Gardening

I started gardening in 2019 in College Station, Texas. Everything was small and simple because I lived in an apartment. I built a small box to go on my balcony. I didn't even have a saw; I had to get the wood cut to length in the store where I bought it. I used a hammer and nails to fit everything together. That box is still around, and at the time of my writing this it has beets growing in it. I tried growing sweet potatoes from slips that I started using a store-bought sweet potato. Since my apartment was east-facing, I only grew one small, very thin sweet potato.

Fast forward two years and I moved to an apartment in Houston, Texas which had a south-facing balcony that was slightly bigger. My first box came with me and I bought a couple of pots to try growing tomatoes and peppers in. While I finally had a better cardinally located balcony, the way the apartment was built meant that my plants only got about half a day of direct sunlight. I also tried growing herbs from seed which also did not end up any better.

After about a year of living in that apartment, we bought a house which meant I could expand my garden. I built two beds that measured 4x8 feet and another two beds that measured 2x8 feet. My seed collection began to grow, and I learned about timing, hardiness zones, and companion planting. That brings us to the present. Writing this in April means that I am at the beginning of my first full growing season with an appreciable amount of bed space. This year I am growing corn, beans, squash, edamame, tomatoes, kale, carrots, lettuce, peppers, beets, and spinach. I realize that some of this may or may not work out, but my goal now is simply to experiment.

My main goal for gardening is to give us access to produce that we otherwise would not get, both in variety and quality. I also like to incorporate living things into my environment. Certain systems intrigue me, like regenerative agriculture, but I will not be able to incorporate animals for at least several years as my space will not allow it.

Since my space is still small compared to others' standards, my goal for the time being is to grow as much food as possible. That's it. All of the foods that I listed earlier are ones that we eat, so I know that any rewards we get from those plants will be appreciated. My goals for the future involve purchasing land and establishing a larger garden with more variety. Later in life, I would love to expand to produce a majority of what we eat, but I know that realistically I will probably never produce all of what we consume.

The urge to garden did not appear until I started cooking with my girlfriend, now wife. As we started appreciating and enjoying cooking more, we started realizing how much of an impact individual ingredients' quality had an impact on the final product. We started watching shows and documentaries about innovative chefs around the world and the core theme was them being close to the plants, animals, gardeners, farmers, and hunters whose produce they then transformed into meals. I realized that simple dishes are vastly improved whenever the starting ingredients are better because all cooking does is bring out certain qualities of the raw ingredients.

Cooking is what brought me to gardening.