Amber,
There's alot of good reading here on Bill's main
pages...
The Garden Helper Take one section at a time...
and read thru it....
I also was new to gardening, *had gardened with parents, but wasn't much help to them, :rolleyes: except for the "Eatin'" part...
but when I started to do it for myself here,
I got every FREE gardening book I could get my hands on, the one's that want to sell you something, have great FREE information too...
And after you read them, sooner or later something's going to sink in and stick with you and you'll JUST KNOW!!!
And along the way, while you're reading all of that free info, there's lot's of pictures, and you'll read so many magazines and catalog's,
you'll just start reconizing
plants, leaves,
flowers, just by looking at them....
And when you pay attention to what section you're in in certain books/catalogs/magazines, you'll start to remember all the same
plants in the same catagory together, like Hosta's and Lungworts'
and which are grouped together, liking what conditions and all sorts of similar things....
I curl up with hundreds' of books in the winter time too...and when I go to bed, and when I'm in the car waiting to pick up the kid from school and when my husband is driving in the car, and you get the point, I like to read, I like to look at the pictures the best
and most of all it's TRIAL AND ERROR..
and I watch
plants...
and what they do under the conditions they're given, or NOT given...
And you'd be surprised what you learn, when you're busy and your gardening time is shortened, you learn what survives with out you, you learn what babies look like, cause you're not in a hurry to
weed :rolleyes: and you learn that one year you had rust on your
Hollyhocks and malvia's and the next you didn't..and you start to think to yourself, what was different last year that happened this year.. NO RAIN early in the season. and real dry...
You learn that certain
plants will bloom better because they got a TON OF RAIN in the
spring, and the next season when it's dry, there's no blooms..
and it's little things like that, after time under your belt in the garden, that you'll learn.
and be a more confident gardener...
Never stop soaking up as much information as you can about gardening,
plants, habitats and people who garden... There's a whole exciting world out there where the
plants dare to grow and those who love them follow!!!!!
Weezie