Welcome to Urban Gardening..........TAKE 1

Hello World! Have you ever considered growing herbs, vegetables, fruits, or even just plants; but...you never took any action on your thoughts because you live in the city??? Well, this blog was meant for you! I live in the heart of the city of Chicago. My "Urban Gardening" experience came about one summer while off from work.

My mom had ALWAYS grown tomatoes from pots in her backyard; but while growing up; I never really got into it. I would just say, "oh, okay. Whatever!", but I've always been around gardens. My grandmother use to grow corn, collards, tomatoes, strawberries, and onions in her backyard. I can remember eating strawberries right from her yard. She would clean them; and then cut them up adding just a hint of sugar. Then, it would be served with homemade sponge cake and whip cream that night for dinner. Absolutely delicious! My Aunts in Arkansas had farms. Yes, I said FARMS! You know, going to the chicken shack, pick out a chicken, cut the head off, put it in the big black kettle pot steaming over a tree fire, pick the feathers off, serve it for dinner......yes, that type of farm! My Grandfather, a WWII Captain from the 761st Tankers Battallion; would grow everything under the sun! Every Saturday, he would bring fresh fruits and vegetables over to our house. My mother would love to see him coming! We liked it too because he always made homemade ice cream for my sister and I!

At any rate; the summer garden of 2009 kept me busy. We grew tomatoes, basil, peppermint, collards, and cabbage. All out of pots! We grew flowers as well. I can remember waking up early every morning just to go out to the garden (of pots) to see if they had grown. It was exciting, adventurous, heartfelt, and a moment of feeling so proud and respectful for nature and the sun. Our harvest was quite bountiful that summer. The weather was not where it needed to be; but for our first experience, it was absolutely fantastic! I knew then that I was hooked.

In March of 2010, we decided that we were going to plant our seeds in the ground this time. We wanted to see just what kind of harvest we could actually reap. I also wanted to see if we could reap and store enough where during the winter months, we wouldn't have to go to the grocery store for our vegetable needs. (the 100 mile diet) Thus, the challenge began! We planted red onions, green onions, scallions, leeks, bell peppers (carnival mix-all colors), hot pepper mix (5 different types of hot peppers), romaine lettuce, salad mix, strawberries, okra, cucumbers, spinach, cabbage, collards, broccoli, yellow tomatoes, red tomatoes (big boys, better boys, beef tomatoes, and hybrids), 2 types of string beans, grapes, gold raspberries, grilling peppers, garlic chives, garlic cloves, parsley, sage, pineapple sage, catnip, thyme, spicy basil, dill, nasturtium, rosemary, lavender, oregano, and watermelon. We also planted a variety of flowers around the garden to attract our little insect friends. No pollination, no fruit! Now, it's important to know that we don't have a huge yard. As a matter of fact, we have a small space on the side of our building where we decided to grow our garden. I've come to learn that you really don't need a lot of space to grow, you just need the desire to grow.

This blog will showcase the journey and life of our garden this summer! I'll post pictures and video's for your viewing pleasure. I'm very excited because we've gotten off to a great start and I really look forward to not only reaping my harvest, but blessing others with it as well! We will be donating fresh vegetables to the Farmer's Market in my area in which the produce will go to the Greater Chicago Food Depository. This is going to be one fantastic voyage and I hope that you'll stay around to enjoy it, learn something new, and most importantly; TAKE ACTION!!!!