back yard vegetable gardens

I used to kill plants.  Not on purpose, but I did used to kill plants.  I would get house plants as gifts and I just could not keep up with watering and caring for them.   For some reason it was more responsibility than I could handle.  I even killed a cactus once.  And so, since I was about 19 I have believed that I just don't have a green thumb.  I kill green things, I would tell people with a laugh.  A few years ago though, in celebration of moving into an apartment with no roommates for the first time I decided to try my green thumb out again I had a dream of filling my apartment with plants. I started out slow.  Every Saturday morning I would walk to the farmer's market and purchase one plant.  I would find out the proper way to care for it and actually TRIED  to keep it alive.  By the end of summer I had over twenty thriving plants in my bay windows and throughout the apartment.  It turns out I can take care of plants, successfully at that.   

I have never had my own garden. Saying I have never lived anywhere with a yard large enough to start one would be a lie because as I think back I've had many a backyards in the past ten years, and only once did I put forth the initiative to start a garden, back when I lived on 1350 Willy St and my slumlord let us charge whatever we needed  from the hardware store on his account.  I got bored one day and bought a hoe, hedge clippers and seeds.   After a weeks worth of tilling and landscaping I  lost that motivation a few days later. 

My mom in Boston has a small organic vegetable garden in her backyard.  We never had one while I was growing up, although she would line our houses with pretty flowers every spring.   She now grows tomatoes, peppers, basil and salad greens among other things.   My friend Tanya and her boyfriend in central California have a garden in their backyard.  Most of my friends in  Northampton belong to the community garden.  And my friends in Duluth, a group of five twenty something guys have a substantial vegetable/flower garden started in their backyard. Over the past couple summers my desire to grow food has skyrocketed.  What good is being a chef if I don't understand how the food I'm cooking is grown? And besides, all of my friends are doing it.  When I was in Duluth last week I stopped by my friends' house to visit with friends, lend a helping hand in the backyard  and spend some time out in the sun.  Shoving my hand in the dirt plots, moving it around, kneeling, planting and patting all gave me great satisfaction.  GREAT.  I ate a handful of greens they had already harvested and cleaned.  Those greens were  as local as I could possibly ask, it was the best mix of greens I've had possibly ever.  Why?  Because they were the actual fruits of their labor.  Pure, crisp and dressing free.  

I think about my sister who is in Brasil right now volunteering in rural communities and helping them start their own vegetable gardens because they are literally starving.  I imagine a world where every household has a small garden and vegetable compost that they can live off of.  I think about eating fruits and vegetables from the grocery and not having to worry what chemicals where used to grow it and sprayed on it.  

Unfortunately I am living somewhere without the space for a garden and so I have decided to help my boss with boxed herb garden.  Start slow and hopefully this winter I will continue to grow things indoors.  I did find these instructions for starting your own backyard vegetable garden here:

            http://www.eartheasy.com/grow_backyard_vegetable_garden.html

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

cheers!

nyks