Chickadee Jane

Looking around on the interweb lately, mainly on social media, I’m disappointed. When I planted my first vegetable garden almost 20 years ago, I did so without the confusing, exclusive, and cliquey narrative that’s out there right now. I can’t imagine having the guts to start something new while feeling judged or overloaded with information. I love gardening because you have sandboxes to colour in and certainly guidelines, but there are also elements of creativity. There’s no single, correct way to garden. Gardening is a long game; it may take seasons to get something the way you want. There is trial-and-error, mistakes, preference – and there’s always next year.

My name is Natalie: mom of two teenaged boys, partner of a supportive guy, lover of food and being outdoors, and passionate Canadian food grower now on my fifth garden space. I’m an extroverted introvert (figure that one out – class clown, as long as the class is small and I don’t have to be in it often). I’m not a professional botanist; I have a 9-5. I don’t garden for a living or even have a market garden. I’m no good at flowers. I’m not a chef, but I love feeding myself and my family from what I’ve grown. There are a lot of elements of gardening and …let’s call it gardening plus, as opposed to homesteading culture … that I steer clear of because the effort is just a little too much. There are also things, like seed saving, that I’ve added so gradually over the years that the skills seem easy and fit right into my gardening season. Either way, I’ve managed to amass a solid amount of knowledge over the years about growing food and bringing it to the kitchen – knowledge that I’d like to share in a low-pressure, you can do it kind of way.

So if you would like to:

• grow your own food
• understand how to start a garden
• save money on your grocery bill
• eat more from your own efforts than the store and have a hand in feeding your family
• understand where your food is coming from and what’s in it
• try some new things after a few years of having your own garden plot

And if you’d like to do all that and more without all the noise and pressure and judgement – here we go with a new season, whatever that looks like. Hope you can grow along with me.