Wednesday, January 19, 2011

When I grow up I want to be a farmer!

Those of you who know me personally will know that I am in school.  Well actually, I am not taking a class this semester, but plan to continue as finances allow (we are committed to living without debt).  Anyway, I am studying Sustainable Agriculture at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College.  It is a great program and I am learning so much.


I have had an interest in gardening for so long, but because of the lack of sunlight at our Davis Ave house, I never had much success with vegetable gardening.  We had limited success with potted tomatoes (that we kept out next to the road).  Mostly, I just had lots of flowers.  I love flowers!

Last summer we had the most wonderful vegetable garden here at Hunter's Grove.  We made some mistakes, had some failures, had a lot of successes, ate well and learned a lot.  This year, we will be expanding our garden from 135 square feet of bed space to 350 square feet!  Last year we grew 6 different vegetables, this year's plan includes over 20!

I am really excited about using the information from my studies in my garden plan this year.  I have some big plans for the future.  This summer will be a bit of an experiment as I begin running a 1 member CSA.  I know, 1 member is kind-of silly, but my friend has promised to give brutally honest feedback as I try some things and I think it will be fun!

I'll leave you with some pics of last year's garden...







2 comments:

  1. Amy- what is the fencing around your garden- chicken wire? I assume that's to keep out critters/deer (and, does it work)?

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  2. It is chicken wire and it worked great. We came down to the ground with it and then stapled it out along the ground about a foot out from the fence to deter diggers. It was not tall enough to keep out the deer, but they don't like to jump into spaces that feel like a cage, so they weren't a problem. We expanded the space for this next year and used galvanized wire mesh.

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