And, time does march on, even if I'm not around to notice what is happening in my garden.
Cooperative Extension is a good source of information for local opportunities and requirements. They often give general advice on family gardens of 800 to 1000 square feet. Honestly, I don't think a garden needs to be that large until the gardeners knows what they can anticipate. There is likely to be more than one season of opportunity for gardening. There is 12 months of learning possible even if the practical experience is limited within that time.
Timing is everything in life, someone once said. A garden is all about life - plant life, and the gardeners' interaction with it.
What are you interested in growing, Aryn and Kim? What is the physical environment of the garden?
Steve
We have talked a little about general advice for beginning gardeners. Probably the best ideas are do START but keep it SMALL.
A garden is a commitment, at least a season long.
Pleasant spring days bring enthusiasm for being active outdoors. But, plants are living things and there is a hope that they survive and flourish for more than a few days. Domestic plants cannot usually do this on their own. The gardener has to show up and tend them, not always at times convenient for the human.
Often, it's fairly easy to start in a bigger way than an inexperienced person can sustain through the months of the growing season. So, what is small?
I might have problems keeping up enthusiasm for something like 32 square feet of vegetable plants. Maybe not. Gardening should be "aspirational." And, it's a personal decision on what is the reward but obsessing over what would be such a small contribution to my diet is likely to seem as something other than gardening to me, more like owning pets, house plants.
Still, forcing seed into some loose soil is no special accomplishment. Especially if I was to just walk away from it for the remainder of the season. And, time does march on, even if I'm not around to notice what is happening in my garden.
Cooperative Extension is a good source of information for local opportunities and requirements. They often give general advice on family gardens of 800 to 1000 square feet. Honestly, I don't think a garden needs to be that large until the gardeners knows what they can anticipate. There is likely to be more than one season of opportunity for gardening. There is 12 months of learning possible even if the practical experience is limited within that time.
Timing is everything in life, someone once said. A garden is all about life - plant life, and the gardeners' interaction with it.
What are you interested in growing, Aryn and Kim? What is the physical environment of the garden?
Steve
Collector
Garden Master
Welcome from Washington state lots of getting started help here. Dive in!
lcertuche
Deeply Rooted
Start small. Watch some YouTube videos on no dig, square-foot gardening. I think a 4 x 8 (or two beds) bed would be enough to get your feet wet without taxing you too much. Will you need to fence off wildlife like rabbits or deer? Think growing vertical to save space and grow more plants.
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Aryn and Kim Page
Leafing Out
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Thank you everybody for the warm welcome feel free to p.m. me if you'd like. Well to start off I want to grow both vegetables flowers and herbs my chicken that I'm getting this month will be newly hatched but their chicken coop will be right next to my garden so I'm going to have a gate to open up so they can go into the garden to eat bugs when they are older and I move them outside. Chickens love to eat fresh herbs, vegetables and fruit. I am in Oregon so the last frost is May 15th so that's when I'm going to start planting so far I'm going to do sunflowers, corn, spinach, lettuce, cucumbers, different kinds of melons such as watermelon, honeydew and cantaloupe and I was also thinking about doing some pumpkin because it's a natural dewormer for my chicken. I was also going to do lavender because I can make lotions with it and my chickens would love to eat it and I'll make them less stress which means more eggs which means more eggshells for my garden and it will make their coop smell good the other herbs I'm going to do is mint, oregano, parsley and possibly some garlic. I have a very big area I can also expand it if I want to. Thank you so much again for the warm welcome.
so lucky
Garden Master
Sounds like you've got lots of plans. Welcome to this forum; people are friendly and helpful here.
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- #10
Aryn and Kim Page
Leafing Out
- Joined
- May 11, 2017
- Messages
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- Reaction score
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Thank you. I also have some mixed flowers they're supposed to attract bees. I actually got it from this website.
http://feedabee.com
http://feedabee.com
