I hope you will forgive me for being away for so long folks, I have been buried knee-deep in paperwork instead of in the soil where I would much rather be and yet I can’t complain too loudly because I am nearly at the halfway point in writing my new book on urban gardening!  The first three chapters are wrapped up and now I am working on the real meat of this book where people will be able to get their urban hands dirty and maybe even get some dirt under those well-manicured nails.

For those who are interested, my book will be “in the can” by March and will be published a year from now, just before the holidays in 2010.  I will of course be keeping you up-to-date here as things progress.

One of the tough aspects of this project that I didn’t foresee was how difficult it would be to write about gardening when my own garden was waning (i.e. it is Autumn and we had some particularly harsh weather this year).  I guess it is a true test of my abilities as a writer to be able to write an uplifting, energetic and informative book when the ground isn’t far away from the first freeze.

In other news…

I don’t want to end this on a bad note so I have to talk about the 36 dozen Clemson Spineless okra seeds I was able to harvest and package as well the Ambrosia cantaloupe mentioned previously.  As soon as I have a chance to breathe I am going to put some garlic in the ground for a Spring harvest and begin the layout for the Spring 2010 community garden.

It Takes a Community…

What an insane month it has been here at MEGHQ!  My writing projects have largely had to take a back seat to the founding of the new Riverside Community Garden in my neighborhood here in the “upper west side” of Atlanta.  The good part is that not only have I accomplished the beginnings of the garden, it happens to be right across the street from my house so I can sit at my desk and literally watch the garden grow.  Sometimes it is really good to be me!

The weather has been predictably unpredictable this season thus far and the years of drought conditions have more than prepared us to receive the tremendous influx of rain we’ve had already.  I just hope the weather cooperates with me enough to get the garden tilled a second time next week so that we can get some plants in the ground before the end of the month.

Seriously though, we need the rain, but I just hope it doesn’t work against the gardeners too terribly much.  I’ve been quite gun shy about planting this year having started the season so late with an April 1st move to Atlanta that left me no time to start my own seedlings.

Back to the good news:  Support for the community garden has been tremendous with more than 15 plots reserved before we even broke ground, so needless to say I am really excited to see what this season holds for us!

In Other News…

• While I cannot divulge too many details just yet, I am currently in negotiations with a publisher about writing a book on urban gardening.  Yeah, seriously excited about that.
• If you aren’t already, you’re welcome to follow me on Twitter as well as becoming a fan of the Riverside Community Garden on Facebook.
• Love you.  Mean it.  TGIF and have a GREAT weekend!

Since the rain is due in our area any time now, I though it was timely to include this info on cheap rain barrels.  Thanks to my partner I came across a fantastic resource for anyone who wants to take advantage of rain barrels but cannot afford the expensive ready made versions that are on the market.  The Atlanta Watershed website has a step-by-step guided tutorial that will walk you through creating a rain barrel system for your home that is incredibly easy to do and is very cost effective! Check it out here.

MEG Update

I am happy to say that all but one tomato seedling has made it into its seasonal home now and I’ve also started some Boston Pickling cucumbers as well. The herbs are all doing beautifully as are my lovely marigolds.  Before we know it there will be veggies to harvest and so many tomatoes and cucumbers in the kitchen that I will be spending hour after glorious hour pickling and canning to my heart’s content!

The Garden is Growing!
I am finally able to let the cat out of the proverbial bag and announce that after my recent move into the awesome Riverside community in the suburbs of Atlanta I am in the process of preparing to break ground on the Riverside Community Garden!  What’s more, it looks like the site is going to be directly across the street from my house so I will be able to sit in my office window while I work and watch the garden grow!  I am so excited about this development that I can barely contain myself!

Fred Conrad from the Atlanta Community Food Bank will be helping us to get things going and we are proud to help support them by planting a row for the hungry, something that I have strived to do for as long as I have been a gardener.

Stay tuned to MEG; there is sure to be something new growing all the time around here and I don’t want you to miss anything!

I can’t tell you how much good it did for my heart to learn that First Lady Michelle Obama spearheaded the idea to plant a vegetable garden on the lawn of the White House. 

It is just this sort of leadership that our country needs in times such as these.  She has turned the entire process into a learning experience for young people and one that will benefit many and for that she deserves a great deal of respect and admiration.

Victory gardens are springing up all over the country and with good reason; in fact they never should have disappeared at all but our society began to get a little head of itself and in the shuffle we lost touch with our roots.  My grandparents never knew a time when they didn’t have a garden of some description.  It wasn’t that they couldn’t just go to the supermarket and buy vegetables, they just knew from experience that what they grew at home was cheaper, tasted better and was better for them. 

Why pay for what you can easily provide for yourself with just a little effort?

When I first wrote about how to start a Victory Garden as well as the reasons for doing so I did so because I could see the economic writing on the wall.  at the time I wrote about the topic, then president Bush was still denying that our country was in a recession at all.  Now we know that things aren’t great and we know that millions are out of work and even food banks are experiencing shortages unlike they’ve ever seen.

I hope that you are all growing something this year.  If you are still on the fence about gardening, try something simple like a “Patio” tomato plant that grows on your porch or deck in a pot. Even herbs that are terribly expensive to purchase fresh in the store can be easily grown at home for pennies.

Get out there and grow something!