What Should Every New Gardener Know?

It all starts with the dirt! This may sound obvious but often novice gardeners are so excited to get planting that they don't take enough time preparing the soil. And once things are planted you can't do much to improve the soil until next year.

You can send a sample of your soil to the local agriculture extension service and they will recommend what you should add to improve the quality. There are also a couple articles on this site that could help you; Organically Supplementing Your Soil and Composting and Soil Management.

Good luck with your first garden.

The soil first.Then keep it weeded. Good luck.

yes I would agree with those posts. Good soil is important, weeds will crowd out everything else if you don't keep on top of them (know this from experience, lol). Also, water is important. things may survive but they won't be the best if you leave this too long.

Hello!
I am a container gardener, and this is my first time gardening myself. What I have learned in the process is to not use the same soil (lol) I was growing some lettuce in a big huge pot, was going to grow watermelons but decided to scoop up the seeds i just put dwn and just let the soil sit watered to make sure there was no plants growing b4 I start my new lettuce. I waited a month, nothing sproutted, so i decided to soil the lettuce seeds. A few week later Im excited to see my lettuce growing. Around a few weeks after I started seeing vines (lol) Lettuce dont have vines, found out my watermelon took over and still havent seen the lettuce plants yet (lol) thats my trial and error.....

Everyone is correct in having the right soil mix. Another very important thing to remember is NEVER work soil that is too wet. It should be crumbly like a chocolate cake. If you work soil that is saturated it will compact it to the point of becoming brick like when it's dry.

I am trying my hand at square foot gardening for the first time. I planted seeds on 04-25-2012 and so far I only have 4 radishes up and nothing in the spinach, lettuce, carrot, or onion square. What am I doing wrong? I used fresh seeds that I just bought this year. I don't think I planted them too deep. I have been trying to keep them moist. When do I throw in the towel and replant and try again? Or do I just give it more time? I do live in Illinois, so it still gets chilly at night, but we haven't had a frost since I planted them. Frustrated already!
I appreciate any advice.
Debbie

I am a container gardener, I have been planting for 2 yrs, things are still new myself. First to keep it simple as a newbie. I want to let you know that all the things you are planting grows better early winter to spring and fall for me. I am in zone 7. You need to first study your zone, and study more on gardening. I LEARNED alot from reading what plants work together, what soil to use with certain plants and how long its going to take to grow the time you are planting. Just because the Radishes is up, doesnt mean the other will grow the same time. I was the same way, I picked up a pack of seeds just because of the look and taste, it was a pack that I should have waited for a longer season, so by the time it needed to harvest snow was going to be on the ground. So studying more on what you growing helps out alot and be patient. Or try again if you did it wrong.

Thanks for the advice. I have been doing a lot of reading and this gardening is a work in progress. Looks like some of it is trial and error. I haven't given up complete hope that my seeds aren't growing. How could so many be bad seeds? I tend to think it is more the planter!

Yes! Trial and error, I just had a few of my plants bolted, thats another trial I am going through, but its fun to learn because you never can get bored and so many people are doing it.