Garden Growing

We planted our first garden this year. I was intimidated by the idea of gardening because I don't have a great track record with house plants and taking on new projects for which I have no experience generally stresses me out. I don't like failing and knew there was a high probability that a garden under my care would not thrive. Thankfully, the majority of the plants have grown. I know most of it has nothing to do with me. My husband built the garden beds and ordered the soil. The weather has been pretty ideal as well. Even so, I feel good about how things are going. I have taken a small part in helping our garden to grow. Things have been really busy for us recently. The garden has become a great place to release some stress. It sounds silly, but I like hanging out with my plants. Spending time out there has helped me to understand their needs. I haven't done a ton of research on varieties of plants. If you asked me about specific plants in my garden though, I could tell you a lot about them.

The garden has been a wonderful lesson in patience for Pearl. Every day we check our strawberries. One day she took a nibble of one on the vine because I told her it wasn't time to pick it. She seems to understand now that we don't pick (or eat) them until they are ready. The garden has also helped her with restraint. She has learned to be careful when checking out the plants. At one point, she accidentally pulled two cucumber plants out of the ground. She felt terrible and has been so careful ever since. Amazingly, it has also gotten her interested in trying new foods. Pearl wouldn't even touch a salad before. Now she wants to try everything we pick. It turns out she really likes chives and regularly asks me to cut her one to nibble on while I water the plants.

The whole family is reaping the benefits at the dinner table. I have much more motivation to come up with new healthy meals when they are based around the food from our backyard. Jeremy and I never considered buying a radish before. In the last month, we have eaten around 100 of them. We always have fresh spinach on hand so I make green smoothies to share with the kids. The garden has really changed the way we eat. If you are on the fence about starting a garden like I was, I absolutely recommend going for it. There have been so many benefits to it that I never even considered before we started. -Kira