Gardens Produce More Than Food

Across the Fence #298

All the fruits and vegetables you can buy in a supermarket or at a farmer’s market, can’t compare with the simple pleasure of eating something you grew in your own garden.

It’s been many years since I helped Ma and Grandma Inga plant our garden each spring, and harvest the results during the summer and fall. I tried planting a small garden in our backyard when we lived in Madison, but there was too much shade from all the trees. Even weeds had a hard time growing. It was easier to buy whatever we needed from all the farmer’s markets in the area and from the supermarket.

That was fine, but it’s not like raising your own food. Gardening is becoming a lost art. I suspect many people wouldn’t have a clue how to go about it. We’ve become too dependent on other people providing everything for us when it comes to our food.

I’ve often said that many people who haven’t seen a garden growing or animals on a farm, don’t have a clue how their food gets from the farm into their mouth. I think most readers of Across the Fence grew up in rural areas and small towns, and many still live there. You know the process. But think of all the people who are born and raised in big cities these days. Most have never stepped foot on a farm. Planting or raising their own food is foreign territory to them. After years of living in the city, I was becoming one of them.

Now I’m back in the country and back to digging in the dirt. This spring I finally took time to plant a small garden. With all the wildlife and birds we have around here, I thought they would get most of what the garden produced. To give the plants a chance at survival, I put the garden in the far corner of our backyard, away from the grove of trees that’s home to numerous critters and countless birds.

Since this would be a small garden, I used a shovel to work up the ground. Lets admit it; I was too cheap to rent a rototiller. Next spring I plan to make the garden bigger and add more variety. I’ll bite the bullet and rent one for a couple hours. I’m not getting any younger.

This year I started digging up the soil and smoothing it out after I got home from work. By the time the soil was ready for planting, it was getting dark. Rain was predicted for the next day, so I decided I better plant that evening or I’d have to work it all up again. Have you noticed how quickly darkness sets in once the sun goes to bed? I finished planting in the dark with the aid of a flashlight. It’s not something I’d recommend. I’ve always heard you should plant certain things when the moon is full, but I don’t think they meant by the light of the moon. Because it got dark so fast, I was in a hurry to get the seeds planted. I wasn’t real careful with my spacing of seeds or the depth of the furrows. Have you ever tried reading the small directions on a seed packet in the dark? Lets just say that I scattered the seeds quite liberally. It wasn’t a big garden so the seeds got a bit bunched up!

I watered the garden each evening and after what seemed like an eternity, some green shoots, besides weeds, began poking their way out of the soil. Some things never germinated and some were nipped by a late frost. I planted new stuff in those empty areas. I’m still amazed how tiny seeds turn into flowering plants.

I love sugar snap peas and planted plenty of them. There’s a real satisfaction when you snap off a pea pod, peel it open, and pop the peas in your mouth, or you can eat the whole pea pod and enjoy the flavor. Our peas turned into such a bumper crop, we gave some away. All the rain also produced a bumper crop of weeds.

The carrots and radishes were planted much too close together. I had to do a lot of thinning of the herd. I sliced up some carrots and radishes, piled them on a slice of bread and had myself a fresh carrot and radish sandwich. Now that’s fine eating. For a real treat, throw in some fresh-chopped onions, cucumber slices, and a couple pea pods. It doesn’t get much better than that.

How about garden fresh cucumbers, thinly sliced, and served up in a mixture of vinegar and onions? I love it. My stomach takes a beating, but it’s worth a little gastro-intestinal distress.

Our little garden is still producing and there are plenty of later ripening items to be enjoyed. The critters and birds need to eat too, so I didn’t put a fence around it. I was willing to share, but they’ve pretty much left the garden alone. I don’t think they can find it because of all the weeds.

I know people say it’s easier to go to a store and buy your garden produce, but a garden produces much more than food. Store-bought produce can’t compare with the special satisfaction of chomping into a carrot, radish, and onion sandwich that you grew in your own little garden.