Year One was a reasonable success, in that:

– We fed ourselves a little bit,

– We learned that gardening is a lot of work that requires constant vigilance – from weeds, deer and other critters

– The family gardened together

– I’d like to think I’m helping my little corner of the world by growing local, eating a bit local, and hopefully setting an example for others.

– We learned that spacing of plants matters. Just because I think I have room for sixteen tomato plants in the bottom right corner doesn’t mean they’ll grow. In fact, they’ll likely die.

– Order and planning seem to be reasonable foundations for success in gardening; I’ll let you know if that proves to be true.

– I want a bigger garden (and chickens)

– I’m never going to be as sustainable as Will at Revolutionary Soup (perhaps my favorite place to eat in Charlottesville)

Bringing this back to real estate … more of my clients are gardening. More of my buyer clients have gardened, and many more want to have gardens; “I’d like some space for a garden” is one of the more common questions/criteria I am hearing, and I don’t think this is a self-selection whereby I am attracting like-minded buyer clients … I think more people want to garden.

The Charlottesville area is known for being “progressive” whatever that means … we have a lot of CSAs and other options for shopping locally, cool garden stores and nurseries and generally a desire to try to do what’s right. I’m wondering if this “wanting to garden” trend is prevalent in other markets.

We’re not going to feed the family, but if we can get a few meals and teach the kids the value of growing your own food, I’ll mark this experiment down as a huge success.

If you’re like me and are getting started in gardening and haven’t had time to plant, may I suggest a visit to the Virginia Cooperative Extension’s website? It is, in a word, useful.

* I haven’t asked the HOA’s permission. 🙂