I want to start a garden. Where do I start?

by laying out your area...i use spray paint anytime i am trying to figure out the size in my yard for anything...then have the ground tilled up with a tiller....unless your going raised beds??

This has a lot of variables to it, like in the ground, raised, or tubbed garden. We will go with in the existing ground. First, gather your tools, fertilizers, potting soil, plants, seeds, and hose. Till the ground with a tiller, or break it up and chop it until it is loose with no huge clumps. Now you will want to empty the bag of potting soil and mix it with your tilled soil. Lay out your plant/seeds into rows the way you want them. Plant them at least 8-10 inches apart to allow for growth of smaller plants and at least a foot apart for larger plants (tomatoes, beans, etc.) Apply Miracle Grow after planting according to its directions to make sure you plants are getting enough nourishment. If you find you like gardening you can get into prepping your ground in the fall for next year's plants by balancing soil ph, and proper nitrogen, as well, as a host of other soil preps for the serious gardening next spring. This will give you a taste of what it is like to grow your own foods to see if it is for you. Enjoy!

Do you want to start a vegetable garden, or improve the look of the front of your house with new flower beds? A good way to start is by finding out what planting zone you are in, meaning the seasonal temperature range. That will make a difference to the kinds of plants you can expect to do well. Walk around your neighborhood and look at what kinds of plants are doing well and whether they appeal to you, and the way they look around the house and each other. Take pictures so you can match them up with plants that are for sale in your local stores, or in catalogs. Some of the catalogs feature a pre-designed "shade garden" or "spring blooming garden," with a sketch of the design, how large an area to place it in, and you can order all the plants you need. It's laid out like a recipe.

Before you buy anything, look at your house on a sunny day and check which parts of your yard get sun or shade and how many hours. You don't want to put a plant that requires "full sun" in a spot that gets less than 6 hours of sunlight because it won't do well in the wrong spot. You can make a plan of where you want your garden beds to be and how you want them to look by sketching it out. There are also programs online to help you create a garden plan, though these are generally ambitious.

If you want to start a vegetable garden, you must have a sunny area in your back yard. Many communities don't allow you to have a cornfield on your front lawn!

Don't think that you have to have a finished garden -BOOM! -all at once, like on the TV shows. Plant a small area now, see what does well, then in the fall or next spring start to expand.

One of my great pleasures is to visit a botanical garden in my area and see what they are growing, and I often find plants that I have never seen. These will often do well because they are growing in the same climate as where I live.

Enjoy yourself. :)

@Roberta. One of the stereotypes is of the gardener who spends all winter, pouring over seed magazines, making lists and diagrams of what will be planted in the spring. Well, you need to be a little like that gardener. You have already been given some very good advice, but you need to decide what you want to see when you look at your garden. I suggest you start small, but if you have the land, time and money, go as big as you want. You can always share your bounty with people you know, or with complete strangers, with a smile! Best wishes.

This post might help https://chascrazycreations.com/garden-101/