Grow your own health system (1 Viewer)

[Lila]

One of the simplest ways to get down to the basics of your health is what you feed yourself. Simple, yet not necessarily easy in this time of disconnection of food systems from food eaters, expensive real estate as populations grow and cities expand and constant food advertising barrage.

Increasingly, I find myself growing from someone who thought simple was measured by how quickly, cheaply and efficiently I could buy my calories to becoming a proponent of the 'grow it myself' mindset. After all, growing a garden takes work, time, effort, a constant source of water and sunlight, good dirt and farming knowledge I didn't start out with! Even after the hard work of getting the land ready and planting the garden I have to be there to grow the garden or at least find someone who can tend it, weed and water it and harvest things from it if I am away from home. How could that be anything but complicated?

What I am finding is that this depends on one's perspective. If I think in terms of how can I best tend my body to keep it in good working order, then growing anything in the garden that I can eat is a definite step in that direction. After all, I decide if I use pesticides, fertilizer, etc in my garden. In the grocery store it has become, over the course of my lifetime, increasingly complicated to discern what is in my food, and how it has been altered. If you doubt this, try growing a few plants from seeds in fruits from the grocery store. First, you need to find a plant that is not seedless. Once you do, you may find that either no plant grows or it is sterile, with no fruits to pick. This was initially a surprise to me when I tried it out, and it was a surprise to find what a high percentage of the food I was buying worked this way, compared to planting seeds bought to garden with. "Come on!" I thought, "I should be able to plant this and have it grow, especially the plants which I can see contain seeds."

So, once it had sunk in that even the organic food I was buying had been altered, growing my own simple plants started to make a bit more sense. I could pick which seeds I planted and I liked that. It was simpler. Heirloom, organic, shoots taken from a friend's garden, either enhanced with plant growth hormones or not... I chose. It became a sort of longterm choice: Do I put money and time into the garden now to decrease the chances of spending a lot more in medications, hospitals, etc. later? I became increasingly adept at weighing these options and found myself coming in increasingly on the side of growing my own.

My favourite garden simplicity, hands-down, is the "Okay, what can I pick for dinner tonight?" aspect. If I hadn't made it to the grocery store, there was always something in the garden I could pick to add to the plate. This took more pressure off me than I ever could have guessed. I realized that I'd grown up with an assumption that making a healthy, balanced dinner was easy, although my experience argued that doing this day-in, day-out was anything but. Picking part of dinner from the garden usually made for good stories and conversation too, which I enjoy.

Even if all you have room or time or space for is a few herbs, eating anything freshly picked is packed with many more microminerals and vitamins than many handfuls of limp greens that had to travel miles to your plate. Even plants generally considered weeds can fill in long lists of deficiencies: lamb's quarters, dandelion, purslane and mullein come immediately to mind.


Lamb's quarters


Purslane

Then there are the additional healthy aspects of having a garden. There is almost nothing like a garden, it turns out, for starting animated, passionate conversations with neighbours (or random strangers), especially as they walk by just as you have covered your clothes in manure and flung dirt in your eye. Connection is vital to health, we all crave it, and gardening is a magnet for such interactions. Then there is that need to get outside and tend the garden, in all weather, even when you are in a funk. And what better way is there to get out of a funk than digging a hole in the dirt and then placing something beautiful there to grow, or just imagining that next phase of the garden? Or chopping up branches with gusto, defusing an anger you didn't realize you harboured? And feeling the sun's rays on your skin, filling you with vitamin D, or getting soaked to the skin and finding yourself laughing at something that was irritating you while you were indoors and dry.

Simplicity, it seems, is all in the perspective.

 

[Linda]

I've had gardens in most places I've lived. They always ended up being a social setting, too. One thing I noticed on our trip was the scarcity of vegetables, and I really missed them. They are very expensive in the mountains since they have to be trucked in, so I give thanks for the large selection we have in central Texas.

In this home, there are many challenges from lack of soil to the abundant animal and bird population. I was thinking that I might try container tomatoes, but then had a picture of the tree squirrels, ground squirrels, and rabbits in commando gear planning how to get through the netting. However, they do leave enough of the "weeds", and I could use them. My next step is to identify the edibles that grow in the yard!!

 

[Lila]

In this home, there are many challenges from lack of soil to the abundant animal and bird population.

For the animals and birds, I guess you could 'outcommando'them with a greenhouse. I recall once seeing a company which had goedisic dome type houses that they were saying were quite inexpensive.

I strongly agree about identifying what grows locally and 'foraging'. It's a bit of a forgotten art in many places now and a wonderful revival opportunity.

 

[Don Hicks]

Gardening isn't really "work" to me. I would still do a garden if even I was somehow forced to give away everything I grew. In fact, I do give away much of it and sometimes trade with my closest neighbor.

The garden can definitely be a social place. Even when I share garden pictures on Facebook they often spark a conversation.

 

[Laron]

One of the simplest ways to get down to the basics

This is a really great thread and post Lila — I've nominated this post for our favorite posts of 2017!

 

[Anaeika]

Lila, I LOVE your post and it is good to know a fellow gardener. A third of my backyard is dedicated to gardening. It’s caged in so that no critters can get through. Right now I am really pleased with how well the broccoli has held up in freezing temperatures. Chives are really hardy too.
I harvested sweet potatoes in the fall and gave most of them away, as there were so many! Russett potatoes are currently thriving.

I’ll be starting my spring garden in February and will add a mix of salad greens along with more broccoli and root veggies. As you say, it is more nutrient dense the fresher it is and also tastes better too. The broccoli tastes sweeter too. In fact, my 3 year old will break off an entire head of broccoli and eat the entire thing like it is an ice cream cone.
I also do my own composting, which is easy. I throw in fruit and veggie scraps, egg shells, old coffee and tea, and earthworms from my garden. They compost everything down so quickly!

I really love to get on my hands and knees and get dirty! Gardening is such a grounding activity that I adore. There is something about digging holes and watching the sprouts emerge from the soil.

 

[Lila]

Yes, all the brassicas (cauliflower, broccoli, kale...) are known to overwinter well. I even have a few little salad shoots that are still hanging in there. It probably helped that there is lots of stuff (leaf litter etc) on them. That can help a lot. And lots of herbs do well too, though you often don't get much out of them until spring.
Oh, my goodness, there is no comparison to the taste of something you just picked!!! I could not, as a child, fathom how anyone could actually like peas. But then, that was the days of frozen or dried peas (very popular just then). Yuck. It wasn't until I grew them in our garden for our children that I got it. Now, of course, I loooove peas. Same with broccoli, brussell sprouts (detested even the smell of them as a child. Loved them the one time I grew them)...
Starting my own (bigger) composting this spring. Have a box for it ready to go.
Potatoes are still in the ground. Can't wait to dig them up. Potatoes just spring up from wherever you plant them, even when you thought you got every last one. It's where the expression 'it's like digging for potatoes' comes from
And, yes, there is nothing like getting covered in dirt and digging deep into it, making all sorts of discoveries about the soil underfoot that we never usually look at for feeling greeeeaaaat! (as Tigger would say)

 

[Anaeika]

Speaking of hopping into the garden to pick dinner sides. Here is broccoli harvested tonight. It is so fresh and sweet, not a bit tart. I didn’t like broccoli until I started growing my own.





Here is a salad I made. Everything is from my garden except for the tomatoes. I’ll plant cherry tomatoes this spring because they grow well here. There’s fresh chives in this salad too. I sliced up the broccoli stalk as it was tender and delicious.

The dressing was simple—just sea salt, cold-pressed olive oil, & garlic. Pepper is good too.



And then imagine another photo of a 3 year old eating broccoli—his favorite vegetable! No kidding!

(I prefer to avoid putting pictures of my children online!! Too many creepers!)

 

[Lila]

I didn’t like broccoli until I started growing my own.

Me too!

Here is a salad I made. Everything is from my garden except for the tomatoes. I’ll plant cherry tomatoes this spring because they grow well here. There’s fresh chives in this salad too. I sliced up the broccoli stalk as it was tender and delicious.

There is just nothing like a salad fresh from the garden. It's my most precious table offering. Yum!