Plant Whisperer

Spring is here and it's gardening time! Sara and I decided to build a garden. It is already official, plants are in the ground and growing (hopefully). When complete, our garden will encompass roughly 300 sq. ft. We are only growing only vegetables and crossing our fingers we have a bountiful harvest in the Fall!

Our garden will serve many goals:

• To provide us with clean and locally grown food. No chemicals will be used.
• To compare the price of growing it ourselves and what we would spend buying it in the store.
• For me personally, to grow a successful garden. Luckily, I have the help of a wonderful partner.

I am proud to say when we go shopping we have a good amount of fresh vegetables and fruits in our basket relative to the amount of processed foods. Books like The Omnivore's Dilemma and documentaries like Food Inc. really turn the brain gears about our current food supply. Chemicals and processed foods are scary. We are very fortunate to have access to grass-fed beef and land to grow our garden.

This is going to be a learning experience. We've grown smaller amounts of various plants, but this is by far the largest growing operation we've undertaken (not counting the big one in Kansas).

The main three vegetables we are growing in quantity are corn, potatoes, and tomatoes. On a smaller scale we will be planting garlic, sweet basil, bell peppers (types undecided), and jalapenos.

We have some of the work done but have a lot to go. Starting this previous Saturday we prepared a roughly 3x12 ft. section and planted 10 Yukon Gold seed potatoes. On Sunday we cleared and tilled the next sections for planting. Tonight we plan on planting 10 more seed potatoes of a white variety I don't remember. We will also be planting garlic and corn (Sweet Luscious Hybrid variety).

In future posts I will cover more details and post more pictures. Right now there's only sections and rows of dirt to take pictures of!