Well written! You show passion that surpasses my own naive enthusasim. Go get 'em!

Here is a link that might be useful: Sinfonian's garden adventure!

I love your tale...I am a long time gardener and it always pleases me to hear that I have inspired some one to try their hand at gardening. My partents were gardeners...they loved to garden and nearing the end of their lives they still had a garden every year...My Dad would crank up his tiller every spring to till the garden and my Mother walked behind him holding on to his belt to keep him from falling. At my age, I have resorted to an easy gardening method, because I am 69...Big wooden boxes...no grass or weeds to fight ..well the occasional bunch but not like in a big regular garden. I have posted pictures here many times....but I can sit on the edge of the boxes or a little gardening stool for Lowes...Good luck with you garden...Pictures yes!

COOL!, I havent made peace yet with the rabbits and squirrels and moles tho, all but the moles I eat! compost the moles! TiMo

There is something very therapeutic about gardening, not to mention that it's good exercise! And I also, like Ruthie, enjoy knowing that I am doing something that my parents, grandparents and down the line did for generations past. Sometimes something will be going on in the garden that I don't quite know what to do about it, and that's when I sure miss Dad and his vast knowledge (although now that I've found GardenWeb I don't feel so lost in dealing with stuff.) I'm sure I could buy what I grow for cheaper but it feels so good to sit down to a dinner I produced myself.
Long may we garden!!

OK - I am a total newby... this is my first year having an actual garden (we shall see)... I am growing in one raised bed here in Tempe (Phoenix) Arizona.

I have never lived in such a place where you get to plant in JANUARY! How crazy is that?

I garden because my job gives me no "finished product" satisfaction, and because I love cooking. I am currently growing Herbs - Basil, Oregano, Dill, Thyme, Cilantro, and Rosemary...

In my raised bed I am doing a square fool (yes fool as it's my first year) garden with Daikon Radish and Snow Peas (a beginners quest for instant satisfaction), Jalepenos, Green Peppers, 3 different varieties of Tomatoes, Green Onions, Shiso (I love Japanese food) Carrots, and Romaine.

I have a 15 Gallon bucket for my Bush Beans, and I am completely failing at the Sunflowers because the don't get nearly enough sun where they are... duh... SUNflowers!

But... I come home every day to see that what I did yesterday or this morning had an immediate impact (instant gratification - again) and result.

Today I fertalized and I am such a dork, but I can't wait till I get home tomorrow to see how each plant responded.

There is also a deep, secret side to me that wants to live where I can grow my own food, be it plant or animal, and not have to do this 9-5 any more.

Like I said, I am a total newby! LOL!

That's why I grow vegetables.

After eleven years of gardening and eating locally as much as possible it seems inconcievable to not be utterly attuned to the season and it's demands. Can you imagine a spring season going by without thinking about putting a seed in the ground or in a flat? Or a fall without seeing how many apples and cabbages you can rescue into the root cellar? I guess now I grow vegetables because I can't not grow them. It pains me to eat imported veggies at all, and I simply cannot tolerate the taste of non-garden salad stuff, so I have little choice......

my 3 year old daughter will NOT eat veggies unless they come from our garden. for a little while we could fool her and tell her the canned ones did, but it did not take long for her to catch on. now we have to open the can when she is not in the room, then hide it in the garbage. otherwise, if she sees it she won't eat that veggies.

she says she likes the food her and daddy grow.

THAT IS WHY I GARDEN.

That's funny, I got into gardening growing peppers, too. For me, I was disappointed that the pickled peppers at the store had few red-ripe peppers, so I figured to get a lot of red-ripe peppers, I'd have to grow them. And it expanded from there.

shambolam said......Today I fertalized and I am such a dork, but I can't wait till I get home tomorrow to see how each plant responded.

Understand this shambo...no matter how long you have been a gardener, you will always have that feeling...Last evening we were doing happy hour on the deck and I told my husband...I'll be back..I have to go check to see if I have any babies popping their heads through the soil....

I go every day to check and see how things are growing..

Waiting for the first asparagus is as exciting as playing the lottery for me! Well, maybe not since I don't play the lottery, but you get the idea....

Nothing tastes as better as just picked!

I LOVE THIS SITE!! You are all so very much like me. I have been down on my knees looking for the first asparagus tips to push through the ground. I was so excited that my spinach was up that I told everyone at work about it. (they all know I am nuts about the garden)

I mostly garden because it is in my bones. I was raised on a farm, Dad grew sugar beets, corn, alfalfa, cows, sheep and 7 kids. I married a farmer and we grow mostly wheat, with some proso millet thrown in, and alfalfa and 2 kids.

Gardening is the world at its best. We get to throw some seeds in the ground and see what this wonderful earth can do. I really don't care about a perfectly manicured garden, sometimes the weeds just win, and I cut them off when they are bigger. BUT, the produce is amazing and my hair is not yet grey. I can go out in the garden and no one talks back to me, I don't have to make huge decisions, answer the phone or train another person. It is me and my world.

I am usually happy to see the frost come in the fall because it is hard work, but by January the seed catalogs are ragged with corners turned over on the pages with next years seeds!

I better quit, as I said, I LOVE THIS SITE. You are all another inspiration! Happy Gardening! Carol

I grow vegetables because..

I love to cook with new exciting varieties of vegetables not readily available in a grocery store

Gardening keeps me sane, my plants ALWAYS listen to me.

A sun kissed fresh tomato.need I say more.

Digging new baby potatoes, picking fresh peas and fresh salmon mean its 4th of July

The first asparagus spear of spring is nirvana!

How else could I afford to make jam out of absolutely gorgeous blackberries?

My family loves baby cukes by the bucket load for snacks, ditto cherry tomatoes, snow peas, filet beans and baby carrots.

My pantry shelves would be lonely without the jars filled with the abundance of the harvest

Where else can I wear flip flops, a huge straw hat, shorts and a t-shirt and be the height of style.

Gardening gives my husband great ideas for gifts for me for all occasions.

It allows me to appear frugal while splurging on such luxuries as a new rototiller!

It grounds me with the rhythm of nature, gives me solstice in times of trials, it renews my soul.

For some reason, it just makes me happy!!! When I first started this new garden a month ago, I had all the soil in and had just planted the first batch of onion sets, when my BIG dirt loving dog went in one night and destroyed all of my hard work! I cried all the way to work and had one of the worst days ever. When I got home I was so depressed my DW made me go out and helped me put up a higher fence. I instantly felt better and started back to put my garden in order. Now I have most of my plantings in and all doing good. I too check every morning and night, and it makes me feel good just seeing things grow!!!

Why do I plant a garden??? hmmm... good question. Yesterday, I went and bought $78 worth of 10-10-10 - 400 lbs. - crazy! Like you folks, putting the seed in the ground then checking every day... and even digging with a stick to see if the seed germinated... in the morning, walking out with a cup of coffee and looking what God has given me. On a nice day, plowing corn and looking back and seeing it gently blowing in the breeze... then when the crops make, seeing the pleasure of family and friends gathering them. Grand finale - sitting down at the table and having my mouth open every time my elbo bends.
Shot

I've gardened for decades because I love it, but this year there's another reason. In my area, the cost of food has increased about 20% in the last six months. It's a national trend, and I see the alarm growing on various sites that also mention the cost of gasoline.

I even bought a large freezer to save surplus food for the winter since it doesn't look like food costs are going to decrease any time soon. Eventually, growing your own food may be a matter of actual survival for some if not many people. Whatever we do to hone our gardening skills and knowledge now may serve us very well in the future.

Yet, even "have-to" gardening brings great pleasure -- nothing else compares to the taste and nutrition of home grown crops.

Anney in Georgia:

I liked your comments about growing and preserving your own food. I think it is very true, and very perceptive of you to point out that it literally could be a matter of survival at some time in the future. In many countries right now, although it doesn't get much press here, there have been food riots, demonstrations, and other political unrest due to the rapid rise in food prices and shortages of some things -- Haiti, Nigeria, Guinea, Myanmar, and Viet Nam, among others. We, or at least, unfortunate to say, but true, the more well-off of us, the upper and middle classes, may not ever have trouble getting food, but we may pay a lot more of our incomes to get it

My family has been into gardening, canning, drying, and freezing for generations, not so much as a cost saving measure, although it certainly is, but simply because it tastes SO MUCH BETTER than commercially preserved foods. You can make things to suit your own individual tastes. For example, everyone in my household is on salt-restricted diets for various reasons, so I make my own low salt/ almost no-salt tomato juice, tastes so much better than the expensive (and nasty) stuff from the store. I use just a little bit of real salt, 1/4 teaspoonish per quart (I think it needs it to help preserve it) plus some KCl salt substitute and some Sour Salt, along with various herbs and spices, including onion, celery, cinnamon. Yummy.

Another advantage is making things which are hard to come by in the stores, or just fun. I made some homemade mango chutney the other day (admittedly, mangoes obviously from the store, but they were the little, yellow Mexican ones, 3 for $1.00, very sweet, excellent flavor) and canned several quarts of it. I'd never made chutney before, but it turned out so good, I went on the internet searching for recipes, and I found one for a rhubarb chutney on recipezaar.com, I have TONS of rhubarb just poking up, so guess what I'll be making in three or four weeks!

Because of the rise in prices, I am expanding what I plant this year, and I intend to put up more of my own foods. Some things I'm doing differently this year -- well, a lot more of many things, but especially potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, brassicas, greens. I want to pickle and presevere more things, try some new recipes. And, one of my goals is to share a lot more with family members who can't do it for themselves for various reasons, health and location (bad soil and tons of deer!).

Two things I thought I'd mention that I'm growing this year -- quinoa, a grain substitute, actually a kind of pigweed, high in protein, easy to grow, used just like rice. The other thing I'm growing this year are several kinds of flour corns, so I can grind my own cornmeal.

When the economy got really bad in Michigan in the late 1970's and early 1980's, we had some problems with people stealing produce from the garden -- we had one person who came in the night quite regularly and always took ONLY cabbage, carrots, onions, and peppers, we called him the "Cole Slaw" man. We also had a neighbor a few house down steal corn a couple of times -- we confronted him many years later, in a friendly/joking manner, and he fessed up about "how good" our corn was. We also had other things taken, but times were really bad, and people needed food. Only ONE TIME did it really bother me, and that was when someone stripped all of the Stanley prune plums off a pretty good sized tree right in broad daylight during the middle of the day, when they were just starting to turn purple. Whoever did it picked them into paper grocery bags, and then, for whatever reason, must have decided they were too green, and dumped them in the weeds across the street. THAT made me mad, because it was a total waste, and they picked and ruined over 2 bushels of plums -- could have been kids, who knows. The other people never bothered me, because I always had the produce to spare, and I figured they needed it.

Every year I find myself to be a gardening newbie again because I try every year to grow something new. Sometimes it's a new vegetable altogether, sometimes it's a new kind of an "old" vegetable. A ripe cayenne pepper is different than a ripe scotch bonnet.

I think this year I am going to try purple carrots for the first time. I think they will be cool.