Starting an Organic Vegetable Garden – Sustainable Kitchen Project

So to truly have a sustainable kitchen as part of my Sustainable Kitchen Project, I really need to be, like, producing some of my own food or something. I so love the idea of growing my own vegetables, fruit and herbs. There’s just one problem. I have the world’s blackest black thumb. So for me, starting an organic vegetable garden is a bit like my own version of the Odyssey. But I am pretty determined.

Also, over the years, the blackness of my thumb seems to be getting slightly less overbearing. It used to be, I would walk past a plant and it would die on sight. Then I could count on maybe 5 percent of plants in my presence to survive.

I keep trying. Plants keep giving their lives for the cause. I keep getting just a little bit better.

A big part of the problem is that planting and growing things requires a couple traits I just don’t have. One, you need to take time to study how to do it right. Umm, yeah. If I buy something and I can’t figure it out without consulting the instructions, it’s going back to the store. (Actually, it’s going to sit on a shelf forever because who the hell has time to return things? Seriously). It also takes following directions very closely. Oh, and a third trait. It takes patience.

Well, I’m more a wing it, figure it out, and eyeball it type of person.

Yet the miraculous has happened. My husband got involved. See he’s good at all those icky things like concentration. (Shudder). He set up a cool shelf system with lights (he even said something about the lights being the right something or other. I don’t know. I lost interest).

Anyway, it worked. I have so many seedlings I don’t know what to do with them.

So it was time to start my garden. I went outside with shovel in hand to dig me up a garden. I figured that would take, say, 5 minutes of digging and ta-da, a garden plot. I inserted shovel into grass. And pushed. Um, it didn’t even go into the ground. WTF? Raised bed. That was my decision.

So thus started the Google search. One of my Type-A Mom editors had this perfect article for me on her About.com Organic Gardening site, “How to Make a Raised Bed Garden.”

I’ll save you the grueling details, but we decided to use stones around the edges and created this nice-looking, fine-looking, totally-kick-ass raised organic vegetable garden (that cost about $100 for rocks and organic dirt. yep.):

We planted a couple of early girl tomatoes that came in these cool biodegradable pots that you can plant right with the tomato:

And check this out! We already have the tiniest, cutest little tomatoes. How freakin’ adorable are these? Yeah, you will probably have to squint:

Now, the next problem. What the hell do I do with all these other veggie seedlings? Seriously?

I’m thinking I need, oh, about 10 more raised beds. Anyone care to send a donation to my Paypal account? I’m kidding. Sort of.