The 20-30 Something Garden Guide. Dee Nash

       INTRODUCTION

      ANYONE CAN BE A GARDENER. You don’t need a lot of space to get great results, and you certainly don’t have to be an expert. You just have to know a few key things to do and some things not to do. All you need is a step-by-step guide and, ideally, a knowledgeable friend to help you along the way. Have you ever wished someone would just show you how to get started and stand by you?

       No one is born with a brown thumb

      People often come up to me after talks and at the garden center and say they would love to garden but can’t because they have a brown thumb. My reply is that no one is born with a brown thumb, or a green one for that matter. Gardening is a skill learned by trial and error. It could also be compared to a sport like cycling, baseball or running. You need a coach to help you get started and then lead you through the joys and pitfalls everyone experiences. So, abandon the old myth that you are naturally a good or bad gardener. If you want to learn to garden, grab a coach and go for it!

       Gardening is one part artistic endeavor and one part craft

      I can teach you the craft of gardening. I’m a third generation Oklahoman. In my wild and woolly state, I know something about weather extremes and other difficulties that can plague a garden. As part of the Great American Prairie, Oklahoma’s weather is very unpredictable. Those spring storms really do come sweeping down the plains with rain, hail and even tornadoes. While other states enjoy the good old summertime, we face oppressive heat, and in the winter, bouts of extreme cold. Oklahoma gardeners suffer drought just like Texas and Arizona gardeners, and when rainfall does come, it falls in torrents. Perhaps you read about the Dust Bowl in school, or watched Ken Burns’ special on PBS, but my grandparents lived it. They grew gardens despite desperate circumstances, and they came through the Great Depression largely due to the produce they grew and the chickens they raised.

       Needless to say, I come from hardy stock

      I’ve grown food for as long as I can remember. My earliest memories are of my grandmother’s garden, a highly productive vegetable plot with fruit trees and climbing roses in her small, urban backyard. I distinctly remember my white baby shoes contrasted against dark earth as I toddled behind her. I also see my grandfather standing beneath an apple tree, its limbs hanging low with rich, red fruit. Their apple trees grew in a portion of the chicken yard where they raised Rhode Island Red hens. Raising chickens was not a fad. Those chickens ate bugs, like the codling moths that plague apple trees. Each day, they also provided eggs for my grandparents’ table.

      Although I didn’t begin gardening until I started with indoor plants in my teens, my grandparents shared their experience with me. Later, when I moved to my first home, the first thing I planted was a rose. I called my grandmother right after I dug the hole. She was overjoyed because I was carrying on her gardening traditions. Now, I want to pass this knowledge on to you. The artistic side of the gardening experience is something you’ll be discovering for yourself.

       Food, foliage, flowers . . . and the artist in you

      Gardening takes effort, but in growing your own vegetables, fruit and flowers, you gain far more than the time you put into it. You get outdoor exercise and you learn more about your home, the Earth. You get time away from the computer screen, too. You will also enrich your life in ways you never expected. Nothing beats birdsong in the morning while you water or weed. Nothing.

       Why garden?

      1. MONEY. A packet of seeds will yield a tremendous amount of food or flowers. Any plant you place in the garden produces more fruit than you can imagine. Compare the price of a seed packet with a few bags of produce from the local farmers’ market and you’ll never completely rely on stores again.

      2. FOOD. Vegetables and fruits you pick straight from the vine taste better. Because you have control of their growing environment, you know they aren’t genetically modified or covered in chemicals. Take care of your garden, and it will, in turn, provide you and your family with fresh produce, much of which can’t be bought in stores, especially at the peak of freshness. Grow unique things like goji berries or blueberries. You can in your garden, and they aren’t costly like store-bought.

      3. FLOWERS. Fresh flowers are food for the soul and shouldn’t be left out of any garden. Most store-bought flowers have been shipped from far-away countries, where they are laced with chemicals and fumigants, and the companies growing them employ workers who don’t earn a living wage. The scent is bred out of many commercial flowers in order to achieve those “perfect,” long-lasting blooms. But you can grow natural flowers, scented and beautiful.

      4. BEAUTY. Intangible benefits are just as important as the more practical ones. A garden – even if it’s a deck or patio – is a place to bring forth the artist in you, and to feed your senses. When you consider the almost infinite shapes, textures and colors of plants and containers, and all the ways they can be arranged, your garden space is a canvas just waiting for you.