I know a lot of people say you can't start seeds without a grow light setup and heat mat, but I've been successfully starting all kinds of seeds every year with just a south-facing window. Sometimes there are leggy seedlings, especially if we've had a lot of overcast days when they sprout, but I've planted them deeper if possible and they've worked out just fine. To be honest, I see the minimal requirements for a beginner gardener to be a few tools like spade and trowel, seeds, and seed starting soil. Not much expense at all. Like the rest of us, gardeners just catching the bug this year will collect up the rest over the next couple of years, fencing next year IF they have a problem with deer or rabbits, maybe a canner or dehydrator the year after when they get more confident and enlarge their tomato patch. If they REALLY catch the gardening bug, a rain barrel or composter. If they want to get into a competition with their neighbours for the earliest tomato, they can get a heat mat and grow light setup to get a jump start on the year. They can try all sort of different tomato cages to see which ones suit their needs best. Keep in mind these things are optional and free alternatives are possible. I use hockey sticks with broken blades from the arena for my tomato stakes. (Nice and sturdy!) Composters can easily be made with free materials or just a compost heap used. A drum to use as a rain barrel can be found for free from some places, but plastic food grade drums can be bought for less than $20.00 if you're willing to cut the top off yourself. Seeds can be started in a south window using free materials. Someone suggested yogurt containers, which is a great idea. Check recycling bins if you don't buy yogurt for yourself. Most soil is at least marginally OK for growing plants so replacing your own soil with topsoil is optional. For those who have really bad soil, some form of lasagna gardening might suffice. We all want the best soil but sometime we have to work with what we got, yet we still manage to get food out of the ground. My point is...for those of you who are just starting out, don't be discouraged by what is being said in this thread. Sometimes, gardening is just as easy as sticking a plant in the dirt and letting it grow. It doesn't have to be expensive and it doesn't have to be backbreaking. As you learn and get experience, then think about expanding the garden and canning food for the winter.

Posted New Panoramic View of Garden from last week. Long beans, cucumbers, & zucchini growing exponentially.

The first bit of advice I'd give you is to be careful about the advice you get on lawn watering. Although we live in the desert, one of the biggest problems most lawns around here has is too much water. From what I've observed, most people here water too much and too often. When I first bought my house, I was watering three times a week (some of my neighbors were watering twice a day). I now water only once a week (if it rains, I usually skip or at least delay a watering cycle). I try to water deeply and infrequently so the grass gets long roots. I also cut my grass tall and mulch mow. These three practices together reduce the need for water and fertilizer and also limit weeds without the need for weed killers. Most of the soil along the wasatch front is heavy clay, with little organic matter. Because of that, you may not be able to water enough at first to get it deep enough to water only once a week (it doesn't soak in very well). Much of the soil is also pretty alkaline, so some plants get iron chlorosis (yellow leaves with green veins). You can treat that short term by spraying water soluble iron on the leaves, but do that only when it is cool because it can burn the leaves. You can add chelated iron to plants that are chloroitic, but that's a short term fix, and EDTA chelates don't do as well as EDDHA (which you may have trouble finding). A longer term fix is soil sulfur. Another thing that will help is adding more organic matter. Although you want to add organic matter, I stay away from things like cow manure, because soil salinity can be a problem in arid climates, and it it exacerbated by irrigation (and further exacerbated by overwatering). If you were in CA and TX, I'll caution you to wait longer than you think you need before planting the garden (may be why you're seeing summer vegetables now). I usually wait until Mothers Day to plant my garden. Later than that if it's still snowing. Other than those hints, I second the idea of going to the extension service.

Roselee, Thanks, ARE was at the Herb Market yesterday and I mentioned reading the blog. She was a bit surprised, but enjoyed meeting one of her readers. I told her I got the link from you on this site. They say their gardens are looking really good now, so I'm going to try to get out there next weekend.