here goes...

it's not that i'm that so much reluctant about reaping,(my personal definition for gardening, but reluctantgardener was already taken. drat!) but more reluctant to be a blogger. after being asked to blog three or four times by my friend pattie who writes the blog, www.foodshedplanet.com, i thought i'd give it a try.

a little about me...my name is david skoke from atlanta, ga. i'm a father, actor, stock trader, vegetarian, community volunteer, big brother, avid music listener/collector, lousy (but i love it) musician and now a participant in the worldwide victory garden movement , taking control of our food, health and future of our planet with my first organic garden.

i live on a tree lined street with lots of shade. great to look at but not ideal for gardening, so after watching the sun on my yard one day, i found the only spot that gets direct sun for about five hours. it's a 4'x10' plot in my front yard next to the driveway. after a few hours of digging up sod, adding fertilizer, soil and manure and turning and turning, i was ready to go. that is until my neighbor told me a garden bed should be about 8" deep. mine was about 3". bummer. finally, a few days later and after a few more hours of digging, sweating and a whole lot more manure and the rest, the bed was ready. hip hip hurray! time to plant. i'm psyched.

i thought i'd start by planting plants rather than seeds because i needed some immediate gratification. so there it was, beautiful rows of a few varieties of early spring veggies. i sat on my front porch that evening, glass of wine in hand, admiring my garden and imagined my future bounty. ok, so i made a mistake but i'm a beginner. what did i expect? no bid deal.

that is until the next morning when i discovered a couple of my neighborhood's stray dogs had dug up all my work. i mean all of the veggies and deep holes everywhere. bigger bummer. but not to be deterred and reenergized after another few days, i got to work again. this time i planted onions around the perimeter of my bed, to keep out pests and sprinkled pepper(couldn't hurt i thought) on the bed. on the porch again, more admination, and more wine, all was well.

yea, right. the next morning i discovered the return of the dogs. this time i caught them red handed. make that, red pawed digging in my garden. again, big holes plants dug up and scattered all over the place. i ran out to the yard and gave them a stern talking to.

to be continued...