How My Family's Garden Got Started?

As a member of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Farm, my family changed its eating habits based on what was in the harvest.  A major characteristic of a CSA Farm is taking the risk with the farmer, so when weather or pests impact our harvest the farm share is smaller.

I wanted to increase our vegetable diet even more and thought how great it would be to supplement with home grown veggies.  I started daydreaming about my parents' garden, which I hated because of the chores involved (weeding, breaking beans, shucking and silking corn, picking strawberries, digging potatoes, etc).

Knowing that soil is important, we started composting. I asked my research-loving husband to decide the best way for us to compost.  He decided that instead of traditional hot composting methods, we should buy a bag of worms and a Gusanito worm tower so the worms could do the worms for us in our laundry room. 

So after several months of "work", our worm-workers started creating wonderful looking black worm castings from our leftover kitchen scraps and news print that we feed to all our house plants and we decided that it was time to do a little experimental garden for us.  We chose a 4' x 6' above ground garden, purchased biodegradable ground covering, and started creating our garden bed with garden soil, worm castings, a bit of perlite to help retain moisture.

Our first attempt was squash because I had always heard that anyone can grow squash. Surprise! We had bad luck with squash, although after research we determined it was due to a pollination issue. Bees and butterflies where were you? 

Next we planted collard greens, and now I know that collard greens is a veggie that anyone can grow and it's very nutritious. Collards will be on our planting list forever now. As long as you avoid the ham hock or bacon, they can be cooked and sautéed in a variety of ways. 

Then came cantaloupes. Ours had to be the smallest ever grown in the world and they were really good, but we learned they need a lot of space to grow.  This year we are trying a new method to train the vines to grow on a lattice.  You will definitely see how that goes.

The broccoli from that first garden did grow, but we went out of town and it bolted before we could eat it.

Another lesson about gardens -- they take care each and every day -- so it is possible you nurture something almost to harvest, then do something stupid like go on vacation and it goes to waste.

We are in the middle of our second garden. Stay tuned on how that goes.