I am obsessed with my vegetable garden, which is why I chose this topic for this assignment.  Growing my own food and preserving it to have food year-round is my ultimate goal.  This coming year will be my first year of utilizing my full garden space, and I am so excited! 

My vegetable garden is not going to be a 'vegetable machine', focused solely on maximum vegetable production.  It will be a thriving ecosystem buzzing with activity and filled with different colors and textures.

As part of obtaining a yield, I want to plant extra so that we can share with nature and other humans. I want our garden to engender an attitude of caring and giving, where we gain a desire to reach out to those with less.  

I want to find ways to re-use things that would otherwise be thrown away or that are normally seen as having no value. Examples of this are: Using old car mats along the edges of the garden to keep the grass out. Using old newspapers and bulletin board paper from schools as a biodegradable weed barrier. Using moldy hay and manure as mulch. Making our own wood supports from downed trees.

I also want to implement no-till gardening to improve the soil and ecosystem.

Gardening is one of my greatest passions and I look forward to learning from this class and any resource that I can!