Get Started Gardening!

It's not too late to get started growing your own produce! I have been dreaming about getting to start a garden in the new house in Maryland and I didn't waste any time. The day after I got here it was off to the home improvement store to pick out loads of seed packets and seed starting trays!

If you've never gardened before, like myself, you may be wondering where to start. Start doing some reading! Not only do you need to know where to begin but also what is in store for you the rest of the growing season. As always, Martha Stewart is always a great reference- check out her Vegetable Garden Guide as a starting point. I also picked up a couple of great books that I highly recommend.

The Vegetable Gardener's Bible tells you everything you need to know to start gardening, including an index of every plant you can think of and how to make it grow happily. A great reference!

I also picked up the Week-by-Week Vegetable Gardener's Handbook because I am a person who needs step by step lists! All you need to know to use this book is your date of last frost, then open up the book to the right week and see what you need to be doing. To find the average date of last spring frost for your area, check out this chart.

Another vital piece of information for any type of gardening is learning your hardiness zone. Your zone  will let you know what kind of plants will do best from year to year, taking into account your region's high and low temperatures. You can input your zipcode into this website to easily find out! You might be surprised to know that Tulsa and Frederick, Maryland are actually in the same zone- 6B. I'm thankful that it doesn't get much colder than it did back in Oklahoma!

To make it really easy on yourself, you can use this tool from the Farmer's Almanac to input your zipcode and find out when to start your seeds indoors and outdoors. It even tells you moon-favorable dates to plant! I wonder if that makes a difference... at this point I will do anything that might help! If you've started seeds indoors, this tool will tell you when to put those babies in the ground.

I hope this post will help you be motivated to start your own garden- it's easier than you think! I've already picked up 23 seed packets- I got a little carried away! Next post I'll show you how I planted my seeds and what is already growing, in the mean time check out my collection of gardening pictures and articles on my Pinterest board- Gardening.