First Briefing

This is the inaugural post for what I hope to be a monthly garden journal. It might end up being more than monthly, depending on whatever is on my mind each week.

A bit of introduction for anyone passing by:

I currently keep another blog devoted to my interests in cinema, art, and literature, which is hosted on my domain. While I enjoy keeping that blog (despite not updating as regularly as I should), I haven't enough room to cover my growing love of gardening. Since I read a number of gardening blogs via Blogger, I decided to free up some space on my domain and resurrect my dormant account for this purpose.

I grew up and still live in the Midwest. I'm not many generations removed from farm folk, mostly of German descent. My early love of gardening and nature was fostered primarily by my maternal grandmother, who grew up in the country and kept a vegetable plot in her backyard. There was also my stepmother's family, who owned a family farm. As children we played hide & seek in the corn, fed calves, and gathered eggs. Beyond these experiences, I spent a lot of time alone as a child wandering whatever forest was nearby and learning whatever I could about the natural world.

When I was about 11 or 12, I developed an interest in our backyard garden at home, digging up irises and daffodils and transplanting them to see what would happen. I helped my mother plant her yearly plot of annual vincas, and she would usually consult me each year as to what plants to add or remove. In high school, I experimented more with splitting irises, sedum, and even a prickly pear. I stopped gardening outdoors when I started college, and for some reason I've never had much luck with houseplants.

In 2006, my boyfriend and I bought an adorable little bungalow on the southside of Kansas City. Since that time, I've been able to get back into gardening, and we've also undertaken a number of do-it-yourself landscaping projects. Last spring we built our own raised beds, and over the summer we laid a stone patio and path. While the improvements inside have often been chores (besides painting, which I enjoy), the outdoor improvements have usually been fun, if often challenging.

A few thing I hope to cover in this blog:

Organic gardening. I've been interested in this concept since before I had a garden, but I've only recently been able to increase my knowledge as to its application through various readings. This interests me from so many angles, which I'm sure will come up as I begin to update.

Horticulture and other science nerdy aspects of gardening. One of my future goals is to propagate as many of my own plants as possible. Also, gardens attract so much interesting wildlife, even in an urban setting.

Theory and design. I'm an arty sort of girl, so anything I bound to touch is going to relate to how things look and feel.

In gardening, these things are inextricably intertwined, but defining topics lends some scope to this blog.

There are going to be many things to cover in the next month or so, what with last harvest coming and bulbs to plant. Once I settle on a proper schedule, I'll be posting as soon as I can.