Amber Mays

Thank you guys so much. I think I'm just gonna go at it money or not and throw some seeds in the ground and see what happens. And next month or so when it's time for tomatoes and stuff, if I've got more money give that a go with some amendments or something but if not I'll still just stick some plants in the ground and see what happens. I'm pretty sure I remember planting tomato seeds straight into some tilled ground at my husband's dad's a long time ago and not really caring for them much and still getting and okay amount of tomatoes so yeah. I'm worrying too much. I have some really old seeds and I think I'll just make a see what happens patch. Thank you for giving me ideas and setting my mind at ease.

Thanks for all the advice. I think I might try doing different types of gardening and seeing what works. At least something should live that way. About cutting away the sod with a knife I can totally see myself doing something crazy like that. How do you do that? Will that work if my soil is wet? Would I need to to add something to the soil or add more soil for drainage? Could I just mix some leaves into the soil? Grass? Sticks? Or leave it as is? I'm worried about it being wet but we've had a lot of rain too. How can I improve the clay for cheap if possible? I'm having a really hard time trying to talk myself into going small but maybe if I can just talk myself into starting one bed at a time I will be fine and it will be more manageable. How do I start a compost pile? So many questions.

Hi. I've wanted to start a garden for so long but I am not sure where/am scared to start. There's just so many ways, so many of them unaffordable, and so many ways I could fail, and I can't make my mind up what to do. I have some ideas. I have a book with some really neat plans that I really like and I've watched some videos on no till and lasagna/layered gardens but getting together all the layers seems daunting or expensive. I've got some leaves in my yard but I'm not sure if it's enough to do anything with. I've got plenty of cardboard from my job and end rolls from the newspaper. Tree limbs and sticks. Didn't mow much last year and the back has grown up into brush and tall grass. Not sure where to get other materials except buying which will be expensive. I thought about straw bale gardening but not sure about the cost, or covering the ground with cardboard, then straw, then making holes in the cardboard for planting and filling the hole in with compost to save on buying a whole layer of compost but the compost would probably just wash out through the straw. The soil here is wet. We are on a downward slope right next to a small creek/ditch. The top few inches are really nice except some rocks and glass? Underneath is orange clay with some sand. It will break apart a little bit but is still clumpy. Any ideas what I can do with very little money? I am already slightly late with planting cool season vegetables but could still get some in but definitely want to have something going soon. I am in zone 7b.