Compulsive Vegetable Gardener and author of the Short Season Garden website

Me in my vegetable garden

Hi. I am the owner of this website and a compulsive vegetable gardener. As far back as I can remember, we had a vegetable garden at home and my mother made delicious meals with the veggies.  I can’t relate to those who struggle to make children eat a balanced diet.  I always loved my vegetables.  (Of course as any child does, I had my favorites and those I was less fond of.)

I remember offering to run the rototiller for my dad when I was almost too small to handle it.  I have less fond memories of thinning the carrots and weeding the strawberries.

I have had my own garden ever since I lost my status in my parent’s home and garden. Admittedly, I asked Dad’s help starting my first one. (I knew how to pull the weeds but hadn’t paid enough attention to the planting part.)

Where Fahrenheit and Celsius Meet

My garden is at 47 degrees north of the equator.  I live about 150-200 miles from the North Atlantic, close enough that I never know what to expect for weather.  A ridge separates our valley from the nearby river, so we rarely experience the fog that protects other gardens from unseasonable frosts. The long flat I live on not only provides a raceway for vehicles but also for winds which dry out plants or blow off row covers.

My winters are unpredictable as well.  One day can be near or even above freezing while the next day is bitterly cold.  On the very rare occasion, we can even read our thermometers in either Fahrenheit or Celsius and get the same number.  This, of course, only occurs at negative 40 degrees.

I am not mentioning any of this to complain but only to point out that I am aware of the challenges faced by other short season gardeners.  While this website gives some tips and tricks that should help beginning to intermediate gardeners in any zone, it is particularly dedicated to those in the northern zones found in much of the northern United States and southern Canada.