Where to start?

The Dream- Five years from now having a garden that runs like a well oiled machine with the variety of fruits and vegetables that your local market has. With this picture comes the knowledge to troubleshoot problems and keep the plants thriving. I see this as a luxury in day to day life and another area to help me become self-sustainable.

The reality- I have minimal gardening experience. As a kid my grandparents had a fairly large garden plot that I was uninterested in as well as a guinea coop with about a dozen birds or so. My family also had a small garden for a few years with a few different vegetables and strawberries (which were the only plants that I cared about). I was still really young at this point so the only thing I took away from this experience was the actual planting of the fruits and vegetables and weeding.

For the past few years I’ve lived in suburbia with little or no yard hence little or no garden. I attempted peppers (from the seeds of a store bought pepper- Yes I told you I knew nothing about gardening) and had flowers that had a few rough periods. Once lack of room was no longer an issue or excuse I decided I needed to start educating myself.

There are so many sources of information and different things to consider its a bit overwhelming at first. Everything from the plot, to the soil, to diseases and pests, when to harvest, what to grow when and next to what, how to maintain rich soil, how to keep scavengers out, the list goes on and on. I personally feel the best source of this information is someone that knows from experience (boy do I wish I had paid a little more attention years ago). But, since I don’t have someone that I can shadow and learn from first hand the next best option is to learn from books and my own mistakes (hopefully there will be some successes along the way).
“Success is not a destination, it’s a journey.”