All Geeked Out And No Where To Go

"One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides." ~W.E. Johns, The Passing Show

So this is us. Novice Gardeners Extraordinaire. We are gardening in a townhouse community so we have very limited backyards. We knew we wouldn't be able to grow enough of what we wanted all by ourselves so we banded together to make our own community garden. We are all great friends who have found ourselves sharing laughter, sorrow, laughter and a common goal.

Me (Amy), Barry, and daughter, Sophia





Mandy and Tim







Suzy and Jaxon



One of our neighbors, a non-gardening being (Fawzi you know who you are), said last Saturday, "Oh man! I'm surrounded by geeks." And he was! We were all supposed to be together to watch the fight and all us girls could do was talk gardening. We are all so excited to get started. We probably should get started but something is happening to me that happens every year. I start researching, and reading blogs, and reading books (which Suzy found a great one this year, Grow Great Grub: Organic Food from Small Spaces by Gayla Trail) and then I get overwhelmed. I want our garden to be great beyond great, something that people will tell stories about, that they will want to put in their book, that they will pay money to visit. Ok, ok, I know I'm having a Field of Dreams moment, a "Build it and they will come" moment but really I do want a great garden that is successful and feeds 3 families.

We did ok last year. Mandy and Suzy grew awesome tomatoes. Suzy had some great zucchini and squash and I did ok with our green beans and carrots (I don't want to talk about my cucumbers).

Those girls grew some Mega tomatoes! We had so much that we canned. I use "we" loosely as Mandy and Suzy did most of the work.

So our plan this year is to stick to crops that we will can. Our goal is to grow food that we can not only eat in season but also help us get through the winter. It is looking like tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, peas, and maybe some squash. I've also thought of doing some container strawberries and butternut squash.
Stay tuned as we try to stay simple with maybe a little branching out. Let's just hope there are no voices out there amidst the tomatoes. Who knows what we'll be inspired to do.