Vegetables

I'm thinking about starting a vegetable garden when we move into our new house. This is a major endeavor for me, as I have somehow attained the status of black thumb. I have, on more than one occasion, cruelly, and unintentionally, killed various plants - herbs, ferns, a six foot tall hibiscus (Although that one wasn't really my fault and I did valiantly try to save it because I loved the flowers it produced. It was attacked by web worms of some sort.). My darling husband even eventually put a rock garden in over the little soil we had in our patio at the condo.

We did have a ficus that I didn't fully kill, though. We named it Ben and even talked to it, but then we had a baby and we put it outside so she wouldn't be tempted to eat it. It never did get as green and lush, but it didn't necessarily die either. Unless I'm blocking that little fact out of my memory, too.

Anyways, something about vegetables intrigues me. I'm fascinated by the idea of growing my own food, even though it would only constitute at most a fraction of my diet. And while I love the way a beautifully landscaped flower garden looks, I'm not a fan of actually tending to the garden. For some reason, I feel like I would take care of a vegetable garden.

The practicality of it calls to me. At the same time, I am such a city girl that the fact that food does actually grow in the ground still foolishly boggles my mind. Buying food in the grocery store creates such a vast disconnect between what we eat and where it originated, whether it's a carrot in the produce section or a pound of beef in the meat aisle. As part of my attempt to eat whole foods, I want to erase a little bit of my disconnect and become even more aware of how I'm nourishing myself and my family.

But what about those herbs I mentioned earlier, you say? I wasn't much of a cook at the time I created my little herb garden, so I never actually used any of the herbs in it. As a result, it didn't get much attention. I also did absolutely no research into how to actually care for an herb garden. I'm planning to be much more prepared this time.

I've been researching here and there for a while, and now that we will probably move in the next few weeks, it seems much more relevant. Tremendously overwhelming, though. From what I'm reading, winter seems to be a good time to prepare and plan, so I think I'm accidentally on course. I have no idea what to plant; I need to find something simple and climate appropriate.

And then there is the compost. Ah, compost. Did you know that you can put coffee grounds in compost? Cool. I may never have to throw anything away again.