Greetings

Hi! I live in the Chicago suburbs, or for gardeners zone 5a, and am an accountant turned stay at home mom. I dabble in all sorts of crafts from sewing, jewelry making, candles, cross-stitch ect. I have always longed to find an obsession in the form of a craft but alas am stuck as a generalist. If they sell it at Hobby Lobby, Jo-Ann or Michaels chances are I have tried it at least once. So last thing I ever expected to do was fall in love with gardening and small farming. I am calling it farming because I am transforming all my plants and shrubs into something edible. Fear not green friends, the lost plants are donated via freecycle or to various friends. Gardening seemed to denote a dedication to all plants so I went with farmer. I am even considering getting myself a hat.

(insert hazy flashback mist) It all began two months ago on a hot July day. We were visiting friends who had a raspberry patch. At this time I bring you back to the present with me hating to do anything much with the lawn. I have severely overgrown weed beds in the back. It neither stimulates me nor excites me to have anything to do with hostas, day lilies, spirea and other random assorted plants that only look pretty but require some care. I preferred to deal with these plants as little as possible. One sad anemic looking aloe plant that was all the green I had inside my house. (back to hazy mist) At this party they had a raspberry patch. My daughter went crazy for it. She is 3 and easy to feed. My son, 4 and as easy to feed as hand feeding as starving alligator, was not. But that was ok because my daughter could down a 6 oz package of Raspberries in about 10 minutes. Here they cost about 2.99 per package. I am notoriously cheap figured this would be an economical solution to the problem. I decided to take the bed of weeds, which had been slated for patio pavers, and plant our very own berry patch.. I went to Lowes and just purchased random plants with little regard to much of anything. I planted them and they did nothing. I should mention patience is a virtue I admire in others because it is completely lacking in my own character. But I held on and caught the fever and started pulling up old plants and replacing with edibles. I planted a little garden. Then Mister Pickey Eater started devouring the green beans and raspberries and I went a little crazy. I searched and researched and did some more online searching, got books, planted, researched more and maybe did a little more research. I am still learning but spend hours in my little garden looking for ways and places to add more.

Come grow with me. (more puns to follow...that is a guarantee, unlike my tomato plants which need a little work) Watch as I remove all my old landscaping, put in new plants, make tons of mistakes and journey into the world of edible landscaping. I am sure we will have a lot of fun. I will post with money savings tips, plant info and care, might try some canning, and some baking. As an impassioned generalist you never know what I might get into.