After months of reading and preparation, I finally mapped out a design for my front yard garden. I haven't even begun to make the kinds of mistakes I look forward to.
It started with a desire to grow things. I bought the tools. I took out the books. I even started volunteering on a farm. I am ripping out the weeds and succulents that have been staunch rooks of our yard for more than a decade.
I’ve done everything I can to not feel like I don’t know a lick about farming and gardening. But really what good are books and designs when your job is to coax little things to burst into life. The only way to really learn is to do it, put your hand to seed and grow.
I am comforted by the many farmers and gardeners who’ve told me the best way to learn if something will work is to just try it out. Master gardeners have shown me pictures of their own backyard experiments. Even Veggielution started in 2008 as a backyard experiment between college students who wanted to grow vegetables but didn’t have any land. It’s now a two acre farm producing tens of thousands of pounds in crops a year for the East San Jose community.
Today I drafted a design for my yard. It feels ambitious. That’s because it is. At this stage my excitement is leading me. I am not an agriculturalist — not yet at least. I am not an engineer or even a landscape designer. What I am is an artist.
From my art and writing, I’ve learned that you must just put pen to paper. You do the work, feel it out, and see how it works. Revisions come later.
Right now the farm and garden is the greatest work of art I’ve taken on yet. My garden won’t really be bearing any resemblance to my designs until next spring.
You want to learn patience and ingenuity? Plant a garden. Actually anyone can do it. An intimate relationship with sun and earth, plant and food is our birthright.
The first rule is this: Everything is an experiment. Try something and see if it works. I already know some things won’t work out. I will make mistakes. I hope to make many many mistakes.
Ground Theory 
I love this endeavor! My mom recently got back into gardening while she was retired for a few months, and I really think she got a sense of fulfillment from it. And meanwhile, our family got the most flavorful tomatoes I’ve ever had… what they have at the grocery store are mere shadows of the shadows of what tomatoes are supposed to taste like!
I recently discovered the joy of heirloom tomatoes. I know exactly what you mean! I would love to see pictures of your mom’s garden!