Best first moves for learning to garden? How does one learn how to learn to garden?

Heidi Wilde wrote:When I looked at your pictures, it reminded me of a garden patch I had in New Hampshire, many many years ago. Nothing grew well there. I realized later that the ground was very acidic. It was very woodsy with pines all around, looking much like yours. Just an observation, but you mentioned having had trouble with things growing well and I figured I'd throw that in for consideration.

Might be a good idea to test the soil Ph and see where you stand. If your soil is very acidic, besides amending it to try and get the soil a little more neutral, there ARE perennial food plants that tolerate acidity. I have a couple of acidic areas in my yard underneath/around pines.

You're in NY, while I'm in VA, so the native plants may be different, however--

Some of the plants I've been researching for my forest garden's acidic areas are:

Red currant
Gooseberry

Cranberry (needs moist acidic soil)
Creeping blueberry (strongly acidic soil)
Lowbush blueberry
Highbush blueberry

Black huckleberry (Gaylussacia baccata)
(Don't know if box huckleberry also tolerates acidity, but I'm guessing it might)

Northern spicebush (Lindera benzoin)
New Jersey Tea (Ceanothus americanus)
Blackhaw viburnum (tolerant of a wide range of conditions)
(These three for me would be more of wildlife/companion plants than food sources)

Black chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa)
Red chokeberry (Aronia arbutifolia)

Witch hazel (medicinal, ornamental)

Solomon's seal

Wild bergamot

To gain the most knowledge about growing in your area, I like to visit some area farmer's markets and talk with the vendors. I have asked many vendors if I could visit their farms in order to learn. I always offer to trade manual labor for good information. So far, nobody has turned me down...  A few hours of toting this, hoeing that, pulling weeds etc. can open a lot of doors...The majority just say, "c'mon over and we'll show you." As long as they don't perceive you as competition, people will take you under their wing.