In April 2010, the first prototype for My Garden System was built on my daughter’s snow covered basketball court. It was transported to our blueberry farm in mid-April by hay wagon express—a scene that reminded me of a carnival travelling during winter. It was still snowing in late April when we began to hand-plant the strawberries. With frozen fingers, my mother-in-law Sylvia Loghry and I planted 150 plants in the channels.
Once the blossoms appeared, an excellent lesson was learned…always trust the experts. My idea of this system was emailed to Marvin Pritts, Cornell University Small Fruits genius, and Tim Nourse of Nourse Nurseries. Both felt the concept was of interest and the best way to begin was to try a small model. They advised that we develop a proper soil mixture, which we created via trial and error. Tim Nourse recommended three varieties of strawberries: SeaScapes, Ev2, and Mara de Bois. Our first year of production yielded well over 65 pounds of strawberries. We have thoroughly enjoyed these strawberries that smell and taste like summer and have made “Strawberry Jam 2010” from the October 2010 harvest.
After learning so much from this strawberry adventure, I developed a passion for the therapeutic process of growing these strawberry jewels in “La Masion de Fraise” (aka “Strawberry House”).
What started as a strawberry experiment has changed over the past two years into the desire to make a commercially available system that makes gardening easy in any location by reducing weeding, bending, digging and watering. As the final design has developed, our focus has also been to make sure that those who are challenged by the use of a wheelchair or have difficulty bending can also enjoy gardening. My Garden System was designed to provide the joy of gardening for everyone – no matter your age or where you live or what you like to grow.
