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[barred_owl]

The jelly-making discussion is making me chuckle.  When we lived in the Pacific NW, there were several U-pick farms that offered a variety of berries, ripe for the pickin'.  Their blueberries were enormous--some the size of big marbles.  I couldn't resist; I picked at least 3 gallons, maybe more.  I wound up with 18 jars of blueberry jelly, much to the dismay of my hubby, who despises blueberries.  When we left, I had to donate about a half-dozen jars to the local food bank (thank goodness they took them--some food banks won't take home-made foods), and give most of the rest away to friends.  In hindsight, I should have frozen the blueberries, rather than made jelly...

[inthelab]

Us- we'd just eat the berries!

[drapple]

[http://www.cdpr.ca.gov/docs/emon/pubs/fatememo/glyphos.pdf]
Environmental fate of roundup(glyphosate) link. Rational thought suggests there are no problems with proper use. Most people only need to spray once, period.

[thedunvegan]

A variety of veggies. Try to expand the garden a little bit each year, when there is time to hack back the vines and till up the rocks. So far: tomatoes, beans, peppers, corn - and last year was a bumper crop of all but corn. This year I've added onion sets. Would like to expand a bit more and get in some sweet and regular potatoes. I'd love to have a small greenhouse attached to the garage.
TD

[backontrack]

I love to plant things, maybe one day I will be good enough to call myself a gardener.

I got the hankering to plant the last couple of weeks, and here's what I put in:
for the "butterfly" garden: larkspur, foxglove, alstromeirea (sp?),  and blacked eyed susans
in the sunny spot: roma tomatoes, white corn, cucumber, basil, rosemary, and two chile peppers
 
for the front:  washington navel orange, plus some colorful shrubs that like sandy soil (can't remember the names).

I am also working on a "courtyard" section: I put in moonflower, which is supposed to be fragrant and will be visible at night when we sit outside.

I love wisteria, but you have to keep it trimmed
I absolutely HATE English ivy.  Pass any guaranteed killing techniques my way.  House next door is a rental, and the landlord "loves" it (since it is care-free).  It's already pulled down one fence, and it is working on the new one. 

Happy gardening all!

[history_grrrl]

Maybe this question needs its own thread, but here goes: I recently bought my first house. It's got a side yard, a smidgen of backyard, and a nice little strip of grass out front. I know absolutely nothing about gardening, but my dream is to have pretty flowers, a vegetable garden, and maybe raspberry or strawberry bushes someday. I have a not-too-smart habit of diving into things on a large scale ("I must do everything at once!", getting frustrated by my slow learning curve, and giving up entirely. Do forumites have suggestions about how to get started at a reasonable pace? Are there books or websites you'd recommend? Should I take one of those summer courses on how to garden? Any and all advice welcome. Thanks!

[anthroid]

Maybe this question needs its own thread, but here goes: I recently bought my first house. It's got a side yard, a smidgen of backyard, and a nice little strip of grass out front. I know absolutely nothing about gardening, but my dream is to have pretty flowers, a vegetable garden, and maybe raspberry or strawberry bushes someday. I have a not-too-smart habit of diving into things on a large scale ("I must do everything at once!", getting frustrated by my slow learning curve, and giving up entirely. Do forumites have suggestions about how to get started at a reasonable pace? Are there books or websites you'd recommend? Should I take one of those summer courses on how to garden? Any and all advice welcome. Thanks!

Buy a book (Gardening for Dummies!) and take a look at Gardenweb.com.  I just dove in, myself.  I started out by trying to figure out what were weeds and what might be useful (and mistook purple basil for useful when it turns out it is a pernicious weed).  I also watched various DIY programs on HGTV, A&E, and so forth.  I went on garden tours in my area and asked people how they did what they did (and gardeners will talk your ears off if you let them us).  I asked neighbors, friends, and the local nursery owners how they did what they did.

And then I just planted stuff and hoped for the best.  Kind of like teaching, when you come down to it.  Go, History Grrrl, go!

[mended_drum]

Maybe this question needs its own thread, but here goes: I recently bought my first house. It's got a side yard, a smidgen of backyard, and a nice little strip of grass out front. I know absolutely nothing about gardening, but my dream is to have pretty flowers, a vegetable garden, and maybe raspberry or strawberry bushes someday. I have a not-too-smart habit of diving into things on a large scale ("I must do everything at once!", getting frustrated by my slow learning curve, and giving up entirely. Do forumites have suggestions about how to get started at a reasonable pace? Are there books or websites you'd recommend? Should I take one of those summer courses on how to garden? Any and all advice welcome. Thanks!

Here are my suggestions:

1. Go buy "Gardening for Dummies"; I'm not kidding.   It has some good advice, and a nice list of the basic tools.
2. Plant or pot one petunia in each of your three locations.  If it goes wild, you can count that location as "sunny"; alive, but not blooming wildly is "part sun/part shade"; dies even though it has enough (but not too much) water, and you're in shade.  Petunias are cheaper than those light measurement devices, and in my experience, just as reliable.
3. For me, I made a short list to begin with that included:  one or two vegetables; one or two perennials; some cheap annuals; and herbs.  I limited myself to creating or restoring no more than one bed a month, and in the first year divided it up to include: four or five large pots; one raised bed; and one restored bed.  Each year I added one.
4. Go around and meet your neighbors.  Seriously.  Knock on the door or walk over when they're mowing the lawn.  Say that you've just moved in, and you don't know what grows well in the local soil.  Not only will you get fantastic advice (especially if they have a nice garden), but you may find bulbs and plants dropped off at your home unexpectantly.  If you meet just one real gardener in the neighborhood, you can probably skip the acidity testing kits, especially if it's a senior citizen.
5. Set a budget and try to stick to it.  If you have a decent garden center nearby, make sure to explore a couple time without a credit or debit card on you.  You want to take notes for a while instead of buy whatever you see.  Later, you can go back with specific goals in mind.
6. You haven't said whether you have any trees.  It's important to know what ones you have and how they behave year-round.  The internet is a great help for this (I had our field botanist walk my property and explain which plants were invasive and point out the wild flowers--like trillium--that I should try to keep).  Some trees change the environment a lot as the year goes on.
7.  Finally, research methods of composting before you start it.  You can go very expensive or very cheap, but you should consider your budget, any city ordinances, and how much convenience matters before setting up a compost pile.

[relationalista]

I have a not-too-smart habit of diving into things on a large scale ("I must do everything at once!", getting frustrated by my slow learning curve, and giving up entirely.

Welcome to the world of the amateur gardener! Anthroid is right; gardeners, no matter how novice, love to talk about gardening. I've learned incredible amounts by eavesdropping at the garden center. But the thing with gardens is that they're not really "all at once" kinds of things. You can plunk in loads of stuff all at once, but that won't take care of it. There's the monitoring, the upkeep (deadheading, for example, is technically maintenance, but is actually really relaxing. Far more relaxing than any other kind of maintenance for which I've ever been responsible), moving stuff around, figuring out what you want more or less of, etc.

I agree with Mended Drum (great advice all around) about starting with cheap stuff, not least because even cheap plants can become expensive quickly if you're buying a lot at once. Gardening is always a bit trial and error, but this isn't to dissuade you. On the contrary: everyone does it this way, so you can just take the plunge.

[aristotelian]

Also, realize that you are going to kill a lot of things.  Go into it with the attitude that everything is an experiment and be pleasantly surprised when things actually grow.

mended's advice about learning from your neighbors is great. Just compliment their plants and they will be thrilled to tell you all about them.

For what it's worth, I would not start with raspberries - it sounds like you don't have much space and to get any kind of substantial crop they will need to take up a lot of space.  I also understand they can be very finicky for rich soil.

I got hooked by starting with tomatoes.  Unless you are in a desert, the next month or so is a great time to plant tomatoes.  They are easy to grow and a million times better than anything you can buy at the store.

[barred_owl]

I'll chime in here, too.  Another source of information, depending on your location, history_grrrl, is to see if there is a state/county extension office nearby (states with land-grant uni's often have extension programs affiliated with the uni).  They may have pamphlets, bulletins, etc. that could help you.  In our state, the extension offices support Master Gardener programs, and can put one in touch with local, certified master gardeners who can help, too.

From your description of your property, I keep envisioning one of those glorious garden-scapes overflowing with heirloom flowers, herb plots, fountains, and koi ponds, all packed into a small space!  Just like the magazine covers...Go for it! :)

[mdwlark]

Raspberries like to take over the whole garden, have nasty thorns, and return even thicker and more wide spread every year.  They like a fair share of sun.  My raspberries crawled under the fence and planted themselves in my neighbor's yard in about a five by 30 foot area.  Fortunately, she likes them.  I have kept some of the raspberries, but some blackberries volunteered in my front yard, and I'm fighting back. That is one nasty plant.  Only plant these berries if you have a large sunny or partly sunny area to devote to them exclusively.  They crowd everything else out.  Other crops are annual and stay where they are put.  One year I planted pumpkins, and that was fun.  They spread over a large area, but their foliage was pretty, and there were pumpkins for pies and jack 'o lanterns.  I've grown tomatoes, peas, corn (once), strawberries, lemon cucumbers (much tastier than regular cucumbers), and my grandma grew rhubarb.  My herbs didn't do well, except the lemon balm.  I would like to try herbs again, if I can figure out what I did wrong. 

[history_grrrl]

Wow, thanks, everybody! These are fantastic suggestions. I can't wait to get started. Maybe gardening will replace fora posting as my main "between bouts of work" activity.

Uh-oh.

barred_owl, I love your description of my future yard. Where I used to live, in Madison, WI, people have fabulous front-yard gardens. Up here in the Great White North, there's lots of lawn space but most folks in my neighborhood don't do much with it. However, there are a few wonderful gardens of the type you describe, and I love the idea of wandering over and asking their creators for pearls of wisdom.

[barred_owl]

I wish there were a way of posting pictures of our gardens, or attempts at such, here on the fora.  Mine would be a time-lapse series:  in the last 5 days, the trees have started to leaf out, the redbuds are budding, the dogwoods are in full bloom...it's been an incredible transition.  Also, good news from my front bed:  I have two weigelas (a flowering shrub) that looked like they did not survive the disruption caused by some excavation during our basement waterproofing project, but today I noticed that they are recovering quite nicely.  They should be ready to bloom about mid-May or so!

history_grrrl:  I used to live not far from Madison!  I have a friend who runs an organic farming operation near there, and she has the lushest, most amazing groupings of flowers all around her house!  I think her success is attributable all the chicken poop she mixes into her compost!  I am so jealous of her green thumb.  Good idea you have, though, to wander over to the neighbors to learn their GWN planting secrets!

[pink_]

So I planted a bunch of Dutch Iris bulbs last fall, and while the greens came up over the winter, they have not bloomed.  I see other Irises blooming around my neighborhood (mostly bearded, but a few Dutch ones too).  Did I do something wrong?  I know that I didn't plant them upside down, and I used a little bulb fertilizer when I planted them . . .