Views from a Paris window   +  Urban Gardening

Cultivating a Sustainable Life One Step at a Time

As the prices for groceries gradually climb and the quality of grocery chain's produce continues to decrease, my desire for cultivating a semi-self-sustained life grows.

For the last two years, I have dabbled in gardening hoping to save a few bucks on squash, tomatoes, and zuccinis, but my desire to grow my own food has flourished into a passion.

This spring, my husband and I completely revamped our garden (pictures to come soon), and I have recently started a garden club at our church, which has already been a great blessing of fellowship and exchange of gardening wisdom.

The following images are pictures of my 2010 garden.

We made a literal raised "bed" by placing an antique headboard behind the raised bed containers.

Last year's garden was quite small-about 4 feet wide by 10 feet long and was comprised of a small 4 foot square plot in the ground and 4 small raised beds.

Amelia's watering "can"

an old wheel barrow cradled cheerful zinnas

In last year's garden, I parked an old wheelbarrow in between the raised beds and the plants planted in the

ground to offer some height and interest.

Who says escargot can't entertain a two year old?

I tried my best not to freak out everytime Amelia played with snails in our yard. She needs to get her hands dirty and to have a hands on experience when we are outdoors.

In a month or so, I will be sharing the newly designed garden, and by then, hope to be feasting on its goodness!

images by à la parisienne