Five reasons why you should plant a garden THIS year.

It’s not too late! I highly recommend that everyone plant a garden. Anyone who knows me will probably laugh at that, because I am probably the last person they’d call a gardener.

That’s right, no green thumb on this girl. I could blame it on any number of things (too busy, too hard with a baby, we never did it while I was growing up, etc.). Truth is, I’m really just not that into it. I do have a couple past experiences that have left me with a bad taste in my mouth, but they are funny to recount. 

Story #1 - First was when I took the initiative to plant my own garden during junior high. Except, planting it was about all I did. The weeds took over and I don’t think I ever ate a single thing from it. I still feel guilty over all the wasted potential of those poor little seeds.

Story #2 - The second memorable experience was the COMPLETE opposite. It was our first full summer in our house. Ben LOVES to plant and grow things. He also likes to do nearly every project to an extreme measure. I should have known I needed to reign in this new “project.” He prepared the area with humungous tractor and a moldboard plow, which means it was a huge area. And we filled up the whole thing. We were in way over our heads. Then it came time to harvest, and we were swimming in produce. The biggest irony is that Ben doesn’t eat ANY vegetables, so he just kept saying we should put a “free pick-your-own produce” sign out by the road. That’s when I made him promise that we would only maintain our fruit from then on (apple, peach, pear trees, grapes, strawberries, raspberries, etc.). 

LOTS of salsa from Story #2.

Did you know there's a "Sneak some zucchini onto your neighbor's porch day?" Plant some and you'll find out why!

I am learning to like it though. I've hesitantly agreed to do a garden again this year. And for all these reasons, I encourage you to plant a garden of some kind.

1. Therapeutic – Hobbies are so enjoyable and really enrich one’s life. Gardening is a great hobby that also provides delicious and nutritious benefits. If you live in Wisconsin like me, you’ve just been stuck up in the house for a nasty winter. What better way to replenish your Vitamin D.
   
   
2. Social/Family Activity – We are always looking for things that are fun for Rose (4 years) but do-able with Molly (8 months). I think it's going to be a fun activity for us this summer. When it comes time to harvest the produce, any canning or other preservation is much more fun to do with friends. 
   
   
3. Appreciation/Understanding – Nurturing plants is a great way to gain appreciation and understanding for the world we live in. Selfishly, I also think it creates a better sense of appreciation of full-scale farms, because they are gardening but on a much, much larger scale. When you see how the drought weeks of July stress out your lettuce, how ridiculously persistent the weeds are, or how devastating an untreated potato bug infestation can be on all your hard work, you’ll get a glimpse of what is happening across every single farm field.
   
   
4. Tasty – There’s something to be said about learning when the ideal time is to pick produce and eat it that very same day. Nothing compares.
   
   
5. No harm done – Don’t let gardening failure get you down, like it did to me. Just learn from it so you can do better next time. I learned that smaller is better, so we prioritize what would be a good to plant versus something we don’t really care to eat. Yes, it does feel sad to let the plants get choked out by weeds or let the produce be wasted because you can’t even get it to a food pantry in time, but it’s even beneficial as compost. So there’s really no harm.  

No excuses. It doesn’t have to take a lot of time if you want to do a really small little plot or even an herb garden. The seeds come with planting instructions on the back. Just give it a shot and see what happens.