grow vegetables

I’ve signed up for a gardening group that helps beginning gardeners get started, everything from designing the area to preparing the soil, plant selection, pest control, etc. I start in Oct and I am very excited and anxious.

- To learn more about the food we eat
- to enjoy the hint of self sufficiency
- concern about safety/quality/taste of food we buy

july 2009

ok, fine. I own that I am a yuppie. My idea of growing veggies and eating from the earth is not based on being raised by a solid italian grandparent teaching me the rights and wrongs of tomato growing. It is not based on anything other then trial and error.
But, I go and do it anyway. I make the beds. add the drip line. plant the plugs, the seeds.
WOW….it’s magic!!!
Lettuce is abundant. Peas, they are gorgeous. Arrugala…yum yum

Last summer I grew lots of veggies on the roof. This summer I plan to grow even more. I have already planted some and they are starting to grow. The plan now is to keep it going through the winter via a cold frame.

This is started, I have 3 raised beds with lots of well rotted manure in them. I have sown some seeds and bulbs and need to keep them watered and keep an eye out for slugs. I also need to get some wood bark for around the beds so it looks like an area that is cared for.

interesting one this — I have inherited a composter, and am keen to try and grow something. things i need to make a start are ::: pots, compost, seeds…..... i have some free carrot seeds, so there’s a start – need pots

i tried to grow a vegetable garden this last summer. the plants sort of grew but didnt have no vegetables.:( i think this as due to 3 reasons. #1 i started planting too late in the summer, like around early august! #2 i might have sown where there wasnt enough sunlight. and #3 i used the black soil underneath the leaf litter in the wooded area of my back yard as fertilizer. i hear true fertilizing compost needs a mix of green and brown, not just brown. oh well! oh yeah and #4 is that the soil was rocky as all hell.
this next spring i am trying to do things right. so a week ago i started saving all the discarded vegetable matter from my home and mixing it periodically with the leaf litter black soil in a large pile in my yard. its sort of winter right now, does this mean this is pointless? i dont know. i dont know anything about this at all!!!
all i know is 2/3 brown 1/3 green. that is my mantra. i have no manure. but i know of a hiking trail where horses tend to leave their… err… piles. is it imperative i go digging around in anonymous horse poop? Somebody help me for the love of God.
i want a vegetable garden this coming spring for baby daughter !!!

My progress is still zero

Potatoes: check
Onions: check
Broad beans: check
Spinach: check
Chard: check

You make lots of mistakes on the way… and you have to be seriously dedicated to make it a cheaper option than buying, but this is totally worth doing.