May 8, 2017

Recently I had an extraordinary garden tour. It was a whole troop of Daisy Girl Scouts. What joy this tour was!  Most of the girls did not have gardens but were enthusiastic about veggies. There were several favorite veggies but it seemed that carrots and tomatoes were at the top of the list.

I like to give garden tours, but I especially like to give tours to young grade school children.

It is at this age that I became enamored with veggie gardening. I started gardening in the fourth grade and have had a garden most every year since except for maybe a handful of years. There is just something so good about growing some of your own food.

One of the big reasons that I like to expose young children to gardening is that there are not enough veggie gardens or gardeners. Along with this and the fact that most people who make a living from agriculture are not spring chickens, most are 50 + years old. There needs to be new “blood” so to speak as the current growers become compost. At least this is my final desire.

It was my mom who inspired me to garden. This was just a small garden but was very productive for its size.

These first gardens were not organic and Mom had no qualms about the use of pesticides. It really was not until I went off to college that I was exposed to an alternative way to grow veggies and it was then that I became an Organic Gardener and have remained so since.

At one time, I was an owner of a landscape company and planted all the “horticulture delights”. It was when I installed a 24,000square foot lawn that I began to change my thoughts on landscaping and the wise use of water. Yes, pretty is nice but with a growing shortage of water, pretty does not put food in one’s stomach.

So, with my experiences in life, I feel that being able to grow veggies even if it is not very many is something that all should be proud of. It is a noble endeavor. And the more I can expose folks to veggie gardening, especially young children, is nothing but a real good thing. With any luck, maybe a few will catch the bug!!