I have loved green plants for as long as I can remember.\u00a0 Looking through seed catalogs in the winter brings grandiose ideas of lush gardens and bountiful crops.\u00a0 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).\u00a0 I water and weed during the summer, and wait for great things to happen.\u00a0 In a perfect world, this is where I would reap the rewards of what I have planted.\u00a0 Not so.\u00a0 After the bunnies ate all of my zucchini plants and my squash, I planted 6 jalapeno pepper plants.\u00a0 These were eaten immediately.\u00a0 My beets were gone about a week after the rabbits ate my spinach.\u00a0 We did get one meal of spinach-and it was great.\u00a0 The carrots were next.\u00a0 They are still limping by-but I am doubtful whether or not we’ll see anything this fall.\u00a0 I have now planted cucumbers and spaghetti squash.\u00a0 My son calls this “squishy squash!”\u00a0 The bunnies are starting to eat this too.\u00a0 The tomatoes are doing great!\u00a0 I have had three turn red-then disappear.\u00a0 Apparently the woodchuck that lives behind our fence loves shopping at my garden too!\u00a0 I have five more ripening-and will hopefully get to try at least one.<\/p>\n
After all of this, you’d think I’d quit trying (as this is my 16th<\/sup> year!)\u00a0 Nope-I love planting and watching things grow.\u00a0 I love working out in the garden after work.\u00a0 There is something very relaxing about being outside and working in the dirt.\u00a0 I ask the kids if they want to help weed, and then they leave me alone!\u00a0 It’s great exercise-bending and lifting and pulling.\u00a0 I sweat.\u00a0 It keeps me moving.\u00a0 Sometimes we actually get to eat what I have grown.\u00a0 I have a great herb garden.\u00a0 It is a mess, and somewhat overgrown-but I love planting basil seeds in the spring, and grilling Margarita pizza in the summer.\u00a0 A small amount of basil at the grocery store costs about $3.\u00a0\u00a0 I pay $0.10 a packet for my seeds, and get basil all summer long, and I share it too.\u00a0 I am able to make huge amounts of pesto in the fall before the first freeze.\u00a0 Store purchased pesto is expensive, and mine tastes better!\u00a0 I actually grow dill to watch the caterpillars eat it and turn into beautiful butterflies.\u00a0 My kids love the caterpillars, also.<\/p>\n What does all of this prove?\u00a0 By now, you’re thinking that I’m nuts!\u00a0 Not so.\u00a0 Gardening keeps me sane.\u00a0 I get some exercise, I calm down after work, and I save money at the local store.\u00a0 A recent study was able to prove that the average family can save around $400 a year by growing their own produce.\u00a0 It all helps.\u00a0 I also raise a large amount of lavender to use in homemade gifts at Christmas.\u00a0 By October, I am ready to clean everything out, and I am praying for snow.\u00a0 But then January comes around again, and the seed catalogs start arriving.\u00a0 I wonder what I’ll grow next year?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have loved green plants for as long as I can remember.\u00a0 Looking through seed catalogs in the winter brings grandiose ideas of lush gardens and bountiful crops.\u00a0 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).\u00a0 I Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6408,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[780,45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nutrition-2","category-g","cat-780-id","cat-45-id"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/garden.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4624"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4624"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4624\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8870,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4624\/revisions\/8870"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}