A second approch to growing food

The first year we moved to our current home I made an attempt to growing vegetables with very poor results:

• The soil was horrible, consisting of sand, gravel & stones. The kind of soil that your shovel wants to bounce off of.
• I placed half my beds in the shade, who would have thought the hedge would grow leaves and block out the sun
• The other half of the beds received direct sun, against the foundation, on the south side of the house. It was literally impossible to keep moisture in the soil aka gravel yard.
• The area is sloped so when it rained it washed everything to the bottom.
• I planted everything in June just as it started to really get hot

With this combination of things it really did not turn out well. The following years all I attempt to grow in the food department was heirloom tomatoes in large pots.

Now in the fifth summer in this home I have decided to make another attempt at growing a vegetable garden and actually succeeding at it. I have came to this decision from:

• Being inspired by Jamie Oliver's show & book 'Jamie at Home'
  
• Rising food inflation
• Poor quality produce with unknown amounts of chemicals

In my next post I will explain my game plan for tackling the problems I encountered in my first attempt.