A seed is planted...

Not a literal seed, but a thought. I have decided to make this year the one where I finally start some sort of gardening. Until this point in my life, my "gardening" experience has included trying to keep my few indoor plants alive and perhaps the odd attempt at buy a plant that is already grown and seeing how long it lasts. About 5 years ago I bought a book, "Flower Gardening for Dummies." Flower gardening has yet to happen, but I'll agree to the dummy bit.

My goals this year are to: 1) have a few flowers blossoming on my balcony, 2) grow some herbs growing on my balcony or indoors, wherever they are supposed to be, and 3) have some fresh vegetables growing on my building's rooftop.

But why? Couldn't I fulfill myself by buying myself a bouquet every week or so, using up the dried herbs in my store-bought spice rack, and getting my vegetables from the local grocery store? Well, that's what I have been doing. However, I've been spurred on by a variety of experiences: reading books like "100 mile diet"; staying and eating in Peru and Costa Rica at guesthouses that offered homemade meals of ingredients directly from the land (call it a "100 metre diet"); becoming more and more conscious of the carbon footprint of so many things I eat - whether grown 4000km away and shipped here or grown 100km away in greenhouses; and finally, can it really be that hard?