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Friday Favorite: Edible Gardening

February 26th, 2016

I was thinking about my edible gardening history last night, then I looked up my first edible garden. Sure, I always had pots of herbs on our apartment balconies, but my first ever real edible garden was started in 2008. It’s hard to believe that it’s only been that long, it seems like much longer.
raised beds 1
raised beds
I built four 4 foot x 10 foot raised beds behind our garage in Ohio. Two were filled with vegetable and two were filled with strawberries. I purchased most of the little seedlings from a local greenhouse.
raised beds 2
Here I am, 9 years later with a HUGE area devoted to edibles and growing ornamental gardens as well. When I look back at what I accomplished in my Ohio garden in a few years, I’m amazed. I don’t have quite as much energy now that I’m a little older, but I have a better sense of what I like and what mistakes to avoid. Gardening is a growth process, we continually narrow down what we truly love, we broaden our gardening our skills, and we begin to enjoy some of the finer aspects of it.

How long have you been growing edibles? 

8 Comments to “Friday Favorite: Edible Gardening”
  1. PennyAshevilleNC on February 26, 2016 at 9:36 am

    That is a great perspective. I have been gardening for 8 years now. I was recalling the struggles and the times a plant of 2 amazed me. It is fun to reminisce and to dream of the future…I have definitely learned how to eliminate wasted energy! I have also learned how to let go- to allow a mistake and pull the plant and move on. THAT was the hardest for me. Not wasting resources when something is just not happy.

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  2. Nebraska Dave on February 26, 2016 at 10:09 am

    Susy, I’ve dabbled in gardening practically all my life but never really got serious until I retired seven years ago. At that time I had only one 4X8 foot raised bed. The next year another was added, and the next year three more were added. Then a rain water catch system was installed. Then another property was purchased and a 64X64 foot garden is now under development. Then another property was purchased just for neighborhood beautification by planting flower beds and keeping it mowed. So now I have moved from a hobby gardener to an urban farmer of vacant lots. It’s a way to meet new people in the city. Much of my time is spent talking with those in the neighborhood. My methods are a bit way out there so it does cause some discussions about how it won’t work until it does. :-)

    Have a great reflection on gardening day.

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  3. Sara on February 26, 2016 at 10:18 am

    Wow, thanks for this, you sent me down a looooong memory lane looking back at my garden pictures.

    I can’t believe you only started in 2008, that’s an amazing journey to where you are at now! I had a bit of a head start on you (I’m older, ha!) but I think I got more “serious” about food gardening around that time. Anyway, thanks! I’ve learned a ton from you over the years! :)

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  4. Robin Follette on February 26, 2016 at 10:35 am

    I did the math and now I feel old. :) This is the start of my 47th year growing food. My mother had a garden the first summer after buying a house. I was six. I’ve gone from a small garden to pots to bigger garden to two acres of garden, and now about a half acre plus the high tunnel and some containers. I can’t imagine not growing something to eat even if it’s a couple of hanging baskets of cucumbers and tomatoes.

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    • Kathy on February 26, 2016 at 11:08 am

      Robin, you’ve got me beat! This is the start of my 46th year gardening, but that doesn’t count helping my father in his garden when I was kid. I now garden about 1/2 acre of vegetables and cut flowers. Often it seems like a lot more than that, because I too have a lot less energy now that I’m older. But gardening is in part what keeps me “young,” at least in spirit!

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  5. Joan on February 26, 2016 at 11:13 am

    I’ve been gardening pretty much my whole life. As a kid I hated it – we had to spend an hour weeding before we could go off and have fun. I also tended my own strawberry beds as a kid, and this is how I made my spending money. Then I didn’t garden for many years, starting again about 20 years ago. For 6-8 years I grew all the vegetables that we ate (and since I’m a vegetarian that’s a lot of food!), but the last few years my garden has been pretty pitiful. This year I plan to start up again, growing just enough for myself.

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  6. Kyle on February 26, 2016 at 11:28 am

    I had my first container garden in 2003, but I also didn’t really start until 2008. My first garden was a City of Seattle P-Patch. My first garden may have been my best garden, LOL. I bought a property three years ago and am still figuring out how to make this place work. Sometimes I think it is easier to make a 10X10 plot work than work with a much bigger space. That soil had also been improved for years, whereas I’ve been working with pretty poor soil the last few years. I’ve put a fair amount of energy into getting fruiting trees and shrubs into place for a food supply that is less dependent on the vagaries of my soil and the weather.

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  7. Kristen on February 27, 2016 at 7:09 pm

    My Mom always had a garden when I was growing up (she still does although she has cut back a little). We grew up with weeding as a summer chore. As an adult I moved to the city for my job and found myself missing the garden (and appalled that people actually bought rhubarb at the grocery store. I had no idea that was even possible – yes I was maybe a little sheltered!). I started with a container garden on my apartment’s patio and when I bought my first house I planted a garden. I have had a garden every year since – which makes 20 years if I did my math right.

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About

This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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