No garden exists. That’s right..no garden. Well, how can I do a podcast on a garden that doesn’t exist? Because that’s the point of the podcast. You will be able to follow along as I move from my current home in Northern Kentucky, with its garden, up to the Chicago area with no garden. Since I have to build a new garden from scratch, it makes for the perfect starting point for a podcast on gardens!
The Chicago area is in Zone 5a. Make sure you know your zone before you take any advice about planting times, growing techniques and the like from this podcast.
For several years now I’ve been part of a resurgence of gardening in the suburban society. Only recently has there been articles in the main stream media about the urban/suburban families wanting to get "back to their roots". Even as a small child in an urban city, I had a garden in the back yard along the brick fence.
Since moving into our first home in 2001, I have increased and improved the small garden in our backyard every year. Our house came with a very small garden that had been roughly cut out of the grass. For the first year or two, the garden sat dormant while we worked on the rest of the house and settled into the area. In 2004 I constructed 8 4×4 raised beds. We then planted our first crop that had a very encouraging harvest. In 2005 and 2006 I doubled the size of the garden.
Soon all that work will be gone. We are picking up our stuff and moving to the Chicago, IL area as soon as we can. We get to start all over again, and you get to come along and learn with us!