Cultivating Community

Mid-March 2017, 10 months after landing on our Woodhaven property.  I hauled in countless truckloads of llama and cow manure and a couple of loads of kelp to build fertility in the new garden beds.

Late April 2020, looking down at the garden from the back deck.

The garden is such a great place to wonder and learn. Seed companies are experiencing record sales once again this year for edible varieties; they are struggling to keep up with demand. Local seedling sales were stronger than ever last year despite our local market switching to an online-only platform for the early part of the Market season, so all indications are that people are getting out into the garden more than ever with the extra time at home and a new focus on food security. I am (finally!) starting this blog as a way to share my experience growing food in the hopes that it might help inexperienced folks have success in their gardens, to share ideas with seasoned gardeners, and I also hope that I will continue to learn from the garden and the gardeners around me.

I feel one of the best ways to maximize your garden is to focus on its strengths (as well as your own). If you have a shady garden, then you will be able to produce lovely salad even in the heat of the summer. Or if you have land to grow on that is not where you live, choose crops that will do okay without a lot of observation and care. Talking to people that live nearby (from a responsible distance, given the COVID-19 situation) about how their garden performs (what does well, what doesn’t do well), their planting dates and other gardening tricks can give you invaluable information that can help you create a productive garden suited to your specific site. Creating a solid garden plan and calendar will set you up for success and keep you on track with seeding dates so that you don’t miss important seeding windows and have time to prepare the soil in advance.

As well, I think it is very important we continue to support our local farmers; these are people that have experience growing food and are able to do it in an efficient way, so in your quest for food security, please remember that local farmers have and always will be a big part of that. When supplies become short, we need to remember to protect the needs of our farmers.  

Stay tuned for more specific information about many different aspects of gardening.