I count myself among the millions of people that resolve to eat healthier every single year. First I give up soda, then I eat more salad. Then by February 1st, I am back at Wendy’s drinking Dr. Pepper with my burger.
Every year.
But this year I will have to be different.
Because this year, somebody is planting a much larger garden.
Last year he planted his first garden in a very long time. He made lots of rookie mistakes and we basically had a ton of jalapeno peppers and spaghetti squash, but that is about it. Most of the veggies were eaten by the deer that live in our 20 acres of woods.
He fell so much in love with gardening, that he wants to right his wrongs and even have smaller gardens just for Lizzie and David. This will be his hobby and he is so excited about it. I am pretty excited too, except for one thing – I have no interest in gardening. I love his enthusiasm and eat the food he grows with relish, but when he invites me out there I “have laundry to do.” Sorry, but to me dirt is boring. Hoeing is boring, and I just don’t find a lot of joy in growing my own food.
So he is going to get me an herb garden. “Because Annie, herbs are really hard to kill and you can use them in everything.” Great, something totally Annie-proof. We’ll see.
And did I mention he wants to can too? So here I will be, hanging my cloth diapers on the line, then running inside to begin canning the vegetables we grew in our garden. Shoot, I bet we will even buy a pitchfork and start our own compost pile. (Thank you Granola Mom 4 God for posting a great tutorial!)
So that is why I will be eating healthier. We will have a lot of veggies to eat! I won’t let them go to waste – and if I want to spend family time together, we will all be outside in the dirt. I’ll grow to love it (no pun intended!)
I am SO excited to start gardening this year (though I typically am apt to just kill all of our plants). Have you guys looked into square foot gardening? That’s what we’ll be doing and it looks to be much easier – and have a much better harvest than conventional gardening. HAHA – we’re also composting. I’m pretty sure that between that, the cloth diapers and solar panels going on the roof that all our neighbors will think we’re a bunch of tree hugging hippies :-).
LOL!! Josh wants to do GeoThermal someday, and put in a windmill! I think solar panels are definitely a wonderful thing to do. You and I are totally crunchy – but you are a bit more so if you choose to homeschool. I just can’t do that (yet) LOL! *love ya!!*
wendy’s is still a good choice. just skip the fries and eat your home grown veggies instead.
*sarcasm*
Love this heather!! LOL!! I have a soft spot for Wendy’s sadly….
Gardening is SO fun! You’ll have a blast once you grow your own something-you-love. Bulb gardening was what got me started. Nothing else would survive. Every year I see little buzzy bees flying around my hyacinths I just feel warm and fuzzy knowing I grew something beautiful that’s also good for nature. Just can’t beat it.
We hope to do this too. Word is that snow fence keeps the deer out, so look for that when it goes on sale.
I can see how you don’t find gardening interesting. I think its boring but I LOVE how my father in law gardens and sends me stuff home. BUT he doesn’t have everything I want.
I decided that this year I will attempt a small garden in my back yard with cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and a few other things I use almost daily.
Canning is time consuming but so easy. Check out canningusa.com for tips thats what we used last year. We canned our own tomato sauce and canned salsa too!
How cool! I hope it goes well.
I just read that Grow Biointensive is the direction in which farming is headed. Has anyone read anything about this method?