Today's Moment: Gardening

Here's today's "Take a Moment": Gardening

Hubby and I both grew up with fathers who did a little backyard gardening from time to time. For the most part, though, we ate produce from the grocery store, and maybe jams our grandparents "put up".

We've been married now for 1 1/2 years, and last January bought our first house together. By the time Spring came around, we had purchased our seeds, and made plans for our first garden. We sowed seeds into little peat pellets, watered and waited. We researched companion planting, pests and diseases. We discovered we had almost no usable soil (mostly sand over clay), bought potting soil, and arranged tires and wooden frames we made ourselves. We got our hands dirty. We grew corn, pumpkins, several squashes, beans, berries, carrots, greens, eggplant, and much more. We made lots of mistakes, but also lots of right moves. And the coming of Autumn didn't stop that. After harvesting, we moved several plants indoors under grow lights (mostly tomatoes and berries), plus started some hydroponics mini-greenhouses.

The feeling of complete satisfaction embraced our little 3-person family. We looked at our tiny cornfield, our gourd vines, our tomato plants, our friendly corn-field frog, and our stocked freezer, and felt good at being able to provide healthy food for our family.

Try it. Even if it's just growing lettuce in your windowsill, give it a shot. Listen to the satisfaction you feel.