Our First Garden

You can't get any more local than growing your own food. This year, for the first time ever, I'm trying just that. I've intended to start a garden all spring, but I'm just getting around to it now. Not the best start, but at least I'm finally doing it. I tend to over-plan everything, and this project was no exception. I'd like to tell you that my yard now puts The Victory Garden to shame, but it might cause a few of my friends great suffering as they laughed to death.

At first, I thought I wanted to try hydroponics, and I still do, but not on base housing a few months before we have to pack up and move. The same concerns put a real damper on a traditional garden, raised beds, square-foot gardening, and all those other gardens that are actually in the ground. Unfortunately, when we move out, we have to leave the same weeds, er, lawn we got when we moved in. To be honest, though, I'm pretty sure there are some chemicals in that ground, so maybe it's not so bad that I ultimately chose a small (ok, downright puny) container garden. Hey - I've never done this before! There was no point in killing hundreds of innocent plants.

I was actually at the book store to buy the new Square-Foot Gardening book when I found Guide to Florida Fruit and Vegetable Gardening, by Robert Bowden. I'm not sure that it will save all my gardening dreams, but so far it's been really helpful in getting started. Without boring me to tears, Robert gives all the basics, from what to plant when and where to harvesting and eating. Even though the book doesn't announce it, Robert believes in chemical-free, organic gardening except when all else has failed. Basically, it's a fun-to-read, quick reference to natural gardening. He also says point blank that there's no shame in planting only one of something, just to see if you can grow it, and for that I am forever in his debt. After I read this book (and got a "just do it, already!" email from my sister), I finally bought a few seedlings and self-watering containers.

When I say this is my first garden, I mean first vegetable garden. I've had a little bit of luck growing herbs in containers in the past. This year my rosemary and basil are doing very well, and most of the others are, well, not dead yet. With that winning track record, I bought 2 cherry tomato seedlings, 2 pepper seedlings, some cucumber shoots, and 2 zucchini seedlings. I got two of everything to better my odds of success, if you follow me. I got self-watering hanging baskets for the tomatoes, and self-watering rectangular planters for everything else. I really want to try an Earth Box, but there aren't any local distributors and I've heard that shipping them is wicked expensive and goes wrong as often as it goes well. The boxes themselves get great reviews though, so if I ever find them locally, I'm still hoping to try them out sometime. In the meantime, I have ordinary planters. Sometimes "done" is better than "perfect"!

And done I'll have to be, because I'm out of money. Organic gardening soil, $70, pots and planters, $34, seedlings, $21. It's not a lot of cash, especially in light of the garden's potential, but it sure doesn't look like $100+ worth of food right now. Who knows if it ever will be? What matters is that my family is growing organic food at home together.