March 6, 2009

Help me, Martha. Help; help me, Martha.


I want to learn how to garden. I have zero yard experience. I've never even cut the grass. Seriously. I'm sure when I was little, I helped plant things, but I have no current knowledge of how to do this. We have a pretty good sized yard, front & back, & it needs some TLC. We need practical things like bushes for privacy, but we also need flowers for curb appeal. Aside from not knowing how to plant things, I also have zero knowledge of what to buy. Nor do I know what the difference is between all the 1,000,000 types of plants & flowers. Basically, I don't know what to buy, when to buy it, when to plant it, or how to plant it. I need help. I need Martha. I keep reading her magazines & it looks so easy. Buy it, dig a hole, plant it, success. I've asked my friends with yards what I need to know, how do they know what to buy, etc. & they keep saying they don't know either; they just buy what they like, plant it & hope it works out. This doesn't help me.

I thought about buying a beginner book on gardening, but I'm afraid that won't really help me. I feel like this is going to be something I need to learn hands-on. I did get one good piece of advice from my friend Jaime. She & her husband have a really nice yard -really nice, but she said they went crazy with it & regret it now because they're too busy to keep it up. That is totally something I would do -go batshit crazy planting things & then cuss myself the next year when I had to maintain it.

I have an uncle with a landscaping business & he's offered to come help me figure out a plan & then buy the stuff for me at cost. I guess I need to start there. I'm just afraid he's going to come up with some grand scheme that will cost a lot of money & basically I just want some flowers....

4 comments:

Jessica Wilson said...

I pretty much have a black thumb and am notorious for killing plants, but here are a few things I've managed to keep alive over the years: pansies, irises, petunias (the hanging basket kind), and marigolds. The main thing I've learned is that when it gets hot and dry outside, you pretty much have to devote time to watering them every other day (which I usually fail to do).

Mom said...

Wow, I can't believe you have overlooked the original "Help me Rhonda, Help, help me Rhonda! Maybe I need to do some solid prison time to get recognition...

The Blonde Mule said...

Mom, I promise, if you get sent to prison for securities fraud, or anything else, I'll plant something in your honor, ha ha.

Emotional Mullet said...

Throw some daffodils in the yard; they come in a range of white to bright yellow. I'm telling ya: low maintenance. They just pop up when they are ready!

I'm learning how to deal with the garden I inherited. I screwed up some iris bulbs last year, but made up for it by planting some Stargazer lilies - which are coming back!

Get this free catalog. They will tell you what to buy when/plant when and how the plants will do in our zone.

http://springhillnursery.com/default.asp?t=xx&eid=081506&sid=411065&gclid=CJid5dqjnZkCFSBinAodRwoZDA&bhcd2=1236857043

My verification word is "ponyted"

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