🌱black thumb to vegetable bed, in the order it actually happened

zone 8b. not '5 easy vegetables to start with' - the actual sequence i learned in. water first, then soil, then succession planting. skipped steps come back later.

Water your plants before you learn anything else

Sounds too simple for step one. Deep, infrequent beats daily - killed two tomatoes overwatering before this clicked (learned the hard way).

WSU Extension Yard & Garden hub

Get an actual soil test, not a guess

Sent mine to a lab instead of buying a $12 pH meter. Turned out pH was fine, nitrogen was the actual problem.

Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades - Steve Solomon

This is step four for me, not step one. Skimmed the soil chemistry chapters and read the vegetable-by-vegetable section closely.

Compost bin, finally justified

Put one in after the soil test, not before. Composting without knowing what you're deficient in is a shot in the dark.

Charles Dowding's YouTube channel

OSU Extension Master Gardener program

Succession planting, actually scheduled

Lettuce every 2 weeks instead of one sowing that all bolts the same week. Wrote it on a wall calendar since my phone reminders got ignored.

Fall crops planted on time for once

Brassicas need to be in by mid-September or they don't mature before frost. Learned by missing the window twice.

Related lists

extension offices and plant ID tools that replaced random gardening forums

planning your first overnight, in the order it actually goes