Basic Information for Newbie Gardeners, What You Need to Know!

Many Ways to Learn

Get good advice

1. Experience: Watching other gardeners, whether in real life or on TV and video, gives invaluable education in basic techniques and gaining confidence.
2. Advice: Visit your favorite websites, like Ilona’s Garden or avail yourself of the many books for all levels of gardening experience and types of growing plants. Everything from planning to landscaping, from propagating to pruning has a book or online information.
3. Experimentation: Just give gardening a try. Trial and error is one of the best teachers for your own growth as a gardener. It teaches you more about your own climate and conditions, as well as developing your own interests than any other form of learning.

Start with Basics in the Garden

My garden website has entire sections that cater to Newbies, filled with pages to guide the beginner from planning to building a simple spot for your favorite plantings.

Start With This Knowledge:

• Location. The location of your place determines what plants you can grow, and might influence your garden style, too. It can create the need for wind protection, shade, or water conservation plants and techniques. So know more about your location and its conditions.
• Visit the Neighborhood. Learn what your neighbors are planting, Visit Arboretums, and see how mature plantings look and the space requirements of a full grown tree or shrub. This can save you many mistakes.
• Take Pictures and Talk. Taking a photo of a favorite garden, plant, or container planting will record great ideas. This is a fine way to begin making your garden journal, too.
• Talk to docents in public gardens or master gardeners in your area, glean from their knowledge.

Take photos of plants and gardens you like

Remember My Most Important Advice

That is, start small. Don’t begin a huge garden space or buy a truckload of plants to begin with, but plan and start with a section of what you eventually would like to accomplish in your yard. Decide whether you are more of an indoor gardener or an outdoor one. And one of my new best pieces of advice is : keep it simple. That is good advice for many projects and endeavors. It goes double for beautiful gardens. Much of good design and ability to maintain a lovely landscape can be summed up in the discipline of keeping it simple.

Quick Summary of What Newbies Gardeners Need to Know

Click on each link to go to the page covering that topic.

• Climate and Zone you are working in.
• Basic How-To: How to plant, how to prune, how to grow info for specific plants
• Begin your own garden landscape plan.

Join Up

Join garden clubs or online gardening groups. Volunteer to plant trees or help maintain public plantings. Find a garden coach who will walk you through the steps. Look for free or inexpensive classes at your local garden centers and plant nurseries. Find friends that want to work in their gardens, too, and share plants and adventures.

This garden advice is brought to you by Ilona’s Garden. Visit the website @ ilonasgarden.com to gain expertise in creating your home garden.