Training for How to Grow a Vegetable Garden

I am in serious training for how to grow a vegetable garden. It's not just any vegetable garden. This is the type of garden that will provide almost all food for an entire year for a family of seven. So....I'm in training. Training to figure out exactly how much of each vegetable to grow, how will each crop be stored for future use, what kind of heirloom varieties to grow, and so on. There is a lot to sort out and decide upon. Then planning the schedule for starting seeds, transplanting, direct sowing, rotating crops, companion planting, and so on.....

I get tired just thinking about it all.

But there is something inspiring about planning the next years' garden in the dead of winter. The thoughts of delicious tastes one can only experience by planting a garden at home. The joy of propagating seeds that the big agri-businesses want to see vanish. The joy of being self-sufficient in a time where corn is King.

I started my training for how to grow a vegetable garden by reading several good books. One book I can highly recommend, Animal Vegetable Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver gives you a good idea on why you should grow vegetables of your own or buy them from a local farmer's market. I have a book on growing vegetables in Wisconsin. I'm sure you can find a book specific to your area. I use Suzanne Ashworth's book, Seed to Seed, for information on how to save seeds for my plants. I have several books on how to put foods into storage (dehydrating, freezing and canning). I read seed catalogues galore for growing tips and general information.

Most of my seeds have now been ordered. I ordered seeds from Fedco and from Seed Savers Exchange. I am only growing heirlooms this year and many of them are becoming quite rare, so I plan to save seeds from everything I grow this year and offer them next year to others through Seed Savers. Of course this means keeping good records, so I need to add that piece to my experience.

I don't know if I'll ever be done training for how to grow a vegetable garden. I do think there are new things to learn every year. I suppose I'll always be in training. But I do know that I am a lot further ahead today than I was when I was younger.....so practice does make perfect (not that perfection is the goal). I'm more of a journey or experience oriented individual rather than an end-product kind of person. But it is exceedingly joyful to delight in the fruits of your labor.