Johnny Crow would dig and sow...

...till he made a little garden.

My last attempt at a vegetable garden was about 14 years ago, and it was pretty comical. My general lack of planning and maintenance resulted in dozens of un-thinned, stunted carrots; five zucchini plants which produced more squash than we could have eaten in a year; broccoli that went to seed before I got around to harvesting it; you get the idea. Not exactly encouraging results.

I have never been a gardener. My mom gardens and loves it — I have tried to love it, but I seem to have missed out on that gene. The armies of dandelions surrounding the unkempt flowerbeds in my front yard and the victorious vetch that has claimed the back yard beds are a testament to my lack of tending. It's not that I don't notice or don't care about the weeds — I would love to look out my window and smile at beautiful cascades of flowers — but the work involved seems overwhelming (we happen to live on a large lot, which seemed cool when we bought our house and everything was nicely landscaped, but not so cool when we realized what it took to maintain that landscape). The weeds have been around a lot longer than I have, and they certainly know how to survive. One weed species in particular looks fairly benign on the surface, but has a really impressive, seemingly endless lateral root system that shoots new babies up to the surface. Seriously, I am in awe of this plant. If only it was a pretty flowering ground cover....

Despite my gardening deficiencies, I've decided to try growing vegetables again. Since I already cook and bake most of my family's food (I buy few prepared foods and we eat out infrequently), it only makes sense to take things a step further and cultivate some of my own ingredients. I've actually read some books this time and done a bit of preparation. I've probably skipped some important steps (like figuring out the pH of my soil), but at least I have a basic plan. I even discovered that the three-tier compost system we've been dumping our yard waste into (but otherwise totally ignoring) actually WORKS! You just throw stuff in, and eventually it turns into great dirt — who knew?

Honestly, it's not a freshly-dug grave. I may have accidentally
cleaved a few worms with my shovel, but that's it, I promise.

I've completed phase I, the tedious work of digging up sod, turning soil, and working in the compost, so it can only get easier, right? My garden plot is very small (I'll be doing some container gardening as well), but I think it's a good, manageable size for a novice like myself. It's not much to look at yet, but I hope to have photos with lots of lovely green stuff growing in the next couple of months.