In just eight days, the official start of Spring 2012 will be upon us. For my daughter and I, that means that Gardening Season is here, and for the first time ever – I will be doing a full-scale Gardening Blog here on The Rock Father™. Now, there’s a few of you that might be surprised to find out that I’m big into gardening, and having run across a few surprised folks in the real world over the past few years, I’ll explain simply: Gardening rocks.
I’ve been into gardening for a long time – probably going back to Jr. High or so. I cut some lawns, planted some flowers, and first discovered the many benefits of the activity. Fast-forward to ’96 or so and I entered a six-year span of big box retail action where I’d find myself running award-winning garden centers in a few different cities while traveling to lawn and garden conferences and occasionally getting shipped off to clean up other people’s messes – kind of like Gordon Ramsay’s KITCHEN NIGHTMARES, but with garden centers.
In the years since, I’ve always made it a priority to have some gardening activities around, even when my wife and I were living in apartments or condos. When we bought our first single-family home a couple of years ago, the opportunity had finally arrived for me to go all-out with our own landscaping and vegetable gardens. This would also be an opportunity to teach my daughter ”the ways of the Force.”
Last year was the first “big” year. We grew an abundance of plants from seed, experimenting with annuals and perennials, fruits, veggies, and flowers. For 2012, we’re doing it again – even bigger – while documenting the whole process and all of our adventures right here on The Rock Father™ website. In between, I’ll also be posting some cool garden news and some special deals along the way.
(Pictured Left: Just a guy in a GUNS N’ ROSES t-shirt harvesting some carrots with his daughter.)
We’ll be learning, trying new things, and sharing some interesting projects and results.
My Grandparents on my Mom’s side were farmers. Perhaps working the land is part of my genetic coding? I know that last year our organic vegetable garden was a hit with the neighbors – especially our Grape Tomatoes, which bore fruit for months.
For all of our 2012 adventures, please stay tuned to http://www.therockfather.com/gardening!
P.S. – If you’re viewing this on a widescreen monitor, those Sunflowers pictured to the left and right of the site were from our Sunflower Patch last year. Started from seed in our kitchen, and topped off at 12ft tall!
