Victory Garden

Looking south

I have made a commitment to Angie at Children in the Corn to start a vegetable garden. She has taken on five of us novices to offer advice and counsel and has already given us a list of what she planted in 2007 (yikes!).

Mine won't be a big garden: about five by seven feet. Right now it has a few perennials in it: Sedum Autumn Joy; Black-eyed Susan; some very very tall asters that were a gift from a friend who thought they were dwarfs (not) that keep reseeding and I keep pulling; a lot of grass. I'll transplant the Sedum and Black-eyed Susan to other garden beds. And dig up the grass and the asters (and keep pulling them all summer, I'm sure).

Looking west

Right next to the future Victory Garden is a small plot with a rhubarb plant and some chives (so that's a start).

I'm thinking plum tomatoes, bell peppers, maybe some radishes, carrots, and green onions, and butternut squash. And garlic. And spinach. I don't know if all that will fit or not. But I'd like to have something I can harvest early, tomatoes for canning, and a good storage vegetable.

Next week is an organic gardener's meeting at our public library. I didn't know we had a group like that here, but a few weeks ago I saw a posting on one of the village billboards.

Last spring I read Barbara Kingsolver's Animal Vegetable Miracle, a thought-provoking and entertaining book. What I learned from her book will make the gardening a more enriching and interesting experience. And having a personal coach in Angie will make it very special. (No pressure, Angie - honest!)