Veggie Blog, Part I

Look what I did last weekend:





That is my new 8' x 10' raised vegetable garden bed! I am not a handyman by any means, but I built that all by my self. The instructions were simple, everything lined up, and all the angles were "true" as my beloved dad would say. After a couple failed attempts at growing vegetables in the ground, I concluded that our soil wasn't conducive to vegetable gardening because beneath a thin layer of topsoil, there's a lot of clay. Also, my neighbor informed me that the previous owner mulched the garden area for several years with lawn clippings that had been treated with a broadleaf weed killer -- which explained my stunted and pathetic veggies from years past. I thought that a way around that was a raised bed, similar to one that a friend of mine built for similar reasons.

I built the bed out of weatherproofed redwood, and it holds together thanks to some very long lag screws. I bought 18 bags of organic topsoil to put in the bed. I was surprised to find that buying topsoil in bulk and having it delivered is not significantly less than buying top-line soil off the shelf at the garden store. That surprised me. Anyway, the project came up to $318 all together.

Within the last year, I've read a trio of books on food and eating: The Omnivore's Dilemma, Real Food: What to Eat and Why, and In Defense of Food. These books make the case that we should eat natural, whole foods, and that in general we should take more time and care into preparing and enjoying a meal. Based on this, I initially decided to buy a share into a community-supported agriculture program. But then I thought why not take it one step further by growing some of my own vegetables, since I like to be out in the garden anyway? So that's what I'll be doing this year.

I think I will start out with collard and mustard greens, spinach, lettuce, radishes and carrots. When the greens are done, I will be ready to plant tomatoes. As I phase out some of the tomatoes and radishes, I can plant some squash. Toward the fall, I can plant some broccoli since they apparently like it cold.

Anyway, I'll let you know how it goes.