Advice for beginners who want to try gardening: do it.

Maybe this is your first house or rental where you have room or permission to do a little something with the dirt around you. Maybe things look bleak because it’s February (things always look bleak to some degree in Februaries), or maybe the cost and recalls of produce in grocery stores make you anxious. Gardening is always worth a try, and it doesn’t have to cost much.

How to get started (easy mode tutorial)

Let’s say you have a plot of dirt at your disposal. Does it get at least 6 hours of sun each day? Excellent! You will need a shovel, some seeds, and a way to water the plants (hose, watering can, bucket, jug, whatever). Literally, that’s it. Once your average temperatures are at least, let’s say, 45-50° Fahrenheit and there’s no danger of frost, you can get started.

1. Clear the turf from where you want to plant.
2. Loosen the soil 6-12 inches deep.
3. Did your seeds come in a packet? Follow the instructions on the packet.
4. Did you save your seeds from a vegetable you had? Check online for planting instructions, or find the equivalent kind of seed packet in a store and use the instructions from that.
   • Note: seeds from produce might not result in the exact same varietal that they came from
5. General rule of thumb: water enough to keep the soil moist (not wet with standing water, please) until your plants acquire true leaves. Be gentle while your sprouts are establishing roots. You will likely be watering once a day when it doesn’t rain.
6. Putter around your garden at least once a day. Clear away any encroaching plants that you don’t want in there; these interlopers can crowd out and steal nutrients from the plants you do want in there.
7. Observe what happens. Do research and/or make adjustments if you’re worried.

If you’re thinking about a traditional vegetable garden, I recommend growing marigolds and a nightshade like tomatoes. Both of these plants reseed themselves easily for the next season. Marigolds in particular are hearty, colorful, and repel a number of garden pests. Tomatoes might not thrive in all conditions, but most animals aren’t interested in eating the greens or fruits, so they have a fighting chance compared to beans or salad greens.

Speaking from experience

The first garden I remember having was a small plot at a rental house. I was probably four or five years old. Our nearest neighbor had a yard full of pine trees, so the ground was probably acidic and partly shaded. I remember mole traps all over their yard, so there were definitely critters nearby that could have been a threat. Here’s what it looked like:

We had no borders or fencing. A keen eye can spot the marigolds on the left end of the tilled dirt. The wooden structure is a swing, not part of the growing setup. I know for sure we grew tomatoes here, and likely other vegetables and flowers as well. This house was in a county that might have been zone 6b at the time but is currently 7a.

The garden at our next house looked very similar but was larger and was bordered by thick railroad ties until they rotted away and were replaced by cinder blocks. It was in the same zone but a less dry climate. That in-ground garden lasted for 20 years, grew in size, and produced extensively until the soil started to deplete.

From humble beginnings, gardens can grow. The startup costs can be minimal. The variety can be limited. The amount of time you have to put into it can be constrained by more important things.

“Mistakes” will be made, and that’s how it should be, because they’re not really mistakes. Just try something different next time. Our current neighbors optimistically start a garden in the back corner of their yard every year. Sometimes the corner is overgrown with weeds and bears little fruit at the end of the season, but little is lost by clearing it out each spring with good intentions and a couple dollars’ worth of seeds at hand.