Great gardens!

It is early but the spring sun is blaring through my window and my dog is nudging me to go outside.  We stumble into the garden and are greeted by the fresh morning dew glistening on the plants.  It is too early in the season to start planting, the danger of a late frost is too great for most things, but the success of my garden last year is still fresh in my mind.  I remember many mornings like this, snacking on a leaf of lettuce or a bean.  I would check on the zucchini every day, but inevitably I would miss one hiding beneath a leaf until it reached astronomical proportions.   My pumpkins did really well, providing us with pies and cookies and soup all through the winter. 

My dad says we live in the banana belt of Anchorage, but I attribute my gardening success in last years dismal summer to the goat manure I grew it all in.  My parents are die-hard Alaskan gardeners and I grew up eating veggies from our garden almost year-round.  I spring when we ran out of our own potatoes and had to eat store-bought ones, my brothers and I vehemently protested.  My mother also took the time to put away broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and many other garden goodies. 

I didn’t realize how lucky I was until I went away to college and had to eat bland, tasteless veggies all the time.  I studied Environmental Science and learned about the horrors of the conventional agriculture system.  Why do we grow our food on huge, inefficient, industrial farms that rely on petrochemicals then truck it thousands of miles to our supermarkets?  By the time it gets to our plates the food has lost most of its taste and nutrition, no wonder kids won’t eat their veggies! 

The day after we closed on our house I hauled a load of compost over from my parent’s house and shoveled it onto some cardboard on the lawn.  Since then we have been busily converting our lawn into a garden oasis.  My parents gave us extra shoots of raspberries, rhubarb, strawberries, black currents and gooseberries.  We also planted apple, pear, cherry, Manchurian apricot, plum, and hazelberts,  a cross between hazelnuts and filberts.  This year we will add hardy kiwi, lingonberries, juneberries, and many more. 

I believe in beautiful, edible and functional gardens.  I believe in planting my vegetables in the front yard where everyone can see them and marvel in their beauty.  I believe that kids should know that carrots come out of the ground and peas come out of pods that grow on a vine, not from a can.  Most adults don’t even know that green beans should be crisp and tender not mushy or tough.  I have converted more than one of my vegetable-wary friends into die-hard beet lovers.  You will never taste a carrot as sweet as one that comes from an Alaskan garden.

I’m not an expert and have definitely had my share of failures, but I am always amazed at the tenacity of a seed.  I marvel at the wisdom of nature in my garden, it is my finest teacher.  Take the time to plant a seed this spring.  Feed the soil it is growing in and nurture it with love and water and you will get to taste the miracle of life.