Greta Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 First of all, thank you again to everyone who helped me in the thread about composting. I appreciate it. We're going to get a bin set up this weekend. So, just to explain: I've never been a gardener, and I have done a very lousy job of taking care of our yard for the entire time we've owned this home. Hubby has done almost all of the work himself, but he doesn't enjoy it and doesn't have much time for it, so picture 15 years of neglected yard, and there you have it. We could possibly be trying to sell this house a year from now, though we could possibly be staying here, but either way, I've got to get the yard into shape. I bought a book from the local Master Gardeners, which is great because it's area-specific (and this area, hot and dry with sandy alkaline soil, does have its challenges). But it also assumes you have some very basic gardening knowledge, which I do not. So when it says things like "prune hard" for a certain type of plant at a certain time of year, that's good to know, except that I have no idea what "prune hard" means or how to go about doing it! That's just one example, but I'm sure you get the point. I don't know enough about gardening to even understand the terminology. Please help! Any good websites or books for someone who is basically putting on her gardening gloves for the first time in her life? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Corin Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 I bought the book of this series when I started out. The climate won't be familiar, but most of the tasks will be. The presenter is a bit irritating, but he knows his stuff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKdr84Ii8a8 L 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardenmom5 Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 if you live in a western state - the sunset western garden book is a must have. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanaqui Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 So when it says things like "prune hard" for a certain type of plant at a certain time of year, that's good to know, except that I have no idea what "prune hard" means or how to go about doing it! It means "go crazy with those shears, lady!" You trim it pretty much down to the ground. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LostSurprise Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 Your state public radio may have a show for your area. They tend to be much more basic and people can email or call in with questions. The Master Gardeners have classes. You should be able to take a few in your area. Do a search for a _____ (insert state name) Gardening Book. Especially the ones that go month by month. They tend to go much more simply step by step. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katy Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 I think Square Foot Gardening is the best gardening book I've ever read. It's a little more work to initially set up than garden rows, but it removes issues like bad soil, or worse yet what one person I know did- he thought all his plants coming up were weeds and weeded all the seedlings. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greta Posted May 14, 2015 Author Share Posted May 14, 2015 Thank you all so much! I know I've seen that Sunset book at my favorite local bookstore, so I may go pick it up today. I'll watch those videos over my lunch break, too (or start them, at least). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greta Posted May 14, 2015 Author Share Posted May 14, 2015 I think Square Foot Gardening is the best gardening book I've ever read. It's a little more work to initially set up than garden rows, but it removes issues like bad soil, or worse yet what one person I know did- he thought all his plants coming up were weeds and weeded all the seedlings. I could see myself doing something like that. The difference is, I never would have admitted it! :lol: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greta Posted May 14, 2015 Author Share Posted May 14, 2015 Your state public radio may have a show for your area. They tend to be much more basic and people can email or call in with questions. The Master Gardeners have classes. You should be able to take a few in your area. Do a search for a _____ (insert state name) Gardening Book. Especially the ones that go month by month. They tend to go much more simply step by step. I didn't think about a radio show. I did look into the Master Gardeners classes, but I've already missed them for this year. Might try next year, though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LostSurprise Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 Square foot garden is good. Less technical, but similar technique, is Lasagna Gardening. The Garden Primer (Barbara Damrosch) is also pretty good. I would say it had better general gardening information than SFG (which covers more about his raised-bed method). One book that helped me relax and just enjoy it was Ruth Stout's No-Work Garden book. You won't learn much technique there but she's so chatty and fun and gives you permission to just ignore certain things. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UrbanSue Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 I'm a big Square Foot Gardening fan as well. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pam in CT Posted May 15, 2015 Share Posted May 15, 2015 Do you actually want to put in a garden, or just step up the lawn care and maybe plonk down some sturdy flowering and evergreen shrubs? If you want to do beds with turned-over improved soil and perennials & shrubs with staged bloom cycle and layered heights and yada yada, I'd second The Garden Primer (Barbara Damrosch) to get started. If you're more oriented towards getting the lawn fixed in preparation for possible resale, I'd get a basic Sunset lawn & landscaping book (just check your zone so any shrubs you choose have good survival prospects). Also: look around your neighborhood and notice what other people have that look good and appear to be flourishing. Ultimately, the best strategy for a good garden is to figure out what does well in your habitat and learn to love that. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greta Posted May 15, 2015 Author Share Posted May 15, 2015 Do you actually want to put in a garden, or just step up the lawn care and maybe plonk down some sturdy flowering and evergreen shrubs? If you want to do beds with turned-over improved soil and perennials & shrubs with staged bloom cycle and layered heights and yada yada, I'd second The Garden Primer (Barbara Damrosch) to get started. If you're more oriented towards getting the lawn fixed in preparation for possible resale, I'd get a basic Sunset lawn & landscaping book (just check your zone so any shrubs you choose have good survival prospects). Also: look around your neighborhood and notice what other people have that look good and appear to be flourishing. Ultimately, the best strategy for a good garden is to figure out what does well in your habitat and learn to love that. I have a teency tiny garden area set aside that has two tomato plants and three herbs in it. That's as ambitious as I'm going to get with growing edibles, at least for the foreseeable future. We actually don't have a lawn. Lawns require a lot of water and work here (desert) so the front yard was rocks and shrubs when we moved in, and we've left it. And it looks fine. The back did have a lawn, which my husband HATED trying to maintain, so we have let it die. The plan is to replace it either with rocks, like in the front, or with that stamped and painted concrete that looks like tile or stone, to make a huge patio area. Then we'll put in a pergola for some shade (plus whatever other features would make it nice - I think we're going to need the help of someone who knows how to landscape!) Obviously this is a major project that is going to require a great deal of expense and/or work. I'm not looking forward to it. So that's the central area of the backyard, and then there are raised beds at the perimeter of the backyard: one level on the sides and two levels in the back. The raised beds have smallish trees and shrubs and such. The higher level at the back has some grape vines, which unfortunately are being taken over by the pyracantha behind them. We have an impenetrable wall of pyracantha that is 6 feet deep, the entire width of the property (probably 60-70 feet?) and 25 feet high. It's horrible and I hate it, because it grows like crazy and has these thorns that are really more like spikes, that are sharp and strong enough to pierce through the soles of your shoes and into your foot. It's the only thing in our yard that seems to actually thrive on neglect! It is really difficult to control. Trees: we have several pine trees, a pomegranate, an ornamental plum, a desert willow, and a locust of some sort (the locust is always trying to propagate through the roots - we are always having to chop down tiny little locust trees all over the property!). The ornamental plum is really struggling and needs help. We also have a mostly-dead Russian Olive that simply needs to be removed, but my husband doesn't want to admit that it's gone! Shrubs: we have lots of evergreens shrubbery in the front, which I have to admit I don't care for, and photinia, and something else which I don't know the name, but it doesn't require much care or water. In the back I have a few rose bushes, a large rosemary bush (those are easy to grow if even I can keep one alive!), honeysuckle, llilac, and wisteria. And a few desert things like cholla and yucca. I don't really bother with annuals, and I've tried tulips and a few other bulbs but they require so much water that they just don't do well here. I'd really prefer to keep it as close to xeriscaped as possible. So things we could add would be more cacti, yucca, desert sage/salvia, and probably tons of other things that I don't even know about. Well, that was a lot more information than you asked for! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pam in CT Posted May 15, 2015 Share Posted May 15, 2015 Ah you live in the desert. Missed that part of the memo, lol... I don't know anything.at.all about plants in the desert. I'd love to have the chance to experiment someday! I love to visit very different habitats and see what grows there. A big patio with pergola sounds like a great solution. My father, by himself, put in a stamped concrete patio that cost next to nothing more than 10 years ago and it's held up (in MA where it freezes and thaws multiple times a year) remarkably well. He is however a remarkably handy guy, much more so than me or my husband (bless his urban heart). Good luck! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greta Posted May 15, 2015 Author Share Posted May 15, 2015 Ah you live in the desert. Missed that part of the memo, lol... I guess I wasn't very clear, was I? I don't know anything.at.all about plants in the desert. I'd love to have the chance to experiment someday! I love to visit very different habitats and see what grows there. Me too! It's fun to think about all of the different environments that our fellow boardies inhabit. A big patio with pergola sounds like a great solution. My father, by himself, put in a stamped concrete patio that cost next to nothing more than 10 years ago and it's held up (in MA where it freezes and thaws multiple times a year) remarkably well. He is however a remarkably handy guy, much more so than me or my husband (bless his urban heart). Thanks for this link. Hubby definitely prefers to do things ourselves when we can. This might be outside of our capabilities, though. I'll check into it and try to find out. Good luck! Thanks, I think we'll need it! :D 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBM Posted May 15, 2015 Share Posted May 15, 2015 If you're thinking of putting in rocks, make sure to research what works best. The last thing you'd want to do is put down hundreds of pounds of rocks and then realize they're difficult to walk on. It's harder to get rid of them than it is to put them down -- BTDT! A resource for desert and xeriscape plants is the High Country Gardens catalog. They offer plans for instant gardens which look very nice, and they seem to know what grows well in different parts of the country, especially dry areas. Maybe they could offer some suggestions? That spikyy plant sounds like a nightmare! Maybe you could get some good advice about dealing with it or getting rid of it from an internet forum for your area? A brother of mine lives in the Phoenix area and I know he has put in a lot of cacti, pomegranates, lemons -- I wish I could grow those! I love the Santa Fe gardens I've seen online, too. Very beautiful and exotic to me. Hope you find some good help. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greta Posted May 15, 2015 Author Share Posted May 15, 2015 If you're thinking of putting in rocks, make sure to research what works best. The last thing you'd want to do is put down hundreds of pounds of rocks and then realize they're difficult to walk on. It's harder to get rid of them than it is to put them down -- BTDT!Yes, good point! I was kind of picturing some designated paths with either flagstones or a different (finer) kind of gravel to walk on, and then having some pretty things planted here and there: ornamental grasses, sage, cacti, whatever. I'm not good at designing things like that, but my daughter is! A resource for desert and xeriscape plants is the High Country Gardens catalog. They offer plans for instant gardens which look very nice, and they seem to know what grows well in different parts of the country, especially dry areas. Maybe they could offer some suggestions? That spikyy plant sounds like a nightmare! Maybe you could get some good advice about dealing with it or getting rid of it from an internet forum for your area? A brother of mine lives in the Phoenix area and I know he has put in a lot of cacti, pomegranates, lemons -- I wish I could grow those! I love the Santa Fe gardens I've seen online, too. Very beautiful and exotic to me. Hope you find some good help. Thanks, I appreciate the suggestions! It wouldn't let me like your post for some reason, so just know that I do in fact like it. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Entropymama Posted May 15, 2015 Share Posted May 15, 2015 When we lived in the desert fake grass was popular and actually quite nice to look at. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greta Posted May 15, 2015 Author Share Posted May 15, 2015 When we lived in the desert fake grass was popular and actually quite nice to look at. It seems like a very logcial choice to me, but it does not seem to have caught on here for whatever reason. I still talk to the agent who sold us this house sometimes, so I might ask her how it is perceived here. Thanks for the idea! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kroe1 Posted May 15, 2015 Share Posted May 15, 2015 Since you said for "dummies", I thought I would give my testimony. Every gardening book totally overwhelmed me. I went to Lowe's and asked for a bush that goes next to a house and another kind that goes in front of the first one. I was offered two choices. I took home 30 of each bush, and learned all about those two. That was that. The following year, I went back to Lowe's and asked for a red flower that grows during the summer. I now knew about 3 plants. Done. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MotherGoose Posted May 15, 2015 Share Posted May 15, 2015 The Well Tended Perennial Garden is great if you are doing flowers. Also be sure the advice you are getting is for your area of the country. Zone 8 if you are in California is very different from Zone 8 in Georgia. And don't give up. Go into this knowing that you will kill lots of plants and make plenty of mistakes. Any gardener will tell you that. I have (if I do say so myself!!:) a beautiful garden now, but what you don't see if you visit it today are the years of dead plants, composting, mulch, crazy mistakes, and perseverence that led me to continue. Start gardening with the same spirit of adventure that leads you to look for different curricula until you find the right one for your child. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsuga Posted May 15, 2015 Share Posted May 15, 2015 My suggestion echoes what others have said. You need local knowledge. Going to a gardening store, a nursery, or a club for one hour a month is worth 10 books. Human knowledge that is tailored to your questions is invaluable. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LostSurprise Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 Your state extension service (ag usually from the state college or the state dept of natural resources) has lots of good information. If it seems overwhelming see if they have a section for 4-H. That's geared towards kids so it really is beginner info. I really love gardening blogs. Do a search for "_____(your state or region) gardening blogs." A lot of people are just keeping track of their journey so you'll get a lot of information. Also, GardenWeb.com has a ton of forums for everything. You find something for everything. It's a great place to ask questions if you can't find anyone in real life to ask. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greta Posted May 16, 2015 Author Share Posted May 16, 2015 Thank you, ladies! So many great suggestions. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KungFuPanda Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 Join me on my hugelkultur bunny trail! I stumbled upon it because I have a fallen tree in my yard, but it seems especially beneficial for dry climates. Here, I'll get you started :-) http://www.craftsy.com/blog/2015/04/hugelkultur/ Besides the Internet and Pinterest, I like the square foot gardening book for veggies and Five Plant Gardens for perennials. Five Plant Gardens gives you five coordinating plants for simple beds and tells you how you take care of them. I used it to plant some beds that wouldn't die when DH shoveled piles of salt-filled snow on them all winter. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greta Posted May 16, 2015 Author Share Posted May 16, 2015 Join me on my hugelkultur bunny trail! I stumbled upon it because I have a fallen tree in my yard, but it seems especially beneficial for dry climates. Here, I'll get you started :-) http://www.craftsy.com/blog/2015/04/hugelkultur/ Besides the Internet and Pinterest, I like the square foot gardening book for veggies and Five Plant Gardens for perennials. Five Plant Gardens gives you five coordinating plants for simple beds and tells you how you take care of them. I used it to plant some beds that wouldn't die when DH shoveled piles of salt-filled snow on them all winter. Very interesting - thanks! I particularly like the idea of the Five Plant Garden. Do you know if that book has any information for dry climates like the southwest? My library doesn't have it, but I'd be happy to buy it if it does. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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