An Unlikely Gardener

I’m just not outdoorsy.

Posted 25 May 2009 in Garden.

I shocked myself last summer by starting a vegetable garden. I’m no gardener, I’m not earthy. I’m a professional software developer. I haven’t had an all over tan since 1995.

There were several reasons I figured I’d try one:

• my original plan was to just grow herbs, mainly basil, because it is effing expensive at the grocery store, the flavour of the local stuff is way better and herbs always give dishes a boost, so having a lot around was desirable;
• when we’d go to the farmer’s market, we’d see purple carrots and potatoes, candy cane beets, a rainbow of swiss chard, stuff you just can’t get at the grocery store. But it was effing expensive! Five dollars for 7 potatoes?! C’mon! “I can do that in my backyard,” I’m thinking;
• the biggest reason, though, and it still gets me motivated, was Jamie At Home , a show by Jamie Oliver working in his own garden and cooking what he grew. I’ve seen every episode at least 4 times, but I can watch them over and over; I always learn so much. After watching a show, I can almost seeing myself running a farm with chickens.

So I gave it a shot: what a blast. There was very little work to do once I dug out the plot. There wasn’t any magic, just put seeds and seedlings in earth and wait. You can see all of last season’s garden on flickr. The most successful vegetables were the tomatoes, especially the green zebras.

Since I hit my limit for free photos on flickr, I’m going to write about the garden here. The pictures should be better, because of the new camera; and hopefully the vegetables will be better too!