Sowing in Suburbia: A Blog and Website for the Home Gardener

Hello fellow gardening friends! I have been mulling over the idea of starting a gardening website for a little while now. Throughout the last (crazy) year, I have had more time to spend in the garden, and for that, I couldn’t be happier. When the initial lockdowns took place and the pandemic really began to surge, I really struggled. My anxiety was definitely getting the best of me, and it took me some time to adjust to the new way of life. On top of everything that was going on in the world, I was raising two small children (one who was born only months prior) and also trying to complete experiments so I could write and defend my thesis in only a matter of months.

The past several years had their own sets of challenges. I decided to return to college when I was 29, and while it was initially only supposed to be for two years to get an associate degree - it ended up being seven and me eventually getting my masters. Gardening was always one of the things that helped me feel better through it all. Amazingly, slowing down, completing simple tasks, and being outside in nature does wonders for the body and mind. Thankfully, with the support of my husband and family, I was able to complete my master’s degree in plant science from the University of Delaware in May 2020.

Prior to and certainly after graduating, I found myself in new and uncertain territory attempting to navigate pandemic life and remote learning with a kindergartener. Similar to before, I turned to gardening for a sense of stability.

I had been gardening for over a decade, but this year, it was definitely different. In previous years, I had always enjoyed gardening and cherished the taste of homegrown food, but it was never a priority. We only grew our own vegetables from April through whenever it became too cold for the warm season vegetables (and myself) to take. I would struggle to keep things watered properly due to being busy with work, with school, or going on vacation any chance we could. I was always under the impression that it was too much work to start tomatoes and peppers from seed and typically bought seedlings from our local nursery. Whether it was the pandemic, scarcity of certain resources, more time – like many people, we turned to gardening. We expanded our gardening space by enlarging beds, growing vertically, and using more containers. I also vowed to expand our growing season and plant our very first fall garden.

In 2020, I also discovered the awesome Instagram gardening community. I started my account in part to spare my friends and family of countless gardening posts and also in hopes of improving my social media experience, which had become rather negative and monotonous at the time. I was pleasantly surprised to find a whole world of gardeners who enjoyed it just as much as I did. I was also impressed to see what other people were growing, how they were growing it, and the overall effort to share knowledge and experiences. While I have been gardening for a long time, this year, I realized how much more there is to learn (and grow) – and that is really exciting.

So, back to the point – why did I start this blog and website. After recognizing how much I really love every aspect of gardening and the potential impact it could have on improving people’s lives, I wanted to do more. I also realized that there are a lot of gardeners out there with varying levels of experience and interest who also want to learn more. While there is never one right way to garden, it is very helpful to hear about other people’s experiences in similar climates or with vegetables that you are growing in your own garden. I also learned throughout the last year that I really love to create content – whether it be a beautiful photograph, interesting video, infographic, spreadsheet, or website. I really enjoy inspiring other people to grow their own food, and there really is nothing like tasting the difference between a homegrown tomato and those other red things at the grocery store. Growing food can also be beautiful to behold. The foliage, the flowers, and the developing fruit all have their own unique magnificence which gives vegetables a more deserving spot in the home landscape. When done right, vegetables and other edibles can even be grown in the front yard to add beauty and accent existing perennials and annual flowers.

Through my blog and website, I hope to share some of my gardening knowledge and experiences to help others start their own vegetable garden, expand their existing growing spaces, experiment with different varieties, and realize the potential of their own home landscape. Gardening can be such a rewarding experience in many ways to you and those around you. To take things a bit deeper – I also tend to believe that gardening and spending more time outdoors in nature can potentially lead to a better appreciation for the environment around you (which is great thing for the planet we all share).

In my future blog posts, I hope to provide helpful information and tips that can help home gardeners of varying levels. Like I said before, there isn’t one correct way to garden, but by gaining more knowledge and experience, you are giving yourself more tools to garden more efficiently and diagnose problems quicker.

For me, starting a blog or website is also a way to go outside of my comfort zone and put myself out there a bit more. Writing and educating is a great way to organize your own thoughts and reinforce knowledge. While I have also learned that being a YouTube star is not my calling, I do plan on putting together videos for certain topics (because sometimes you just need to see things in action).

Please subscribe to my blog and newsletter to hear more! I hope to help you in some way during your gardening adventure, highlight the beauty of growing food, give everyone a better idea of what we have going on behind the scenes in our garden, and answer more of your questions (because there is only so much you can put in an Instagram caption or comment). Happy gardening!

---