Turnin' dirt....

Being in the garden has always been somewhere I just love to be. Growing up, my Grandma Jane would always have us in her yard, helping her with her flower beds, raking leafs...teaching us that there is "always time to stop and smell the roses".  My mom also had a deep love for nature & things that bloom and taught me how to appreciate all they have to offer.  Then I moved to New York about 12 years ago and discovered a whole region thriving with agriculture...both flowers and vegetables!!  Here's our old backyard in Freeville, NY (just outside of Ithaca)... the field we got married in:

i heart ny

I got to know friends with organic farms and amazing* backyard gardens...and was able to be part of an awesome  CSA
 (Full Plate Farm Collective...http://fullplatefarms.webs.com/), complete with rockin' Barn Dances at the end of the season! Walking through fields of flowers to get to you-pick-gardens were major highlights of our summers!!  I learned so much from just living in that community and talking with folks at the farmer's market... all organic, all natural, all just full of love. I started to get involved with vegetable gardening for the first time in my life.... and just love it!!! I still love my perennials, and everything about flower gardening...but growing plants I could eat and feed to loved ones brought this sense of joy that is hard to explain. The first time we had our first homegrown lettuce was just so awesome and rewarding!

I dream of having the land someday to tackle a garden like no other, but currently we are in the 'burbs of Chicago, were we have been for about 5 years now after having our daughter.  We don't have the rich, organic agriculture community like we did in New York, and believe it or not, it's hard to find farmers in this area that practice organic farming.  So for the last 4 years, I've been doing a small backyard garden here in the 'burbs. Every year I've learned more and more about utilizing space, succession planting, crop rotation, etc... and it's just been awesome. Here's some of the years past...

 garden in full bloom, 2009

 snap peas & herbs, 2010

hands of love & light, 2009

So this year, I've stepped it up to the next level and wanted to start this blog to share the progress. 

With just my trusty pitch-fork, I've turned 1/2 my backyard into a garden wonderland! Thought about borrowing a rototiller, but decided to go machine-free this year....so yep, pulled all the sod by hand. Here is what I started with, early March...

goodbye grass....

After a few long, hard day, I pulled more sod than I thought possible...
starting with the onion/leek bed...

then moved onto the other side of the yard (3 large beds...) and dug till I got what I was looking for:

3 beds deep

All the work was well worth it...I have more space than ever before! A rough estimate:

** 2 beds - 6'x20', 1 bed - 10'x20', herb garden - 4'x9', onion/leeks bed - 3'x9', and flower bed - 4'x10' **

The space in the back (10'x20') is for the Iroquois Three Sisters mounds, made up of corn, beans & squash. It's something E really wanted to do incorporate this year, and it even got him out there helping turn the dirt :)   I'm going to do a separate something to explain the whole thing...it's super cool!!

Had some good company :)

Lily & Mana, 10 years young

                     

Anyway, I finished turning all the beds by mother's day weekend. But in the meantime... lots of little sprouts were thriving in the house:

5 of 9 seed trays...beans, collards,
broccoli, chard, leeks, flowers, basil,
cilantro

broccoli

broccoli, collards

leeks!

I started all my crops from seed, other than the tomatoes and 2 jalapeno peppers from my neighbor :)  I'm a huge fan of Seeds of Change (http://www.seedsofchange.com/), Botanical Interests Organics (http://www.botanicalinterests.com/organic-seeds), and went with a few Burpee's Organics too this year. There is just something so rewarding to start your little seeds and watch them sprout and grow, and hopefully...make it out in the garden!


So the dirt is turned....seedlings started.....we begin 

ROOTS.ROCK.GARDEN.2012.

With our warmer-than usual early spring, I started moving plants out as soon as the beds were ready. Since I turned it all by hand, beds were ready slowly one-by-one. My large middle bed was ready first, so in went some early broccoli, chard, radicchio, and beans in early April:

 

broccoli ready to rock!

beet sprouts!!

edamame

rainbow chard

Over the next 3 weeks, everything I started from seed or transplant just took off...

lettuce bed. Seeds of Change green leaf & meslin mix

so fresh and so clean, clean

rainbow chard on it's way!

broccoli, end of April

sugar snap peas...garden snacking favorite!

The month of May was just incredible.....my whole little family pitched in and help make the garden truly happen. everyone who stopped over did a little, and neighbors help with good conversation & inspiration. our moms came over on mother's day for a little garden time and my sister made it over and helped me finish off the broccoli bed (which is now broccoli, radishes, and carrots), and she helped me plant my 48 broccoli plants...

broccoli bed!

reaching for the sun

I made her a patio planter with snap peas & a broccoli
as a thank you gift for the help :)

everyday we saw something new spreading it's arms & soaking up the sun.here's a little snippet of May....

lettuce is filling in

goodness

filling in!

snap peas takin' off

first year growing beets...super psyched!!

bush beans filling in their teepee

edamame, chard, radicchio, shelling peas on trellis

edamame ... best year ever!

little bit of everything

rainbow chard reaching out

early broccoli growing up quick!

radicchio

leeks

garden is in! end of may, 2012.

full bed of green, Iroquois mount in back, corn sprouting!

The herb garden is also in. This is the first year I've done a separate herb bed, and I have: watercress, cilantro, flat leaf parsley, sage, oregano, thyme, italian basil, chives, savory, & quinoa. I put 2 small tomato plants on the end to help shade the bed come July & August.

herb bed, late May

baby basil, early may

sage

oregano
(from neighbor)

herbs

So that brings us to now, June 2012. I'm going to wrap this up with some current photos...then I can launch this baby and get back out in the dirt! Thanks for reading...and happy gardening!!!

daily salads up in here

amazing colors

one of my favorite pics so far this year

snap peas with 2 blossoms!

broccoli about to burst

can't wait to eat you :)

carrot sprouts!

radishes, both red and white

chipmunk's view of radishes

chard is getting close!

that pink is pretty sweet

shelling peas about to bloom

edamame rockin!

bush beans

beets