This is my little garden.

It's not much, just a little backyard space in a small community in Gloucester County. It began a few years ago as a simple patch of ground where we planted a few tomatoes (it is the Garden State, after all). Well, we must have some excellent soil, because tomatoes grew, without much help from me or my family. We were ecstatic! That's led to a steady growth of our garden space until now it includes three raised planting boxes, an apple tree, a compost pile, a rain collector, and some more ground space. I still don't know what I'm doing, but I'm sure doing it. That leads me to this blog.

I've bitten off more than I can chew. My garden now requires some effort form me to succeed, and I need help and advice. A short time ago I came across a small book titled The Family Kitchen Garden ,by Karen Liebreich, Jutta Wagner, and Annette Wendland. It tells me a lot about what to grow and how to grow it, stuff I didn't have a clue about when I began. It includes a month by month guide to preparing and growing. I'm going to use this book to become the best backyard gardener I can be.

January

Right now I'm told that it's time to prune my apple tree. This is kind of a weird little tree, because its supposed to grow four different varieties of apple from the one tree, I'm very nervous about taking the pruners to it, but apparently it has to be done. I've looked in the section of TFKG that discusses pruning and if I can muster the courage, I'll be pruning this week This is all new to me, I guess you can tell that, so I'll include everything I find and complete details here next week. Stay tuned.

Next week: pruning!