Maybe the most important piece of gardening equipment is a good pair of garden gloves, I like the PIP WA4215A-AMZ Brahma Men’s Large Glove Leather, Palm Grey, 3-Pack
. Leather work gloves are great for protecting your hands from prickly branches and things you don’t want to touch with bare skin (…if you know what i mean…biologicals: dead animals, live animals, poop, bugs). You can double up with a cotton garden glove and wear the leather work glove as an outter layer, this works particularly well. The leather gloves last a while, I usually leave them out in the rain to get clean and dry them on fence post in the sun, usually I will get a couple of seasons out of a pair.
Thanks for starting this Journal. I have never gardened, though my mother and my grandfather and great-grandfather were all gardeners (the last being a professional gardener in England). I am a complete novice, hate to get my hands dirty, and the thought of bugs or other “biologicals” completely disgust me. However, I still want to attempt a garden here in Northern NJ! I want to prove to myself that I’m not totally inept, and if it can be done fairly easily here in NJ, then it’s the best place for me to try.
I look forward to your posts and hope you can inspire me to start one this year.
I would love to see a post on protecting your vegetables from animals.
My husband had a garden at the shore, and the birds and other animals (possibly raccoons) ate practically everything.
Motivation is big when starting a project like this, the reward is a bit delayed until you start picking fresh tomatoes and cucumbers from your own garden or seeing your flowers begin to bloom. In the few years I have been gardening, I found that some plants are easier to grow than others. Tomatoes grow wonderfully in New Jersey, especially if you have a sunny garden plot. But you have to either start tomatoes indoors or buy plants from a local nursery. Cucumbers are easy to grow also, the seeds are large so they are easy to plant and they grow quickly, do well in partial shade and taste great in salads. Flowers such as Zinnia and Marigolds are easy too. Select things that are forgiving and easy to grow when starting out a new garden.
I can’t stress how important gloves are not only to protect your hands but to protect the plants you are handling. With a cheap pair of leather work gloves you will feel like a superhero willing to pick up anything because your hands are protected plus they help keep you hands clean from dirt, et. al.
New Jersey doesn’t have a long growing season, so pick plants that mature, at most, in about three months. The peak time in NJ is from June till September, perhaps as early as May.
Stopping animals and birds using your garden as a smorgasbord can be challenging, but i think I will attack that subject in its own thread.
Good Luck Cathy, remember: A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step!