Grow - Harvest - Eat

Gardening takes work, it might get destroyed by critters or weather, and depending on how you do it, it might actually cost you more than buying the vegetables in the store. So why do it?

If that’s what you’re thinking, join the club. Many others feel the same way (including me back in the day).  Here’s what I didn’t know back then…it's totally worth it!  

• The work:  Yup, making a garden takes some effort. Dirt is heavy. Hauling around bags of soil to fill a pot or filling a wheelbarrow with compost to spread around the garden might get you feeling your muscles the next day. But, what’s the alternative? Go to the gym and work out to still be sore? Worse yet, sit around and let yourself get weaker?
• The risk of failure:  True again, there is risk.  We’ve had our corn stalks blown over in a storm, destroying most of the crop. Rabbits have eaten all our pea plants before they even had a chance to produce a single pea. Woodchucks have stolen the best zucchini right before we were able to pick it. Its frustrating. Sometimes even heart-breaking. All that work for nothing. But over time you realize its not for nothing.  Bad experiences make us stronger. We get smarter about how to protect and care for our crop. We appreciate the great harvests that much more.
• The cost: It can get expensive. Plants starts are getting to be ridiculous money. Buying bagged potting soil adds up quick. Fertilizer is not cheap either. But the truth is, you really don’t need to spend a bunch. We have made planter boxes from free wood, used dirt from the back yard and skipped fertilizer all together and we still got a crop. I find plants want to grow and produce - It is literally in their DNA. Giving them ideal conditions gets you a lot more, but something is better than nothing, so its always worth a try.  We’ve found more expensive options do not always yield better results, and sometimes the things that are totally free have actually worked out best.

Ok, now that I have shared the why not’s, here are a few reasons gardening is totally worth doing:

The taste: Absolutely nothing beats the taste of a fruit or vegetable you harvested and ate the same day. You simply can not get this from a grocery store or even a farmer’s market.

The learning experience: You get smarter about it as time goes on. You figure out how each plant grows, what conditions they like, what they don’t like. You realize that all the experts that say you ‘have to’ do this or that are not always right. Watching a plant from the seed sprouting, to growing big, bearing fruit and finally at its end producing new seed is totally amazing.  You appreciate your food more.

The reward: As humans, we need to feel our life has meaning. Growing food to sustain yourself and your family feels great. Gaining the skill to produce quality food on a tight budget gives you peace of mind.  Its an awesome thing to teach your kids.  Yes, its way easier to buy it than to grow it. But easier is not nearly as rewarding. 

The variety: You can grow all kinds of things you can’t buy in the store. How many times have you seen a Tazmanian Chocolate tomato for sale? How about an Orient Express Eggplant?  The options are endless. Watching the completely different way plants grow and the wide variety of tastes they offer is exciting. We try to grow at least one new type of plant every year and we have a growing list of ‘must haves’.

The discovery: I always thought I hated peas. Yuck, they were gross. We only grew them the first time for my husband because he told me he loves peas.  Then I tried some of our crop - delicious! Not at all what I was used to. Now I’m more willing to grow all kinds of weird vegetables I thought I didn’t like.

We are not experts or master gardeners by any stretch of the imagination. We are just a couple sharing what we have and what we know. We grow plant starts and sell them at our yearly yard sale so people can have a place to get quality plants for short money. We sell the best and give away the rest. So anyone who drives by our house after we have planted can pick up totally free plants to try in their own garden. We want everyone to grow some food. We want to share what we learn and encourage people to try it themselves.

Year after year we do it, and you can to.  GROW - HARVEST - EAT. Then REPEAT!