Ann's 1st post

My husband is being modest when he describes the work that he does to make this garden so successful. For example, the trench he dug around the garden took him several weeks. He buried the chicken wire 18" under ground so that the woodchucks wouldn't dig far enough. We were heartbroken the year before when almost all of the zucchini had a woodchuck bite. I started the plants from seeds in the basement and took good care of them. They were my babies. We broke even that year- 50% of the food went to us; 50% to the woodchuck.

Through the off season, Tom spends time reading and researching techniques and other cool ways to geek out the garden. It makes the winter months pass more quickly. There is also so much excitement when the seed catalogs arrive. Tom develops lists after lists after lists of his wish list of vegetables. I know that he has ordered much more than could ever fit in our one acre yard. Of course, we also have play areas for our children so the entire acre isn't reserved for the garden. As we continue to grow the garden each year, I bet we will get closer and closer to using up all available space, but for now, the children can play (and eat along the way).

Our children are unusual (according to our friends with children)in that they love vegetables. They love the typical kid favorites of green beans and tomatoes, and they also love the not so typical veggies like :brussel sprouts- I remember our daughter crying because the last brussel sprout was eaten; beets, tomatillos.... you get the idea. We believe it is because they have been involved in the process and have watched these beautiful creatures emerge from mere seeds that we have cared for....

Beginnings - everything has one

I've been thinking about this for a bit.  I want to have a kind of a journal of the Garden.  Let's start with what happened previously......

This marks my 4th year gardening.  I started out with my wife & I digging holes in the lawn and sticking transplants from the garden center with some Miracle Grow Organic Soil in.   We had way too many plants in there.  We didn't even mow before we dug the holes.

I heard about mulching so I dumped the grass clippings around all the plants.

Whaddaya know?  It worked!  We got some veggies, we didn't have weeds that we needed to worry about and it wasn't that much work.  Some things produced, some things we thought we knew were wrong.  But we learned.

Watering was a pain.  The garden was a long ways from the faucet.  Lugging the hose out and putting it away when it was time to mow wasn't much fun.

I ran 100' of hose in the chain link fence on the perimeter of our yard out to the garden.  A soaker hose went in the garden.  Every day we "needed to water"  and hook up the hose.

For next year, we had some ideas and plans.  We had been thinking more about where our food came from and its quality.  Year 2 in the next post.