{"id":2540,"date":"2011-05-12T15:21:06","date_gmt":"2011-05-12T19:21:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cajunchefryan.rymocs.com\/blog2\/?p=2540"},"modified":"2011-05-12T15:21:06","modified_gmt":"2011-05-12T19:21:06","slug":"cultivating-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cajunchefryan.rymocs.com\/blog2\/sustainability\/cultivating-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Cultivating Your Life!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cI\u2019m your biggest fan; I\u2019ll follow you until you love me!\u201d \u2013 Lady Gaga<\/em><\/p>\n

Okay\u2026I know what you are thinking\u2026what does this lyric, a line from the pop song Paparazzi have to do with this blog post? <\/p>\n

\"Obsession,<\/a><\/div>\n

How many ways can you say it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Off<\/a><\/div>\n

What does it mean?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A. A salad in your front yard!
\n B. Fresh organic best tasting vegetables beyond imagination!
\n C. Saving money on your grocery budget!
\n D. Controlling exactly what feeds your family!
\n E. From front yard to table!
\n F. Cooking and eating exotic vegetables at a reasonable cost!
\n G. All of the above! <\/p>\n

WARNING:<\/strong> Get yourself a cup of coffee or a nice hot tea and scones with Devonshire cream. This is going to be a rather long post! <\/p>\n

I could break it up into several smaller posts, and take advantage of getting more clicks, page views, Stumbles, Facebook views, etc, etc\u2026but that is not my real intent with the CCR blog anymore.\u00a0 If I can influence just one more person in the world, then I feel my online efforts are worthy! <\/p>\n

Set the Wayback Machine to<\/strong> Date: April 18, 2010<\/strong><\/p>\n

Standing outside sporting an old baseball cap, safety sunglasses protecting my eyes, my old Corona beach turned gardening shirt, workout shorts, gardening gloves and cross-training hiking boots on, I stare at the front yard, the green lawn, and consider how all of these tiny blades of grass need so much attention, water, fertilizer, food, mowing, trimming, but in the end, yield no real rewards. I cannot eat the grass, what does it really do for me? <\/p>\n

The south facing front yard gets most of the sunlight during the day, over six hours of \u201csoleil\u201d in the shaded areas, and up to eight and ten hours in some areas, enough for just about any vegetable to thrive. <\/p>\n

With metal can in hand and tilted over, the cap off and tank empty, filled up the tiller with some 87 octane, set the choke to full and pulled the cord starting up the two-stroke engine. Reset the tine level to lowest setting, ambled the tiller to the marked location and began mixing up the sod and soil until the ten foot by ten foot grassy area was transformed into a new garden plot. This was in the spring of 2010. <\/p>\n

\"Breaking<\/a>
Breaking new ground! Ryan sweating and tilling! <\/div>\n
\"Front<\/a>
Measuring out the raised bed locations on the new tilled plot.<\/div>\n

The new front yard garden in 2010 doubled our growing capacity from the container gardens of previous years growing three varieties of heirloom tomatoes with twelve plants on average. In 2010 our expanded garden included eight tomato plants, two yellow squash, two zucchini, two arugula, one cucumber, two Japanese eggplant, two Anaheim pepper plants, and two green bell pepper plants. Last year we harvested over fifty pounds of cucumbers from the one plant, at least 100 pounds of tomatoes from four Super Sweet 100 and four Roma plants, two heads of lettuce, at least 20 pounds of eggplant, and possibly 10 pounds of peppers.<\/p>\n

\n \"Front<\/a>
Front Yard Garden June 2010\n <\/div>\n

Fast forward to late winter 2011\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

During the cold winter months of January and February of this year, I started cracking open and reading several gardening books in my library, and online in preparation for the expansion in 2011. Using the seed starting chart<\/a>\u00a0 from Organic Gardening online, I devised my plan! <\/p>\n

\"Grow<\/a>
Grow your own seed starting trays<\/div>\n

Date: February 13, 2011<\/strong><\/p>\n

Started seeds indoors in soil blocks using recycled milk containers and a seed starting tray used from previous years, all set on a riser below a south facing window.<\/p>\n