Beginning a garden can be daunting. There is a lot to know about caring for a garden, but it all starts with deciding what you want to grow, what you like and enjoy - the gardening basics. Every garden is an ongoing process, so don't worry about making mistakes, enjoy the learning as much as the doing. Whether you are starting your first garden or you want to brush up on your skills, the following articles contain useful information to make you a better gardener.
1. Starting a Garden
Photo: © Marie Iannotti
Some of the hardest work involved in starting a new garden is decision making. You need to decide where to place your garden, what you want to plant, whether to start from seed or plants and how you are going to take care of it. These decisions are also the fun part of gardening, because now you can create a garden that is very personal, watch it grow and enjoy it for years. These basics will get you up and growing.
2. Starting a Vegetable Garden
Photo: © Marie Iannotti
3. Garden Tools
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4. Caring for Your Garden
Photo: © Marie Iannotti
5. Controling Garden Pests and Disease
Photo: © Marie Iannotti
If you plant it, they will come. The best way to protect your new garden from pests is to use some common sense. Choose disease resistan t plants and practice integrated pest management, or IPM is a fancy word for using some foresight to avoid problems in the first place and catch and control those that do occur as early as possible. The EPA defines IPM as "...the coordinated use of pest and environmental information with available pest control methods to prevent unacceptable levels of pest damage by the most economical means and with the least possible hazard to people, property, and the environment."
To that end, you'll want to brush up on your organic gardening essentials
