The only thing you need for outdoor growing is common sense. Cannabis's needs do not exceed the needs of other plants, you can grow it as if you were growing a tomato plant. Later, when you get experience you can buy some of these special "crap" (PH-, EC-meters, etc), but for the beggining, your own head will be just fine. Try this site:

http://ssc.gq.nu/ls/wooly.html

This is definetly more than you need to know.