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.

I think cardboard and or newspaper, then peastraw, then bark mulch like pine it naturally suppresses weeds, also this mainly suppresses the old weeds, some will naturally pop up in the mulch as it breaks down from any seeds or new running weeds from lawns or fence lines etc. I'm creating a brand new cutting flower bed in our orchard, trying to spray the woody weeds (different ones here in our country) and then a general spray possibly a few times a few weeks apart, then layering cardboard on the stubborn areas, thick newspaper on the others, then using some cut up branches from tree pruning, then peastraw, then compost, then rinsed off fresh kelp seaweed from our local beach, then bark mulch, leave it to break down over our mostly wet winter here. Then come spring after the last frost I'll begin planting out seedling started in trays. I'll have to maintain the weeding as we get a lot of wind, may try spot treatment dab on weed killers but see how we go. Because of our compacted clay soil the lasagne gardening style seems to work well. One think I found was running weeds tried to creep into the mulch so wil try to cut out large gutters and weed spray these. Then mostly I just dig blood and bone into the planting holes. Using leaf mulch around plant bases can work too. Lots of different methods I think it can depend on what you need. I found the weed suppressant mat wasn't permeable enough for water, in a heavy rain the mulch washed off areas since the water wasn't absorbed fast enough into the soil, and then weeds actually grew on top of it anyway from seed so a waste of money in my opinion. Try libraries for newspaper, and maybe a big white ware or electronics store for cardboard.

Weeding and more weeding - The lawn has been taken over and the beds are encroached on. I set myself to fill a bucket a time. I don't want to poison the grass, so this year I will hack it out, and put down gravel paths and very strong roses. This year I will ignore vague promises from my son-in-law, and get my own garden fence to break down the force of drying winds. The front garden faces west, and only the brave survive summer. I need the two arches to be erected for Renae, and Zepherin Druin,(?) in the back garden, much more sheltered and civilised. I will measure up and price the materials for a small pergola across the back of the house, for climbing roses that can escape the clutches of the Appleblossom groundcover rose. I will pot up geraniums along the drive, more pots of succulents for the arid spots, and more pots of spider plant for the shady side of the drive. I must persude the Rambling Rector to cover the garage, not head off for the vegetable garden. I will welcome my teen age grandson who is an avid gardener in the making, and let him put up arches and the pergola and other expert jobs outside my ken. I will let him help repot the gigantic orchid reproachfully climbing out of its pot. All this is marvelous experience for him and will help him in his gardening future. Also funds will be provided for DVDs and Tee shirts. And so, I hope, the year will roll on.