In this inaugural post I should probably start by introducing myself.
I’m Liz, a Midwesterner transplanted to Fairfax County, Virginia. I absolutely love growing vegetables, and I’ve been gardening since I was in high school or so (I don’t remember exactly when I started). I still remember the bare patch in our backyard where my mom gave me the go ahead to plant a garden. I don’t think I ever got any actual produce out of it, because it was a constant battle between me, the squirrels, and the rabbits for dominance. I almost always lost…lol. I also remember constantly pulling runner roots from the yucca plants we had back there and it was exhausting.
In college and beyond I took a hiatus from formal gardening, until the past few years. When my husband and I finally got an apartment with a patio, I did alright growing herbs and some tomatoes in containers but it didn’t feel like enough. (Does it ever?) I found out our county offered plots for rent across its park system, and I put my name on the waiting list.
Fast forward three years, when we own a house, I’ve built a raised bed in our yard and I am super pregnant with kiddo number two when all of a sudden I get an email that it’s my time to move off of the waiting list! So now have a backyard garden and a mess of a rental plot. I had completely forgotten that I had put my name on the list, and I was hugely pregnant, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me, because it took three years to get off of that list, no way was I going to turn down an opportunity for an even bigger garden.
I’ve had the rental plot for a year and half, and I’ve spent that time working really hard to get the place into shape. Some of the things I’ve planted have grown, but not in a super productive way. There has been a lot of learning through failure so far, and A LOT of thistle pulling. So many thistles. I’ve had actual nightmares about thistles…but the place came with eight raised beds and some blackberry canes, so despite the mess I was immediately in love.
So now I that I have many raised beds at my disposal, I decided to start a garden blog to document my adventures (and misadventures!) in gardening.
…Anyway. I decided to dub this blog The Geekret Garden because, well, I’m a huge geek. Also, I have a lot of training in the sciences and I can’t help myself but to put my gardens through some experiments as I learn by trial and error. I also love to experiment growing lots of different varieties of the veggies I love. Yesterday was the vernal equinox, the first day of spring, and the perfect time for new beginnings. The growing season is coming upon us here in Zone 7a, and I’m hoping to take a lot of what I’ve learned so far and putting it to use going forward. Hopefully you’ll come along with me as I go.
The Geekret Garden 