I’ve always envied people who were able to grow their own vegetables, fruit and flowers. When we had a long narrow area on our sideyard, that I didn’t know what to do, it came to me. Let’s make a garden! I bought several of the metal raised garden troughs and filled with dirt, cardboard and composite. My husband created plastic pvc hoops that we could make covers for our garden (because of the damn squirrels!!!!). In the winter I cover my garden with plastic to use it as more of a greenhouse effect and in the summer I cover them with a lightweight garden mesh ( both can be acquired from amazon). Now the fun part comes, thinking about what zone you live in and what you want to grow each season. I grow all my stuff from seeds. Call me a total dork, but there is something so cool to seeing all the different types of seeds and knowing they’ll grow into something so cool. You can also buy vegetables, herbs and flowers are your local home improvement store. I’ve learned that you want to group things together. For example, my corn gets very tall so paring it with something else that gets tall is a great idea. Having a trellis for beans for anything else that needs some support to grow. Living in California, I am able to grow vegetables year round. There is something so satisfying to me, to sprinkle seeds into soil, give it water as needed and wait! I also scored a small raised bed that only has fresh herbs- nothing better than adding fresh parsley, oregano or cilantro to tonight’s dinner. Gardening, I also learned, can be healing, even on a bad day if I go out and put my hands in the dirt and sit outside in the garden, I feel a lot better. So what do you say friends, give it a try and plant some seeds and see what you can grow.
