The Transformed Reluctant Gardener: Fighting inflation with a little sweat

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Fighting inflation with a little sweat

Unfortunately, as I predicted to a friend last February food prices are starting to skyrocket - due in part to the drought.

Fight the inflation by growing some of your own food.

Lettuce, cherry tomatoes or even potato peels can be thrown into a container with potting soil, and produce before fall arrives.

Today, I yanked out three corn plants that were not producing any ears and planted summer and butternut squash and pumpkin, along with more sage and basil.

Mmmm...butternut squash soup with sage on a chilly fall day makes sweating in 90 degree plus weather worth the work.

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Discovering my green thumb DNA

"You want me to pull weeds?"

Shamefully, the teenage me uttered those words more than once. Anything involving dirt, heat and especially bugs turned me into a big whining wienie.

Green thumbery (if there is such as word) flows in my DNA.

My grandfather's Florida garden, full of kale and kohlrabi, thrived until he died at 90. During upstate New York's summers, my parents worked a 1/2-acre plot - abundant with tomatoes and beans, lettuce and beets.

Then four years ago, I had my first backyard.

Spring's early buds on my peach, apricot and orange trees unleashed my need to plant seeds - in the ground, pots (large and small) and tree baskets and containers along the fence.

Now during every season, something is growing.

Winter and spring has Swiss Chard and fennel, kale and herbs like rosemary and oregano. The full summer sun shines down upon a variety of tomatoes, squashes and eggplants. Herbs from basil to lemon balm and thyme to sage deliver added depths of flavor.

In late October's cool breezes, green tomatoes are harvested as are cabbages.

Gardening feeds me well and calms my soul.
The transformation is complete.