Hi Tammy!! Welcome to the Gardening group! I think you'll find lots of helpful info here, especially as discussion continues and others in our group chime in (I hope!).
From me: First, these are probably basics that you know, but in general, since you're maintaining a garden, the main thing is to keep weeds away from flowers/plants. Many of them can "choke off" what you want to grow and draw away water and nutrients in the soil. The other main thing is watering and having some idea of how much each kind of plant needs.
If you want to have your own garden, I'd suggest starting off with only one or a couple or few plants and learn as much as you can about what kind of care and environment they need.
I used to be intimidated about gardening also. I started off on my own slowly. The first year, I just planted a few tomato plants. I found info on how much space each plant needs, how much water they need, how much sunlight they need, that it's important for them to have a consistent watering schedule, etc. If you buy a plant that's already growing from a gardening center, they'll come with a little plastic tag that will give this basic info. I also gathered some info from people in my area who garden.
Then I increased my "learning curve" by starting a few flowers by seed. I followed the instructions on the seed packet and also got information on the web. The best info came from our state's university extension service. If your state has one, explore their web site to see if they have gardening pages. I also did all this when I started my ambitious vegetable garden from seed this year and got lots of good specific info on each plant's needs. It's been a huge challenge for me, given my lack of concentration and focus, but I did things in baby steps over a three-month period and managed to get many of them going and into the ground :)
Apart from watering and physical care, I've always had this instinct that it's also important to convey caring feelings toward plants. When I'm tending my indoor plants and outside garden, I give each plant individual attention, one by one, and try to give them all equal attention, like you'd do with kids. I talk to them while I tend them, comment on how they're doing, tell them what it looks like they need and what I'm going to do about it. Basically I sort of project my feelings of caring about them and wanting to nurture them. I try to be gentle with them if they need to be transplanted or if they have dead leaves that should be removed, etc. Not very scientific, but it's been my instinct to do these things and most of my plants do very well. Lately, I've read about some research that shows that plants do have some sort of consciousness and awareness of their surroundings, which really makes sense when you think about it, since they are living things.
