Why I like to Garden

Thoughts on How to Get Started

Article Highlights:

• Gardening provides quality nutrition, cost savings, a tool for self-reliance, engagement with nature, and an opportunity to spend time outdoors in a productive activity.

• Get started by listing what you eat, finding a good location and maybe a partner, being adventurous by diversifying, soliciting advice of locals, and keeping it simple.

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I have been wanting to write about something positive instead of the numerous dreary situations in the wider world, but have been too busy to write because – well, I have been working in the garden – along with completing a myriad of springtime and summer projects. Our vegetable garden is all planted, and after some timely rains, followed by scorching heat, it is time to sit back and observe the results.

I’ve been involved in gardening about as long as I can remember. My mom raised a selection of vegetables and it was our job as kids to help harvest and weed, and when I was older, do the tilling. She included plants that could be preserved, such as green beans, beets, cucumbers, etc., as she did a lot of canning.

Most of the food we ate came off the farm – all our pork, beef, chicken, dairy, eggs, and much of the vegetables, including a large potato patch, were raised and processed on-farm. My mom also would buy bushels of fruit in the late summer for canning. With eight kids to feed, she was a busy lady. Honestly, I don’t know how she did it.

Looking back, I appreciate the experience of self-reliance taught by that lifestyle. I consider myself fortunate, because even in the 1960’s and 1970’s few people had the opportunity I was given to learn these food raising and processing skills.

I will always remember during my senior year of high school, my father holding me out of school for two days to help him butcher two large hogs, a yearly family event. He told me, “You will learn more doing this than you will in the two days of school you will miss.” He was right. I have no idea what I missed in school, but I still remember how to butcher a hog.

I tried some gardening on a small scale in the Philippines during my Peace Corps stint. That was a very different experience since few of the plants with which I was familiar could grow in that tropical climate. Exceptions were sweet potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, green beans and eggplants, as all of these love the heat. I experimented raising some native plants, such as winged beans and malunggay (moringa in English), which is a small leguminous tree and one of the most nutritious plants on the planet, whose parts are often used in Filipino cooking.

Most of my experience though has been in Northern Illinois, where I have been gardening since 1985.  I have learned a lot over the years, especially how to raise every vegetable we grow without chemical inputs. I also learned when best to harvest crops as freezing weather arrives, as well as easy and effective methods of preserving various crops.  

How-to-garden is not what I want to talk about here though. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of websites and YouTube channels providing gardening advice. Instead, I want to talk about why gardening is valuable and how to get started because in my experience, these are the greatest obstacles.

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Reasons To Garden

Quality and nutrition

Toward the top of my list is food quality. Food straight from the garden is always more nutritious and tastes better than anything I can buy. Dried herbs especially are no match for the flavor of fresh herbs that still contain their essential oils.

Quality drops due to the time delay in store-bought food from harvest to consumption, which causes fresh vegetables to lose varying percentages of their nutritional value and flavor. This is in addition to nutritional loss largely attributed to soil degradation that has occurred over the past century or so as a result of industrialized food production methods.

I am a mediocre cook, but even my cooking is reasonably tasty when I use vegetables and herbs straight out of the garden. I almost can’t ruin them, unless I overcook or burn them.

Eating directly from the garden means eating less processed food. It is no secret that processed food is less healthy than fresh food. I find it much easier to maintain ideal body weight by replacing processed foods with fresh foods.

I am always struck by how few overweight people I see when traveling outside the USA. While there are other factors, such as more walking and less driving in most countries than here, the primary reason becomes clear when I observe their diets include a minimum of processed food. To be honest, America is the only country where I have seen a society-wide body weight issue.

Thrift

Unlike raising crops for income generation, which is only viable at large scale (and in the case of vegetables, a lot of work), home gardening represents cost savings. This is particularly true for certain high price grocery items. Peppers are a good example, as they are expensive to buy but easy to grow and to preserve – simply slice, remove the seeds, and freeze.

If you have access to a space that can serve as a root cellar, you can store many crops through the winter, particularly root crops. A root cellar dug into the ground is best, and while these were common in the early settler days, they are not so prevalent now. Other spaces can be improvised. I use an outdoor shower that we have for B&B campers. This unheated space, because it is connected to the house, maintains temperatures in the 30’s and 40’s nearly all winter. A space in an unheated attached garage may serve equally well.

Another means of saving money is by bartering food, or simply giving it away.  We have often given food away and received all sorts of things in return. Examples: kimchi a friend gave me made from cabbage I gave him; mead another friend made from honey I gave him. We have also received meal invites, labor, and even concert tickets in return for giving food. Food makes a good gift, and this is especially true with the honey I produce.

I planted too much asparagus and it keeps filling up our refrigerator! I thought that the original bed I planted in 1986 was dying out, so I planted another bed in 2004. Later, I fertilized the old bed with composted chicken manure and it sprang back to life. We give away a lot of asparagus now. I even sold almost 20 pounds this year to the woman who cuts my hair because she pickles it. We discovered that it stays fresh for well over a month if stored standing up in water in the fridge.

Self-reliance

I have always striven for self-reliance, and gardening is one of the simplest and most cost-effective ways to achieve it. I find peace of mind, knowing that I can raise what I need should unforeseen conditions arise. This is more relevant today in light of likely global food shortages, price inflation, and supply chain disruptions.

Engaging with Nature

Engaging with nature might just be my favorite part of gardening. Gardening offers an opportunity to enlist my time and focus on the details of nature. This is because it requires understanding nature’s lifecycles and how they influence mine.

Being in nature this way balances the psyche in a way that is not achieved through recreation in nature. In recreation, I observe but do not actually engage. As much as I enjoy hiking in a national park, that activity does not teach me how the park’s ecosystems interact.

Gardening, especially when integrated principles are applied, opens a door to observing nature’s intricacies. I find this more than just educational – it actually opens my awareness to the importance of nature, and even more so to its potential abundance when I work with it rather than attempting to dominate it. This experience has changed how I see the garden’s role in my lifestyle.

I am reminded of a story my permaculture instructor told our class about a graduate student who was researching usage of forest plants. She decided to study with elders from a Native American tribe in the U.S. Southwest. She spent her masters program documenting usage of many plants in the forest. At completion of her masters degree, there were still many plants in the forest she had not evaluated.

She decided to return to study under these elders to complete her PhD program, and began documenting additional plants. Eventually, she ran out of plants to evaluate. She had evaluated every plant in the forest.

She declared to one of the elders, “I have studied all the plants I can find and you use every one of them.” The elder simply replied, “Of course.” It was at that moment that she realized the tribe had managed the forest so it grew the plants they could utilize.

That is engagement with nature!

This story inspired me to maintain my property similarly, to the best of my ability, by including purposeful plants throughout, many of which are edible. Guests often walk about our yard, unaware that they are surrounded by plant that play a role in a designed ecosystem. It is the same as if I were walking through that forest catalogued by the PhD candidate.

Because of this, my experience has expanded beyond gardening to managing a self-created ecological niche. Sometimes I feel I have merged with this activity – as if it is an outward expression of who I am.  Gardening feeds my soul as well as the physical body, and in the process, provides an outlet to the stress of living in an increasingly technological world.

Gardening, and other food raising activities such as raising livestock, requires a level of engagement which ultimately teaches about nature, a learning greatly needed in our technology-obsessed society. I have observed in multiple countries that the greater large urban centers expand technologically, the further they become distanced from nature – seemingly to the point that the residents would be incapable of feeding themselves if the groceries and markets were for some reason unavailable or empty. Recent Covid lockdowns in Shanghai have illustrated this well. I have wondered if this disconnect from nature has triggered some of our increasing incoherent social discontent.

I realized many years ago that I would much rather spend my time creating things of value than consuming things, especially if my consumption is depleting non-renewable resources. I tend to get bored with consuming, but never get bored creating. For me, gardening, especially when I can integrate processes and patterns that mimic nature, becomes a puzzle of creation allowing a simple outlet for creative activity and problem solving.

Other Advantages

Since my paid job requires me being indoors, working in the garden has always provided a welcome reprieve from too much computer time. The exercise and sunshine are beneficial on a number of levels, not to mention the opportunity to simply be out in nature.

I relish the idea that growing locally reduces my energy footprint. So much of our supermarket food is trucked many miles, sometimes thousands of miles, to its destination. This means the amount of fossil fuels we consume when eating goes far beyond what is needed simply for raising of said food. This is something to keep in mind in a time of rising fossil fuel prices.

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Getting Started

In the mid-1990’s, spurred by enthusiasm of those wanting to participate, I co-founded a community garden, soon realizing I had the most gardening experience in the group. I put a lot of effort into that garden, and in turn, it taught me a lot about how others approach gardening.

Probably the most important thing I learned from this project was that few people are accustomed to eating in season. These days it is easy to go to the supermarket and buy just about anything you want any time of year. This is a large change from when I was young. I recall in the 1960’s, about the only fruits available during winter were apples, oranges, and bananas. We grew up eating in season and preserving vegetables and fruits so they could be eaten out of season.

One year, our co-op garden had a fantastic strawberry crop. I was surprised to see that the strawberries were not being fully harvested. Participants would harvest what they wanted to snack on or use for a meal and leave the rest. Perhaps they didn’t want to take more than their share, but strawberries go bad in a few days if not harvested, and they are not the easiest crop to raise, so it was a shame to let them go to waste. I recall picking gallons myself just so the crop would be used.

We probably needed to organize a strawberry preservation party. I don’t recall we did, but it did raise the question for me of how to properly design the garden for optimal production. I originally assumed if we raised the food, people would eat it and/or preserve it. That was not necessarily the case. In this case, either we planted too many strawberries, or weren’t clear in our communication of the need to harvest them before they spoiled.

I realized that the garden wasn’t considered a necessary part of the group’s greater food sourcing. It was simply too easy to buy what was needed from the store. I shouldn’t have been surprised since this was a new activity for many.

Perhaps we needed better coordination, communication, or planning, but in the end, I concluded that people were unlikely to make growing their own food a priority unless doing so became necessary. The garden co-op was more of a novelty and a chance to do something together.

We had set up the garden so that all plantings were a group project. I realized later that was not the best approach. A better approach would have been to set aside a common section of the garden to raise crops with high output that stored well, for example, winter squash, and to set up the rest of the garden for individual plots so people can plant what they want. That would maximize food production while keeping participants engaged.

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Gardening in a group, along with my own experiences over the years, left me with numerous insights on how to get started, particularly for those who want to garden but don’t know where to start. So, here is my short list of suggestions for getting started.

Make a list

List the vegetables and other foods you frequently eat that can be raised locally and rate them in terms of quantity consumed. This gives an idea of what to plant and how much of each crop. Beginning and part-time gardeners often only plant what they consider to be easy or what they are familiar with. This can result in producing too much of one or two items.

Anyone ever raised too many zucchinis or tomatoes? Planting in realistic quantities the crops you know you will eat can reduce the chance of this happening and turn the garden into a more useful experience rather than creating the annoyance of trying to find a home for a mountain of zucchinis.

Consider location

I have consulted  on some urban gardens that are limited by shade. Adequate sunlight is necessary, although you might be surprised that some crops can be successful when grown in partial shade, especially if they receive 5-6 hours of morning sun. I have learned that morning sun is far more beneficial than afternoon sun.

One thing you can do to determine if you have adequate sun is to observe where grass grows. If there is enough sun to grow grass, there should be enough sun for a garden.

Formulate a layout meeting your needs. From a design perspective, raising herbs near the house is convenient, as long as the soil is acceptable, (e.g., no chemicals in the soil for termite control), since they are used frequently. The main garden ideally would be not far from the house, in a location where the soil is rich and shade is limited.

Keep it simple

You don’t need to buy a bunch of fancy equipment to get started. At least 90% of my garden work is done with a hand trowel, spading fork, scuffle hoe (for quick weeding), rake, shovel, and a pitchfork (for mulching). These are all low-cost items. Occasionally I till, but if starting out, you could borrow a tiller. Ideally soil should be disturbed as little as possible so as to not disturb the mycorrhizal fungi, so less tilling is best. There are people who have mastered gardening without tilling. Do some research and learn from them.

Skip more complicated and time-consuming gardening activities such as seed saving until you have a good idea of what you are doing and know which seeds can be saved. Similarly, building complex structures ought to wait until you are more familiar with what you are doing, unless building things is a motivator for you. It is easy to build structures and then not know what to do with them later if you decide gardening isn’t for you.

Solicit Advice

Getting advice from local long-term gardeners is useful, especially if you have moved to an ecosystem with which you are unfamiliar. This can help in understanding which crops should do well, what insects need to be managed, how to deal with invaders (e.g., rabbits and other garden terrorists), and what to expect from local weather patterns, to name a few bits of wisdom.

You might be disappointed with how challenging some plants are to grow. Getting good advice from local experienced gardeners can help avoid unexpected challenges. Examples: guidance for raising small seed crops (e.g. carrots, parsnips) that are difficult to sprout, which crops are prone to insect pressures and how best to handle them, which plants do well in local soils, etc. An experienced gardener can provide tips for addressing such issues.

If you are planting fruit trees or bushes, I definitely recommend finding an online nursery that specializes in that crop. The reason is that the owners will know what varieties will do best in your locale. They should have suggestions on varieties that will do well in your planting zone, but more importantly, they will be familiar with varieties that are resistant to diseases in your area. For example, I live where summers are humid and temperate. Certain apple diseases are problematic here that might not be of concern in dryer Idaho or Colorado, so I would want varieties that are resistant to my local diseases. I regret not doing this starting out. Trees in particular are a long term investment, so it is wise to plant the most appropriate varieties.

Find a partner

Advantages of gardening with a partner or partners:

• There are always tasks one person will not want to do, but the other person might enjoy.

• Some people like to specialize in a particular crop so they can learn it well. Partnering facilitates that while allowing all involved to share in the total production.

• It is easier to grow larger amounts with greater diversity because with diversity, more food is produced and there will be others to consume it if there is too much.

• You can learn from one another.

• You have help when a project needs more than one set of hands.

Try new crops

Try new plants you have never planted before but often eat. You might be surprised how easy some are to grow – even some shorter-season tropical plants can be grown. For example, we always grow an abundance of bitter melon and tropical sweet potatoes.

Most years, I try planting a crop I have never raised before just to see how well it will do, if it fits into my design, and how I can use it. As my trees grow and the ecosystem in my yard evolves, new niches develop. Sometimes I try unusual crops in those niches. There are online nurseries that sell nothing but native edible plants – often plants I have never heard of but which Native Americans ate. You don’t need to delve that deep, so maybe raising cauliflower, or some other supermarket-available vegetable, will be enough adventure when experimenting with something new.

Avoid competing with mechanized production

Some crops are so easily planted on mass scale and harvested mechanically that it is not worth my time to grow them. Examples of this are all grains, shelled beans, and corn. I live in the middle of the corn belt and nearly every farmer neighbor raises a patch of sweet corn. Corn takes up a lot of garden space and my neighbors always have extra, so we will often trade – I give garden produce or honey in return for dozens of ears of corn, which we blanch and freeze.

I take a similar approach for other crops that are locally grown. The nearby Kankakee River valley is home for lots of truck farming, especially of melon crops. Melons are another crop that takes up a lot of growing space, plus they do not keep well. I prefer to source my melons from local farmers when available rather than raise them myself and be inundated with a pile of melons that need to be eaten soon.

Diversify

If it was possible to predict the weather across the entire gardening season, then it would be ideal to choose plants that would do well for the expected weather. Since no one know how to accurately make that prediction, I recommend planting a diversity of crops that you know you will eat. While some plants will do well almost every year (e.g. green beans, cabbage, and a few others) many will not do well in extreme heat (e.g., peas, lettuce, spinach). Others will not do well if the weather remains cool and wet (e.g., tomatoes, okra) most of the season.

We plant a relatively small amount of a large variety of crops to ensure a reasonable amount of overall production. In most years, all crops produce something and every year there is a bumper crop of something.

Companion planting can be useful if you are short on space. As an example, we found by accident that cilantro is a perfect companion for asparagus because the asparagus is harvested while the cilantro is young, and by the time the cilantro – now coriander – is going to seed, it is time to let the asparagus fern out to replenish its root system for next year’s crop. There are lots of books on companion planting if you need ideas, and it is an ideal way to diversify planting.

Plan for preserving

Invariably, there will be an abundance of some crop, so time permitting, we preserve the excess. We have found over the years that freezing after blanching is generally the easiest for most vegetables. Most fruits can be frozen directly. Freezing is the best method for retaining nutritional quality, although it does require access to a freezer.

Canning simplifies storage, but is more work and arguably the least effective method for retaining nutritional value. Drying lies somewhere in between, providing easy storage and good nutritional retention, but the inconvenience of needing to reconstitute vegetables for cooking is a bit annoying. Drying works well though for many fruits. I generally dry enough Asian pears to provide a year of snacking.

Stay committed

Staying with the project is possibly the hardest part of gardening for most people, especially if crops are not doing well or if there is too much of one thing. I have concluded that the two most important activities for gardening are:

1. Plant.

2. Harvest. 

That may sound silly, but if you skip either, then you won’t end up with much. Many times I have heard, “I just never got around to planting, and then it was too late.”

Of course other efforts, such as weeding and watering (when needed) are important. I use mulch, largely from grass clippings, wherever possible, which greatly reduces weeding and watering.

My flaw is not lack of commitment, but instead to over-care or fret over the loss of any one plant when it would be easier to just accept that it’s not the year for that crop. I am learning to focus on what works and not dwell on what fails.

That is a lesson that has taken decades for me to learn. A good example is giving up on raising plum trees. In our area, plum curculio (a small insect) is devastating to plums and practically impossible to control without chemicals. For years, I tried all sorts of control methods, eventually giving up and cutting down the plums, only to discover that a reduced curculio population meant less damage to my peaches.

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Summary

Reverence for food has been largely lost in our culture. Look no further than fast food to see that. One way to restore that reverence is through personal involvement in growing the food we eat, creating a connection with it that can’t be experienced with supermarket food. I can’t really explain this, but I experience it when eating from my own garden, as if there is some sort of resonance established through tending the garden. I find gardening nourishes the body and the soul – one might say it provides ‘complete nutrition’.

This is one reason why foods are unique to a region, even though they may utilize the same ingredients as used in other regions. The relationship with locally grown food manifests through unique recipes, producing what we refer to as ‘ethnic food’.

Furthermore, food serves as a conduit for learning of the nature of microbiota and microflora, which are both very important for health. Our scientists and researchers are beginning to study these relationships, in particular, learning how significant these microbes and bacteria are to a healthy immune system.

We now know that at least 80% of our immune system is centered in our intestinal tract and dependent on these microbes and healthy bacteria. Alarmingly, glyphosate (Roundup) has been shown to damage these bacteria, and studies have shown that glyphosate is now in nearly all our food – even organic food in traces.

In a world where food supplies increasingly appear tenuous, preparedness is advisable, however one chooses to approach that. This preparedness goes beyond simply physical supplies, but more importantly spans the range of relationships, finances, emotional state, and more.

Preparedness from this perspective is far more than just ensuring food availability, but requires evaluation of how we view our role in all our relationships, be they with nature or with other humans. This evaluation process is invigorating, even if daunting, and in the end leaves a firmer foundation. Establishment of food self-reliance is a good starting point for developing that foundation.

It is too late to start a springtime garden for this year, but it is not too late to plan for next year, or perhaps do a fall planting.

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I have returned to fulltime work for the next three months or so and do not expect to have time for further newsletters for the time being. Hopefully I will have time to start back up in the late fall/winter months. A few of the many topics I hope to later explore:

• Permaculture

• Bitcoin

• Central Bank Digital Currencies

• Regenerative Farming

• Future of Oil

• Nuclear Power

• Beekeeping

• Raising Chickens

• Climate Change

• Impact of Globalist Agendas

Till next newsletter…..