Welcome to the forum.
Since you brought up gardening, i'm guessing you enjoy cooking as well. If so that is a plus in my eyes.
My 2 cents, which really isn't much coming from me.... better yet, I will go with how I started....
i started with a Mr. Beer Kit. took about 1 hour, start to finish if I remember correctly. I did 1 batch, and realized that that way was not for me, I wanted to do more. . So I moved to doing Extract Kits, which is more involved. I did about 4-5 batches of those, before I chose to go the next step, if memory is serving me right, it took 3-4 hours start to finish). Then I decided i wanted more control and and more options, so I went All Grain, Brew In A Bag (aka BIAB)) and that is still what I do now. start to finish is about 5-6 hours.
I decided while i was doing extract on where I wanted to go, and purchased my kettle from that(when I decided to go All Grain(AG). At the time I was figuring that I would be brewing over a propane burner, but I wanted to eventually go Electric indoors. So I went with a Spike kettle that I had the ports already installed, and just bought plugs till the time came.
Then of course it comes to bottling/kegging. I started with bottles. and have since moved to kegs. Kegs require more equipment, i.e. keezers, kegarators. Electric components.....
Personally, I think, if you are really thinking about doing this a hobby, then do some research, do some sole searching on where you may want to end up, and go for it. Start small, and well, when it comes time to advance then really do some research on the equipment to get and where you want to go.
Things to think about:
1. batch size - I do 5 gal batches, and do not plan on going bigger, I figure if I need more beer, then I just need to dedicate more time to brewing it lol.... 5 Gal batches BIAB require at least a 10G Kettle.
2. Indoors or out doors - When I brewed outside, i used a propane burner. I bought a burner and tank and was good, when i decided to go inside electric i had to run electric, buy a controller, element, and instead of a vent I went with the Steam Slayer( I do enjoy having).
3. Fermentation - what temps does your home stay, will they work with the yeast strands that you use. ( most strands are good at room temps) better beer does come from fermentors that have temp control to them.
4. Packaging-most kits come with cappers, which I still use. But will need to buy capps to cover kits you buy.
2. Where do you want to brew - in doors, out doors, gas, electric... ( this can be a long term look at)
3. BIG ONE - sanitation. Make sure to sanitize everything.... I use Star San, and it seems to work, knock on wood no issues so far. Cleaning and sanitizing is big with beer. I have a bucket dedicated to Star San ( roughly 4 gals) plus a spray bottle that I use after the boil on my utensils.
4. Nothing like a home-brew. Mine is not the greatest, but i will say. I sit back and take a drink, and think of what I did to get this, and it always puts a smile on my face.
I hope this helps out, I know there is a ton of information on the internet
