The best advice I can give you , is start a compost pile . There are threads on how that is done under Organically Speaking , so I am not going to bore you with that here . Until you have a compost pile made get some compost at the garden center in the form of composted manuer or mushroom compost . If you know anyone that has chickens or rabbits that is the best form of barnyard manuer there is . Add these to your soil as well as crushed leaves , it will decompose and feed your
plants naturally . I did that for the first year after I moved here , then used the leaves and other compost to enrich the soil to where I can get things to grow alot better now .
Check with other gardeners in your area and the local nurseries and garden centers to find out what type of
plants grow well in your area .
Talk to your neighbors who have
plants and
flowers , chances are if it will grow in their yard it will grow in yours with a little tender loving care .
There are lots of online resources and if you have a cable system that gets HGTV check out Paul James in Gardening By the Yard . That guy is good and funny too . There are other gardening shows full of useful information . Then the best thing to do is just putter around this site and read and ask questions of other members .