Natural Born Gardener

I like to think that I was born to garden.  Both of my parents are avid gardeners after all. 

Year after year, my mother has some of the most beautiful and successful flower gardens that I've seen.  I don't know that she knows a great deal about the plants like my father does, but she knows what she likes and what seems to go well together. She's diligent in maintaining it too which makes all the difference if you ask me. My father on the other hand is a vegetable grower.  One of my fondest childhood memories is of sitting in his vegetable garden and eating the peas straight from the plant.  In his former life, my father was a science teacher and in his spare time he helped run the high school's greenhouse.  Everything I've learned about growing vegetables, I've learned from him.

Last year I experimented with growing some of my own vegetables last year.  I was either very successful (with peppers and onions) or not successful at all (zucchini and cucumber - and just 3 small green tomatoes).  This year my garden has grown and I'm hoping to have even more success.

This year I planted 2 varieties of tomatoes, 2 cucumbers, cantaloupe, peas, carrots, red and yellow onions, garlic, 3 different pepper plants, red and green cabbage, potatoes, strawberries, and a few different types of lettuce.  I even planted some herbs: sweet basil, cilantro, chives, and Italian parsley.

I'm also trying something called square foot gardening.  I learned about it at a seminar on raised bed gardening and it seemed perfect for gardening in the limited space that we have.


Even if we don't get a large crop this year, it's been fun planning and planting this garden.  Big Daddy and O have been heavily involved in the process and it's been enjoyable to have the whole family involved.