The Kentucky Garden
A short history of the garden(s). Kerrysgarden.us started out in 2004 while I was living on an acre property in Grant County, Kentucky. The garden started small but quickly grew to 40’x60′, the herb bed added another 5’x40′ and various flower beds added to that. There was plenty of room for fruits and vegetables, herbs and eventually flowers. A large basement meant room for some grow lights which allowed all sorts of experimentation with growing things under lights even in winter and being able to have room to start most all of my transplants. I even had room to build an adobe pizza oven. Â I started the blog for my own record keeping. I wasn’t much good at keeping paper diary or keeping track of what I planted when, how it performed etc. I thought a blog would be a good way to have a record of past gardens, follow the history of successes and failures, and joys (and sorrows) that go along with the the obsession hobby. Later I shared it with some friends and anyone who might be interested.
A New Garden in Washington
The garden pretty much went dormant in late 2009 as graduate school, working full time and life in general left little time for gardening. Insert a couple of moves and by late 2013 I had moved to Bainbridge Island in Washington state and was ready to get my hands back into the soil. In addition to learning how to garden in zone 8a I’ve had to learn how to garden in much, much less space. My 40’x60′ with yard and basement has become a 10’x20′ in a community garden plus 50sq feet of balcony at the condo. The difference between day length summer and winter is more dramatic here with almost 16 hr days in the summer and 8.5 hrs in the mostly dark winter. Where I lived in Kentucky summer days were almost 15 hrs long and the winter was mostly light almost 9.5 hr days. Are the short winter days with low sun long enough to attempt to grow some spinach under a poly tunnel? Â I’m hoping to find out one of these winters. Â I am enjoying the cooler summers but it means that much of what worked in Kentucky would not work here. The past few years have been a gradual process of learning to work within my new environment, pushing the limits and generally having a blast.