Garden Planning

After I read Barbara Kingsolver's book, Animal Vegetable Miracle, I yearned for a yard and a garden. At the marina where we docked our liveaboard boat, rules prohibited the display of anything on the docks. That meant no flowers or plants that could provide fresh food during the year. Luckily, a farmer down the road from us sold all that we desired, but having a garden of my own is something that I did want to do. Being back on land, the small yard that I do have will (hopefully) provide for us this year.

My friend, Jessica, began posting on Facebook about the veggie catalogs that she was already looking through and it began my interest in whether or not it was time to start thinking about what I needed to plant. I would like to merely supplement our fruits and vegetables this year with produce from the local famers' market because I will have grown more than enough here at home. I went online and ordered from Botanical Interests because of their wide selection of organic seeds.

In Kingsolver's book, the yearly growing calendar - the Vegetannual - is one that she refers to and used when she was living off of food developed within 100  miles of her home. During the year, certain vegetables and fruits are "in-season". It is a wonderful thing to buy and consume in-season produce because it helps to decrease the resources and costs associated with growing, transporting, and maintaining the goods. This is something I would like to work toward doing - not only to stay healthy but also to live more in accordance with nature. When I go to the store, I do think about how much it actually costs to bring strawberries all the way to Maryland in the winter... it's a lot, financially and resource-wise.


On Pinterest I was lucky to find Sprout Robot - a website which tells a person what to start planting and when based upon the growing location.  This has really helped me to start planning my garden. This week, it's time to start growing the broccoli indoors. My seeds arrived yesterday, and the broccoli has been planted.