5/9/09

Planting time


Gardening is something that has made a come-back in the last couple years. With an emphasis on eating more local, organic and nutritious foods people are bringing back some things that were lost in our convenience based society. It makes even more sense for people to grow some of their own food now with the changing economy in U.S and people having to tighten their belts a little (our belts have always been rather tight here in hickville :) Things that seemed quaint, old fashioned or even substandard are coming back. Line drying clothes is even being encouraged in places that used to ban clothes lines for aesthetic reasons.
The funny thing is, in the rural area where we live we have never really stopped doing these things. Most every house in our "town" ( actually we are technically a Village or a Hamlet or something) has a clothes line in the back yard with clothes waving in the wind. It would be hard to find a yard that didn't have a vegetable garden. People here still "can" tomatoes, pick berries to make jam, and stock pile potatoes in their basements. Growing up we always had a huge garden and spent many of our summer days as kids weeding, picking peas and of course snapping beans and shelling peas. It was just what we did.
My Grandparents always planted enough potatoes to feed an army. If there was ever a famine we would have been well supplied with potatoes! :) It makes sense to keep on with the traditions (although I don't have my heart set on eating slightly squishy potatoes all winter) seeing as it is cheaper, tastier, healthier and more environmentally friendly to grow our vegi's rather than getting all our food from the super market....or in our case the local
Co-op...and by local I mean 1/2 hr drive away. Produce here is expensive!


Growing a garden takes knowing when the soil is ready, deciding what things you want to plant in that soil, patience as the plants start to grow, perseverance as the weeds start to crowd in, hope that what you planted will eventually bear fruit, and finally the enjoyment of a harvest.
Sounds kind of like growing kids :)



Roman was a wonderful little helper this year....having his help actually made the job a lot quicker. I'm hoping the kids will be old enough to be an asset to the family Garden this year. Gardening holds so many good lessons for them... commitment, hard work, patience and delayed gratification just to name a few. They also learn and appreciate where it is their food comes from. Carrots aren't just something out of a bag...they are something that grow in the dirt from seeds that they planted. Roman had a ton of questions about where seeds come from , how they grow into plants and how they know what plant to grow into.


I realized that I have posted a disproportionate amount about the boys lately. Here is Aili at ball practice. Its a small town team run by a few parents. Its great. She loves it. They have a lot of kids though...I would guess at least 30. Roman insisted that he not play baseball this spring...for some reason he is dead set against it. That's fine with me if Aili has her baseball and Roman has his soccer...that way they aren't in constant competition with each other. After all just eating dinner somehow ends up as a competition between these two.
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1 comment:

Jobina said...

oh I'd love a garden! Around here my yard is about the size of a postage stamp and my neighbor's 3 cats like using anything I plant as their own personal toilet. Lucky cats. The last few years I've done leaf lettuce, tomatoes and some herbs in pots. That's turned out pretty well, but I'm definitely looking forward to the day when I can have a real garden! Enjoy yours!