So many different types of love in this world, there must be a separate category for garden love. Feet stained from dirt, dirt under nails, nails and knees grass stained.... it must be love! The payoff in the end is always worth it!
The idea is appealing. Step one -grow organic veggies. Step 2 -Pick from the garden. Step 3 -Feed the family. Simple right??
The truth? It's a lot of work!! Double digging the garden for long roots was especially hard. I conveniently threw out my back and mom made her way though stones, plastic waste and clay. Our little 20ft by 10ft plot took her hour after hour to dig up. We added one large load of organic dirt, from a local farmer, to get it level. Then I mixed in our compost from our compost er. We have been saving the waste from the kitchen and garden and adding the beautiful soil it produces to the existing flower gardens for years. This was a very rewarding change in living more green. Just knowing that our clean food waste didn't end up in a land fill. Makes me very happy!! Then we started the plants inside the house from seed. Placing each seed lovingly in to the baby containers. We watched and waited for the magic to begin.
Disappointed, we lost all our fist seedlings. I paid a fortune for them via the inter net. The second round did much better. I figure by next year we'll have it down to an art form. Mom said we were too ambitious and should have done our first year from pre bought plants.....I think I would suggest that to any ones first year..
Alfonz made cold frames to keep the babies warm once they got too big for the deck stand-up hothouse. Long weekend in May they were still getting tucked in at night.
Here are the results of our project.....
Most from seed, we have tomatoes, lettuce along the side of the house by the water barrel. Our largest plot has beans, peas, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, kohlrabi, a variety of squash, gourdes and a pumpkin, spinach, strawberries, dill, and cucumbers.
Our herb garden in the triangle shape, has Hungarian wax peppers, hot to mild, 4 kinds of oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary, sage, parsley, chives, lemon balm, peppermint, spearmint, chocolate mint, chervil, and a few others I can't recall....
It's so exciting seeing them take off, survive, and eventually eat. We have enjoyed salad each night for about 3 weeks now, from the herbs and lettuce mix we grew.
I can only hope this trend sticks. My grandparent from Hungary planted their fields, never wasting a thing. My parents in the 70's, a little hippy, but none the less, had beautiful gardens for the course of my childhood. I remember picking sun warmed tomatoes off the vine and sitting on the grass, juice pouring down my neck as I ate. I loved my food then as I do now. The fresher and more wholesome the better.
Happy gardening folks!!
