Vegetable Gardening Today

Back in the late 60′’s early 70’s when I was a teenager growing up there was a great movement towards back to the land and homesteading. Sustainable living was the big thing. I was involved to some extent and that is where part of my roots in gardening comes from. Many years before that during World War II there were Victory Gardens and seems like everyone was growing their own vegetable garden to be able to have fresh Vegetables on the dinner table . Oh, and no I was not around back then but have done extensive reading and research on the subject through the years.

In the last few years there has been a resurgence in people growing a vegetable garden. This is a very good thing for those of us who love gardening. The thing that I worry about is that sometimes people will get started with a garden and then because of inexperience take on more than they can chew and then get discouraged and quite before they even get a chance to taste the fruits of their labor. Gardening is fun and very enjoyable and an important life skill that should be passed on to children. Fortunately there are a lot of resources available on gardening that can make the job of growing your own garden a lot simpler and fun.

Working in an urban environment, every day I get the chance to see a lot of gardens in the neighborhoods as I go from place to place in the city. Even the smallest of yards seems to have a vegetable garden of some type or the other. There is even a restaurant in Chicago that has a full blown organic garden and grows most of it’s vegetables on the roof top. Just for good measure they also maintain 4 bee hives as well and harvest upwards of 50 lbs of honey each year to use in their cooking and baking. This is a bit of an extreme example, but one that none the less shows you can grow a garden just about anywhere.

Maybe you don’t have the space for a full blown garden or would just like to start out small, then maybe a small container garden would be your answer. You could grow a kitchen herb garden and it would take very little time and effort. The is a great advantage to starting small especially if it is a kitchen herb garden. You can get started for a relatively small amount of money and once you have cooked with fresh herbs you will be hooked.

Planting a kitchen herb garden is as simple as getting a large container with holes punched out in the bottom. Fill it with good compost and potting mix and placing it in a convenient location. You can grow four or five different herbs in one container.

This is just one idea the same could be done with tomatoes or peppers even cucumbers could be grown this way. The possibilities are enormous. The other nice thing is that by starting with a small garden like a container garden your chances for success and reward for a small amount of effort may spur you on to bigger challenges such as a small patch in the back yard.

I would encourage this spring to plant a small garden even if you opt for just a container garden. I think you will be very surprised out how good your veggies will taste. There is a lot of advice on gardening available and I encourage you to take a little time and plan a small garden for yourself this spring. I warn you though once you taste your homegrown super market veggies will never compare again.