“Growing a garden is like printing your own money” except it is legal!
I am SO excited!! My order of garden seeds just arrived! I know I can’t plant anything in the garden yet, but it will soon be time to start those seeds in containers on a table in front of my picture window so I won’t have to buy plants from a store to transplant when it’s time for them to be in the garden!! Money, money, money! Everybody wants my money! So I grow my own plants and cut out the middle man (or men).
With food prices as high as they are and supply chains such a big mess, the quote above is spot on! One of the reasons I purchased this home is because it has a back yard large enough for a garden. There is a big maple tree in the middle of the yard, so we will see if the location I have chosen for the garden gets enough sun. Wherever you live, I would suggest you grow as much of your food as possible. If you live where you have a yard, dig some of it up and plant some seeds. If you live in an apartment, grow food in flower pots on your patio or inside in a sunny window. Home grown vegetables are the best! They taste much better than those in the grocery that have been shipped across the country (throwing carbon into the atmosphere) and you know what has been sprayed on the food you eat! Many of the fresh fruits and vegetables in stores have been sprayed with pesticides and other chemicals.
Gardening is great exercise. Being outside in fresh air, digging in the dirt is good for your mental health. It is an activity the whole family can do together. Little children will be fascinated “helping” grow their food. All of us need to connect with nature more (unless you have allergies such that you can’t enjoy being outdoors).
If you can’t dig up a plot, borrow or rent a tiller to break up the soil. I thoroughly enjoy working/playing in my garden. Yes, it gets hot out there in the summer, so I go work outside early in the morning. Inside housekeeping things are left for when I come back indoors. Growing food takes precedence over sweeping the floor! My floors get swept, just later in the day.
Choose what you grow. If your family doesn’t like tomatoes, don’t grow them. Growing food takes some work. You are going to need to pull weeds and water plants. If you are growing vegetables you don’t like, it’s going to feel like a waste of time.
You don’t know how to do this, you say. There are plenty of sites on the internet to show you how. I have been growing plants almost all my life and I learn something new with every garden I work. Majorly, don’t just plant it and forget it. You won’t harvest much of anything from that.
If you do not have a space of any kind to grow food, look for local farmer’s markets and shop there. Again, the food that’s locally grown tastes better, is fresher so the vitamin content is higher, and releases less carbon by not being shipped across the country.
There will be more garden ideas next week and ideas of what to do it you can’t eat all of the goodness before it spoils. Until next week —
EcoGrandma 