Saturday, March 16, 2013
Saturday, March 9, 2013
Friday, March 8, 2013
Welcome To my new garden blog!
Hello everyone,
I would first like to thank you for viewing my garden blog. Last year was my first year with a garden of my own and I'm learning so much. I am going to use this blog to share what I have learned with others as well as reach out to learn more myself. Here is my story.
I'm 27 years old factory worker working two jobs. I currently live in Lansing Mi in a townhouse with a small garden plot available to me but not nearly as big as I would like. Many Lansing residents have the same issue.
To over come this obstacle I reached out to my family. Knowing how expensive it is for me to eat fresh organic veggies my parents were very eager to help. They have a large back yard at there grand ledge residence and agreed to use a piece of there property to garden. Now that i have the property to use now I needed someone with experience to advise me and to help me along the way. This is where grandma comes in.
When I reached out to my Grandma Gwilt she was more than happy to share with me everything she knew about gardening. There's a lot of information on the internet but its not the same as calling my grandma. When I call my grandma and ask her a question there's not lag time, ads, or 100 different answers saying different things, plus I love my grandma with all of my heart. She knows how to garden from years of experience and wants nothing more in this world to watch me succeed. So now all of a sudden I have property to use and the best garden adviser I could ask for, but it gets better than that.
When I asked my grandma how she learned all of her gardening skills I learned more about my family tree. My Grandmas Grand Father Corbin taught her everything she knows about farming. He was a share copper in Oklahoma. A share cropper is someone who doesn't have there own land to farm so they contract out other people's land to farm on and split the profits. Kinda sounds similar to what I'm doing huh, How exciting. With a one horse plow my great grandfather Corbin would work the fields all spring and summer and he grew watermelons. People would come to his house for fresh watermelons that he would sell for 10 cents a piece Farming is in my family and I'm using information passed down from generations of my family tree. This is so amazing. I have the land, I have the family gardening experience available to me, maybe I should run with this.
I volunteer at The Nature conservancy (TNC). I like to give back to my community while learning new things about climate change and the environment. Maybe they could help me in my gardening quest I thought, and boy was I was right. They were more than happy to help me. I was given seed packets of herbs from the nature conservancy, I can use there extensive data base on Michigan native plants and I can pick the brains of scientists if I have a real tough obstacle to overcome. Wow. I wont stop there either.
At TNC to volunteer I help fix the issues the other volunteers and interns are having on the photo project assigning keywords to pictures to help scientists and the marketing team easier search there picture database. Now since I'm taking a liking to gardening so much maybe there's an other way for me to volentter as well and sure enough there is. TNC has asked me to start a small vegetable and herb garden for them next to there Lansing office. Wow my second garden, of course I'll do it why not.
In this blog I will post my garden progress at my parents, the patio garden at my townhouse, the herb and veggie garden at TNC, everything my grandma has taught me and everything i learn from TLC. I will use raised beds, cold frames, vertical growing, container gardening, indoor seed starting, organic nature friendly pest control, and anything else that may help me to garden efficiently. If my grandfather maintained acres and acres of watermelon fields and taught my grandma who is teaching me, this is kind of in my blood to do this. That is why this blogs address is Family Tree Gardens without my great grandpa the sharecropper, my grandma and my parents, none of this would be possible.
Well that was a little bit about who I am and why I love gardening. Thanks again for stopping by and I look forward to learning even more and I would love anyone with advice on gardening to share it with me in the comment section and feel free to email me as well at andrewd668@gmail.com I cant wait to garden this year, with this new blog and my everything I've learned this is going to be an exciting season that's for sure.
I would first like to thank you for viewing my garden blog. Last year was my first year with a garden of my own and I'm learning so much. I am going to use this blog to share what I have learned with others as well as reach out to learn more myself. Here is my story.
I'm 27 years old factory worker working two jobs. I currently live in Lansing Mi in a townhouse with a small garden plot available to me but not nearly as big as I would like. Many Lansing residents have the same issue.
To over come this obstacle I reached out to my family. Knowing how expensive it is for me to eat fresh organic veggies my parents were very eager to help. They have a large back yard at there grand ledge residence and agreed to use a piece of there property to garden. Now that i have the property to use now I needed someone with experience to advise me and to help me along the way. This is where grandma comes in.
When I reached out to my Grandma Gwilt she was more than happy to share with me everything she knew about gardening. There's a lot of information on the internet but its not the same as calling my grandma. When I call my grandma and ask her a question there's not lag time, ads, or 100 different answers saying different things, plus I love my grandma with all of my heart. She knows how to garden from years of experience and wants nothing more in this world to watch me succeed. So now all of a sudden I have property to use and the best garden adviser I could ask for, but it gets better than that.
When I asked my grandma how she learned all of her gardening skills I learned more about my family tree. My Grandmas Grand Father Corbin taught her everything she knows about farming. He was a share copper in Oklahoma. A share cropper is someone who doesn't have there own land to farm so they contract out other people's land to farm on and split the profits. Kinda sounds similar to what I'm doing huh, How exciting. With a one horse plow my great grandfather Corbin would work the fields all spring and summer and he grew watermelons. People would come to his house for fresh watermelons that he would sell for 10 cents a piece Farming is in my family and I'm using information passed down from generations of my family tree. This is so amazing. I have the land, I have the family gardening experience available to me, maybe I should run with this.
I volunteer at The Nature conservancy (TNC). I like to give back to my community while learning new things about climate change and the environment. Maybe they could help me in my gardening quest I thought, and boy was I was right. They were more than happy to help me. I was given seed packets of herbs from the nature conservancy, I can use there extensive data base on Michigan native plants and I can pick the brains of scientists if I have a real tough obstacle to overcome. Wow. I wont stop there either.
At TNC to volunteer I help fix the issues the other volunteers and interns are having on the photo project assigning keywords to pictures to help scientists and the marketing team easier search there picture database. Now since I'm taking a liking to gardening so much maybe there's an other way for me to volentter as well and sure enough there is. TNC has asked me to start a small vegetable and herb garden for them next to there Lansing office. Wow my second garden, of course I'll do it why not.
In this blog I will post my garden progress at my parents, the patio garden at my townhouse, the herb and veggie garden at TNC, everything my grandma has taught me and everything i learn from TLC. I will use raised beds, cold frames, vertical growing, container gardening, indoor seed starting, organic nature friendly pest control, and anything else that may help me to garden efficiently. If my grandfather maintained acres and acres of watermelon fields and taught my grandma who is teaching me, this is kind of in my blood to do this. That is why this blogs address is Family Tree Gardens without my great grandpa the sharecropper, my grandma and my parents, none of this would be possible.
Well that was a little bit about who I am and why I love gardening. Thanks again for stopping by and I look forward to learning even more and I would love anyone with advice on gardening to share it with me in the comment section and feel free to email me as well at andrewd668@gmail.com I cant wait to garden this year, with this new blog and my everything I've learned this is going to be an exciting season that's for sure.
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