I am a novice but passionate vegetable gardener. What I lack in patience, I make up for in willingness to dig hard in the mud and to celebrate neglected veggies (burdock, anyone?).

We have a lot of space here at our new place, and I'm just beginning to dig in. Wanna watch me make a fool of myself?

First, though, here are some:

Inspiring Gardeners:

• The Edible Schoolyard — the project started by Alice Waters
• Humboldt Hens — Amy Stewart and her chickens
• The Accidental Smallholder— from the banks of the River Forth in Clackmannashire, Scotland
• Growing Gardens — planting seeds for good food, healthy people and strong communities in Portland, Oregon

Helpful Resources:

• Monrovia — I find their Plant Catalog even more helpful than the Sunset Gardening Book. Great pictures, generous information about all sorts of plants.
• Garden Web — the Internet's garden community (great advice here!)
• Tualatin Riverkeepers
Clean Water Services — great resource for info about native plants and restoring natural habitats in Oregon. They gave us some free native trees and shrubs to help us restore the creek area on our property!

Good Seed Companies:

• Territorial Seed Company — 48-hour turn around time, great selection, healthy seeds. I wish the catalog had more sidebars or more of an attitude, but they deliver just fine.
• Nichols Garden Nursery — specializing in herbs and rare seeds. Lots of advice and options for people with limited space. Rose Marie Nichols McGee and Maggie Stuckey have written The Bountiful Container to address the needs of gardeners working in small spaces.

Are there seed companies that you love? Please write and let me know. I'm experimenting with a couple of new companies this season and will report back. The two companies above are my dependable standards.