We have recently purchased a home in Mid Michigan. While I have some experience with turfgrass (and found so much information and help on this site), I am an absolute novice to any other aspects of gardening. I am currently mostly interested in flowers/shrubs/bushes as our landscaping starts to become a little bit shaggy.

I was wondering whether you have some advice on how to get started -- e.g. any recommendations on a good basic book on gardening?

For example, I have no idea on how to prune shrubs without hurting them and I am having a hard time to keep our flowers alive. Anyone willing to share some stories/learnings from their rookie time?

Thanks a lot!

Which shrubs and flowers? Most shrubs can be looked up online for best practices, most flowers can too. But I sometimes note that violating best-practices results in a better plant...

I have always had an interest in gardening but never devoted much quality time to it until the last two years. It has now become my hobby. In the last year I have renovated part of my lawn, took a totally neglected woody weedy hard clay soil area 40x30 and started an Ornamental grass garden, replaced all of my front foundation plants, pruned overgrown trees and bushes, started composting, changed numerous other landscaping aspects in my yard and am now in the process of a second lawn renovation in a second area of my lawn. I am sure my neighbors think I have flipped.

Basically I researched on the internet, visited garden forums (very helpful), visited a lot of local nurseries (not big box stores), botanical gardens and opened my eyes to see what others have done. There are little things you learn as MorPheus alluded to that contradict some “best practices”. Hands on experience is a very good teacher. But a lot of what you need to know is very similar to what you learn here on this web site concerning growing grass. Good cultural practices such as improving your soil, watering correctly and feeding correctly all go a long way in being successful. Don’t try to grow something that will not do well in your environment no matter how much you want that particular plant. If it can’t get the right amount of sun, moisture, the deer eat, etc. you will always be disappointed in the outcome.

I too have always like gardening but really have only put effort into it for the past year. I am becoming more hooked by the month.

I know a few things and am learning the rest. I know I want to minimize the use of strong chemicals, so I lean heavily towards organic first and try other stuff second. Some of my lessons are trial and error (tomatoes were a big fail for me this year) Other things I learn from researching on the internet. I also check out the bargain section of book stores to pick books on things I like. I have purchased several books on soil because I know that is the key to it all. I visit nurseries for items that are different and knowledge. I just follow what I like, tropical, turf and veggies. I also have certain needs within the garden - privacy and a few areas have no irrigation so drought tolerant is key for two sections.

I have killed a few flowers and a shrub or two but I make sure I figure out what went wrong like too much or too little water, wrong zone or temps, too much or not enough light, etc. If you determine what plants you have, the internet will have the info somewhere to instruct you how to do it. I have pruned several old overgrown shrubs and they are alive and thriving now. You will discover how far out of the box you can go in growing things. I grow orchids but I failed miserably trying to grow vanilla. Although I get coastal clouds, I will never get the humidity need to grow them to fruit. Lesson learned

Finding this site has helped me a lot also.

Have fun.

K

Thank you very much for your replies -- this is quite helpful!
When I have a chance, I'll post a few pictures.

Everybody kills a few shrubs or plants now and again, or finds something they thought they'd like and...er, well, not so much. That was Teddy Bear Sunflower for me this year. Gorgeous bloom. Dies in late July.

Pix will help. Some of the things that supposedly only survive in certain conditions can be adjusted to others. Some really won't adjust at all. Some are limited. I have a butterfly bush in a shady area and it does extremely well (definitely not what they recommend for a Black Knight). Similarly, one of my lilacs survives shade just fine and blooms beautifully every year. Impatiens in sun? Sure, to a point...

Morph, do you cut your butterfly bush down to near ground level at the end of each season?

One thing one should do is observe the amount of sunlight areas get and when and for how long it gets it. When I was planning a garden this past spring I read a lot about sun. I was confused about a plant needing full sun, part sun, part shade, etc. What did this really mean? Some articles stated 6 hours of sun was full sun. I eventually found a discussion about sun and the interesting point was that full sun from 11:00 AM through 3:00 PM was the key to determining what type of sun you had. This period of sun is the most intense sun. So for example, if you get full sun from 11:00 AM through 3:00 PM and then just two more hours before or after this time span then that is considered full sun for plants. If you get sun from 1:00 PM through the rest of the day that would be considered only part sun since you are not getting the full four hours (11:00 – 3:00) of intense sun. Interesting concept and it eventually made sense to me.

HanLawn wrote:Morph, do you cut your butterfly bush down to near ground level at the end of each season?

No, but I like the height. I cane out and let the internal branches regrow yearly, and sometimes I cane even the mains.

HanLawn wrote:Morph, do you cut your butterfly bush down to near ground level at the end of each season?

I have one on my front steps that was supposed to be a dwarf variety (but isn't). I whack it to about 18" every year and it comes back to abot 5-6" by August.

As promised, here are a few pictures. If you can identify any of these plants, please let me know - it'll help me a lot. Thanks for your help!

There are two plants (see closeups) taking each other's space...







That one needs some trimming.

This one needs to be trimmed/pruned badly -- how much can I cut this one down without hurting it?





There are little holes in the leaves (visible in full size picture) -- insects at work?

In reverse order:

Hosta
Sedum
Sedum
Don't know
Don't know
Juniper of some sort
Variegated holly of some sort (mine are similar but yellow instead of white)
Don't know

Thanks for your help, jglongisland!

Filling in a bit:

Hosta
Sedum
Sedum
Don't know
Spirea (looks like a dwarf)
Juniper of some sort
Variegated holly of some sort (mine are similar but yellow instead of white)
Don't know

now you know how to start i can see that from previous posts. well, it actually depends upon what kind of garden are you planning to plant i.e flower garden, vegetable garden etc.so the foremost thing is to decide what your garden would be like....?