Gardening from a beginner....

So, after spending way too many years reading about gardening and growing and supporting local food, I'm finally going to give it a try. I have my patio in Philadelphia and I'm working on my own lot of container veggies. I'm trying to grow quite a bit and I've never done it before. My main thought process is that it's my learning year, and if at least half of it grows I'll still make out like a bandit. My dream scenario is that I'm giving veggies away left and right because I have so much. My main resources are "Grow Great Grub" by Gayla Trail and "Fresh Food From Small Spaces" by R.J. Ruppenthal. Of course, in addition to the handy interweb. I'm starting all heirloom veggies from seed. I'm growing a couple different kinds of tomatoes, cucumbers, spring greens, pole beans, cantaloupe, jalapeno peppers, Thai chilies and a bunch of herbs (plus, some daisies, just because they're purty). I'm also hoping to try out some blackberry and blueberry bushes. So feel free to join me in my beginning gardening adventures. And hopefully they won't be adventures in futility.

Here are the slim beginnings of my gardening process. Not much to look at, but at least they're growing.

**If you're interested in the gardening and local food books I've been reading, here's a list:

-Pretty much anything by Michael Pollan (who was also one of the contributors to the doc "Food, Inc."). I'm partial to "The Omnivore's Dilemma".

-"Animal Vegetable Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver is a great book about a family trying to live (mainly) off their own land for a year.

-"Farm City" by Novella Carpenter is a fun book about a couple building up a farm in the middle of inner city Oakland, CA.