Gardening: Fun, Food, and Fitness

I have loved green plants for as long as I can remember.  Looking through seed catalogs in the winter brings grandiose ideas of lush gardens and bountiful crops.  Every spring I cultivate my raised beds and plant hope (otherwise known as tomatoes, carrots, beets, and any other type of vegetable that I can squeeze into my 6 raised beds).  I water and weed during the summer, and wait for great things to happen.  In a perfect world, this is where I would reap the rewards of what I have planted.  Not so.  After the bunnies ate all of my zucchini plants and my squash, I planted 6 jalapeno pepper plants.  These were eaten immediately.  My beets were gone about a week after the rabbits ate my spinach.  We did get one meal of spinach-and it was great.  The carrots were next.  They are still limping by-but I am doubtful whether or not we’ll see anything this fall.  I have now planted cucumbers and spaghetti squash.  My son calls this “squishy squash!”  The bunnies are starting to eat this too.  The tomatoes are doing great!  I have had three turn red-then disappear.  Apparently the woodchuck that lives behind our fence loves shopping at my garden too!  I have five more ripening-and will hopefully get to try at least one.

After all of this, you’d think I’d quit trying (as this is my 16^th year!)  Nope-I love planting and watching things grow.  I love working out in the garden after work.  There is something very relaxing about being outside and working in the dirt.  I ask the kids if they want to help weed, and then they leave me alone!  It’s great exercise-bending and lifting and pulling.  I sweat.  It keeps me moving.  Sometimes we actually get to eat what I have grown.  I have a great herb garden.  It is a mess, and somewhat overgrown-but I love planting basil seeds in the spring, and grilling Margarita pizza in the summer.  A small amount of basil at the grocery store costs about $3.   I pay $0.10 a packet for my seeds, and get basil all summer long, and I share it too.  I am able to make huge amounts of pesto in the fall before the first freeze.  Store purchased pesto is expensive, and mine tastes better!  I actually grow dill to watch the caterpillars eat it and turn into beautiful butterflies.  My kids love the caterpillars, also.

What does all of this prove?  By now, you’re thinking that I’m nuts!  Not so.  Gardening keeps me sane.  I get some exercise, I calm down after work, and I save money at the local store.  A recent study was able to prove that the average family can save around $400 a year by growing their own produce.  It all helps.  I also raise a large amount of lavender to use in homemade gifts at Christmas.  By October, I am ready to clean everything out, and I am praying for snow.  But then January comes around again, and the seed catalogs start arriving.  I wonder what I’ll grow next year?