History and Purpose

So I'm fairly new at this gardening thing, and every book or expert says to keep a gardening journal, so I thought a blog might be a good idea. I've also looked around for anecdotal advice on gardening in the Twin Cities (Minnesota), but have come up fairly short, so I thought sharing my experiences online may help others. Keep in mind I'm new at this!

History of me gardening: When I was a kid we had a large garden full of all sorts of veggies. Unfortunately, I didn't pay too much attention to what we were doing and I was pretty young so I can't remember too much. More recently, I had a small 48 sq ft garden where I grew tomatoes, carrots, beans, lettuce and some other stuff I can't remember. I was wildly successful actually, my two tomato plants ended up looking like a JUNGLE and we had fresh veggies for months. I attribute my success with that garden to the soil mix I used. Unfortunately, I didn't keep a good record of the soil mix, the mix was much too expensive to reproduce on a larger scale, and the garden only lasted a few years because I started a business and got too busy. I haven't gardened since and the rabbits have completely ravaged my old garden plot. I joined a CSA as a way to still get fresh veggies through the summer and also support healthy farming practices.

Purpose of my garden: I still have a share in a CSA, so I don't really need vegetables through the summer. My purpose with my new garden is to have vegetables to store in a root cellar through the winter. I hope to have tomatoes in December and carrots in March! I am concentrating on vegetables that I can either store in a root cellar, overwinter in the garden, or grow in a cold frame through the winter months. More on varieties later. Also, I will be trying to plant everything as late as possible (except fruits, grains, nuts) to have the freshest vegetables possible to store.

Although I've already received my seed order, I'm still in the planning stages. Next post I'll try to touch on my garden layout and varieties.