ABOUT ME
After spending the majority of my career working as an executive in major multi-national corporations, I decided it was time to leave that setting and pursue my true passion. Gardening is a passion and one that came to be an ‘escape’ from the stress of the corporate environment. I realized that gardening calmed my mind and brought me pure joy.
I garden in zone 6a in New Jersey. I’m married to Arthur and together we have four children. Arthur is a great support to me in pursuing my gardening passion and you will see him featured in various posts. The picture here was taken on our trip to Ireland (October 2018). You can see the Cliffs of Moher in the background. Yes, it was a bit chilly and windy and absolutely breathtaking!
MY MOTIVATION
Growing up my father and mother always had a vegetable garden. Nothing major, just a small home garden. I can remember being five years old and pulling a carrot out of the ground. What a sense of wonderment! From that moment I was hooked. I can also remember my father purchasing an organic gardening book in the early 1970’s. His goal was to turn a large section of our backyard into an organic garden. Sadly, he became sick with cancer and never realized his goal. I am thrilled to carry on his mission in my backyard.
HOW I GOT STARTED
Throughout my career in the workforce, I always had a small backyard garden. In 2016, I decided to go organic and get serious about my garden. I started with 4 – 4×4 square foot boxes. In 2017, I added 2 more 4×4 boxes. My only education on organic gardening was what I could find on the internet. My first year I had some success, but my second year was not great. I had many misconceptions about organic gardening. In 2018, I realized that I needed to get educated and attended a class on organic gardening. Wow, what a learning experience. The class provided me with a much better understanding of key concepts (soil, seeds, cover crops, crop rotation, organic pesticides and fertilizers).
WHAT'S NEXT FOR ME
I will continue to go deeper in my understanding of organic gardening. I completed a program sponsored by Rutgers University and am now a Master Gardener in New Jersey, USA. I have also joined an organization called the Northeast Organic Farmers Organization (NOFA).
MY GOAL
I want to ‘keep it simple’ for you and give you as much information, in one place to get started or increase your knowledge with organic gardening. If you want to go deeper in a topic, I will provide references to do so.
I will also explore the correlation between gardening and leadership. In business it is sometimes helpful to reference metaphors to understand human behavior. (e.g the organization as the garden and leaders as the gardeners).
Remember each of us can have an impact on the sustainability of our plant by starting an organic garden or simply being a consumer of organic foods and goods.
