Four years ago, my husband altered our family’s life journey.
He cleared out a little piece of our property, dug up our soil and put in a garden box. He started with one box of tomatoes. He will tell you that he had no idea what he was doing but wanted to give growing our own food a try. What inspired him to do this, he really can’t say…it was like a light switched on inside of him and then there was no switching it off.
My husband is the type of guy that takes action. He never does anything with half an effort, he is always full steam ahead. I really admire that about him. After his first gardening season, he realized he needed to arm himself with knowledge and take more action. My husband read gardening books, ordered gardening movies and read up on everything gardening related on the internet.
So here we are, four years later, and the progress is astounding. We’ve gone from one garden box to twenty-four. My husband cleared out a huge amount of brush, dug up tree stumps, dug up all the soil, assembled the raised -bed garden boxes, bought and assembled a green house, and now we have 1,000 square feet of gardening space. Quite a leap I’d say!
Here is what we grow: tomatoes, six types of lettuce, watermelon, 500 strawberry plants, five apple trees, six blueberry bushes, five grape plants, spinach, basil and other herbs, celery, carrots, one pear tree, butternut squash, cucumbers, onions, broccoli, eggplant, peppers, sugar snap peas, green beans, peanuts, asparagus, sweet potatoes, russet potatoes, alfalfa sprouts, corn and almonds.
Like I said, my husband never does anything with half an effort!
He delved into the task at hand. His gardening efforts affected our family’s life in many ways. Our family eats more healthy, we save money by not shopping for these items at the grocery store and what I love most of all, even more than the delicious taste of the food, is that my two little girls see what a hard-working man their father is.
My girls see the fruits of my husbands labor. It is so important to us that our children grow up being self-sufficient. My husband has said many times that he wants our girls to know how to grow their own food so that they don’t need to rely on anyone else. We both see the value in teaching our children life skills, and gardening is a life skill.
Our little girls, ages five and two, love gardening. They both have little baskets they fill with strawberries and sugar snap peas. It is such a pleasure to watch them follow my husband around and listen to him educate them. There are times our two-year-old is a little rough with the plants but she is learning, and seeing her pluck fresh sugar snap pea, after pea, after pea and eat them all up is completely heart warming.
During World War II, American home gardeners, through the federal government’s Victory Garden program, supplied 40 percent of the nation’s fresh produce.
The recent food crisis in Cuba, precipitated by the collapse of Soviet in the early 1990s, is another historical example that shows us how we can achieve food self-sufficiency through re-emphasis of backyard farming. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990, Cuba’s economy went into a tailspin. With imports of oil cut by more than half, and food by 80 percent, people were desperate. The Cuban people transformed their way of life through using organic methods of farming and local, urban gardens.
With the cost of food getting higher and higher, now is the time for action. Backyard gardening is cheaper, tastier and therapeutic.
When you grow your own food, you know what you are eating, what products were used in growing it and when it is ripe. My family uses only organic fertilizers, organic pesticides if needed, no chemicals are used on our lawn and we make our own compost from the garden waste completing the cycle. My husband even installed a drip irrigation system in our garden so that it will water itself.
Have you ever considered why that tomato in the grocery store is hard to the touch and lacks taste? That’s because it has been genetically modified to hold its ripe stage during the cross-country trip to your grocery store. The downside is that the longer the ripening cycle the lower the nutritional content. This is all before you consider the chemical fertilizers and pesticides used during the growth stage. This is how most grocery store produce is grown.
Another point worth noting is that my husband uses non-hybrid seeds. Why do we use non-hybrid (open pollinated) seeds versus hybrid varieties? When you grow open pollinated (non-hybrid) varieties you are growing original strains with much higher nutritional content. As a consumer of produce you have no way of knowing whether your hybrid produce has high, medium or low nutritional content.
The other benefit to using open pollinated seeds is the seed from the harvest can be reused the following year. Hybrid varieties have been genetically modified to include terminator genes which prevent use for the subsequent season. This would require us to purchase more seed for each season.
Furthermore, the current economic crisis may come to a head in the food supply system. If the economic downturn continues to be inflationary, the cost of real goods, like groceries, could skyrocket. Savable, re-plantable seeds are simply a requirement in food security for the individual, family and community.
Desiderius Erasmus once said, “in the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.” Well, I have a new saying more pertinent to our time: “in the land of the starving, the man with the seeds is king.”
What do you believe is at risk if we don’t grow our own food? If we all grew our own food, could it put an end to poverty and reduce health issues? If so, what is stopping you?
This is an original post to World Moms Blog by Courtney Cappallo of Massachusetts, USA. Courtney can be found homeschooling on her blog, Table of Four.
The photographs used in this post are attributed to the author.
My father has always had an awesome vege garden, and we grew up eating the fruits of his labours too. I did have a very good vege garden, when I only had one child. Now that the third is a toddler it is more likely that I will pick up the spade again. An inspiring post. And to actually answer your questions ;): the best of health is at risk; it could indeed help lower levels of poverty and illness; exhaustion, just keeping afloat at the moment.
Karyn ~ my father had a huge garden as well! It’s funny how things sometimes come full circle in your life! I didn’t help out much when I was little with the garden, so I am not going to skip learning the process this time around. I want our girls to develop the knowledge and love for gardening, too. I feel so grateful that my husband has brought this change about in our lives!
I think what I’ve learned most is the value of having seeds in your possession. Food and water, the basics for survival! Seeds…
My father has always had an awesome vege garden, and we grew up eating the fruits of his labours too. I did have a very good vege garden, when I only had one child. Now that the third is a toddler it is more likely that I will pick up the spade again. An inspiring post. And to actually answer your questions ;): the best of health is at risk; it could indeed help lower levels of poverty and illness; exhaustion, just keeping afloat at the moment.
What is stopping me? I live in a 2 bedroom flat with a terrace and 6 months of the year it is too cold to have anything grow outside 🙂 (Sorry – it is coming to the end of winter and I need a bit more daylight before I can contemplate starting to grow anything in our windowboxes 😉 )
Great article though – I am not be as far advanced as growing my own food, but I do like the idea of eating locally grown and not modified food. I belive though that when the wee lad is older it will be very educational for him so even if we don’t have more space we will atleast grow some tomatoes or something so that he can learn a bit, and appreciate it eating something he has helped to make!
Your garden looks lovely though!
Asta ~ I think the education you provide your son will serve him well. I love that gardening allows my children to use their five senses and nurture a good work ethic.
Hey Court-
Great article! FYI..they talk about victory gardens in the American Girl Molly series. I know we were just talking about reading the books with our girls. Might be a fun tie in 🙂 Have a good day!
Steph! Thanks for taking the time to read this, glad you enjoyed it! I am looking forward to reading about Molly now! Hope you have a great day!
Hey Court-
Great article! FYI..they talk about victory gardens in the American Girl Molly series. I know we were just talking about reading the books with our girls. Might be a fun tie in 🙂 Have a good day!
Courtney – You and your family always amaze me. Here is San Francisco, our climate is not ideal for backyard gardening. Imagine, when the rest of the country is in the heat of summer, we are blanketed with a cool fog. Plus there is a space issue living in a major city. But we have been discussing do a small amount of backyard gardening but simple have not taken action – your post is the inspiration I needed! We are also hoping to take part in a community garden that is being developed near home. Thank you for sharing your story and concerns.
I’ve read lots of great articles on community gardening. I say definitely go for it! Something my husband has taught me is if you want to develop a skill, you need to use the skill. If you ever were in a position of needing to grow your own food it would be nice to have the practice under your belt. First, having seeds on hand is the best step forward.
We started a garden last year and can’t wait to do it again this year. We waited a little late to plant. Our tomatoes, basil, jalapenos, habaneros and oregano were a big success. The zucchini started to bloom then died because it go too hot. We also got a few bell peppers to grow. We are hoping with the earlier start this year it will be more of a success. We also planted the tomato plants too close together last year. They were so small when they started out and grew like 6 feet tall then went all the way back down to the ground… then up some more. It was crazy. We will definitely space those out more. We also planted strawberries. Oddly enough, last year we had one and some animal ate it before we did. Then nothing. Somehow they survived the winter and are starting to bloom now…. just in time for my hubby to tear up the garden for this year. Yikes! Your garden is really impressive… something to aspire too!
momintraining ~ sounds like you’ve learned so much from your gardening experience. The best way to learn is to keep at it, good for you! My husband has learned so much through trial and error, too. We had 150 strawberry plants last year, our first year with them. Our neighbor used to live on a strawberry farm. He recommended we pinch off new blossoms the first year after planting the strawberries, which we did. He said this would send out runners, which it did. Now we have over 500 strawberry plants. Looking forward to a strong strawberry season!
Happy gardening! Keep me posted!
We started a garden last year and can’t wait to do it again this year. We waited a little late to plant. Our tomatoes, basil, jalapenos, habaneros and oregano were a big success. The zucchini started to bloom then died because it go too hot. We also got a few bell peppers to grow. We are hoping with the earlier start this year it will be more of a success. We also planted the tomato plants too close together last year. They were so small when they started out and grew like 6 feet tall then went all the way back down to the ground… then up some more. It was crazy. We will definitely space those out more. We also planted strawberries. Oddly enough, last year we had one and some animal ate it before we did. Then nothing. Somehow they survived the winter and are starting to bloom now…. just in time for my hubby to tear up the garden for this year. Yikes! Your garden is really impressive… something to aspire too!
My parents were both raised on farms, so we always had a significant home garden when I was a child. As an adult, home gardening is not as feasible because, like a lot of the other people who posted responses, we simply don’t have the space. My husband and I grow grapes and tomatoes every summer, but that’s about all we have room for. We do our best to buy local.
Kally ~ how are the grapes going? My husband recently planted several holes and posts for grape trellis. I am so thrilled that we’ll be growing grapes!
We got about 100 lbs. of tomatoes last year and hope to double that amount this season. We’ve had some issues with blossom-end rot for two years now. And corn has been the most mischievous plant to grow.
What an inspiring post, Courtney! I love reading about your family and applaud all your efforts. Have you read Barbara Kingsolver’s, “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle”? She is my favorite author and primarily writes fiction, but this book is a memoir of her family’s shift to self sufficient farming. It’s a fun read with great factual information, anecdotes from their farm, and recipes they used each season with the food they produced. A wonderful resource book and entertaining!
Thanks Tara B! I have not read the book but the self-sufficient lifestyle is very appealing to our family. Sounds like a perfect read for me, thanks again!
Courtney,
One of my favorite childhood memories is planting and harvesting in our family’s vegetable garden. I didn’t realize how much I had learned from it, until we started our own vegetable garden and my husband was shocked with my knowledge. I didn’t realize I had learned anything all those years ago, but I guess I had! Last year was our first year, and my daughter enjoyed helping me plant, digging in the dirt while I weeded, and harvesting. She had so many questions, too, which was fantastic.
Your husband has inspired us to install a drip irrigation system this year. We are not as handy as he, so we are getting quotes to see what it will take to have it installed by someone. Hopefully, it will all work out!
What do I think is at risk — passing down the knowledge, the seed issues you mentioned, and the nutrition benefits of growing locally. Perhaps more education on growing and gardening would be beneficial for all people and children, especially those at poverty income levels.
Interesting facts about WWII and Cuba and gardening!
Veronica Samuels 🙂
Bravo Veronica! I can’t wait to tell my husband about the drip irrigation! That is so exciting, and totally, totally worth it!
I love that you remember gardening facts. Makes me feel good about what we are doing with our girls. Today we went to the grocery store to buy fresh flowers and balloons to deliver to a girlfriend of ours, it’s her 40th birthday! Anyway, while the woman assisting us was wrapping up our friends flowers, Sydney says, “my dad is going to grow lots of flowers in our garden this year. And you know, not just any flowers… perennials. Perennials come back year after year. It’s a wonderful thing.”
Sydney was gushing at the end of telling the woman about perennials. I was so proud of her for using her gardening knowledge. The woman behind the counter was so taken smitten with her!
oh Veronica, I forgot to type that I totally agree with you about the risk of not passing down the knowledge. Seed issues and nutrition are paramount too, but not passing down what we know, it will get lost forever if we don’t!