by Susan Klatz Beal

Created on: January 27, 2009

When it comes to gardening, gardeners are as quick to offer advise as cooks are to offer theirs. There must be THOUSANDS of books around that deal with gardening, but different areas of the country have different gardening needs, and sometimes the farmer's almanac doesn't even have a good handle on what the weather will be like for any given year. So when it comes to gardening, what are some of the best ways to learn?

The one place that will always have the most reliable information about your given area is most likely to be your county extension service. If there is no county extension service, look for information from a state university that teaches agricultural courses or that has a large horticulture or botany department. Even if there are no agricultural courses, most universities have botany or horticulture departments, and by their very nature, a university is designed to do research.

Learn about your soil. Lowe's, Home Depot and gardening centers sell inexpensive soil testing kits. They are designed so that you can read the results yourself. Armed with this information, you are ready to begin. Next you will want to learn about composting. Learning about your soil and about how to make compost are among the most important things you will ever need to know. By knowing how to make compost, you can essentially make your own organic, rich, nutritious dirt. There's nothing better anywhere.

If you've never done any gardening before, try to resist the urge and temptation to go for broke. For a beginning gardener, failures can be extremely costly and a costly failure can be discouraging enough to sour anyone to gardening for a long time. Start out small. It's better to have great success with a few small endeavors than it is to have monumental failures. For a beginner, failure is a horrible omen.

Books are a wonderful resource. So are magazines. One of the best books I ever used was the "Victory Garden" book, based on the PBS television show. This book is quite old and was put out when Roger Swain was the host of the show. The book had an abundance of really useful information in it, and Roger Swain happens to have a PhD in Botany, so he's very knowledgeable.

Public gardens often have lectures, demonstrations or even classes. If you walk through the gardens, you can see everything from vegetable gardens to roses and a host of things in between. Volunteer at a public garden, and when they are ready to plant things, you may be able to help out. There is no better

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