Summer Gardening

Cynthia Allen-Linck 06-14-08

The family garden. Everybody had one in the old days. It was how you made sure there was enough food on the table. And it was a lot of work! Months of care from planting to harvesting. Then there was the canning! But that is another story....

The garden had all the good stuff in it. Strawberries and rhubarb, corn and beans, tomatoes and cucumbers, potatoes and carrots, radishes and onions.... The possibilities were endless and it seems like there are even more choices today for the home gardener. Oh, and don’t forget flowers. There has to be flowers.

I remember "helping" in the garden as a child. Okay, Mom and Dad were doing most of the actual work - but I was there. It was more like recess then as compared to now when I am the adult working in the garden. Okay, my husband is doing most of the actual work - but I am there!

Sometimes your garden was a local attraction. If your tomato plants were stupendous, car after car would drive by of an evening just so the occupants could gaze upon their splendor. Dad would lean on his hoe and wave with a smile. I would just watch them go by and try to figure out what they were looking at that was so interesting.

As commercially grown food became more available, and as more families became two income families, the family garden became nearly a thing of the past. It was just too much work that took too much time. Only those with a true passion for the whole process of gardening hung on. Those who can’t wait to eat their first tomato of the season still warm from the sun, or to cook up that first pot of green beans. There is no store bought substitute for cucumbers fresh from the vine. Food you grow yourself - preservative and pesticide free - just tastes better.

Avid gardeners will tell you that working in the garden makes them feel good. They enjoy it. Researchers have "discovered that certain bacteria in soil can activate serotonin production, thus potentially helping to relieve depression."(1) So, its true! Gardening can make you happier and healthier.

Gardening has endured through the ages. Cicero spoke of a garden in Ancient Rome, Jeremiah of biblical times stressed the importance of a garden, and Louisa May Alcott mentions the garden in "Little Women." Rising fuel and food costs have made many people reconsider the value of growing their own food to save money. Burpee, the nation’s largest seed company, reports seed sales that are double that of last year. Half of that increase is from new customers. (2) Staying home and growing food to stretch the budget seems like a wise - and delicious plan.

"Build ye houses, and dwell in them;
and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them."
Jeremiah 29:5

1. http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2007/04/05/dirt-reduces-depression-2/
2. AP via USA Today 05-22-08