Master Gardener!

Agh! My county just started a master gardener program! I swear, we were probably the only county in the country that didn't have a branch of master gardeners! I am totally there! The info meeting is Thursday. I already know I'll be the youngest person there, but I don't care. I've been wanting to become certified for 3 years now, and now that it's finally going to be taking place, a few blocks from my own yard, this is an opportunity I cannot turn down.

I also am going to assume I'll most likely be the only "urban farmer" there. I don't really like the term "urban farmer". I liked it at first, but it seems to have evolved into an oximoron. The term conjures up images of some displaced farmer attempting to grow a field of soybeans in his front yard. I don't attempt to grow fields of anything. My front yard is a series of raised beds. I have plans to eventually have no grass at all in my front yard. My goal for this is the summer after next. I plan on having a large garden bed, a series of raised beds, and pea gravel in between. While I'll be growing vegitables in boxes, I am striving to make it the least utilitarian as possible.

I also don't think a nuclear holocaust is on the horizon or anything like that. I do think people, especially Americans, have become too dependant on oil. I don't think oil is the devil, but I do know it's a non-renewable resource that eventually will dry up. I also think there's something with buying apples imported from Peru or some other place thousands of miles away when we are more than capable of growing apples in our own backyards. I'm not a kook- I just like to grow stuff!