Sunday, July 20, 2008

All I need now is a cow out back

The beans in my awesome bean fort could win me a place in the county fair... but the real reason I built the fort was so that I could be self-sufficient at the lake, and completely avoid Wal Mart all together.

I have a black berry patch in the woods behind me at the lake, blueberries are a 4o minute drive away, and now the beans in the fort are keeping my table fairly stocked. But of course, a chicken to provide fresh eggs in the morning, and a cow for milk... that would be nice.

Growing your own vegetables is rewarding, but a recent article in the Wall Street Journal revealed that nurseries are seeing an increase in the amount of vegetable plants sold, and a decrease in ornamental and flowering annual sales. The high price of gas, the high price of food are driving many Americans to think about growing their own to keep their food bills down.

In its early days, growing the fort seemed like quite a project, and quite a bit of work. Now that the fort is thriving, and the black plastic is making weeding a nonexistent activity, I do wish I had grown more vegetables now. Because looking back, it doesn't seem like the whole thing was all that hard. The kids want to taste fresh carrots, a watermelon and a pumpkin. Cucumbers, radishes and all of those things do taste so much better fresh from the garden.

I'm already planning next year's fort; it will be bigger and incorporate a few more vegetables. Now, if I could just find a way to get my tomatoes to ripen before the first frost.

1 comment:

Heather said...

I'm jealous that you at least have the beans. We didn't get around to planting a garden this year because D's arrival added some work for some reason. I did buy some tomato plants, but they died before I got them planted. I'm missing the tomatoes already. We also started about 6 bean plants 3 different times for K (in a baggie) but I never got those planted either so they died too.

Oh well, maybe next year.