So we started gardening four years ago. It seems like learning to grow food was a good place to start. Here’s a pic of our simple first garden. 

We started with raised beds and organic dirt from a local concrete company. We had no idea how important soil is. We ended up with fill dirt and that’s not what you want! So the second year we added compost, free aged manure from Craigslist and straw mulch on top. That’s also the year we learned about permaculture.  

We had no background in gardening so we learned by researching the Internet. 

http://www.leotiger.com/omg/sepp.pdf

http://youtu.be/qkbniTU1Buo
http://www.motherearthnews.com/

These resources led to other resources. Now we know more about sowing seeds, building soil and tending to plants. 

    
 

We also connected with people in our area (pierce county, WA) who were interested in this lifestyle. Facebook and meetup are great for that. Next we built our greenhouse. 
   

Once again we turned to the Internet for our greenhouse plans.

http://youtu.be/-DKlXs8iov0
Then we ordered the greenhouse film.

http://www.agriculturesolutions.com/products/greenhouse-supplies/sun-selector-greenhouse-plastic?gclid=CIm9-aCGoscCFQqDfgod0JMGoQ
The greenhouse is a “must have” for sowing seeds. I use free containers and cups whenever I can. For the seeds, I found a few companies that I’ve been very happy with.

https://www.adaptiveseeds.com/
http://www.highmowingseeds.com/

For trees and shrubs…

http://www.raintreenursery.com/
There’s also the Gartenmeister nursery in Puyallup (but they don’t have a website yet). And now, four years later, we are finally producing fair ammounts of food! 
    
    
    
 

Even though we are on .18 acres we have managed to grow the following flowers, herbs and foods for 2015: apples, plums, mulberry, asian pear, cherries, raspberries (black and red), blueberries, black currents, gooseberries, service berries, comfrey, kale (many kinds), arugula, lettuce, carrots, garlic, onions, tomatoes, potatoes, broccoli, squash (many kinds), corn, beans, calendula, peas, salad burnet, lambsquarters, sunchokes, sunflowers, parsnips, chard, beets and nasturtiums to name most of them. 

Now it’s 2016 and we are waiting to start our spring garden. There’s still lots to eat in January. Our kales, sunchokes, cured squash and onions are viable and yummy! 

  

   

So here’s something fun we decided to try this year. These are organic oyster mushrooms that we received as a gift. They’ve been fun to grow and they’re super tasty. Hopefully we’ll get more out of this little block.