My Backyard Garden

By Patricia Hamilton
Newsletter Sent July 20th 2010


I decided to start a little backyard garden. A little late in the season, but I’m getting it done. I’m learning how to grow some of my own fresh, organic fruits, vegetables and herbs for teas and cooking.  I have been inspired by Michelle Obama’s let’s move initiative and groups such as the slow food movement. I am convinced more that ever that it really does matter what I eat, and where and how what I chose to eat is produced.

So far it’s been an interesting experiment. We decided to grow straight up out of the ground as opposed raised beds to save on expenses, and was given a few heirloom cucumbers and black bean starters to get us going. I also purchased a few varieties of tomatoes, squash and herb plants which the seller promoted as heirloom organic.

I think the hardest part was digging up the dirt and working it. I saw a little taste of it while participating in a local community garden startup, but that was nothing compared doing the actual work yourself. (Fortunately I had help and only had to do very small part of it myself.). The actual planting of everything was pretty easy.

The next steps, I understand, are watching and maintaining healthy pest free plants until they are all grown up and ready for harvest. This in my mind is where organic vs. not organic comes into play. I found a really good article on making organic pesticide with ingredients in my kitchen. http://www.ehow.com/how_5131368_make-organic-pesticides-ingredients-kitchen.html

Also, I learned that we have a huge skunk living in the garage. I tried going out to at 5am to work on the garden in the cool of the day and got confronted by a huge skunk. I think he was returning from looking for food when he caught me out there. The way the yard is setup I was pretty much trapped if he’d decided to attack. Luckily he turned and headed for the garage and left me to get up the courage to run out, having had to run pass the garage to get out of the yard.

What we are now trying to evict him by sprinkling flour around the outside of the garage during the day so we can see when he leaves later this evening. Once he is out we plan to go place flood lighting inside the garage to discourage him from returning. I will let you know how it works out.