Beginning Gardening
Over the last few years I became super interested in gardens through watching Monty Don’s shows and was eager to one day try my hand at it. Living in New York we had a few houseplants, but it just wasn’t the same for me. Now that we have our own backyard, I’ve gone full force into gardening and wanted to share more about my experience and how I got started.
I’m definitely not an expert and one of the things I love most about gardening is that it’s loosened my perfectionist tendencies—lots of learning, making mistakes, killing some plants—and taught me to have more patience and gratitude. I really love the time I spend each day in my garden and hope you can find that too in some way! It’s so calming and grounding.
RESEARCH + planning
Before I began buying plants or sowing seeds, I spent a lot of time gathering inspiration images and writing down plants I liked. It’s really important to look up which hardiness zone you live in so you can see which plants will be good to grow in your specific zone. In Los Angelees, we live in zone 10b. I love the look of English gardens, but since we live in such a warm climate, not everything will work here. Watching Gardener’s World gave me so much inspiration for gardening, as well as tons of tips and basic knowledge to get started. In addition to watching Monty Don, I turned to a few books and people to help me get started.
First, I decided I wanted to grow a climbing rose against one of our walls. I decided to order a bare root rose from David Austin Roses (I have ‘Claire Austin’) to try my hand at growing myself vs. buying a potted rose plant. Their website is incredibly helpful when it comes to choosing a perfect rose plant for your zone and needs, and they also have lots of informative videos and guides to make planting and growing your roses easier. I planted my bare root rose back in February and it’s just started to bloom this week—it’s so satisfying seeing it’s growth!
I also knew I wanted to try growing plants from seed in a raised bed. I decided on a mix of flowers and vegetables and did a lot of research on what I wanted to grow. Thomas and his website, Garden Tom, have been a great resource for me during this process. I also purchased this book, Square Foot Gardening, which is a wealth of knowledge on this type of growing. The concept is that you can grow so much in one square foot vs. traditional rows.
For growing flowers, I highly recommend checking out Floret Flower, not only for their seeds, but also for their informative videos and guides. Another helpful resource is this book by House & Garden UK’s garden editor, Clare Foster.
GROWING
After I did my research on what I wanted to grow, I started getting all of the necessary supplies. If you’re growing from seed, you’ll need a decent amount of supplies, but you can also be inventive and do it in cost-saving ways. This video from Floret Flower and this post from Garden Tom are helpful in outlining what you need to get started. Growing from seed is a really great way to get a lot of plants at very low cost, and it’s so satisfying to look at your garden and know you grew it from seeds!
In my raised bed, I am growing: little gem lettuce, cucumbers, romanesco tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, spinach, nasturtiums, sweet peas, poppies, pin cushions, sweet alyssum and three different varieties of cosmos—purity, cupcake and bright lights.
During my seed sowing process and planting out / growing, I definitely made mistakes and whenever I had a question, I would turn to my books. Also, a quick Google search can usually get you an a quick answer and advice on how to fix. I’ve done this many times when I notice something happening to my seedlings or plants.
SHOP GARDEN GEAR
