Getting Started in Gardening

Having taught introductory gardening classes in Los Angeles, one common thing I noticed among budding new gardeners was a sense of overwhelm. Due to the vast amount of gardening literature, social media gardening influencers, and word-of-mouth anecdotes, this sense of uneasiness is slightly warranted.

Fear not, as I run on a platform of demystification and am here to help. As an active University of California Master Gardener, I have access to tons of academic gardening resources and literature. I see how easy it can be to make gardening (or any subject for that matter) overly complicated, dense, boring, and inaccessible. 

Follow these basic rules and you will learn, have fun, and grow your own food:

1.  Always assume there is more to know about a given subject, but focus on getting the gist of whatever you're currently engaged in.
• Example: If you're getting ready to plant, only focus on the critical items related to planting. Everything else is irrelevant and not worth your time and energy. 
2. Errors are part of the process. Failing and being a failure are two different things. The former is part of the process of learning something new and the latter is negative and destructive mindset. Know the difference. 
• Example: Some of your seeds will not germinate (fancy word for grow). Some of your plants will die because of disease, neglect, or pests. All of this is ok and normal when starting out in gardening. Be nice to yourself. 
3. Be realistic about your time, energy, and financial commitment. Cross reference that against your expectations or what you would like to gain from gardening. 
• Example: You only have 1 day per week to garden during the summer and $20 to invest in your materials, but you would like to grow enough food to replace the vegetables you buy in the grocery store. Probably not going to happen. Your job in learning about gardening is to be able to one day understand why that statement is not realistic. 

With that out of the way, let's take a look at how to get started gardening or planning a garden. Below is a planting guide, which can be found online or in your local nursery. This will help in knowing what to plant and when to plant it. A common (and critical error) among new gardeners is planting out of season. 

Use the guide to help select which crop to plant. From our Rule #1, remember that there are always  nuances in anything and more to know about everything. In this specific case, we need to be aware of what geographic area or "Zone" you are in when planting. However, this not permission to yourself to get hung up on the hyper specificity of your region. Instead, use this or a similar guide as a starting point to help aid your decision making process. Using this type of resource will always be better than not using it.