I'm a city girl through and through and when I moved out West I wanted to learn it all. I wanted to learn how to camp, fish, garden and can my crops (ha, ha, ha). Well I didn't much like the camping, the wildness of the outdoors was just not what this city slicker was looking for and fishing...YUK...need I really say more? Than there was gardening UGH...what a time consuming, dirty, back breaking experience. How could I get away without doing this part??? It was exhausting. My first year I decided to plant a 10' X 10' traditional row garden...what the heck was I thinking? This was more work than a full time job while raising 3 kids, but I loved having fresh fruits and vegetables...and I loved canning them too...What a sense of accomplishment that was for me, making my own preserves, tomato sauce, relishes the list goes on and on...the problem was in order for me to can I needed to have fresh fruits and vegetables...yes I could have bought local fruits and veggies, but somehow that seemed like cheating and it wouldn't save me much money if I had to buy the food than preserve it...just thinking about it exhausted me...than I met Lynn, the author of a wonderful book titled Cinder Block Gardens...finally, a dream come true...I got to learn how to grow a beautiful, bountiful garden without rototilling, without weeding, without digging, without getting dirty, without bending over for hours on end and without the drudgery of the task at hand...

Cinder Block Gardening...hmmm, never heard of it, sounds silly, but what the heck...if it makes gardening easier especially for a gardening newbie like myself, I figured why not give it a try? What could it hurt? If I hated it, I'd stop...right? Right.

To make this really, really, really easy just follow these two simple steps... Step one-get the book and step two follow the directions...can you believe this? Can you believe it's this easy? IT IS!!! Scouts honor...this is truly a book for the gardening impaired (that would be me).

OK here's the deal, this method will not only give you a plentiful harvest, it will be the easiest, garden you'll ever grow...no kidding...this is the honest to goodness truth... If you're a beginner all the better, you'll never have to know the drudgery of weeding, or rototilling. You'll never have to experience being hunched over for hours or on your knees pulling weeds until your back just can't take it any longer, that my friend is now a thing of the past-I wish I would have learned this sooner. Too bad camping and fishing weren't this easily enjoyable (smile)...

The truth is that the first time you build your cinder block garden it is a little more challenging and labor intensive than it will be for the years to come, you do need to build the blocks (but it's just like using Lego's-imagine that???) but once that's done, the rest is smooth sailing. There's absolutely no need for nails, hammers, saws or wood. And if you can talk your friends, your hubby or your kids into helping you build the blocks, you'll be gardening in less time than it takes to do your grocery shopping.

You do need to use a good soil mix to start with, (recipe is in the book) which leaves no necessity to rototill (yeah!!!), which produces hardly any weeds (yeah again!!!) and with good soil you have good draining (even after a soaking rain) and best of all you never walk on this soil so it stays light and airy and your shoes stay clean and dry (one more time...yeah!!!) and you can usually pick your vegetables and fruit with your bare hands because the dirt isn't compacted. You'll use a lot less fertilizer (less smell, save money)...Your aisles stay clean, weed free and dry and the amount of vegetables and fruit you'll grow will knock your socks off.

So whether you're a city slicker like me or just need a care free, fool proof, abundance of vegetables and fruit to feed your family, share with your neighbors or sell at the local farmers market, this is truly the way to go.

So all of you wannabe gardeners, city slickers and busy people out there...don't say you can't do it, don't say you don't have time to do it, because if I can do it...trust me, anyone can...But you'd better be prepared to learn to can, freeze or dehydrate your harvest, because there will be lots and lots of it...Enjoy your yield for the rest of the year and by this time next year, you'll be a pro...just like me...