Building the Garden

When my parents and I set out to build our new home garden, we had the advantage of having a nicely located flower bed as our starting point. The bed had become overgrown with weeds. With a normal vegetable gardening method we would have had to pull all those weeds. Instead, after my dad conquered the formidable task of pulling out a tree stump from the flower bed, we just leveled out the dirt. We then added a six inch flexible border to the existing flower bed border and lay weed cloth inside the new bed.

Next came the fun part of mixing various kinds of dirt. The "Square Foot Method" claims to have perfected a gardening soil mixture, and who am I to argue with that?! So we mixed up the dirt (vermiculite, compost, manure etc.) and then filled in the new vegetable bed. 

The most fun was finally getting to plant the seeds and little seedlings. Many of the seeds and plants I chose are heirloom. I like heirloom vegetables and fruits because of their varied and interesting flavors, their history, and because it feels to me that I'm part of the legacy of maintaining the growth of these particular varieties of plants.

Here's a list of what we planted, in no particular order:

Lettuce mix

Little Gem Romaine (heirloom)

Brandywine tomato (heirloom)

Black Beauty eggplant

Vidalia onion

Blue Lake green bean

Little Finger carrot (heirloom)

Di Cicco broccoli (heirloom)

Hearts of Gold cantaloupe

Moons and Stars watermelon

Black Beauty zucchini squash

Table King Bush Acorn winter squash

Green Arrow shelling pea

Spinach

Red Currant tomato (heirloom)

Rainbow Mix tomato (heirloom)

Adventures in Gardening

The world's climate is changing. That's a simple fact. Unfortunately there's not a lot an individual can do to make a BIG difference. However, there's a lot that individuals can do to make small differences. Differences that really add up. 

Food choices constitute one of the largest ways people affect the environment. There's a new movement of people trying to eat only locally through CSA's and home gardening, and this blog is about my foray into trying to curb my environmental impact by growing my own home garden. Even just 70 years ago, home gardens were the norm, not the exception. I believe that it's time to bring growing back to homes and communities. Even the Obama's are starting their own "victory" garden. Even if you only have one square foot, you can grow something that won't have to use fossil fuels to arrive in your fridge, and most major cities have community plots available for apartment dwellers to use. 

I'd been wanting to create my own home garden for a while now, but I felt a little daunted by the amount of work having a vegetable garden could entail. Then my mom read a book called "Square Foot Gardening," by Mel Bartholomew. Foll

owing his instructions she created a beautiful garden in her backyard in Florida. When I saw how easy it was for my parents to create their garden, and when I learned how little upkeep it required I decided I wanted to build one of my own. 

On a recent visit with us, my parents guided me through building my very own raised vegetable garden. It's not a "square foot" garden, because it's not divided into square feet, but it utilizes pretty much the same techniques. My goal is to track growth of the garden through this web log and share my experiences, both good and bad, with whomever would like to learn about growing a simple home garden.