Introduction

I have been back in the garden.

It has been a while since I have been serious about planting anything,but I have been playing in the dirt all of my life. I have always loved the idea of gardening;have always been trying (with different levels of success) to grow something.

When we were kids we would spend hours foraging for cherries,berries and nuts along Gander River,up in the "Old Canal" (which was a basic log chute connecting the lake to a lagoon where wood was delivered for processing),and out the highway to the burn overs.

In my childhood garden we had rhubarb,potatoes,tulips,damsons and cherries. Uncle Eddie used to grow some beautiful flowers ,and create some huge piles of over-watered,smelly compost.

Over the years my love of nature remained and matured. I became a builder of Greenhouses pretty much every where I lived so I would have a place to grow tomatoes,cucumbers,spices,sunflowers,or whatever struck my imagination.

Last year I made a providence related choice to get more serious about gardening.

I had begun the fight of my life through a bout of really harsh treatments against a cancer that had affected my tongue and throat.

After all was said and done, I took great interest in making sure that I got the most nutrition value out of every bite - because swallowing with radiation damaged muscles and trying to restore a devastated body and psyche was now going to be more than difficult.

I used to "live to eat",now, I "eat to live".

Don't get me wrong...please! I still enjoy the fellowship that comes from a good meal with friends or family. I love to cook good food and share it with others...even if I can't taste it. I don't even feel sorry for myself anymore!

That's not what this blog is about. That's another story you can follow at:
http://notalwayssomeoneelse.blogspot.com/

I have returned to my love of gardening,and also have become a student of environment. By that I mean the realities surrounding the production and delivery of the food we eat,and how we take our food system for granted...at our own risk.

I hope to record some thoughts and experiences that will prove to be of some value to someone. I hope to reflect on the things I have learned about gardening on a Rock...Good old Newfoundland in Zone 4b. (unless you live on the South Coast...they are in zone 5 or 5b...blessed gardeners!)

Oh yeah... On the tip of the Burin peninsula there is a tiny zone 6,and on the Great Northern peninsula there is a zone 3b.

You never know what you might learn here.......