How Does Your Garden Grow?

After a couple of days of sporadic planting last week, we finally got our vegetables in the ground. We discovered that we had gone a little overboard at our Arboretum's recent plant sale, grabbing more vegetables than our little plots could handle. We managed to find a home for our surplus purchases, but even after downsizing planted 18 tomato plants and 29 pepper plants (sweet and hot), not to mention a few other things like okra, squash, cucumber, eggplant, and basil. It was exciting to spend some time in the sunshine, digging in the dirt, and working on my farmer's tan. And of course, there is a certain satisfaction in looking back upon a day's work in the yard, especially when that work involves planting for the season.

Even though I've had a garden for three years now, I'm still amazed at how relatively easy it is to grow a portion of my own food, and how fulfilling it is to watch a plant (or even a seed) grow and bear fruit under your care. In the days to come, I would be counting on each one of these plants to feed me. And until then, they would be counting on me too. Now that our plants were safely tucked in their beds, the ritual of mulch, feed, water, and weed would begin. It would become a symbiotic relationship of sorts - I would encourage their lives and they would encourage mine. They promised me nourishment, a richness of flavor devoid of pesticides and fossil fuels, and a fulfillment of being at least partially (maybe minutely) self-sufficient.

In a recent article in the New York Times Magazine, Michael Pollan urges us to believe in the power of the home garden. In the light of a growing climate crisis, our dependence on petroleum, and rising food costs, growing your own food may make more of an impact then you may think.

"But the act I want to talk about is growing some — even just a little — of your own food. Rip out your lawn, if you have one, and if you don’t — if you live in a high-rise, or have a yard shrouded in shade — look into getting a plot in a community garden. Measured against the Problem We Face, planting a garden sounds pretty benign, I know, but in fact it’s one of the most powerful things an individual can do— to reduce your carbon footprint, sure, but more important, to reduce your sense of dependence and dividedness: to change the cheap-energy mind." -Michael Pollan