My Nearly Urban Garden

There are hundreds of people blogging about the wonder that is growing their own food in areas of the country that haven’t seen a whole lot of formal food production since the legendary “victory garden”.

Don’t hold me to the numbers, but I think I remember hearing something like 40% of US food production during World War II was grown by ordinary citizens.  Regardless of whether that’s a real number or not, the fact that every day people were able to grow their own food and have a connection to the miracle of seed to harvest is inspiring.

Rationing has never been my reality – if you count government imposed because we have to feed the boys overseas.  As a vegetarian; however, the cost of fresh, quality, locally grown, organic produce is a completely unsustainable part of my budget and I wanted to change that.  Therefore, the “rationing” comes in a much more hidden form – lower prices in exchange for wasted energy, chemical runoff into our drinking water, worker abuse and nutritional deficiencies in the end product are just a few on a very long list.

In short, I’m hooked on fruits and vegetables – the more “responsible” the better.  And it’s a lot of fun to grow your own, really.

So back to what I call my “victory garden”.  Why did I even start this blog when everyone else is too?

Actually, because someone was rude to me at the “local organic garden store” when I went to buy some already started lima bean plants.

You see, furry creatures kept digging mine up and I was concerned that didn’t have time to grow more and still get a full harvest in because they take so long to mature.

I’ll figure something out for next year and chalk it up to lessons learned – but I came away with the sense that there’s got to be some friendly advice out there for people just getting started.

And with that –

Welcome to my Nearly Urban Garden(s) in my inner-ring suburb neighborhood near the fine city of Cleveland Ohio (without sarcasm).

I hope to share what I’ve learned and what I learn as I go – nicely and in a way that makes sense and is actually useful.  I hope to get advice from people who know more than me (which is pretty easy).

I’ll give you lesson #1 as learned from my hastily planted garden last year –

Pay attention when the seed packets tell you how much space to give for each plant.  Did I learn?  Mostly, but I am certainly enjoying my mess of peas.