We planted a garden this year. It’s a small one and it is actually behind our office (office used to be a house) but we managed to fit some tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, lettuce and a couple of pepper plants. My kid actually had a burning desire to plant the thing and I know that I will be stuck with the bulk of the maintenance but I’m glad of it. It is some work but it is relaxing to work in the garden. The other side of the garden is actually eating the food you produce.
The lettuce has grown so fast that we picked some the other night and made a salad. It’s been a long time since we had a garden but I’m always surprised at how different veggies out of the garden taste from those you get at the store. Erin thought that it was a little too fresh – “tastes like grass” was her comment…:)
June 13, 2008 at 10:02 am
Andy,
I am an avid gardener, and enjoy the toil that comes along with it. This is the 6th year that I have planted vegetables. I grow things year-round, and have picked spinach, turnips and carrots in February I had to laugh at Erin’s comments, as I have had a similar assessment of my produce when eating some mixed greens I planted.
I grew up in a home that had several small garden patches, scattered throughout the small lot the house stood on. My Grandmother insisted that we have a garden. Raising several children through the depression and then through WWII rationing, she always had her “victory garden” every year, right up until she passed away. It’s not like we had bushel baskets of produce, but it was always nice to go pick some lettuce, a fresh tomato, and a cuccumber or two and have them with dinner. She had me start the seedling in the “sun room”, plant them in spring, and pull weeds all summer. Funny thing is, I never saw this as “work”.
Last week, the WSJ had an article about the explosion in home gardens, due to the drive to eat “organic” and rising food costs. Makes sense to me. I just like to grow stuff we can eat. I like learning that comes through trial and error. I hope you and Erin keep it up.
June 15, 2008 at 7:47 pm
Steve:
I always had a garden when I was a kid as well. My mom would can tons of whatever we had an excess of. Usually tomatoes. Both Mom and Dad grew up on farms so there was plenty of know-how available.
What we’re currently wondering about is wether we can use the water from the air conditioner to water the garden. I expect that it is fine to use as the water simply collects on the coils and drips into a reservoir….
June 16, 2008 at 10:43 am
Andy,
The water from the AC should be fine. I ordered a couple of 42 gallon rain-barrels to catch water from the down-spouts. Last year, the lack of rain really took it’s toll, and I plan to use the water in the barrels to irrigate in the event we have another dry summer. I noticed that the plants always seem to do better with rain water, than they do with city water from the hose. Might be the chlorine.
Harvested a bunch of lettuce this weekend.
August 1, 2008 at 5:04 pm
It is a lot of fun having a garden beacause you get to eat fresh food and it is yummy