You Must Tend Your Garden

When I was younger, “tending the garden” meant something completely different than it does today. Back then it involved razors, wax and a whole lot more maintenance than I was willing to admit. These days, when I tell my husband I need to tend the garden, I actually mean the one growing tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and herbs in the backyard.

Getting older has a funny way of changing your priorities.

Last week I was standing in my kitchen trying to figure out what to pack in my girls’ lunches. We needed lettuce, cucumbers and a few herbs, so I grabbed my basket and walked out the back door.

I hadn’t been in the garden for over a week.

The first thing that popped into my head was, “Damn…I really need to tend this garden.”

Then I started laughing.

The second thing that popped into my head was, “How in the world am I growing all this?”

I used to kill plants. Every single one of them. Big plants. Small plants. Houseplants. I even managed to kill a cactus, which should honestly require filling out paperwork.

Two years ago I knew absolutely nothing about gardening. I couldn’t tell you what grew well together, when to plant or even what compost really was. Then Hurricane Sandy rolled through our neighborhood and left me wondering what was in our soil. If I was going to grow food for my family, I wanted to know exactly what was going into it.

So I decided to figure it out.

My thought process was pretty simple. How hard could it be?

I’ve known plenty of people over the years who couldn’t balance a checkbook but somehow managed to grow incredible gardens. I figured if they could do it, maybe I could too.

A couple of seasons later, I’m still learning, but my family now shops in the backyard before we head to the grocery store.

Here are a few things I’ve learned along the way.

• We built raised container gardens (basically a box on blocks) because the Big Bad Wolf otherwise known as Hurricane Sandy tried to blow my house down a few years back.  She did a ton of damage, flooded our area and I have no idea what’s in my soil now.  I figure if I ate the food I grew in it I might end up glowing in the dark or my tits could fall off (it could happen).  No thanks, not this holistic mama (and I have a bunch of cute bras I would miss too much).  Each of my 4 containers is filled with 20 bags of organic soil and 20 bags of organic compost.

• I used to plant seeds but ain’t nobody got time for that shit.  I have a short time window to work with – I live in NY and I needed to speed up the process a bit.  Luckily I found organic “starts” at my local farm so I’m supporting them while making my life easier.

• TEND THE GARDEN AND CLEAN THAT BOX OUT.  Don’t let the shit overgrow.

• Space out the starts.  “Oh they’re so cute and small, I can plant 20 of ‘em in a box.”  NO YOU CAN’T.  They multiply like bunnies listening to Marvin Gaye and drinking box wine.  Follow the suggestions for each start.  If it says 10 inches of space between them, then do like my hubby does and give the whole 10 inches.  Too many plants and they’ll smother each other.  Nothing will grow and you’ll get NO food.

• Change up the crops each year.  You don’t want to plant the same stuff in the same spot.

• Learn to freeze and pickle.  You could end up with more than you can eat that week and you don’t want it to go to waste or you could give it to your friends and neighbors.

One thing I never expected was how much my girls would love it. To them, grabbing vegetables for dinner isn’t shopping, it’s treasure hunting.

There’s something incredibly satisfying about watching your kids walk outside, pick a tomato and eat it before it ever makes it into the kitchen.

Honestly, I never thought I’d become “the gardening person.” I still wouldn’t trust myself with a fancy houseplant. But somehow I’ve become the woman who gets excited over compost, celebrates the first tomato of the season and can’t wait to see what’s ready to pick every morning.

Turns out tending the garden has become one of my favorite parts of living clean.

This one just happens to feed my family.