Garden Experiment 2008

With the cost of food skyrocketing, and the prices of organic produce off the charts, my garden experiment this year is to work toward growing enough food to feed my family for the year. Matron of Husbandry over at Throwback at Trapper Creek was the one who inspired me.

This year, I’ve more than doubled the size of my gardening space, as well as added several more fruit trees and bushes. Even with all that, I’ll need to increase my garden that much again next year. My current garden only takes us through early winter. With the new garden, we’ll make it to early spring. But that will still leave a 3-4 month gap before the summer garden kicks in again.

With all the writing and teaching commitments I have right now, I’m trying to be realistic about what I can actually accomplish. I figure by working up to the size garden I’ll ultimately need over the next two years, that will give me time to get more comfortable with canning, preserving, freezing, and storing larger quantities.

Before I could start the new site, I had to take down Cait’s swing set that her brother and I built for her several years ago.

Going.

swingset

…Going…

takedownswingset.jpg
I was wishing we hadn’t built it so well. It was a bear to take apart.

…Gone!

all gone

Here’s the new garden and where all the old stuff is.

june garden

I’m thinkin’… this ought to be enough to keep me busy for a bit. :)

16 thoughts on “Garden Experiment 2008”

  1. This really made me laugh. Yours looks a lot better, but my garden is going to be bigger and more ambitious than other years too….and guess whose blog inspires me every day to do more and better. Yep, Nita’s. I love reading it every day and I have learned so much from it, even though I have been gardening for over thirty years.

    threecollie’s last blog post..Fog horns and a butterfly

  2. Ah yes; we built one of those (slightly different) and even moved it from Ohio to upstate NY where we decided the kids were old enough to leave it behind. Whew!

    There will be no veggies this year. But the flower beds are finally coming around. The full-fledged garden may have to wait until the sickly maple dies for good as it stands in the best location for a vegetable plot.

    Good luck, at least you have a shorter season of active growing.

  3. Nita, I’m still cracking myself up over that too. Unintentionally your blog title lends itself to a few potentially funny misspellings!

    Lynn –you noticed the ambitious nature of it! LOL! I’m nothing if not ambitious. We’ll see how far I get. And gardening isn’t what keeps me away from blogging as much as the writing projects stacked up on my desk. I hope shortly I’ll get to share one of the more fun ones with you.

    Teetotaled and Mary Alice, great idea for a monthly progress post! It’ll be a good way for me to tangibly see the progress too. Right now it’s looking like a bad haircut. Some things taking off, some things barely sprouted…

  4. Looks like it will be great. I think you should post a photo of the garden on the first of every month so we can see it grow and change.

    Mary Alice’s last blog post..Shhhhhh S-E-X.

  5. Wow! I look forward to seeing more pics as things progress. I am overjoyed to report that I have not yet killed anything in my garden (knocking on wood) and my snapdragons are actually blooming! :)

    teetotaled’s last blog post..Eating on the front porch

  6. Lynn Sinclair

    Wonderful (and ambitious) idea. As long as your new and improved garden doesn’t interfere with your blogging, then I’m all for it :)

    Lynn Sinclair’s last blog post..Animal Myths

  7. You made me laugh so hard! Am I really the “creep” that inspired you?
    Your garden plans look great and you are taking a realistic approach – I’m thinking of changing my blog name now… . He He

    Nita’s last blog post..The year of the gradual garden

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