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How Your Garden Helps the Planet: Lawns
It surrounds our homes and buildings, lines our roads and sidewalks, and covers our parks. But have you ever wondered why or how we ended up with a flat green mat covering the dirt in our outdoor spaces? I hadn’t really thought much about it until watching the movie Biggest Little Farm. In the film, the plot that is eventually transformed into lush, productive land teeming with life begins as a former monoculture farm operation that has sapped the life and energy from the soil. It was inspiring to see what could be done, made me wonder what could be achieved on my little bit of land, and also made…
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Gardening While Renting: The Start of Year Two
I’ve always loved the thought of having my own vegetable garden, but since I’m a renter without my own plot of land, I wasn’t sure it was possible. Last year, I decided to take advantage of my current front stoop and have my first attempt at gardening while renting. You can read all about how that year went in my recap post for the gardening while renting series. While I didn’t yield a huge harvest (as you can imagine in less than one square foot of space!) I still found gardening incredibly rewarding. That’s why I am diving in and giving it another go this year! Deciding to Plant Again…
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Lessons Learned from Gardening on the Front Stoop
This year, with much help from Krista, I started my first ever garden on the front stoop of my rental unit. Read the journey from beginning to now in my previous posts:Gardening While RentingTaking Over the Front Stoop I was excited to see what I would be able to produce in my very limited, small space, though my expectations were not very high. I was approaching the entire gardening adventure as an experiment to see what was possible. Where things went right Lettuce My lettuce plant grew amazingly well! I had a steady supply of little bunches of lettuce shortly after it was planted. The plant grew tall instead of…
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Taking Over the Front Stoop
Let the Gardening Begin! Once I started dreaming of having my miniature veggie garden on my front stoop, I immediately began searching what vegetables grow best in the shade. There are tons of lists out there such as this one, 26 Vegetables to Grow in the Shade, from Rural Sprout. If I’m honest, I was hoping to avoid too many salad greens, which happen to grow really well in the shade. Salad and I have a love-hate relationship because 17 years ago when I became vegan, salad was all anyone knew what to feed me…so back then I ate my full! But Krista convinced me that eating them pulled out…
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Gardening While Renting
I grew up with a backyard garden so understand the benefit–and the joy–of having your own fresh produce at your fingertips. My Mummo always let us go into her backyard to steal raspberries and to eat carrots right out of the ground. My dad grew award winning sunflowers and pumpkins that were ginormous. Obstacles Unfortunately, there are a couple of things standing in my way of continuing on the family gardening tradition. 1. I have never had a green thumb. I’ve always loved the idea of having plants around, but have successfully killed everything from bamboo to cacti. My skill level is at a negative. This past summer was the…
