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And here you’ll find everything you need to start your garden, whether you’re growing vegetables, flowers, herbs, or a combination of plants.  Here you can obtain seeds, gardening tools, containers, soil, information…  Everything but a green thumb.

Although, if you take advantage of the informational resources linked to below, you’ll eventually develop the green thumb, too.  Check out the books and magazines on gardening and horticulture, as well as the instructional videos and the list of the best gardening websites.  Everything you need to know to get your garden growing is covered here.

When you think about it, T. S. Eliot had April all wrong — it’s not the cruelest month; it’s the month of possibility, when the soil is warming and seeds are beginning to stir.  It’s the month of renewed potential.  And you can take advantage of it by getting your garden started now.  Then you can enjoy the fruits of your labor all summer long and into the fall (and during the winter if you do some canning or preserving).  Plus your friends and neighbors will enjoy it, too, especially if you plant zucchini (which you can never eat all of).

Anyway, Eliot wasn’t much of a gardener.

And it just so happens that April is National Gardening Month.  So with all that springtime momentum going for you, it’s time to get started.

First, you need something to plant, and for that Generic Seeds has you covered.

Seeds

Generic Seeds carries a wide variety of seeds — all non-GMO (genetically modified organism) – for low prices.  They have vegetable seeds, herbs, and flowers.  They carry heirloom and open-pollinated seeds.  (Open pollination is the natural, uncontrolled way that some plants reproduce, as opposed to cross-pollination that produces hybrids.  Open pollination can produce varied plants that adapt to local conditions.  These plants also produce seed that can be saved and used from one generation to the next.)   All of their products are guaranteed.  Many start at only $1.39 for a packet that contains more seeds than you’ll usually find in commercial seed packets, and they offer free shipping on orders over $20.

 

To the right is an example of one of their open-pollination varieties of corn — the Golden Bantam, which produces kernels that are tender, milky, and an excellent source of vitamins and minerals.

 

Click here, or on the banner below to explore their site…

 

 

 

Generic Seeds carries over 30 varieties of tomato seeds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

More than 35 varieties of peppers….

 

 

 

 

 

6 varieties of carrots…

 

 

 

 

 

And more beans than you can shake an aerator at…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check out their collection of valuable heirloom seeds:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And of course they have many varieties of flower seeds as well, along with seeds to grow an entire herb garden, including a culinary herb kit…

 

 

 

And to get those seeds started, you can take advantage of all their growing supplies, including domed sprouting trays…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And if you need something to actually put the seeds in to start them – i.e., dirt — or you’re going to be doing some indoor gardening, you can find potting soil here and here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Garden Tools

To work that soil, cultivate, weed, prune, and so forth, you’ll need tools.  There are a number of fine companies that make good gardening tools.  One thing to look for is the use of forged stainless steel, and in that regard you can’t do any better than Corona Tools — an industry leader, setting the standard for tools for both professional and home gardeners for  over 80 years.  (See a video review of one of their products below.)  You can find an excellent selection of Corona Tools from Sears and Buy.com for good prices, including an extendable-handle cultivator that telescopes to improve your reach and comfort (see video review of an earlier model from Corona below).

You’ll probably need a shovel to get started.  Sears carries an excellent, all-purpose Craftsman long-handle, round-point shovel with a fiberglass handle that is inexpensive, versatile, and  rugged:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maybe you’re working with clay, however, so you might to start with a mattock.  Here’s a rugged Craftsman mattock with a 5-pound head: 

 

 

 

 

 

For further tilling the soil, try a spading fork, and when it comes time to start planting, you can use this versatile Corona Planting Mattock…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, you just might want a power rototiller:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To move dirt and stuff around, a wheelbarrow is indispensable – or better yet, a garden cart (easier to lift, dumps easily, etc.):

 

For that, get a Lifetime Yard Cart.  It holds 10 cubic feet of soil or whatever you need to haul around — up to 650 pounds in weight.  It’s got side pockets to hold tools, as well as cup holders.  (You can’t beat a wheelbarrow with cup holders!)  It will convert to a towable trailer and the bed lifts and tilts forward easily to dump loads.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are general links to the best sources of garden tools, equipment, accessories, and products on the Web:

• BIC Warehouse
• Sears Lawn and Garden
• Capitol Supply
• Buy.com
• Safer Brand
• Gardener’s Supply Company
  

In addition to the list of companies above, you should also spend some time browsing through the gardening section of Green and More for environmentally-friendly garden products, including composters, rain barrels, and greenhouses. If you really want to get more environmentally-friendly with your gardening — and your lifestyle in general — Green and More has what it takes.

Note:  Save 10% on any order at GreenandMore.com using coupon code SPRING2011GAMCJ. Enter code at checkout.  Expires 5/31/11.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Information for developing your green thumb — planting, seed starting, how to grow specific types of plants, and more

Speaking of having what it takes, I mentioned that you would be able to find here things that would help you develop a green thumb.  There’s no need to be intimidated when it comes to starting a garden.  There’s a ton of free info on the web, and there are magazines and books that can help you get started, solve problems, inspire you, give you new ideas, and answer your questions.

For example, if you can grow plants in Colorado’s harsh conditions, you can grow them just about anywhere.  Accordingly, you should check out this series of gardening videos offered by the Daily Camera, Boulder, Colorado’s local newspaper.  Carol O’Meara, a horticulturalist and agricultural extension agent at Colorado State University, tells you pretty much everything you need to know to get your garden started, including how to plant peas, spinach, lettuce, rhubarb, and horseradish.  Click here to see the series.  Below is an example of the videos.  This one shows how to start seeds…

 

Carol mentions what to shop for to create your garden — tools, seeds, equipment, etc. — and you can actually find all that stuff through the links in this post.  Why go out and drive all over town when you can get everything online, delivered to your door?

Here’s an article on seed starting from the Mother Earth News website.  Mother Earth News is one of the premier sources of information on organic gardening, traditional skills, green living, self-sufficiency, alternative energy, home businesses, and related topics.  Just about any gardener can find something useful in this publication.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 List of the Best Websites On Gardening

On the web, in addition to the National Gardening Association, one of the best places for regularly-updated info on gardening is Marie Iannotti’s page at About.com: Gardening.  She has put together many how-to articles. 

Another site worthy of exploration is WebGarden, created by Ohio State University.  They have a searchable database of plant photos, over 200 videos explaining many aspects of gardening, and 800 questions on gardening answered in their FAQ section. 

You can get many of your personal questions answered by going to the Helpful Gardener Gardening Forum (a Business Week “Best of the Web” winner). 

And finally, check Dave’s Garden for a vast array of articles, videos, and 253 forums on gardening.

 

Informative and Inspiring Gardening Magazines

In addition to Mother Earth News, there are several other excellent magazines on gardening that will inspire you and help with everything from planting to canning your produce.  Click on the images to below to check them out and subscribe — often for a good discount:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Best Books on Gardening  (tried-and-true gardening classics)

And then there are the books.  There are almost as many books on gardening as there are cookbooks, but you only need three to get started.  Each is a classic.  Here they are (click the images):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Those three will get you started with all of the basics and more.  If you live in the west, you should get Sunset’s Western Garden Book instead of the National Garden Book.  It’s the go-to guide for western gardeners, from beginners to experts.

Finally, here’s a video of Manny Howard, who undertook a project to feed himself and his family for a month on what he could produce from a small plot of land in the middle of Brooklyn.  He didn’t know much about gardening but he’d heard about the localization movement and decided to delve into it.  He taught himself the basics, learned through trial and error, and things were looking pretty good.  Then the tornado hit.  That wasn’t the end, though…  He wrote a book about his experience.  Gardeners, and anyone who attempts to push the envelope, should find it fascinating (that’s the book’s cover at the top of this post).

Best of luck with your own empire of dirt, large or small.

 

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