My Garden

Radishes!

I have always loved gardening. When I was little, my mom had garden beds in the front yard, and I lived for the summer so I could watch the veggies grow. We always had tomatoes, and one of my favorite snacks was cherry tomatoes off the vine. My experiences in the garden when I was younger probably account for my everlasting love of food, especially vegetables. After all, watching those plants grow, seeing my food pop out of the earth was fascinating. And NOTHING could beat playing with the worms we found while sifting the compost (I still think worms are some of the coolest creatures).

A tomato

These days, my family has a big garden out back. But for years I've wanted my own space to grow things myself. So, this spring, my mom gave me some space in the front yard to make my own. It's not a ton of space, but I love it all the same. I have two garden beds currently containing: kale, basil, spinach,  radishes, carrots, beets, bush beans, cherry tomatoes, and hot peppers.

I feel that gardening is a wonderful experience for just about everyone. Maybe not everyone would enjoy it as much as me, or even at all. But I seriously fear that many people in our society are loosing a grip on the knowledge of where food actually comes from. Even if you do it just once, it feels so cool to stick a seed in dirt, give it water and some sun and have something grow. It's always so exciting. And I personally feel more connected to not only my food, but also the earth and where I came from, when I watch what I eat grow and when I know exactly where, when, and how it came to exist.

Kale. YUM!! (might possibly be my favorite veggie these days)

I would also like to add that my family (of four) produces a large percentage of the food we eat during the summer. There's something to harvest every day. Tonight we had a spinach salad with dinner, and alongside our kale based lunch I munched on radishes I'd pulled from the ground only minutes before. Gardening my whole life has given me a hobby, given me a passion for food (both eating and nutrition), taught me where my food comes from, and made me closer to my family. It's kind of awesome like that.

Flowers bring the bees, helping pollinate the tomato plants

More tomatoes!