I love gardening. I love it. But over the years I have gardened and not gardened. In the 70's I eeked a garden out of rotten sandy soil in spotty shade. In the 80's we moved to 30 acres and I had the garden of my dreams. Huge. With every vegetable that I could ever want. We raised pigs, chickens, kids, fruit trees and bushes. I loved it. I gave away vegetables for the first time in my life.
Then my husband asked me to change my location. So I did. We planted more fruit trees where my garden had been. I still had a large space, although not quite as large as before. Then in the 90's I moved it again and my garden shrank. Then finally, I came home one early spring day to discover my husband burning rubbish from a house he was remodeling. The painted wood was old and I worried about lead. The roofing materials he added later had who knows what in them. So I gave it up. At this time we also gave up our animals, and our kids took off to run their own lives.
I always missed gardening. I loved not having to weed. But I loved the gardening, canning, the sustainability of a good healthy garden.
Since then I divorced my husband and moved to a small home near the city with a small fenced in backyard. I have a neighbor with a magic flower touch who loves flower gardening. I was disappointed the first spring to discover that my yard was almost totally shaded. The second spring, I put in a 4 X 8 raised bed for tomatoes, green peppers and cucumbers. I also put in a lettuce garden up by my patio that received some sun during the day.
The squirrels and chipmunks ate every single tomato. Because of the sun, my green peppers were very tall, but prolific! And I was able to harvest many cucumbers! My lettuce garden was always there for me and the swiss chard I sprinkled in there grew until the snow and freezing finally did it in. However, I potted several plants and have used them over the winter.
I want to garden again. I want to go out and touch my plants and pick vegetables and can vegetables. So I walked around and around my yard and called a tree person and had them trim my huge swamp maple tree way way up so that the sun can now hit my hard in several good places. And I found gardengirltv on Youtube. My hero.
So now I have hope for a garden this summer. A real garden. I am planning to build several raised beds so that I have at least 3. I am looking for a humane animal trap so that I can catch the critters that think I am raising things for them (We have a park a short distance away and they will be relocated). I started a hydroponics unit in my basement where I am (really I am) growing lettuce and spinach. And today my worms are coming!
I am getting ready for spring by starting my compost worm bins. I got a couple of pickle buckets from my sister"s restaurant and following the directions of the garden girl, I drilled holes and filled the buckets with shredded paper and soil and some water. I also have some veg scraps that I had from my cooking yesterday. So, as soon as my worms arrive, I am putting them in the buckets so they can start composting and creating some nice soil for me. Because this is winter and it is cold outside, I have them in my kitchen.
My daughters think this is totally gross, but the buckets are clean and they are in the corner. I will move them to my basement once the worms are in. Then when spring really gets here I will take them outside. I have them inside so that they will start working. And will chew up my veg scraps. So I am excitedly waiting!
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