#24 Gardening

So I was going to continue on about some ways to save on fuel and such, but I'll come back to that later.  This summer a good portion of my time has been spent with my garden in one way or another.  It's the first year that we elected to get a plot at the community gardens and it has been great!   Well, great besides the bad soil and weed problems.  But we are dealing with those and next year we will be better prepared.  And despite that, we have had a great yeild of produce, especially beans and peas.  Tomatoes and tomatillos are coming.  I admit, it's a lot of work.  Soil prep, planting, thinning, weeding, watering, harvesting.  But with each bite of fresh, organic produce that I take (or my children and husband), it becomes more and more worth it. We have had countless meals that were almost entirely made with produce from our garden. My husband has even worked hard to save us from having to drive to the garden too often by leaving to work early on his bike stopping by on the way.   We also have a small garden plot at our house with some lettuces, summer squash, beets, cherry tomatoes, and carrots.  

You don't need to have a green thumb to have a garden.  Really all you need is a little space and a desire to do it.  There is a wealth of information out there on gardening-- my advice would be to find someone who is a gardener and have them help you get started.  If you don't have the space, you can just do some container gardening, or check to see if your community has garden plots.  

Pros:  You can be as organic as you like, get wonderful fresh produce and not have to buy storebought, shipped-in produce.  You can also get the whole family involved!

Cons: It's a lot of work, requires patience, and a lot of water.  And sometimes things don't grow the way you hope and work for (like my three-foot tall corn stalks and 3-inch long ears of corn)