I started gardening soon after we bought our first home in 2009. My husband gave me Gardening for Dummies as a birthday gift, and I thumbed through it then cast the book aside with a comment about how I didn’t need a book—after all, how hard could it be? Plants grow everywhere, right? Then I bought a bunch of perennials and popped them in the ground willy-nilly.

My first, second and third attempts at gardening were abysmal failures at producing anything edible or pretty. I planted a sun-hungry medicinal herb and pollinator garden under the shade of a large tree. A squirrel ate all my tomatoes. My dog dug up and trampled my seedlings. But those failed gardens taught me so much, and I came back for more.

I am still learning every time I go out to the garden. There are always new challenges, little victories and losses, and ways to meet the space as its caretaker.

My gardens have slowly improved as I’ve learned from my own experience and from others. I am always interested in learning how to make organic gardening easier, more productive and sustainable. And the thousand little joys of ripening fruit, blooming flowers and developing plants are so worth it.

When I started gardening, my dream was to have a homestead, with chickens, a milk cow, and all the other things my family needed for self-sufficiency.

But as I’ve grown (and better realized my limitations), I realize that self-sufficiency is no longer my goal. I love producing and sharing, and being part of a community of others to share with. I want to make something of value to my community, have a positive impact, and I’d love for it to come from my heart, my hands and the earth. I’m not sure what that will look like in the future—maybe a farm? For now, I’m growing things that make me (and hopefully others) happy, and keeping an open mind.