For the last 18 years, I've grown my own food, with various degrees of success.  I've battled weather, dormant seeds, animals, poor soil, and especially, my own inexperience.  There was the cherry tomato I grew on a balcony in Kansas that turned to a crisp in a heat wave.  The yellow squash seeds I planted only to have them grow into butternut.  There was the time in Italy when I avoided the garden for two weeks when I saw a large snake crawling along the garden wall...which was just a few days after my neighbor showed me a dead and deadly viper she had found in her garage!  Or the times in Michigan when a racoon picked, bit, and discarded my only cantaloupe, or a gopher ate every green bean and zucchini.  

But through it all, I got better.  I fenced in my garden and built raised beds, filling them with dirt, organic compost, and seasoned cow manure.  Every March, I convert my guest room into a growing room where I control the light, temperature, humidity, and food.  It's been a humbling, tough, labor of love.  But when I taste the first juicy tomato of the season, or sauté eggplant until it's browned and creamy, or sit on the ground eating small heirloom strawberries, all of those growing pains are forgotten!

Go ahead...get your hands dirty.  And certainly don't let space deter you.  You can grow your vegetables in containers which could be almost anything: a pot, an old rain gutter, a milk crate covered with weed barrier, a chemical-free pallet, or even an old boot!

So, grab a good gardening book, your favorite herb and veggie seeds,

and take a risk...

the rewards will be worth it!

I'll be posting more garden information soon!