First Look

Official harvest alert: I have harvested four green beans from the bush bean plant!!!

This might not seem very newsworthy, but for the clueless gardener, it's an incredible feat. Even though I've been engaged in the pursuit of growing organic vegetables for about four years now, I'm still stunned and thrilled when anything edible emerges from the dirt.

Organically speaking, I can certify that all the ingredients used to produce the plant are totally organic and workout additives, pesticides or any chemicals of any kind. They contain nothing but organic soil, homemade compost, organic seeds and purified, filtered water.
Oh, and sunshine!

Now. What the hell do I do with FOUR beans?

Perhaps I should have planted a few more plants. Live and learn.

Keeping Things Contained

The newest twist in my organic gardening is my move away from actually using my gardens.

Tomatoes

Wuuuhhhhtt?

My property is just a little bit shy of one quarter of an acre which is a lot of ground to care for. To be realistic, I've come to accept that I just can't care for all of it alone. Tending the huge gardens was becoming burdensome and I oftentimes I was forgetting to do it altogether. That means a lot of my crops withered and died or went to seed and I wasted time, money and all that energy. It was so incredibly disappointing.

Bush Beans

One area of my yard that gets lots of use is my deck. It's not a huge deck but it's big enough to put out some toys for my 2 year old son and for my older kids to sit and do homework (which they rarely do) or hang out with their little brother (which they often do). That being the case, I decided that putting pots of organic vegetables around the deck would be MUCH more user-friendly than planting large crops around the property. To fill the gardens on my property, I planted lots of pow-maintenance perennials like day lilies, hosta, snapdragons, coneflower, black-eyed Susans, peonies, wild roses, butterfly bush, hydrangea, forsythia, lambs ears, salvia, mint, sage, rosemary and lavendar. I know that sounds like a lot but it's taken place over about two years.

Lettuce

The container vegetable garden is very small. I scaled back from the intense fruit and veggie bonanza (which ended in a disappointing bevy of brown leaves) and kept it simple. I planted only what I knew we would eat instead of trying to plant enough to sell. I don't know what the hell I was thinking there, but alas, it didn't work out.
That said, this year's veggies are doing really well! In keeping it simple, I'm actually remembering to tend the garden and am already seeing the rewards for my work. The bush beans have beans on them and the tomatoes are already blooming.

Not bad for a few minutes of work a few times a week!


All my seeds were procured from Seeds of Change and all my organic soil and other gardening implements were purchased locally at Burke Nursery in Burke, Virginia.

And lest anyone think that I have some beautiful, expansive deck just made for gardening or something out of Home and Garden, have a look at where our summer food is coming from:

It's a tight squeeze, but there's room for all of us!