I think most of the responses come from personal experience...which, to me, is the best to learn from. I get my plant info from doing, but also from reading. Whether it's on-line or from books. Nothing beats just going out there and planting it, and watching it grow (or die.) You learn either way.

i was told.. many years ago.. that you are not a gardener.. until you have killed every plant in your garden 3 times ...

so.. i have worked hard on killing the first 2.. and then learning from my mistakes .... rotflmbo ...

here i will make it very simple for you [presuming you are not working in clay] ...

there are ONLY 3 variables: SUN, WATER, and SOIL ...

insert plant.. preferably roots down [though there are many that will live the opposite way] ...

once planted .. INSURE proper water

and plant the right plant.. in the right sun requirements ...

you do that .. and you should succeed 90% of the time .. period ...

i do it in sand.. glacial mineral sand.. no ferts.. no soil amendments.. no nothing ... and no chemicals ... unless a certain bug is threatening the life of a plant ... all that stuff is icing on the cake.. so what if somebodies is 3 foot tall.. and mine is one foot tall ... and all those other variables are where you are becoming overloaded with information and opinions.. and all this other stuff ..

insert roots down.. and water .. thats it ...

now.. down the line.. spreading some compost.. to improve your soil.. would be great ...

gardening is my aerobics.. and my therapy.. it should be yours also ... if you are spending a lot of time worrying about it all.. well... you are just going about it all wrong ...

just do it .. they will grow ... and as time goes by.. you will learn ...

good luck

ken

PS: if you are in clay.. consider moving.. or making sure the next house you buy it has good soil .. when i moved here.. this was the priorities

SOIL
Acreage
House
and then a bunch of other stuff ....

PPS: there are ways to fix clay.. but that isnt your subject ....

In addition to jumping into the experience,I would suggest:

* subscribing to Fine Gardening and Horticulture magazines.

* taking classes at a nearby horticultural institution

* searching out the best books in your area of interest and using them. (there have been a number of posts about this on GW; do a search for 'best books'.)

* making friends with other gardeners- newbies and/or mentors. Be aware of great gardens in your town/area; ring the doorbell and introduce yourself to the owners and ask for suggestions.They may know of a person, group, maybe even themselves, who would welcome and help you. Sometimes local garden clubs have members who are actually knowledgable, but sometimes that is not the case.

* Join The Garden Conservancy(based in your own state) and/or subscribe to The Garden Conservancy Open Days directory so you can go on 'Open Days' tours of the best gardens in your region.

The more focussed and passionate you are, the more you will learn.

best,
mindy

Everything arbo retum said!! Besides reading all kinds of garden books and actually gardening for years I am loving the internet now and being able to just insert the plant name in my search engine...right now I use google and then reading the different sites that it pulls up. Oh and I also joined a garden club which enables me to meet all kinds of new friends who also love gardening and I have learned so much from them too!
Joann

By a house, landscape every square inch, sell it, and be grateful everyday you don't still live there with all the small shrubs that will become 20' monsters even though they are planted 2' apart.
Start again in the new house with the promise that you will do it right.
Fast forward 10 years. Everything is an over grown mess.
Remove half of the shrubs.
Stop going to nurseries and garden centers. You now have enough enough plants for 3 yards.
Stop buying garden books. Stop propagating everything.
Start replacing all ordinary shrubs with unusual extraordinary plants. Give away all stella d'oro daylilies.
Decide a Japanese maple collection and a conifer garden are necessary.

"I was wondering if I could get some input from yall as to how you all know what you know." We all know what we know by being inquisitive as you are, even as we gain more and more knowledge. All of us, I presume, have been gardening for quite some time and even with the knowledge and experience we have, we still act like sponges wanting more water when the opportunity presents itself.

If anyone had told me many years ago that at my present age I would be raising butterflies, gardening without pesticides/insecticides, hot composting in the dead of winter, raising moths in my basement, lugging home 250 lbs of used coffee grounds to amend the gardens and lawn and throw into the compost on a weekly basis, gently moving spider webs instead of decimating them, etc, I would have told them they were crazy. Well, maybe I am, but it's my crazy and I like it!! :O) Welcome to the wonderful world of gardening. You will never be bored.

Another way to learn about plants & gardens: Find a public garden nearby and ask if they could use a volunteer. Be honest about your level of expertise. Some of them have volunteer programs in place, where they'll train you to do things the way they want them done.

You can learn from the professional horti-person in charge, meet other people who love gardening and get your hands dirty . . . all at the same time!

thanks so much everyone! your advice is amazing! i'm taking it all in for sure!!

ugh, how i wish it wasn't turning to winter with every passing day! Sigh!

My parents owned a garden centre for much of my childhood. I can remember pulling weeds and sweeping the floor, and hating both jobs with a passion. Neither of my parents were real gardeners.

I went to university to continue with the family enterprise, initially more interested in the business end, but then half-way through my degree, fell in love with plants. I've never looked back since.

Now I continue to work in the industry, all the while trying to garden with a young family, and share my passion with others.

"ugh, how i wish it wasn't turning to winter with every passing day! Sigh!"

Take heart, mumsymum. Please check out this link for enormously fun and wacky gardening in winter. Your winter will never be the same again and you won't even notice how quickly spring arrives.

Please check out this link for enormously fun and wacky gardening in winter.
Sorry, I didn't link it carefully.

I learned by doing = experience.

I also learn a great deal from others. I ask questions or ask for advice, and while I may not always choose to follow the advice, I do listen.

I learn from my mistakes, from past successes and failures.

I invested in some good gardening books, which I still refer to.

I've read gardening magazines (though I've let my subscriptions lapse), magazines are good for learning about plants I may not be familiar with and getting tips/tricks/design ideas. Often the photos in magazines are really inspiring.

I keep notes, particularly on annuals - what worked/didn't work, what combinations looked great, etc. Keeping detailed notes is also helpful if you get into seed starting. I have a gardening binder that I keep various clippings in (clippings from magazines, newpapers, web posts, etc) for easy reference, and I keep plant tags in there, too (when I remember to hang onto them) should I ever need to refer to them.

"...How Do Yall Know Everything?!..."

Well, I could tell you what I tell my kids - "I'm Mommy. I see all. I know all."

But I don't think that would work here, lol.

Experience. That's the main teacher - which means we are all still learning.

Reading. I'm not much on gardening books, (except for the ones with the pretty pictures, lol) but I do read magazines and do tons of research on plants before planting. (and after!)

Other gardeners. I love to talk gardening and I'm always open to new ideas, new methods, new concepts, new perceptions. It's amazing what you can learn from other gardeners, whether it's at a garden club meeting, a swap, a talk, or even just chatting with a stranger in a nursery.

Experiment. Just because something didn't grow for someone is no reason for me not to try it.

By the way, pitimpinai beat me to it, but I second her suggestion. Well, actually I didn't even look at her link but I'm assuming it to the winter-sowing forum. Winter-sowing will literally change your gardening world!

Also, winter is a great time to plan. You can look at your landscape, plan the bones, plan any structures, read seed catalogs, and dream of your garden to come.

Most importantly, keep that enthusiasm you obviously have! It will carry you far through the failures that are sure to come, and it will be renewed with every success (which are just as sure to come!). Just keep on planting!

:)
Dee

I have always been interested in gardening/plants/nature/animals and my parents nurtured that interest.
I started with houseplants when I was about twelve and outdoor plants soon after. I still have a spider plant I rooted from a relative's plant that is now 34 years old.

I really got into plants junior year of high school when I took horticulture and then senior year my school had a two hour class for horticulture where you had to work in the industry after school too. School had greenhouses and outdoor garden areas and was very advanced instruction, I dropped out of college because the horticulture classes were boring and basic.

I first worked at a nursery then switched to a flower shop because it was air conditioned. I was in Arizona.
I was a florist for over twenty years.

I have read dozen of books on gardening. I also went through the university extension Master Gardener Program when I moved to Oregon to learn all the new plants.

Nothing beats personal experience and since no one in my friends or family is even close to as interested as I am, finding gardeners online who are willing to share their experience has been fabulous.

I am still pretty new at this too. But, a couple things...
I DIDN'T have to work hard at killing everything 3 times (killing it was the easy part, keeping it alive is another), You WILL have enough plants for 3 yards eventually, and your garden is NEVER done. You will learn by trial and error (MANY errors first) before you stop killing everything and something eventually grows at all for you. Then, finally, somthing will grow halfway decent for you and youv'e got a good start.

Nobody knows everything about anything Mummsy! But that's a good thing. The way I see it, if you stop learning and growing, you might as well die. Good luck with your studies and career planning. Gardening or horticulture may not be the most lucrative career path - but if you can make a decent living at something you love, it is a win-win.

I've gardened 23 years as a hobby, and spend most of my free time doing garden things and most of my free cyber-time on gardening or plant websites. The Internet has been a FABULOUS thing - it puts vast databases of information and millions of other gardener's experiences at your fingertips. It has exponentially increased how much and how fast I am learning. There are still piles of books on the headboard of my bed, because I love to read about plants before drifting off to sleep.

I also recommend winter-sowing. Propogating your own plants from seed using this easy and fun method will enable you to grow and learn about SO many plants, you will be overwhelmed! I particulatly enjoy learning about a plant's entire growth cycle, from sprout to setting seed (even if it take 2 years to germinate and 5 or more years to flower!).

I didn't wake up one day and decide to garden! LOL I evolved!

I am a Southerner and growing in up in a small town, everyone just grew flowers... Just Because! My grandmother had a small house with a front yard and a side yard completely planted in flowers. Along one side of the back yard was her veggie garden. She inspired me.

My first few gardens were created completely from passalong plants. Back then (in the 70's) I didn't have to buy plants as I knew so many elderly folks who gave me all the plants I could use.

My first magazine subscription (given to me as a birthday gift each year beginning in the 70s) was Southern Living. I learned a lot from the garden articles to know to start looking for specific plants. Folks started giving me plant and garden books as gifts and I read, read and read.

By the 80's, I started buying from local grower/breeders - hostas and daylilies.

In the early 90's, I built a house in the woods, so started buying native plants for shade gardens. Most of what I learned was from a local grower/breeder/collector who took the time to educate me when I visited her farm nursery to buy plants.

Fast forward to this house, built 4 years ago in full sun and filled with deer and I had to completely relearn everything that I knew about gardening. No longer growing plants in moist, shady, rich soil, I had to haul in dump truck loads of good garden soil and learn about drought, 10 hours of sun and deer.

Out of this, I'm creating my own style of gardening as I am determined to garden with the deer and have a colorful garden. I think I'm doing okay and that same first magazine was here in July to photo my garden for use in a deer resistant garden story sometime next year.

Cameron

The question "how do you know everything" got my attention. I may meet someone who knows everything, but not before my death. At 81 years old my plants teach me something everyday, and I would not want it any other way. Al

You asked if anyone had been formally educated in horticulture and what that was like.

I confess to following this path :-) After growing up with gardening parents (they were English) and spending my early adulthood gardening and plant collecting, I turned my avocation into a career. I left the corporate world, returned to college and obtained a degree in ornamental horticulture and landscape design. I have spent the last 20 years or so working in the nursery industry, doing horticultural consultations and preparing garden designs. I don't make half the income I did in the financial world of my former life, but I get to work with plants and be outdoors, I am not confined to a desk and cubicle and can pretty much set my own schedule.

A lot of my plant knowledge came about experientially. I live in climate where we can grow just about anything and I had a large garden for nearly 25 years where I DID grow just about everything :-) At least for a period of time - I redesigned the garden several times, so plants got changed out a lot. Sometimes because I grew bored with them or they didn't perform as intended but just as often because my taste in plants changed over the years and to try out anything new generally required removing something old :-) And I work with a wide variety of plants on a daily basis -- you can't help picking stuff up, either from the growers and suppliers or from customers and clients. If a new plant calls to me -- and most of them do -- then I read as much about it as possible or take it home and grow it myself.

Continuing education is almost as strong a calling as all things horticultural - if I won the Lottery, you'd bet I'd be back in school - so I read endlessly, attend many lectures and join professional associations to take advantage of their seminars and classes. I am certified by several organizations in a variety of professional titles. The nursery industry and related trade associations and gatherings keep me on top of the latest plant introductions and the newest theories and techniques. It is a fascinating, rewarding and immensely pleasurable life.....as long as you don't measure your success in only monetary terms.

I'm a fly by the seat of your pants gardener LOL, gardening for over 50 years. My knowledge if you can call it that came mostly from hands on, trial and error :o). I worked for a very knowledgeable nurseryman in the late 60's, 70's, and that along with a lot of reading and research some of it sticked. After joining a Horticultural Society in the late 70's I got interested in judging, at first it was in Dahlias, but found after a few years I wanted to branch out so for 3 years I studied under 2 exceptional judges. I retired from this last year as the traveling around judging took me away from my own garden when it most needed my attention. I am an avid plant collector and when I get a new one I do as much research as I can on it. So my knowledge has come from years of mostly just doing.

Annette

Oh, and one more thing, unless someone else has already mentioned it, or something similar -- I'm (or we're) far from knowing "everything". I just got home from a three-day conference on perennials, and I'm still learning things, and that's half the fun.

coolplantsguy, a three day seminar on perennials, lucky you. I wish they had something like that around here and I agree with you, it doesn't matter how long you've been gardening we are forever learning and if you're lucky some of what you learn will stick.

Annette

This is such a fun thread to read!

Compared to most others here, I am a newbie too, with only 16 or so years of gardening experience :)

My mom has always been a gardener. We always had plants on top of plants in the yard growing up, so it was just the way it was. I never thought much about it, and never really had much interest in it. She would talk to me about what she was doing and why sometimes, and I listened rather absent-mindedly.

Then I got married and we bought a house. But...there were no plants! Where are the gardens? Only these pitiful foundation shrubs? You have got to be kidding me! This is not right at all! LOL I proceeded to try to plant every square inch of the yard, because anything less did not look like home to me.

That's how I got started gardening. Funny, but I remembered a lot more than I would have guessed from listening absent-mindedly to Mom. :)

Mom and I went through our local extension office's master gardener program a few years back. It's a great way to learn, and it would give you a taste of what "Plant Academia" might be like, if that's really something you might be interested in. :)

I like to read, and like someone said above, the internet is the best invention ever for research! I'm also a big fan of garden books, and have quite a few. Some of my favorites are still my series of Time/Life books I bought those first few years in our new home. Reader's Digest does some pretty good garden books too.

As everyone has said, the best thing is just to get out and start doing. You'll make a ton of mistakes. You'll waste truckloads of money by making unwise purchases, then planting them in inappropriate conditions. You'll plant them too close together. But you will learn something from every mistake, and the successes that you have are SO much sweeter!

I'll tell you what I think is a really good piece of advice for someone just starting. Start taking walks around your neighborhood and looking at plants in other's yards. If you see a shrub or plant growing gloriously in a yard that is overgrown, weedy, and obviously neglected, find out what that plant is and BUY IT. That's the plant for you. LOL! (It's also the plant for me...I don't do high-maintenance!)

You're so right connietn! I am so glad that I asked you guys this question and that I've gotten such amazing responses!

Now off to read about about winter gardening while sitting next to my lovely autumn chrysanthemums!! .... thanks again everyone :)

GardenGal - Holy Smokes! Do I ever envy you!!! Not only are you getting to do what you love for a living, but the PNW has always held a huge kind of intrigue to me. Gardening has had an off and on appeal to me from my earliest memories but didn't become all-consuming until later in life and I never had a strong idea of what I wanted to do vocationally. Congratulations for how things turned out for you!

I agree with what everyone else says as to learning. It doesn't happen overnight or from reading one book - it's an ongoing, hands-on, all-weather, joyous and peaceful experience like none other.

A number of years ago I was hired by the owners of a large estate to be the Estate/Property Manager. They took a big risk in hiring me because the estate included various formal and informal gardens and not only were they a total overgrown mess, but I didn't really know a lot about gardening.

I soon found tons of information from various sources, including the internet, local cooperative extension office, nursery people, magazines (big Garden Gate fan here), books, etc. I gobbled up as much information as I could as quickly as I could and pretty soon my staff and I had that place looking pretty darn swell.

***** CATALOGS *****
One of my favorite ways to learn about gardening has been studying catalogs from reputable online/mail order companies. I find it to be a lot of fun. I started off by ordering catalogs and now I simply study the online catalogs for reputable companies including those that are rated in "The Watchdog 30" by www.GardenWatchDog.com and others that I read about on this forum.

It's amazing how informative catalogs can be, especially when they're written by people who truly enjoy sharing their passion for gardening and their knowledge of plants in an honest and friendly way. And that's why I also enjoy this forum so much.

So, I highly recommend throwing forums and catalogs into your mix of learning opportunities.

Best of luck in your gardening endeavors!

...by listening to ken, of course...;)

are you trying to get me to send you free hosta cyn .... ????

BTW.. the day i know EVERYTHING.. will most likely be the day the creator takes me from this world ... so no.. i dont know basically anything..

just lots of practice.. failure.. and success ...

NEVER fear trying something in the garden.. regardless of what the EXPERTS tell you ... and that is the fun part ...

it is your aerobics.. and your therapy..

now carpe gardum

ken

Reading everyone's story on this post has been absolutely delightful. Thank you, mumsymum, for asking this question. Try to get on as many of the Garden Web forums as you can. You will learn from all of them.
Pat

mumsy, to receive the best GW hekp,you need to add your location and zone to your moniker.

best,
mindy

The original poster certainly got a terrific range of responses, yet with a pretty
common thread: hands on experience with trial-and-error, as much reading
and extra education as you can handle, and I particularly loved Ken's radically simple "3 Basics" ! But for the new gardener, there was one little gem in
there (from Kenstar, I think) that bears repeating: "The garden is NEVER done."
Gardening is an evolution - there is no absolute finishing point - and that
knowledge that you never HAVE to reach a specific, final destination can be
very comforting to someone just starting out. It's all about the journey. . .

Carl

Perfect.

Truth be told, I really do learn so much from everyone here and I do thank all of you. I think just jumping in and trying things is the best way to learn-well, maybe after reading the basics. I also clip some of the posts since I have a memory like a sieve (not always a bad thing).

ps. ken, no worries if you wait until spring-I still have a few to get in the ground at this point...teehee