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.

Organic - unless you live in a newly built house where the builders have removed the topsoil you already have 'topsoil' in your garden. It may be clay soil but it is probably absolutely fine as the basis for starting to garden. I have very heavy clay but with compost and muck added it grows good crops. There are not many places in Southern England that do not have soil which will make a reasonable garden. If you really want to be planting stuff out in a couple of weeks you are looking at a large outlay in bagged compost and loam to fill raised beds that fast. I really do believe the cheaper, and in the long run, better option would be to dig the ground you have. It's more work but will give you a good garden. However, if you are set on filling up raised beds about 2/3 potting compost to 1/3 garden soil or John Innes would be about right. Plus you will need some sort of retaining edging unless you are just going to mound the earth up. This is going to be very expensive.

kimmsr may be right, I never had that problem. But it sounds like you cut the tubers to small. I did this my first year & with the deer eating down the new growth the chokes died. Next time I planted the chokes whole & got a 100 lbs & replanted most back in the soil.

Hi Len. I was planning to wear a dust mask if I did anything with these bags. Would that be enough? Any chance I could spread puffballs over my yard and the neighbours? We've had a couple of varieties over the years. Browny-orangy ones over a wide area that look like small rocks until the hose happens to hit them and a brown cloud rises. More recently white ones in a specific area that look like the regular ones but turn to dust when you try to pick them out. I try to get along with the living things in my garden but some things are a bit too icky.