The Goodness of Gardening

Hubby and I are both longing for a garden these days. (Am betting our neighborhood deer and black bears would love it too.) This desire is born out of so many things, from a desire to feed our family and others around us fresh and healthy foods, from the rising cost of produce especially organic stuff, from watching too many movies like Food Inc, from a desire to teach our kids about where our food comes from and how to work the land for it... etc.

Today we visited Mimi's community garden plot, where roughly 30 members of the local community have applied for and earned the right to plant and care for a small spot of soil. The plots were only about 5x10 feet yet beautifully abundant - it was amazing to see what all is being grown on this loved land.

Among the wonders of being outdoors and caring for land is the positive affect it has on the boys. Not only is it always a great opportunity to learn, but put them to work and give them a mission ("Let's water the plants and find the fruit and veg that is ready to be picked!") and I rarely see conflict, arguments, or pestering. They are too busy watching a half dozen butterflies land on the flowers, delicately picking up the carcass of a molted cicada, checking out the droopy sunflowers to see if they can see its heavy seeds, looking at the baby watermelon growing in the neighbors plot, and searching for biggest cucumbers ready to be picked.

I love the "outdoor curiosity" and wonder of my kids and would love to give them a garden of their own to care for and watch grow! Maybe someday. First I need to work on my "green thumb"....

Herb Hope

I may have some talents but growing anything green is not one of them. When it comes to keeping plants alive, I fail miserably, time and again.

Because I absolutely love to cook, I have always, always wanted an herb garden. Periodically I get inspired to try again, so I purchase a half dozen herbs and lovingly take care of them for approximately 10 days, when they inevitably begin to look like this (actually, this is probably the most success I've ever had; I think these lasted 3 weeks):

Enter my Master Gardener mother-in-law, and my inspired little gardeners who are convinced that if Mimi can grow an herb garden, we can. Last time my MIL visited she and the older boys bought and planted these lovely, gorgeous herbs. I couldn't help but look at them sadly, knowing that this is the greenest and healthiest they'd ever look.

But with reminders from the boys to water the garden, lots of cutting back of herbs, and the help of some organic insecticide stuff, I am happy to report that my herb garden is alive! The dill died and the cilantro succumbed to the Florida heat (or something like that), but the basil, oregano, rosemary, and thyme are thriving! We've also got a tomato plant, being taken care of by my husband, that is growing tall and nearly ready to produce our first tomatoes! Yeah!

You can tell I'm nutso about using all the herbs, because as excited as the kids are, Tadpole did see me head out to the herb garden with my scissors a few days ago and said to me, "Mom, are you cooking with basil AGAIN tonight?"

I love my fresh herbs!