Hi, I’m Laura, also known as the “Carrot Gal.” I first began gardening when I was in college while I was living in a basement apartment in Logan, Utah. The owner of the house went on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints which meant her garden beds were available. So I decided to try my hand at growing a few things.

As I recall, everything I planted flopped except for the pumpkin plant and even that only grew 3 pumpkins total…2 small and 1 large. But even with all of those failures, I was hooked!

I loved the feeling that came with taking my one large pumpkin and carving it for Halloween. I remember thinking “Ha, I didn’t have to buy my pumpkin from the store. Take that, you big-box giants.”

Okay, maybe that is a little more dramatic than what actually went through my mind but I still loved the feeling that came with that first meager harvest.

Since then, I have grown some type of garden everywhere we have lived including tiny apartments, the dry desert of Tucson, Arizona, and my current place I call home, Boise, Idaho.

Over the years, I have read and studied more gardening material than I care to admit. Most of the methods talk about all of the gardening tasks you “should” do in order to have a great garden.  The problem with most of these tasks is that most of them are VERY labor intensive. Who has the time and energy for all that?

After much studying, practicing and experimenting, I have come to the conclusion that growing food should be a much simpler process than most of us make it out to be.  And most of those “should do’s” from all those gardening books are most of the time unnecessary.  

I have learned techniques such as no-till gardening, winter gardening, growing edible perennials, no-irrigation gardening, mulching, direct composting, and winter sowing seeds. All of these require much less work than the traditional methods…you know, cause that’s how I roll.

Why “the Carrot Gal” you ask?  I chose to name my website after my very favorite vegetable, the humble carrot.  Which, by the way, tastes out of this world when homegrown (homegrown carrots put homegrown tomatoes to shame, in my opinion).  Also, my husband also affectionately calls me “carrots” because of my red hair.  All of this, of course, translates into “the Carrot Gal” – there you go…I know you were wondering.  🙂 

I try to make the process of growing food as simple as possible. To work WITH mother nature instead of fighting against her. To put less effort into the growing of the food and more effort into the enjoying of the food with my family.

This website is all about the things I have learned and tried. I share it with you so that you may learn how to grow food simply too, with less effort, and more joy.

Happy reading!