Saturday I took a vegan cooking class at Madeleine Bistro with Chef Dave Anderson.  I was so inspired that afterwards I ran out and bought a mandolin (for slicing vegetables) and a fancy zester!  Then I thought… I really want to grow my OWN vegetables – and have fresh vegetables plucked from my backyard served up on my dinner table.

So… why not? I mean, I have tried this before… with not so great results.  But I don’t think I was as motivated previously.  My mother, my two grandmothers, and my sisters are all AMAZING gardeners – so I thought the green thumb thing must run in the family.  But I discovered that it takes much more than just dropping a few seeds into dirt.  And I discovered that I’m a much better writer than I am a gardener!

Now I’m approaching this from a different angle.  To keep myself on track I am going to blog about this new experience.  And today is Day 1:

Yesterday my hubby and I went to Home Depot and I picked out pots and plants and seeds.  There’s really no space in my backyard for a garden to be planted into the ground – so I figured a container garden would work best.  I found plastic pots (so that they are lightweight and I can move them around if necessary) that have a built in drainage system.  I’m trying to make this as fool-proof as possible!  I also got 3 big bags of organic soil. The total came to $150., but the cashier said if I opened a Home Depot credit card I could get a $50 discount – so of course I did that!  I’m hoping that we get more than $100 worth of vegetables out of this “experiment” to make it worth my while… and I know that $100 can buy a LOT of vegetables!

I’m not a huge tomato fan – but I do love Roma tomatoes, and they didn’t have a plant of those so I got the seeds.  I put those in one of the large containers.  

Then in another large container I put a couple of little zucchini sprouts, and a couple of yellow squash sprouts.  And in the third large container I put green onion seeds.

I’ve also got 3 medium containers.  In the first I planted basil – I plant basil every year, we use it often!  In the second I planted a lemon cucumber sprout.  And in the third I put some green bean seeds and some snow pea seeds.

I’m the first to admit – I have no idea what I’m doing – but I am giving it a shot!  My new little plants are all tucked in the soil and watered – the sun is shining – so we’ll see what happens!

 

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