Gardening! Any tips?

Tomatoes are excellent...just tame them as they grow (with a wire cage) or they will take over everything!

Also, google different vegetables and plants and find out their sturdiness. We have a garden and I can't wait to replant it with Spring just around the corner!

I grow a large weedpatch....err garden every year which consists of potatoes,tomatoes,summer and zucchini squash,sweet corn,lettuce,eggplant,green bell peppers and onions.
It is upstate NY so danger of frost all through May so be careful about setting out tomatoes too early.

Asparagus is easy to grow and will come back every year, if you take care of it! Loved having it around in Indiana! It'll take over your garden, so plant it in it's own area.

It all depends on your 'zone' and just exactly how far north you are. In northern Michigan it really isn't 'safe' to plant until after Mother's Day usually. Depending on how big of a garden, you can always go out and cover the plants to avoid frost damage in the early part of the season as well. What grows well in my 'colder climate' are tomatoes, beans, peas, zucchini, cucumbers, potatoes, herbs (yumm....basil is fantastic!), carrots (these do GREAT because they can withstand cold temperatures), and we always grow some pumpkins for the kiddos. I've tried bell peppers a few times, but I've found the best way to grow these in a northern climate is in pots. I've had much better luck growing them this way rather than directly in the ground. And Corn...? Forget it! We don't have a long enough growing season up here in the north country....

Good luck and have fun!

I live in Ohio, have never gardened before and am going to be starting my first one this year! Yesterday I discovered: http://www.burpee.com/ where I can type in my zip code, find my growing zone, and even get a calender as to when to plant certain crops! ENJOY and HAVE FUN!

Congrats!

My biggest suggestion is to do a quick batch of research on what you want to grow. For example, I decided to try out zucchini and yellow squash last year...turns out that where I live squash bugs run rampant. I learned that the hard way...after I lost all of my plants to them. And check when things are supposed to mature, again, my example is my growing broccoli and cauliflower down here in the south where it matured in hot June - they need cold temps - the broc tasted like tires.

Let me your example of what NOT to do. Check out the plants before you purchase them. But it really was a blast to get the berries and other stuff that were successful. Fresh picked food is so awesome!

To add to that also take note that those cute little squirrels and bunnies you see now will become your mortal enemy as soon as there are vegetables growing.
They may even invite friends like woodchucks and deer to the feast you have provided.

Burpee is a good resource for planting tips. I'm in northwest IN, zone 5. I am roping off a section of my horse pasture for a garden this year. I have 7 acres and no other place to plant thanks to all our trees! I am starting 2 kinds of tomatoes and bell peppers this weekend. I also need to get my basil going.

Since I'll be inside the electric fence, I shouldn't have problems with deer, etc. My issue last year was caterpillars because I put containers of tomatoes and peppers too close to my butterfly garden.

Gardening is soooo much fun! I have helped my father with our garden and we have grown so much goodies it has been awesome. We have grown Gherkins, silverbeet, cabbages, lettuces, 3 different varieties of tomatoes, corn, rhubarb, herbs, beans, peas, spinach, so much, we have been making preserves from the fruit trees we have in our garden and been pickling onion and gherkins and pumping out chutneys and relishes it is such a rewarding thing to do.
My suggestion though is to find a book that will tell you what is best to grow in your particular climate and start gardening that way, then you can practice. We grew EVERYTHING from seed, it was hard work, buying little seedlings is probably better to start with but find a garden shop and they will help you out with the best thing for your climate etc because not all plants like the heat or the cold. have fun and happy gardening! You will love it!!!!!

If you're just getting started with gardening FOCUS your efforts on vegetables that you and your family will eat, you're going to be busting your butt out there keeping weeds under control, watering the plants, enjoying the harvest but it's a nuisance to have a bumper crop of something your family won't even eat!

We dropped $200 on seeds last year, and while the crop we got more than paid that back, still eating potatoes from the garden, rhubarb and raspberry plants got started last year but they will take til this year to produce, assuming that the others clipping them early didn't affect them. Carrots did splendidly, beets... only got half a dozen zucchini. tomatoes, spinach, peppers were all a write-off. Didn't help that my earliest seed starts were a failure due to a week long trip across country so they didn't get the care they should have had. IF there's no big trip this year the harvest will be better.

Also I didn't have enough garden space to put in for strawberries, but that didn't stop me from going to the local berry farm for flat after flat of berries that I'm still enjoying having frozen a lot of them, I've also enjoyed the peaches that I canned this past summer.

Get stuff that you will make use of!

Raspberries - if from the started canes should produce in the second year
Rhubarb - from dormant bulb should produce in the second year
Blueberries - can take something like 7 years to establish to a sizable harvest

I'm still looking at putting in some apple trees and maybe some nuts if I can find ones that will grow locally.

Rhubarb! I think I may try that this year. I love rhubarb.

I like to grow my veggies and flowers together. Helps with pollination and I like the butterflies.

Just be careful with that... I seriously lost all my tomatoes and peppers last year because of the closeness to my butterfly garden. I gave up and turned them over to the caterpillars.