Probably an Odd Request for Those of You Who Are Gardeners

M.,

Thanks for asking this question - I hope to learn something new!

Heather mentioned raised bed gardening - that was a great suggestion. Just google it to find out more, and you can also find pre-made beds for various prices. That is apparently an easy way to get into gardening, from what I've read. I'm going to find the book she recommended, since I've wanted to do this for a long time. Good luck!

You should check out a book called "Square Foot Gardening". It's a very easy method of raised bed gardening & is a good place for a beginner to start. You can probably find it at the library.

Soil preparation is key, as is choosing the spot for your garden. Depending upon what you want to grow, make sure that you'll get enough sun, particularly in spring and fall. For our 16 x 16 backyard garden, we spent $70 last year for 2 pickup loads of organic compost (we picked it up ourselves, using friends' pickups). We called together some friends to help (with whom we then shared our ABUNDANT harvest), and did this: till up the whole plot, then dig down 1 1/2 ft and put all the soil to the side. spread all the compost in your garden, then shovel the dirt back on top, and till the whole thing together (no, you should NOT be doing this yourself while pregnant! get DH and some neighbors to pitch in!). The soil should be loose. Plant your seeds in rows (check out the book "Texas Organic Gardening" to decide what to plant and how to care for it), and DO NOT walk on where you plant! The looser the soil the better! We water daily in the summer with a drip irrigation system (which isn't restricted by town watering rules, while sprinklers are). Fertilize occasionally. If you start with good soil, you'll be AMAZED by how much you can grow in this climate! Cooler weather plants do great if you plant them Labor day, then harvest in November.

This year, we've constructed compost bin, and get our neighbors to "donate" their food and yard waste, so we won't have to buy compost! GL!

I'm sure any of the ladies in our Colleyville Garden Club would LOVE to help you. They have a passion for gardening and love to share their knowledge.

Check wit your city, many have free to nearly free classes. You can aslo buy Mulch at a really good price through Plano.

You might try contacting the water department for your city. The Irving water department often offers gardening and landscaping classes for free to residents and the classes are taught by an expert who answers your questions throughout the class. I loved it and it gave me lots of information I didn't know about growing things in this part of the country and the types of plants I should look for.

M., Gardening is my favorite way to relieve stress. I share your frustrations with getting things to grow in our peanut-butter soil. Others have given you great tips to help things grow in our climate. The place that has provided me with the most common-sense advice that I can refer to on an ongoing basis is at www.dirtdoctor.com by Howard Garret. He also has an awesome book called "Plants of the Metroplex" and "Organic Gardening." Wells Brothers in Plano sells his books, and I also believe many garden centers around the Metroplex do as well. We have also found that planting seeds produced much more harvest than by purchasing plants at the garden centers. Another good source is Neil Sperry. He has a radio show on Saturday and Sunday mornings at AM KRLD 1080. Good luck!

We are FAR from experts by any means but we enjoy home grown tomatoes and fresh herbs.

We got a lot of good advice from Lowe's and Home Depot.

Due to the dirt around here, my hubby found the best spot for our tomatoes, herbs and roses. He dug the area out, filled it with "seeding soil" from Home Depot. This soil is about $6/bag. We then planted and we had a great year. The roses were beautiful.

Also, we have an aquarium and we were told that when we change out the water, to use the water we remove for the garden It works.

This year, we are adding blueberry bushes to our area.

I know the soil is very expensive but it is worth it. We have a huge treed lot with a lot of shade and had a hard time getting our St Augustine to grow. Only after we had 2 pallets of this soil delivered, some peat moss and then pallets of grass delivered and put down did we see major improvement. It was worth all the sweat equity.

So do you tutor Spanish? Just a thought.... I'm always looking for a good enrichment counselor for my daughter. She is in Spanish now and has 2 yrs to go to complete the requirements for Plano graduation.

Hi M.! I'm also due in May with #2, a girl too! Congrats!

I'm surprised no one mentioned Calloways. They offer free soil tests to get your soil prepared for what you want to plant. They also offer free classes every Sat in the Spring to answer your gardening questions. One thing that makes Calloway's different than say the big box stores is that they ONLY buy plants that are proven to do well in TX.

If you go to You Tube and search for My Texas Garden, they even have many how-to videos! Good luck and send me a PM if you have anymore questions! :)

I know you said no money but TCU offers gardening courses for anybody. You dont have to be a student. They arent pricey at all and teach you alot. Good Luck. I cant get anything to live but an aloe vera plant that I only look at once every 3 months and somehow it grows a mile a month.

Hi M.

I was a professional gardener in England (a totally different climate but you just have to adapt to other varieties of plants) and I would be more than happy to help you with your project.
I have a friend who lives in south Dallas and I have helped her since she started growing her own vegetable garden three years ago and the results are really good because she discovered a passion.
You see, gardening is about being passionate, having a thirst for knowledge because you have to keep on learning all the time. It's also about experiments that succeed.... or not. And commitment.
I have two concerns regarding your request:
You say that you will give birth in May. (congratulations, by the way!). So you won't be fit for the hard physical work that gardening requires, especially in the beginning, when you want to establish a new garden. So my question is: who will be doing it?
You say that your budget is limited, but you need quite a bit of investment to start your project. You may need to rent some machinery to prepare the soil, you will need some tools, seeds, pots, plants, and all kind of things. Can you afford all that?
I won't be asking you for money, gardening is for me such a pleasure that it's a reward in itself.
So if you want to talk about it, please send me a message and we'll see what we can do.

F.