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I always thought gardening was for old men wearing old man shorts and black socks pulled up.  Or, at least that’s how both of my grandfathers did it.  Both of them had pretty impressive sized gardens, and both were WW2 vets who grew up during the depression.  As a child, I just saw a lot of yucky vegetables that I couldn’t stand and a lot of bending over in 95 degree temperatures.

As you grow up, your tastes change and your interests change.

About 15 years or so ago, I was dating someone who had a garden in the back of her house.  I mostly recall some herbs and good smelling things like jasmine and lavender.  I thought it was the coolest thing, you could just pull some stuff out of your garden and off you go.  Still, the labor was still an issue.

All that effort.  The thought of it was exhausting.

A few years ago, I started with my journey – on one of my “failed” attempts, I did mostly veganism.  The best part of this is I got to try a lot more veggies, and I also joined a CSA to get a lot of fresh vegetables and fruits.  It got my wheels turning again for doing some of my own gardening.

All that effort.

A funny thing happens when you lose a lot of weight correctly.  Rather than being exhausted from hours of running and starving, I’m full of energy and wildly productive.

All that effort….bring it on.

So I am starting with some big pots.  I’m “not allowed” to dig up half of the yard at the moment.  I think the wife doesn’t trust me to follow through with it, I can’t blame her based on my recent performance in years.

But the pots – I think I can do that!

Pot 1 – 3 tomato plants.  The idea is to grow tomatoes to cut up and put in salads, eat with a pizza, sandwiches, etc.

Pot 2 – 3 strawberry plants.  Fresh strawberries right off the plant?  Oh my.  I’d like to use these with breakfast cereal, oatmeal, dessert, and freeze a ton of them for later usage.

Pot 3 – blueberry bush.  Same as the strawberries, but I love blueberries even more in my oatmeal/yogurt cups.

Pot 4 – herbs.  Oregano, basil, rosemary.  I have been cooking a ton the last few years, and I love basil in things like my avocado pasta, pizza, etc.  Oregano is great on everything.  Rosemary I like when making poultry.

All of this also supports the healthy living.

We plan on getting a shed soon in the backyard (you see about where in the back yard straight out), and I’d like to next year plant more around that.

Right now, I plan to fail a bit at this and learn from my mistakes.  I think one thing I have to address sooner rather than later is the Ph levels in my soil.  I think the different plants grow more in proper conditions, so I have to master what these are and how peat/fertilizer changes the Ph.  What I find interesting about a lot of this is all of the different opinions.  It’s like an art form, much more than I thought.  I figured after 8,000 years of agriculture, this would be an exact science, but I’m finding it’s far from it.

More with the prep –

This weekend, I made up one of my chicken/rice/broccoli frozen meals.  I cannot begin to tell you how satisfying 8 oz of chicken, 1 cup of brown rice, and 1-2 cups of broccoli are.  I use a lot of paprika/cayenne pepper with the chicken, and with the rice/broccoli, it balances everything out.  It also comes out to be about 450-500 calories, and this go-to meal might be one of my secrets.  Good protein and carbs!  Low fats in this meal…