A Good Read

I finished reading The Urban Homestead the other day and it really has moved my gardening plans in new directions . . . well kind of anyway. Mostly its changed the conceptual design of my garden away from one or two large raised plots to maybe three or four smaller raised plots, something along the lines of say 6'x4' each. The main reason, as was very observantly pointed out in the book is that you actually need to be able to reach your plants when you're gardening. Now I may be able to reach more than two feet into a plot but I know many people who can't, which brings me to another reason why I am starting this garden, the idea of a community.

Now lets say we have some catastrophe, like an invasion of alien zombie cats (alright, so peak oil is probably a more plausible phenomena but alien zombie cats would be so much more fun). Assuming we can defend ourselves against this invasion you won't be able to go down to Kroger for fresh produce. Now I could raid my neighbors for this but now that its winter I can tell that they don't have that much in the way of land under cultivation. Now I would do better myself but I have a problem that involves kudzu . . . that intolerable invasive species that controls the southern countryside. Where I plan to plant my garden is straight in the path of the largest field of kudzu I've ever seen.

Now there is a solution to both my own problem of kudzu and the community's problem of not enough produce . . . a community garden. Part of my plan as a new gardener is to open up the kudzu lawn of my backyard to my friends as a garden of their own. There is only one condition, that they help beat back the kudzu and help with the upkeep of everything in the garden in an organic manner. I've recruited several friends who have either no yard or an incredibly shady yard already, and I'm open to letting anyone garden in my yard. Even if the scary people with the graveyard of cars up the street wanted to garden I would let them. I think that the garden would transcend all differences in the end. But for now I'll have to trust in my friends to beat back the evil menace of kudzu and zombie cats.

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!