According to their website, Shutdown Day (which is a non-profit organization registered in Canada) was founded:

with the sole purpose of spreading awareness about the pitfalls and dangers that lie in the excessive use of television, computers, and computing equipment like game boxes, cell phones, music players, online social websites, etc. that impinge on social space and interaction amongst our communities.

They go on to say:

Shutdown Day is a Global Internet Experiment whose purpose is to get people to think about how their lives have changed with the increasing use of the home computer, and whether or not any good things are being lost because of this.

The idea of Shutdown Day project is simple – just shutdown your computer for one whole day of the year and involve yourself in some other activities: outdoors, nature, sports, fun stuff with friends and family – whatever, just to remind yourself that there still exists a world outside your monitor screen.

I must say that they make a very compelling point. So compelling, in fact, that before I even knew about this project I was already engaging in a similar sort of activity. Every Monday evening for about the last month my wife and I have been doing “Monday Nights Unplugged.”

Starting every Monday at about 5 or 6pm on we power down all of our computers and turn off the televison. No web surfing. No email. No Wii. No TiVo. And it’s sooooo nice. Yes, it has taken a little preparation, especially with these last couple weeks being the last few of my senior year of seminary, but it has been well worth it.

Our line of thinking is pretty much exactly the same as the folks over at Shutdown Day. Both of us spend tons of time in front of computer screens. So much that we felt we need to step away from them once and a while to retain our sanity. It has been a great opportunity for us to read, play games, work around the house, and so on. A secondary effect I’ve noticed is that we seem to be sitting in front of our computers and watching TV a little less on other nights of the week as well.

Participating in Shutdown Day is going to be relatively easy for me. I will be graduating the same day and already have plans that will take up nearly the entire day. However it will be really tough to wake up that morning and not stumble over to my laptop to check my email.

So what do you say … can you go without using your computer for 24 hours? If so, don’t forget to register with Shutdown Day and let us know in the comments!

1. Roma Tomatoes

We absolutely love Roma tomatoes. Last year we had four Roma plants and at one point wound up harvesting about 140 tomatoes over the course of three days. This year we decided to scale back to two Romas instead of four. Both of us really like the convenient size of Romas and the fact that they very rarely taste mealy. We started with two small potted Romas from Lowes.

2. Early Girl Tomatoes

Like the Romas, last year we also planted four Early Girls as well. Yes, you’ve done the math right: last year we had eight tomato plants crammed into a roughly 2′x8′ section of our little garden. Crowded didn’t even begin to describe it. This year we’re doing two Early Girls to go with our Romas. Last year’s Early Girls didn’t end up being all that early, the Romas actually were ready for harvest first, however we really liked the taste and size of the Early Girls so we’re trying them again this year. Our two Early Girls also came in the form of small pots from Lowes.

3. Sweet Green Bell Peppers

Between the 8 tomato plants and a hill of yellow squash that grew to over 4′ tall last year, our green peppers never really had a chance. This year we’ve got two sweet green bell pepper plants with a corner all to themselves, so hopefully we’ll get more than the 5 or 6 peppers we got all last year.  Once again these were started from small plants from Lowes.

4. Poblano Peppers

This is the biggest experiment we’ve got going in our garden this year. I absolutely love Poblano peppers for using in chili, so the last time I cooked chili I made sure to save some Poblano seeds. I inadvertently touched my face after handling the seeds, resulting in a mild chemical burn, so hopefully this experiment will turn out to be worth all the trouble! I dried the seeds for a couple weeks and we’ve planted quite a few in the corner opposite the bell peppers, so we’ll be waiting anxiously to see if they sprout in the next couple weeks.

5. Mesclun Greens

As we went to begin preparing the soil for this year’s gardening we realized we had a handful of mesclun greens sprouts that must have been left over from last year. We carefully removed them before turning over the soil and I transplanted 9 or 10 of them back into the garden when we were done. We’ll see how they do. Hopefully this will mean our first garden salad of the year will come early this year!

Has anyone else started their garden yet this year? If so, what are have you planted? I’ll have to post again in the next few days once we get everything else in the ground.