Buy Walking VideosGardening: Grow Your Own Veggies
This is a photo of my grandpa working in his garden back in 2005. From fourth grade to my Junior year in high school, I spent every summer working in that garden. I would cringe when my grandma would call down to the basement, “Time to pick the beans!” I have scars on my arms from picking the raspberries. I can shell peas faster than anyone I know. Every summer, I repeated the mantra:
When I grow up, I will NEVER pick vegetables again.
Here I am, twenty-two years later, considering planting a garden of my own. It’s too late for this summer, of course, but if I want a garden next year, I have to start planning right now. What on earth would convince me to plant a garden?
My grandpa died last summer. Planting a garden would give me a connection to him that I can no longer have now that he’s gone.
Fresh veggies are EXPENSIVE lately. Growing my own might defer some of that cost (if I don’t count my time planting, tending, weeding and harvesting).
Vegetables from the store just don’t taste as good as my grandpa’s did. I remember being shocked at how wrong vegetables from the store tasted when I first got out on my own. I asked him about it and he said that it’s because they aren’t as fresh as his. I haven’t had a good tomato this season because my grandfather’s garden is fallow.
After years of cursing that garden, I find that I miss it incredibly and want to start one of my own. Only time will tell whether I do start my own garden or not, but this season, I will have store bought vegetables and only dream of snapping fresh green beans between my fingers.
Previous: Treadmill Bicycle
Next: How Choice Is Bad For Our Diet
June 9th, 2008 at 9:27 am
I remember cursing a little when I was a child helping in the garden. I always thought there were more interesting things to do like building a tree house than garden. I’m happy that my mother insisted, as I now love to grow my own vegetables.
June 9th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Its never too late to start a garden. You can grow herbs anytime and you can start a fall crop of tomatoes. Just check your zone. Gardening is both good for you pocketbook wise and good for your mental health. I started a “community” garden in my apartment complex. We have tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers. I also grow herbs and roses and quite a few other things. I have an extremely busy life and find it relaxes me to “putter” in my garden. Give it a shot. You will enjoy it. I promise.
June 11th, 2008 at 3:19 am
What a lovely thought… My grandpa gardening memories: in the front garden roses and pinks (carnations) in regimental formation – beautiful, fragrant and perfect. In the back garden – veggies. I remember always picking radish, and carrot to add to my grandmother’s “chopped salad” (long before “chopped” became fashionable)… I can’t easily have a vegetable garden (I have cats who love the ground too much ;-)), but I just planted pinks and roses, because my grandpa would appreciate them…I miss him, his wisdom and hugs very much.