I haven’t been really, really gardening long, but I’ve been “involved” with plants most of my life: grandparents’ farm/ranch, native plant study/identification (such as when camping/hiking), houseplants, herbal medicine, culinary, etc.

NOW I am finally in a duplex and have the space for a small vegetable/herb garden and this will be my first year to really try out a lot of things I have thought about for years. I rent, so I can’t make some of the changes I would like. Renting also limits me in that I don’t want to go through the expense (for instance) to plant trees I will probably move away from before they bear fruit.

My gardening interests tend to favor “useful” plants like food crops, culinary herbs, and medicinal herbs. I am also interested in ecology/botany and hope to work some natives into the landscaping at my home —but I never seem to get time to work on the ornamental areas.

I am a very thrifty gardener, I guess my style could be called “poor-ganic”. It mainly follows organic principles, but if someone gives me Burpee seeds or a plant from Home Depot, I’m not going to turn it down. I also don’t buy all organic produce, and the scraps go into my compost. I hate to waste anything, so sometimes things make their way into the garden that are not organic or come from Monsanto or something. However, I NEVER purposely apply chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or anything like that. Yuck.