You're listening to the Beginners Garden podcast. I'm Jill McShehehehe with Journey Withjil.net,

and my goal is to give beginning gardeners the tools they need to grow a rewarding, productive garden. Have you ever heard the saying, you don't know what you don't know?

If I had to describe the way that I felt that first year before I started my first garden,

I would say that would pretty accurately describe it. If you've heard my story before,

you know that I decided to plant my first garden months in advance and I had spent that winter

researching and reading and getting my hands on every

single garden resource I could get my hands on. I read books on how to plant, how to get my

beds going, what particular crops needed, what, what diseases I might need to look out for,

what pests I might need to look out for, and all those things.

But the truth is, I really didn't know what I would be facing in my garden.

I had never done it before.

Sure, I had seen from a distance when my mom had a garden and when my grandmother had a garden,

but at the time I really had no interest in it.

And so I didn't learn anything. I didn't pay attention. So when it came to actually starting

my first garden, I felt like I just really didn't know what I would be facing. I didn't really

know any gardeners that I could ask. What should I expect? What mistakes should I

avoid? I just kind of had to wing it on my own. Now, thankfully, if you're listening to this podcast,

you know that there are so many more great resources available to beginning gardeners. I share those

with you on this podcast. I also share them every

week in my email on Friday, and so there's so much more available now than when I first started.

At least there's more than I knew about then. But still, if you're a first-time gardener,

you may find yourself with some of the same feelings that I had. What do I not know? I'll be the first to tell

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