Homemaking Organized Blog

It’s National Garden Month!

I have a love/hate relationship with gardening. Kind of like sewing. When it works I’m so happy and when it doesn’t I’m frustrated, irritated, disgusted and ready to give up.

I can never decide if gardening for me is a hobby. Something practical I do to feed my family a bit healthier.  A waste of money (I have had whole crops go south). Or a time honored skill I’m getting better at.

Sometimes I feel very clueless about it all. I do note that I am attempting to garden on a small porch and a very small plot of land in raised beds.

But it is a great activity I share with my mother and my daughter and also my father long distance (we discuss and share seeds). My husband and nephew pitch in when we need some muscle but mostly it’s we three women (my daughter after watching too many Little House on the Prairie videos insists she’s a woman) getting it done.

I have ideas of grandeur and what always works is what I was not working on. I hate spending money for garden implements but it’s necessary when you start from scratch AND garden in pots.

BUT

Gardening is so great. Here are the benefits I can remember. And I’m talking about vegetable gardening. I like flowers but I KNOW I would kill them.

1. Great easy low impact exercise. My retired mother was feeling very low energy and as if she could accomplish nothing until we started dragging her along on our gardening. Now her backyard is flourishing and she’s out there tapping her foot waiting for us to get going.
2. Fun learning tool for the little ones. While my daughter still doesn’t know the best time to pick strawberries she gets up close and personal with the bugs. She loves to just dig in the dirt and attempt to grow things. I give her seeds, her own little plot, and talk about what could happen if she would just be patient. She is also our resident rock collecter so we can make borders and such. She picks weeds too when they are specifically pointed out to her.
3. Fabulous way to supplement the dinner table and the freezer. If you can get to the point where you grow one or two veggies well it is so worth it. Pulling onions out of the freezer mid winter. Or tomato sauces. I’m guilty of being Jack of All Veggies and Master of Non. But last year we did so well with the lettuce and our onions were pretty good too even though it was a wet summer. Our tomatoes and strawberries suffered but I’m hoping that won’t be the case this year. I’m turning into the mindset that you can never have too many onions or lettuce (like soap) so that is what I have growing well out there.
4. Know what is going in your body. Much easier to grow organic veggies on a small scale. You can control pests with row cover and such instead of sprays.

Here are a few links for you for National Garden Month

• Start a small veggie garden in a pot with your children.
• Learn more about Edible Landscaping
• 7 Edible Plants That Look Great in the Garden