Tuesday May 4, 2010

As promised, this blog has begun!  Not quite on May 1, but only because gardening got in the way.

I feel I should mention a few things for context.  First of all, my urban yard is less than 1/10 of an acre, and most of that is taken up by the house.  Secondly, I live in zone 5B, but in my microclimate the weather is almost a zone 6.  My goal, as an urban gardener, is to show myself and those around me how much food can be grown in a very small space.  I think we depend too much on others, and fossil fuel, for our food.  Home-grown food tastes much better than store-bought, and the commute from plant to table is markedly shorter!

Getting right into it, then, we'll start with the front yard.  I have some perrenial plants growing in front, including sage, mum, and African Sunflower and two blueberry bushes (Bluecrop and Patriot).  I have lovage growing in one of my raised beds. I have a total of 5 raised beds, two already planted with carrots.  I also have planted peas (Sugar Snap and English Garden) and bush beans in front so far, and plan on growing tomatoes in two of the raised beds.  I also have garlic and onions growing and a variety of herbs: calendula, chives, dill, and chamomile.  I have space I plan to use for more herbs, including lavender.

In the back, so far I have strawberries, rhubarb, raspberries, grapes, chives, feverfew, and asperagus.  I have planted more peas, broccoli, spinach, radishes, onions, and potatoes.  I plan on also planting more carrots and beans, cauliflower, onions, canteloupe and kohlrabbi.  I'm sure I'm forgetting a few.

This is where the urban garden is at so far.  Check back for more tomorrow!

Getting Started

I am an avid urban gardener working on less than one tenth of an acre.  I raise mostly edibles along with herbs for eating, medicine and soap making.  I grow a lot of vegetables and some fruits: grapes, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and rhubarb.  I work in my garden an average of 45 minutes a day during the growing season, more during the Spring.  In the last few weeks, I've been striving to work one and a half hours per day in the garden.  Beginning May1, I'll be using this blog to keep a daily record of what was done in the garden.  Check back soon!