How Does Your Garden Grow?

I never thought of myself as having a green thumb.  Of course, I knew where fruits and vegetables came from, and I would gladly take whatever excess a family member had grown in their own garden.  It was just easier for me to drive to the local grocery store and buy them than to take the time to learn about gardening and have the patience to what until the harvest.

But my mind changed when I learned about the different pesticides that are being used on crops to keep bugs and weeds away, and that some of the residues from the pesticides remain on or even in the produce.  Yuck!  So in order to reduce my family's intake of these pesticides, we buy mostly organic produce and supplement some of it by container gardening.  Yes, I garden in containers.  Our backyard is full of rock, and until we can build a large raised garden, my plants are just as happy growing in containers strategically placed around my yard based on each plant's need for sun and my need for aesthestics. 

My children love when it's time to harvest whatever we need for that evening's dinner.  Whether it is fresh basil from the herb garden tucked between the fence and the patio or lettuce from one of the containers, they are more than happy to take a bowl and scissors and cut the needed amount I have asked for.  One day, my son came in from clipping lettuces for our dinner salad, washed it, put it in a bowl, and exclaimed, "take that food stores"! They will even take the daily stroll around the yard with me to water the plants or to see if any new changes have taken place since the day before. 

We still buy much of our produce from farmers markets, local produce stands, and from natural health food stores.  My thumb is slowly changing to a shade of light green as I continue my quest for supplying healthy, organic food for my family straight from my own backyard!