Mmmm… Radishes…

I love me some okra…

Growing up on a wheat farm in Oklahoma, my mother kept a huge garden.   We’d come home from school, drop off our books, and head straight out back to start raiding.  My favorites were anything that grew above ground – - green beans, tomatoes, peppers, and my absolute favorite, okra.  As much as I loved eating my fill of veggies after school, I really hated that garden.  from about the age of 11 or 12, I had to roto-till that freaking huge garden every year.  I hated work of any kind when I was a kid, and although I did enjoy the fruits of my labor, so to speak, I really had no interest in gardening, and after watching my dad farm wheat for years, no interest in agriculture at all.  But a couple of weeks ago I was at my mom’s house here in Denver for some random yard work, I don’t even remember what we were doing exactly, when Mom and I started talking about a nice patch of ground in her back yard that she had been thinking of turning into a garden.  Within 30 minutes, the plan had been hatched:  I would rent a roto-tiller and we were going to create a garden.

Breaking Ground

After pulling up what seemed like miles of weed barrier buried about two feet down, I headed to The Home Depot and picked up the tiller, some manure, and fencing supplies.  It was a strange experience, firing that tiller up.  I was transported back to my childhood, but this time with a sense of excitement and determination.  I couldn’t wait to see something grow from that previously unusable patch of ground.  Before I knew it, I had made four passes on that garden and I loved every minute of it.  Something in me began to change while I tilled that ground.

Doesn’t get any more local than this

I was so inspired by the idea of taking dirt that was doing nothing and turning it into my own farm, that I decided to create my own garden.  After surveying my property, I found a spot and put down some black plastic to kill off the grass and remaining grass seed.  So far I’m planning to grow green beans, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, and several different kinds of lettuce (I haven’t found a way to grow chicken wings just yet).

What’s the big deal?

I’ve tried to figure out why I’m so excited about starting a garden, and I’ve come to a couple of conclusions.  First, I am obviously in favor of the net benefit of being able to eat the things I grow – - I love veggies and they will be highly accessible.  Second, from a sustainability standpoint, the food I’m growing doesn’t have to travel from a distant farm, isn’t sprayed with pesticides, and I can control whether or not I’m growing and eating GMO’s.  And third (although I could probably continue listing things here), I could probably create quite a long list here), I feel good about it.  It makes me feel like I can actually do something to help change the things I don’t like about our culture (like corporate farms, genetically modified foods, and the requirement of mass quantities of fossil fuels, fertilizers, and pesiticides to grow our veggies). 

Anyways, this is a long post to say that I’m stating a garden and I’m terribly impatient to see my freaking radishes start sprouting.

jeremy.

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