Gardening & Landscaping
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No Idea Where To Start...Help!
We bought our house this past May so I have not had a garden before. Where do I start? Should I get a book, go to a nursery? I am primarily interested in a veggie garden, with maybe a few flowers. I also don't know if I should do raised beds or just flat. Sorry if this is too vague, I really have no idea what to do. Thanks!
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Re: No Idea Where To Start...Help!
The winter is a great time to educate yourself (I assume it's too cold in Boise to plant until the spring, anyways).
In my blog, link in sig, under the book tag, I've got links to books I really like. The Rodale one listed is out of print, but it's worth hunting down.
Unless you have really nice soil, I would advocate raised beds. It just instantly creates a great environment for growing. Square Foot Gardening explains the process.
It's a really good idea to mix flowers in with your veggies. They attract pollinators, are pretty and some deter pests (like marigolds).
It's important to find out the average date of your last frost. Google should be able to help with that. You won't want to plant summer veg in the spring until after that. In the DC area, that's mother's day weekend. That's when the tomatoes & peppers & such go out. More cool-season plants like lettuce, peas, greens, etc. can go out a few weeks earlier.
see if your county extension offers classes, or other sorts of groups where you can get some help. there is a permaculture guild in my area that offers all sorts of courses for gardening/composting/water harvesting/etc and i've found them super helpful.
In my local area, the heat is a big issue so garden placement/location is really really important. talk to gardeners and your local nursery to identify the big issues in your local climate so you can address those first and hammer out the smaller issues later.