The short version
LeafyStart is a beginner gardening site for people who don’t already speak the language. No latin names dropped without context, no "just compost your worm bin" assumptions, no expensive gear lists you don’t need. Just patient, opinionated guides from someone who started exactly where you are.
Why this site exists
Most gardening sites are written by people who have been doing this for decades. They forget what it feels like to stand in front of a bag of potting soil for ten minutes trying to figure out if it’s the right one. LeafyStart was built for that moment, and every moment like it.
Every guide here starts from the assumption that you’re new, you have limited space, you have a normal budget, and you mostly just want the plant to live. That’s a different starting point than "you have a half-acre, six hours of sun, and a garden shed" – and it deserves its own kind of writing.
How we write
We pick topics that real beginners search for. We write each guide so it can be read in under ten minutes and acted on the same afternoon. We include the mistakes we made the first time, because that’s usually the part that helps people most. And we don’t recommend gear or beans or seeds we haven’t tried ourselves.
Who’s behind it
Maya Holbrook started LeafyStart after a year of slowly killing plants on a fourth-floor balcony. Every guide on the site is either written by her or carefully edited by her. There’s no anonymous content farm here – just a real person who learned the slow way and decided to write it down for the next person.
If you have a question about a plant, a problem, or a guide that helped, write to us at hello [at] leafystart [dot] com. We read every email.
Welcome to LeafyStart. Thanks for being here.