Garden Notes

Pole beans clambering up trellis in the raised vegetable garden

There is great joy in gardening for many of us who love the process of tilling the soil, planting our seeds or small plants and nurturing them to beautiful specimens that enhance our gardens. It provides healthful exercise with a purpose, and to me, is so much better than walking on a treadmill. I have a fairly large yard and am always working on ways to make it better so I get plenty of exercise and vitamin D all summer long!

While creating a beautiful landscape is satisfying, nothing quite compares to the satisfaction of growing food for your family. There is an almost visceral feeling involved with providing food that probably harkens back to instincts inherited from our early ancestors. Food gathering was an important survival skill for those early humans and I think on some level, we still feel that need to provide.

Personally, I find that growing food gives me a feeling of being self-sufficient and keeps me in touch with the seasons. We have lettuce, radishes, strawberries and peas in the spring; zucchini, onions, beans and raspberries in the summer; and finally tomatoes, basil, squash and grapes in fall to name just a few. I love going out into the garden about four in the afternoon to pick food for dinner. Those vegetables and fruits from our garden could not be fresher and they simply taste wonderful. We usually have more than enough for the two of us and we share our excess produce with family and friends who do not have space for a garden. Then, when we do go grocery shopping, I love figuring out how much those beautiful fresh vegetables and fruits would have cost in the store.

Then we have the health issue. Since there have been so many food recalls because of contamination and warnings about chemicals sprayed on our food, there is legitimate concern about the safety of our food supply. However, when you grow your own food, you know exactly what chemicals have been sprayed on that food — NONE! While we don’t grow all of our own food, we do produce a good portion of the fruits and vegetables that we eat during the growing season. I also do some freezing and canning of our produce to save a bit of summer’s bounty for the cold weather. So, I feel that for a good portion of the year our food is pretty safe!

Finally, I think real reason I am so excited about growing my own food is that for many years I lived in a duplex on Milwaukee’s east side with a small shady yard. Vegetables need sun and simply did not do well in our yard. I finally gave up trying to grow food and instead planted hostas, ferns and other shade perennials more suited to the space. The shade garden was lovely, but I wanted to grow tomatoes!

Our current home has a much larger yard with a good deal of sun and the first thing we did was put in a raised vegetable garden. It was a big step, but I still keep finding more places to plant food around our yard. I currently have strawberries, blue berries, raspberries, grapes and a brand new cherry tree planted just last year. I am also trying to grow asparagus and this will be year two for the asparagus patch. According to my planting directions, I can start harvesting in year 3 and the new asparagus bed should produce for 15-20 years. I can’t wait!