noone wrote:

start small like in a pot and then pot it in the dirt. But I am gonna tear
up my yard so I can learn. I gotta pull a whole lot of a weeds and grass if
you wanna call it grass.

Not so fast. When you're young and invincible, you can go around
tearing stuff up and double digging. As you get older, you'll learn
that you didn't really have to go to so much trouble.

What you want to do is start small. Mark off a small section of the
lawn using chalk powder, flour, a garden hose, etc. Pick a shape that
you find attractive. Unless you are doing something really formal, or a
vegetable garden, don't do straight lines - they tend to look artificial
- so go for curves.

Put down a bunch of newspaper (5-6 sheets thick) where you want your bed
to go in. Pile mulch on top of this, at least a couple of inches thick.
Mulch is nothing but shredded branches, and the county you live in
might give that stuff away for free as long as you are willing to haul
it. You can also find it at any garden center or places like Home Depot
and Lowes.

Wait a few months for the grass and weeds that have been smothered to
die back. Generally, what I do is to start next spring's bed this year,
and spend the time in between planning what I want to put in it, and
gathering ideas for arranging the plants so that they look good. Once
you are reasonably certain of having killed the lawn and weeds, poke
around in there to see what kind of soil you have. It can vary from
sandy to pure clay. You might even have good loam, which is every
gardener's dream.

Hopefully, by the time your bed is ready to be planted, you would've
gathered enough information to figure out what you want to put in the
bed. While you are waiting, read as many gardening books as you can.
Look through gardening magazines and collect ideas. You might find out
what sort of "look" you want, what color combinations you like, etc.
Also talk to the people at your local nursery to get their input on what
some good beginner plants are. Observe the spot where you want to
plant, and see how much sun/shade it gets during the day, how long it
takes the soil to dry after a good rain, etc. All these will help you
decide what you want to plant. When you've made up your mind on what
you want to plant, you can always come back and

If you want instant gratification, go with pots, as others have
suggested. You can develop your eye for combining different shapes,
textures and colors without a whole lot of investment. You can arrange
the pots on top of your future planting area, to give yourself an idea
of what would look good/work well there.

No matter how your initial experiments go, don't give up. I'm sure that
all of us have killed quite a few plants by not giving them adequate
care, chooshing the wrong plant for the location, etc. You will have
some successes and some failures. That's all part of the learning
process.

Good luck and don't forget to have fun.
Suja