grow an organic garden

Living on my own in a rural community of mainly subsistence farmers has given me the motivation to have my own vegetable and herb garden when I get back to the United States. I’ve learned to really appreciate the seasonality of foods and the difference between a fresh ripe tomato straight from the ground verses one in a grocery store. Gardening can be a very relaxing activity and also very rewarding, particularly when you can make meals entirely from what was grown in your garden. I know I would like to have a large garden one day.

The organic part is an obvious choice for me, whether the concern is health reasons, the environmental impact of runoff fertilizer chemicals into the watershed, lack of knowledge on GMOs, overall sustainability of the food industry, supporting locals, etc.

This year, the David Suzuki Digs My Garden 100% Pesticide-Free Garden Contest has a cool new twist!

Check it out at www.davidsuzuki.org/gardencontest.

You don’t have to be a master gardener to play a starring role in this year’s David Suzuki Digs My Garden contest. You just have to be a passionate storyteller who believes pesticide-free growing is the way of the future.

They’re looking for someone to follow you this summer in video, pictures and print – from soil prep and composting, through seeding and weeding, to reaping the harvest. For inspiration, we’re sending those selected a hand-painted David Suzuki garden gnome.

I’ve started sprouting my seeds inside for my organic vegetable garden!

So I’ve always lived in apartments and this has been an obstacle in being able to have a garden. While I am still living in an apt, I do have a deck. I am curious whether a container garden would be doable? It wouldn’t be a true garden, but if I could grow some herbs, tomatoes and maybe some peppers, I feel like I could count this as succeeding in my goal…

Gonna do some research on that!

I am getting ready to start tomato plants in trays today. I have to get the old planting beds cleaned and new ones established so that I can get root veggies and leafy greens in the ground now.

At the moment, I live in an apartment building, but if I ever have my own backyard, I would really like to grow my own organic garden.

I took a biointensive organic gardening workshop all day yesterday.

No tiller for me, I double dig!!!

Not an organic garden, but I purchased a large bag of organic potting soil for all my plants from Eco-Wise on S. Congress, Austin. http://www.ecowise.com/

I need to start on something and I think I can handle this, but I want to start small. I’m thinking maybe an herb garden with a few peppers thrown in. I’d really like to grow mushrooms, too, but that might get complicated. I really want to grow some of those peter peppers and I think I will do that. I need to see if I can order some organic seeds. As for the herbs, I need to do the same. I figure growing herbs might be easier than a whole garden, especially without having a lot of room. Besides, I really wanted to buy some herbs and realize I can’t find many of them around here, so maybe I could just buy some seeds and grow my own.

I love plants. I have plants all over my balcony, including a little pepper plant in a pot. However, growing an organic garden is what I aspire to once I have a house + yard. It’s so expensive to buy organic foods, and I hate to think of all the pesticides and chemicals inside the nutritious vegetables I’m eating. Plus nothing like not having to drive to a grocery store to get a tomato.