Square foot gardening is a good place to start. Pick up Mel's book and you will be growing stuff before you know it.

First thing I would do is to find out which USDA hardiness/ Sunset zone I was in.
That will dictate what plants thrive or not in your area.

Try to join neighborhood/county garden clubs. You will meet like minded folks and get tons of info there.

Call your local co-operative extension service. Depending on the area, they have lots of brochures/ printed info available to get started with just about ANYTHING.

Some folks here advised me to contact local Master Gardeners ..... they would be lot of help as well.

If nothing else, google " how to get started with"..... whatever and you will be all set. Make sure to mention your county/city in google search to be directed to the correct sources.

Good Luck and Happy gardening.

Yes, your zone is the first order of business, so you choose only those plants that will thrive in your area. Next is choosing the right time of year to plant different things. Irrigation is probably the next issue to resolve- most of our plants die because we don't water them enough or we kill them with kindness by watering and fertilizing too much.

If you are in Southern California, Pat Welsh and Robert Smaus both have excellent books that tell you what to do each month or week to grow all kinds of plants.

Renee

If you are in the San Francisco Bay Area I recommend the great book "golden gate gardening", it had everything I needed to grow great food in San Jose and helped my friend in Hayward ( east bay) too.
P.P.

Thank you all so much for your responses. I will check out the books mentioned and I did a search of the zone we are in. ( Los Angeles, so. Cal)

And do not be afraid to go slowly and do one section of the property at a time. You will learn a lot and get better and better at it. Note each area's drainage--is it like concrete in the summer and like soup in the winter--and the amount of sunshine it gets in winter and summer. This will help you decide what to plant.

An area can lie fallow with a thick layer of organic mulch and look tidy while you decide. The mulch will not only keep the weeds down but enrich and significantly improve the soil over time--so that when you are ready to do something it will be ready and easily worked.

Yeah, SFG covers finding your zone, etc. Since you are in LA checkout: Garden Tips for Los Angeles County. You'll get a fairly accurate run down of what to plant & when on a month by month basis.

Los Angeles has an active Master Gardener group. You could check out their website for classes. Many nurseries also offer free classes. I'm in Master Gardeners of Orange County and we also have lots of information on our website - uccemg.com.

Below is my website. I'm not that far from LA, so have similar growing conditions.

Here is a link that might be useful: What's Growing On?

Hello again, the monthly Garden Tips for Los Angeles County are written by Yvonne Savio who is the Program Manager/Master Gardener Coordinator for LA County. Enjoy!