by Susan Klatz Beal

Created on: December 06, 2008   Last Updated: February 21, 2009

I may be an experienced gardener, but I didn't become one without making lots of mistakes along the way. Gardening is a learning process, and any beginning gardener should accept that before they begin. Know too, that no matter how well you plan for things, circumstances can always derail the best of plans. Be mindful of that and be willing to accept whatever happens. Don't expect to be an overnight success. If you do, even the smallest failure will upset you.

So what should a beginning gardener do to get started?

Assess your space. Once you've determined how much space you have, then you can decide what you'd like to grow. After you've accessed your space, go to your nearest home improvement store and purchase a soil testing kit. This will let you know the condition of your soil and what you can do to improve it. It's pointless to plant things in soil that needs amendments.

Till your soil before you plant anything. This is a way of loosening heavier soil, giving it a chance to breathe, and it brings the under soil which may be better quality to the top. If you determine that your soil needs amendments, you should do this during the tilling process. Add composted manure if you can find some. Don't buy top soil. It isn't worth the money. If you want to add to your soil, add organic matter like manure.

Plan your garden before you plant it. Don't go out and decide to plant things in any old place. Decide what you intend to put where. If you have graph paper, plot it out on that. Learn about your gardening zone. The zone you are in will be an important determining factor when you start choosing what to plant. If you live in zone 3 way up in the northernmost part of the United States, don't even consider planting tropical perennials. Your winters are too cold and your summers aren't nearly long enough. Choose things that don't require huge amounts of care.

Think about what you'd like to plant. Annuals are things that you must plant every year. They do not come back year after year as perennials do. Biennials are things that reseed themselves and come back for a couple of years. Perennials come back every year. They will spread and have to be divided after the first year or two.

If you want to grow flowers, start with some easy to grow annuals and gradually add to that. A few easy to grow annuals are Impatiens for full shade, coleus for shade, (although coleus can be a houseplant,) begonias, petunias, New Guinea Impatiens and geraniums for full sun.

Don't go over board.

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