7 Lessons You'll Learn as a Beginning Gardener

Want to start gardening? Understandable. 

Attempting your first garden now? Me too. 

Here's 7 lessons I've learned so far in the process.

Three tires in my "tire" garden.

1. Jump Right In

For me, the biggest obstacle to having a garden in the past wasn't time, start up money, bugs, or plant disease.... My biggest obstacle was myself. I love to have a comprehensive plan well in advance of any actual attempts at a task. Often times, just the thought of gardening would overwhelm me. A beginning gardener knows so little; how was I to plan without knowledge?

My husband and I moved to an area with one of the shortest growing seasons in the world. Go figure that I would begin my first garden here. I saw an advertisement for about 200 organic heirloom starter plants. They looked healthy, thriving even. They were a good variety of different plants started by an experienced gardener who couldn't have a garden at the last minute for personal reasons. And they were the right price- much less than what they were actually cost elsewhere! What was I to do with 200 plants? Thankfully, my sister went in with me. She bought 2/3rds of the plants, and I bought the remainder.

I didn't have a plan. Buying my organic heirlooms was pure spontaneity. At first, it was a little nerve wracking for an OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) person like myself. But I've been taking it just a day, a problem, a success at a time.

And everything's okay.... Hmmm... Maybe I should apply this to other areas of my life.

I carried my frost intolerant plants outside daily for sunshine and brought them back in at nightfall for a couple of months. Talk about commitment.

2. Commitment

Taking care of plants is a commitment. Nature will take care of part of the process, but you also hold a lot of responsibility as a gardener if you want a harvest. Depending on your area, your commitments may look different. You may have a lot of weeds to pull. Or rocks to sift out of your soil. You may need to water your plants daily, or several times daily. You may have to wake up early in the morning to spray water on your almost-frozen plants after an unexpected freeze the night before. 

Regardless of your area, you'll likely also need to check on your plants daily, mulch and enrich the soil regularly, and work through random issues that pop up on your plants.

I learned to baby my plants- only after I had lost a few. For a couple of months, my commitment included carrying six containers of starter plants outside everyday. Then, I took the 200 plants out of their boxes. Then, I watered all the plants with a cup, running back into the house when my cup was empty. If it was rather warm that day and their soil was becoming dry, I watered them again. If it had been a couple of weeks, I sprayed diluted, organic liquid fertilizer on them. If a plant was growing rapidly, I repotted it. Finally, at the end of the day, I put all 200 plants back into their containers and carried them inside.

Once, I didn't water my plants for two days. My watermelons withered and died. Once, I left my two pepper plants out in the night frost by accident. One bounced back, but the other didn't. Then I didn't water my resilient pepper plant for two days, and it died.

Baby, baby, baby your plants.... oh! (Defintitely not a J.B. fan. It just fit.)

My Rutger tomato plants (before they were transplanted). They look so healthy and smell so green- but it took a lot of effort to get them where they are.

3. Know the Plants for Your Area

You will have a lot more success with a garden if you plant what actually has a chance in your environment. As much as I love avocados, I know that growing an avocado tree in the Pacific Northwest without a tempered green house would not be effective use of my time. Doesn't mean I still won't try... (In hopes that one day I WILL have a temperature regulated green house!).

4. Seek Help- Often

As a new gardener, you will have a lot of questions. You'll have a lot of problems that you don't know what to do. Find an outlet to ask these questions and get help. Don't be discouraged in your problem or give up.

Recently, two of my swiss chard plants came down with... something... (see I still don't know). For a plant that you eat the leaves, I definitely was not going to eat them now.

Something nasty on my swiss chard plant.

I posted pictures of my plant online in three different gardening forums. Many people had suggestions of what it might be and recommendations. One person said to pick all the leaves, so I did. That happened to stop whatever it was and now my plant is doing well again.

That leads to the next lesson you'll learn as a beginning gardener....

5. Experiment

Things will come up. (Oh the fun of spontaneous problems!) As a new gardener, I certainly don't know everything. So I learn from those who are experienced and I just- try, try, try! One day, we'll understand more. Until then, give your plants water, fertilizer, care (pulling weeds, etc), and love (I pray over my plants!).

My butternut squash would grow leaves, and then they'd die. But it kept sprouting leaves. I didn't know what to do. I "experimented" with water, sunlight, etc and now it is a happy plant- even through transplanting.

6. It Takes Time

After I had several plants transplanted and in the ground, I was wondering when I might see my first fruits. Friends.... it takes time. I didn't rush my daughter's birth; I'm not going to rush these plants.

I have a zucchini plant that produced a flower in early May. About three days ago, I found this....

I have a growing zucchini! Since taking this picture, it has grown a couple more inches in length and maybe a half inch in diameter.

Even if it seems like it's taking forever, be encouraged! Your plants are growing; it just takes time.

But when they do finally get to where they're going....

7. The Reward is Worth It!

After all your efforts, (sometimes) you'll reap the rewards! Unexpected frosts happen. Deer happen. Disease happens. But more than likely, you'll harvest at least a zucchini or two ;-) - including all the excitement and lessons you learned along the way.

My radishes are fully matured at this point. Because I only have four radish plants, my plan is to keep them in the ground for seed next season. Still- the excitement of having grown SOMETHING is definitely worth all the care they required!

See the radish bulb?!! YAY!!! It's alive! And there are four more just like it. ;-)

What about you?

Are you a new gardener, too? What lessons have you learned so far?

Or are you an experienced gardener with many lessons learned that you are willing to share?

Please leave your comments below or respond with your own blog post response (just make sure you provide a link in my comments, so I can read it).

God bless you and keep you,

~Raquel

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