Why a blog?

Well, why not?  I only wished I'd thought of this earlier in the spring, back when I was just starting to plant things.  However, it's still early enough to document some great progress.  My hope is that, for me, this is a place I can record all the things I want to remember about the garden for next year.  I also hope that others might like to read and learn from my mistakes and successes, and possibly offer advice (or, let's be honest, just "ooh" and "ahh" over photos of cabbage).  There are a lot of gardening blogs and websites out there, but I haven't found a ton that speak to the very basics... things like, "what does the verb 'mulch' even mean?" and "should I pull the plants out of the ground when they are dead, or leave them there?" (in terms of the latter, we've experimented with both and it seems much preferable to pull the plants up in late fall rather than leave yourself a huge mess the following spring... and... nutrients? Or something?).  Notice I am not attempting to answer the first question, because I still don't know. 


Other things I don't know - when will the cabbage start to look like cabbage rather than just a pretty plant (don't worry - I am taking weekly photos to track the eventual metamorphosis - see below)? What do we need to do to our apple trees to make sure they grow apples?  Was it a mistake to cut all the tulip plants down even if they were becoming an eyesore? (okay, Google has helped me answer that one, and apparently the answer is yes, it was a mistake, you should leave them there until they are brown and dead.  Whoops.)  Is the success we've had thus far with the 7-foot high deer netting going to continue even once more tasty plants have grown, or will this sense of peace and security be fleeting? 

So here, dear readers, I will attempt to answer these questions, and more!  And maybe you will answer some for me.  I now have a venue for my borderline obsessive-compulsive hobby.  It's going to RAIN photos of plants (and hopefully, I will get better at taking and editing these photos).  Just wait.

This is a sad little collage but you get the point.