Hi there!

This being the first post to my new blog I figure I should introduce myself and what I'm doing here. During my undergraduate I did a lot of work looking at things like farming and gardening and the ways people relate to the environment through their use of land. Since then I've started taing up more and more craft related hobbies (I've done beer brewing, cheese making, bread making), gardening seems like a great hobby to add to that list.

Yesterday I asked my land lord of I could tear up the backyard and he gave me the OK (as long as I didn't grow things that would get him in trouble anyway) so I decided that now was the time to start this blog and my preparations. Currently I'm planning on a mostly vegetable garden for use in the kitchen, as much as I love the fresh produce from the farmer's market driving there is a pain in the ass and I always spend way more than I want to, so why not just have my own mini farmer's market in the backyard? I might plant some flowers or something but as I've been planning I've mostly focused on edible plants.

Besides growing some grub I'm looking for some education. As a gardener I'm hoping to learn more about what it takes to make the space in my back yard sprout something more useful and also get a little bit more in touch with the land and the old ways of life. I also think its important for food production to move away from the industrial model its currently following. In a world where oil is becoming increasingly scarce (don't let $30 a barrel fool you, its going back up) we simply cannot afford to grow all of our food thousands of miles away, things need to change and planting a garden is one of the ways I think I can help.

As for this blog its point is mainly to give me a virtual garden to grow some ideas about gardening and the land as well as (hopefully) brag about the awesome produce growing in my yard. Mostly I hope to produce some rambling essays about what it means to bust some sod and feed some mouths so stay tuned!