2009 Gardening

Growing up I would spend hours in our raspberry patch, just picking and eating. My mom and dad had a large garden where we grew all kinds of vegetables, but the raspberries were my favorite. Since I've become an adult I have always wanted to have my own garden. I started a patio garden when we lived in Denver, but it faced west and didn't produce very much. Since we've lived in Montana I'm on my third season of gardening. It all started with a friend giving me a big bunch of strawberry plants, which I just had to take care of. I added a few vegetables that year like tomatoes, carrots, herbs, and lettuce. The next summer I just had Isaac in April but I managed to get some seeds and plants into the ground....and that was pretty much the end of it. It got completely overgrown with weeds and the strawberries went CRAZY. There were so many you couldn't even find the fruit. So this year I am much more determined to have a healthy productive garden. I started several seeds recently including tomatoes, basil, cucumbers, zucchini, peppers, melon, all getting ready to go into the ground. I have so many strawberry plants coming up that I'll be able to pass many of them along to a friend. I'm planning to get outside sometime soon and get the dirt ready so I can plant some lettuce (and maybe some onions?). My goal this summer is to buy as much of my fruits and vegetables locally as I can and grow some more myself. I want to do this because I am a complete sucker for the taste of a homegrown carrot, I think it's good to support the local economy, save on the gas to ship this stuff across the world, and I love to see things grow. The farmers market starts soon (although I'm not sure what will be there?)! Get ready to see a lot of plant pictures over the next several months as I try to figure all this stuff out.