New year, new way of recording my gardening activities- not to mention new year, new garden!
Historically, I've always been interested in gardening. Not so much at my parent's house but my Aunt Pat is possibly one of the most hardcore gardener I've ever known...to this day, in fact. As a youngster, I followed her instruction and helped her during the Illinois summers, planting everything from vegetables to flowers to actual trees and eventually harvesting our homegrown produce in the fall. I've spent countless hours wandering through the acres of prairie that she landscaped into her property on the Illinois-Wisconsin state line.
Years later, I migrated down south to Louisiana and in 2010, I found myself moved out of the college student apartment and into a house with my long time boyfriend. This wasn't just any house, it was a house with a HUGE yard and the remnants of his MawMaw Opal's gardening endeavors. I dabbled in planting some ornamentals and few vegetables...the most successful being the premier season of the "Topsy Turvy" and the tomato plant I grew out of it.
Fast forward several years- I was [& still am] living in MawMaw's house but I've undergone a major lifestyle change. After over 6 months of extreme and rapid weight loss, I was told by doctors that I am gluten intolerant. While eliminating gluten from my diet has benefited me...but not quite in the revolutionary way I hoped it would. After watching an amazing documentary called "WHAT'S WITH WHEAT?", I was confronted by a new idea about the source of my intolerance issue. The nutritionists that hosted the film presented the idea that the increase in the general population's intolerance to various food proteins but especially gluten, could be, at the source, caused by the various chemicals our crops are saturated with before it gets to the consumer's digestive tract. For example, the biological part of a plant that dies when it comes into contact with RoundUp is the Shikimate Pathway. This pathway happens to be the only biological similarity between plants and humans. In humans, this pathway is the location where a large percentage of our brain's neurotransmitters are produced, among other digestive processes. The theory, as the nutritionists from the film explained, is that when we consume food that is sprayed with pesticides of the same class as RoundUp, our Shikimate Pathway is also being destroyed. Makes sense, right? This hit home with me because my gluten intolerance manifests itself with neurological symptoms. [Possibly related side note: I am a diagnosed narcoleptic. Narcolepsy is caused by a deficiency and dysfunction of the body's hypocretin neurotransmitter.]
What this means for me and my gardening habits is this:
I'll grow as much of my produce as I can, my damn self, organically, thus eliminating much of the necessity for store-bought produce that could have come into contact with potentially harmful chemicals. Can't trust anyone these days [because I can't afford to shop at Whole Foods...].
My 2018 vegetable garden was fairly sizable, especially when compared to the "dabbling" I did with it in the past several years before that. It was, much like anyone's first true attempt, riddled with trials and many errors. Let's just say that many lessons were learned.
One of the most important deciding factors regarding the style of garden I made and tended last year was the possibility that we may be moving from this property. Therefore, I kept nearly all of my crops in mobile containers that I could have potentially brought with me to the new property without losing anything that may have been growing in the ground in this yard.
This year, I am beyond pleased to say, I am confident that we will be staying in this house/on this property at least through both spring and fall growing seasons. After discussing this with C, my bf, I have been given the "go ahead" to dig, till, and grow not just on the "side yard" where I was limited to last year, but also in the backyard (now that we have cut back some overgrown bushes) AND (most excitingly) the LOT!! We own the empty lot next door to the lot we live on. It's just an empty, grass lot- free for me to organized into a combination of raised beds and tilled rows!!
I have a couple of vegetable plants that I maintained throughout the "winter" but the majority of my crops will be sown from seed. I plan on recording all of my gardening endeavors right here on this blog so that any trials and errors that ensue will be documented for me to learn my lessons from!
Historically, I've always been interested in gardening. Not so much at my parent's house but my Aunt Pat is possibly one of the most hardcore gardener I've ever known...to this day, in fact. As a youngster, I followed her instruction and helped her during the Illinois summers, planting everything from vegetables to flowers to actual trees and eventually harvesting our homegrown produce in the fall. I've spent countless hours wandering through the acres of prairie that she landscaped into her property on the Illinois-Wisconsin state line.
Years later, I migrated down south to Louisiana and in 2010, I found myself moved out of the college student apartment and into a house with my long time boyfriend. This wasn't just any house, it was a house with a HUGE yard and the remnants of his MawMaw Opal's gardening endeavors. I dabbled in planting some ornamentals and few vegetables...the most successful being the premier season of the "Topsy Turvy" and the tomato plant I grew out of it.
Fast forward several years- I was [& still am] living in MawMaw's house but I've undergone a major lifestyle change. After over 6 months of extreme and rapid weight loss, I was told by doctors that I am gluten intolerant. While eliminating gluten from my diet has benefited me...but not quite in the revolutionary way I hoped it would. After watching an amazing documentary called "WHAT'S WITH WHEAT?", I was confronted by a new idea about the source of my intolerance issue. The nutritionists that hosted the film presented the idea that the increase in the general population's intolerance to various food proteins but especially gluten, could be, at the source, caused by the various chemicals our crops are saturated with before it gets to the consumer's digestive tract. For example, the biological part of a plant that dies when it comes into contact with RoundUp is the Shikimate Pathway. This pathway happens to be the only biological similarity between plants and humans. In humans, this pathway is the location where a large percentage of our brain's neurotransmitters are produced, among other digestive processes. The theory, as the nutritionists from the film explained, is that when we consume food that is sprayed with pesticides of the same class as RoundUp, our Shikimate Pathway is also being destroyed. Makes sense, right? This hit home with me because my gluten intolerance manifests itself with neurological symptoms. [Possibly related side note: I am a diagnosed narcoleptic. Narcolepsy is caused by a deficiency and dysfunction of the body's hypocretin neurotransmitter.]
What this means for me and my gardening habits is this:
I'll grow as much of my produce as I can, my damn self, organically, thus eliminating much of the necessity for store-bought produce that could have come into contact with potentially harmful chemicals. Can't trust anyone these days [because I can't afford to shop at Whole Foods...].
My 2018 vegetable garden was fairly sizable, especially when compared to the "dabbling" I did with it in the past several years before that. It was, much like anyone's first true attempt, riddled with trials and many errors. Let's just say that many lessons were learned.
One of the most important deciding factors regarding the style of garden I made and tended last year was the possibility that we may be moving from this property. Therefore, I kept nearly all of my crops in mobile containers that I could have potentially brought with me to the new property without losing anything that may have been growing in the ground in this yard.
This year, I am beyond pleased to say, I am confident that we will be staying in this house/on this property at least through both spring and fall growing seasons. After discussing this with C, my bf, I have been given the "go ahead" to dig, till, and grow not just on the "side yard" where I was limited to last year, but also in the backyard (now that we have cut back some overgrown bushes) AND (most excitingly) the LOT!! We own the empty lot next door to the lot we live on. It's just an empty, grass lot- free for me to organized into a combination of raised beds and tilled rows!!
I have a couple of vegetable plants that I maintained throughout the "winter" but the majority of my crops will be sown from seed. I plan on recording all of my gardening endeavors right here on this blog so that any trials and errors that ensue will be documented for me to learn my lessons from!
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