Long Time Coming

Citizen Gardener came into existence on a lark.   Its main purpose was to share the experience of moving towards a more sustainable and localized food system but it also served as an outlet for my writing which, despite the efforts of primary education English teachers, remains enjoyable.  Still, as important as the need for a new food paradigm is to me, I found that writing about it exclusively was too limiting, hence the lack of updates.  Moving forward Citizen Gardener will be open to address and discuss a broader range of topics though most will still be related to sustainability.  In the interim, I’d like to do a little bit of quick catching up on the gardening activities.

2010 was a banner year.  A Face Book photo album of the year’s events can be viewed here.  The garden was amazingly productive and provided the lion share of our seasonal vegetables.  I even like to boast that it provided all (or nearly so) of what my second granddaughter ate in her first year of life.  It was immensely satisfying to know that she was given such a good dietary start. 

A FB album of 2011 garden events can be viewed here.  In February of 2011 we lost my father-in-law Jimmy after a long struggle with heart disease.  He remains sorely missed.  Though the gardening season got off to a good start, settling Jimmy’s affairs and moving my mother-in-law in with us consumed so much time that gardening was necessarily put on the back burner.  Few things are ever a complete loss and the garden was no exception.  We still learned a lot and had a very successful winter season. 

2012 was perhaps the best year to date.  The highlights, so far, can be viewed here.  We started the year eating fresh greens almost daily.  If I learned one thing last winter and spring it would be that kale is the new broccoli.  Fresh and tender, it is an exceedingly versatile vegetable and I had no problem getting the kids to eat lots of it.  There were also new successes with early season crops.  This was the first year we grew onions, not just spring onions but actual bulbs you put in your pantry.  They went in a little late and therefore were a bit on the small side but we grew enough to meet our needs through the summer and we use a lot of onions!  2012 also turned out to be the year of the tomato as we finally saw a good crop.  I think the biggest element of that success was the use of disease resistant hybrid varieties.  I can hear the boos and hisses on that but I’m not committed to using hybrids.  I’d expand on this later; the hybrids v heirloom debate is enough for its own post.  As yet 2012 is not over and I’m just beginning to get the fall and winter crops put in.  Topical updates will be posted here at Citizen Gardener but specific events and pictures will continue to be uploaded to the FB albums so check back later.