Thinking Spring and need tips for a new to gardening person (sales, houses)

[Latania]

Time to think Spring!!! So this year I've convinced my spouse to "go Green" by switching over my high maintenance lawn to a no mowing grass lawn and adding garden space - the bigger the better. I tried the No Mow (Low Growing) Grass last year on a little spot and loved it.

I'm new to gardening so tips are welcome!

We eat a lot of food here so any / all info is helpful. Thanks!

Thinking Spring!

[honeychrome]

While there are many critics of the book, Mel Bartholomew's "Square Foot Gardening" is a great beginning gardening book. Your local library probably has it.

My only other tip is to order your seed SOON! Seed sales are exponentially climbing and it is projected that a lot of places will run out of things this year.

[Krisps]

I hear ya, the fever is setting in here too. When I was younger, I was kind of obsessed with a neat lawn and it seemed a shorter cut looked neater. But the last few years, I've been cutting my lawn at the highest possible setting. This helps the grass grow better and drowns out the weeds, so it looks much healthier and natural (and not so anal, ha). As a result of this, I've found that I need to cut only every 2 or 3 weeks. But no cutting at all is not a bad option either... in the spring, I don't cut parts that have nice looking wild flowers.

I'm planning on some new gardening myself. I'm making a little frog pond for fun, next to the planned garden. Since I've got lots of bats in my area, I also want to build a bat house or 2 next to the garden. I'm hoping the boys will eat up a lot of insects.

[Puru]

Krisps, bat houses are fun! I remember I built one when I was a kid and my dad decided to alter the measurements so I made one that was huge! We had a lot of bats too.

I miss having a lawn though. I was never a fan of gardening (my mother is) and I never liked yard work, but since I moved a year and a half ago I kind of miss having a yard. The only thing I like about the 7x12 foot patch of grass we have is that it's easy to maintain and cut, since we still use a push-mower.