Let's start with me.

I am a gardening addict. My nightstand is a pile of gardening books and my desk is full of garden sketches, plans and print-outs. I love reading about gardening, thinking about gardening, talking about gardening, and yes, I also love to actually garden. I have grown a garden everywhere I have ever lived, on both ends of this continent. I love seeds and plants and soil and even compost, and never tire of putting them all together in new and ever more beautiful ways.

After gardening for 15 years in Alaska and a few in New Orleans, my family moved to Eugene, Oregon in 2016, partly because this is one of the best places in the world to grow food. We bought a house on a big blank slate of weedy lawn, and for the last three years I have been steadily converting our 1/4 acre lot into a backyard homestead-- a few hundred square feet of vegetable beds, half a dozen fruit trees, berry bushes tucked in everywhere, and big beds of herbs, flowers and native plants.

I envision our future grandkids wandering among a 3-D maze of glowing green, bees buzzing over every flowers, birds singing from from every branch, with a tangible feeling of being surrounded by the abundance of life-- fruits and flowers everywhere beckoning them to touch, sniff, pick, eat and be a part of this vibrant natural world.

Despite all this garden love, and a nearly crazy-cat-lady-like obsession with plants, I am not a green thumb. I can say that because I have known a few of those blessed people in my life, and they are a miracle to observe, people whose sheer proximity makes plants stand a little taller and glow a little greener. No, sadly that is not me. I have had to work very hard for my successes, and suffered many, many failures.

But all the mistakes I have made and my broad scope of experience make me a great teacher. In this course, I will walk you through the process of starting your own garden, help you learn from your own mistakes and work toward your own future garden vision.

Please introduce yourself briefly in the comments below. Tell us what part of the world you live in, what experiences you have had with gardening, and what you hope to achieve with this course.