newbie needs help getting started

[kayteleann]

I have absolutely no idea where to start! Here is what I have so far. A very small backyard, in which the landlord left, a lime tree/bush, planted mint (which I read in a post is not good), and a stump of something. The rest of the yard is hard compacted dirt covered in weeds... all types, including what I am told is bermuda (sp?) which I keep pulling up but it keeps coming back.

My hubby kindly weed wacked down the yard so now I cant pull them out by hand but that would have been a huge undertaking anyway. I do have access to what my dad calls a rototiller, with which I can turn over the dirt.

question 1. can I use the rototiller to churn the dirt and rake out the weed roots?

question 2. what should I do about the mint since it is planted there in the dirt? Is there a way to pull out the plant?

any tips for making this initial undertaking easier?

also how can I figure out which zone I am in?

thanks in advance for the help!!!

[bonsaiboy]

You can look up your hardiness zone here: https://www.arborday.org/treeinfo/zonelookup.cfm

[cynthia_h]

Take at look at the Sunset climate zone system in the Sunset Western Garden Book.

Truly, the best overall orientation for a brand-new gardener is a book: you can consult it at all hours and it never loses patience or logs off. It sits still while you go look up questions. You can find the topics again because of the index. It has photographs and illustrations showing you what the discussion means.

When I moved to California from Atlanta, everything I had previously learned about gardening was WRONG. The Sunset Western Garden Book let me know how to work with Nature on the West Coast. It's suitable for beginners as well as experienced gardeners.

It's re-released every few years. I have the 7th ed. (2001), but the 8th ed. was released in 2008. This is to keep the advice up to date: organic methods of pest and disease management, new invasives, newly developed varieties, etc.

Lots of used copies available in bookstores and on the Net; new copies in nurseries and (at least around here) hardware stores.

Read Sunset's "Practical Guide to Gardening" in the book; it's a terrific overall introduction to gardening tools, how to prepare soil, how to transplant starts, etc.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9