Happy Earth Day to my lovely readers! Being the granola-crunching hippie I am, I love Earth Day. Although I try to live each day in a mindful and responsible way, always remembering that we have limited resources here on this planet, I look forward to Earth Day as a time to reaffirm my commitment to low-impact living. Whether that’s by composting…
…drinking organic wines…
…or visiting farmers markets…
Each day presents an opportunity to treat our surroundings and ourselves with care and respect. As a foodie, I am particularly interested in being mindful about what I cook and serve to my family. I choose organic products wherever possible, especially when it comes to poultry, dairy, and fruits and vegetables on the “Dirty Dozen” list. I also attempt to reduce my food-related carbon footprint by shopping at farmers markets and buying whole foods (meaning, foods that are as close as possible to their natural state, without lots of packaging and chemical additives).
This year, I am hoping to go one step further by starting to grow some of my own vegetables and herbs. Now that I finally have a house with a big yard, I am starting to plan a vegetable garden. I’m going to start small, with just some containers of tomatoes, herbs and maybe beans on my back deck. It’s been a long time since I gardened – in fact, I haven’t had a garden since I was a kid. So I’m basically starting from scratch and learning everything all over again. Any tips for me? What vegetables would be the easiest for a novice gardener to grow? What should I avoid? If you garden, what’s one thing you wish you knew starting out?
So Happy Earth Day, indeed! I hope you’ll join me in taking some time today to reflect on the state of the planet we all share, and making a commitment to live better and more mindfully every day of the year, not just on April 22nd.
covered in flour 
I am curious to hear what your readers have to say about gardening, too. I have a small patch at my apartment that I’m going to use this summer… I started some seeds indoors a few weeks ago due to the short New England growing season, but I’m not exactly sure what’s going to be successful right now. I’m going with the trial-and-error method to start. 🙂
Good for you, Liz! I think any garden, no matter how big or small, is better than no garden at all. I’ve been researching gardening and I’m pretty much completely overwhelmed right now. We’re well beyond the point where I can plant seeds outside here in the Mid-Atlantic region, so I’m behind the curve. Let me know what you decide to grow! We can compare notes!
Gardening is really a science experiment (says the biology teacher in me). You never know how well something will gow or whether it will survive into the next year. That is the fun of it! For example, I planted potatoes for the first time last year, and they got blight. This year I am planting them away from the contaminated soil in potato bags on my patio. My onions, radishes and carrots were low performers last year. I am trying some new things this year. In pots I am planting herbs, potatoes, cucumbers, blueberries, and strawberries. I will just need to make sure I fertilize them every week or so to ensure good preformance in a small container. In my raised bed, I am growing garlic, golden beets, green beans and zucchini. We’ll see what happens. I joined a CSA for farm-fresh produce as a backup. I feel like you can still plant seeds if you do it soon. I just planted mine this week in NJ, and you are only few weeks ahead of us in DC.
For gardening tools and advice, I suggest Gardeners Supply Company (http://www.gardeners.com/). Their kitchen garden planner is great. It allows you to plot out what vegetables will be planted in what amounts in your garden. I also purchased my composter and rain barrel from there. My sister has a small space and she uses Earth Boxes to grow her vegetables. (http://www.earthbox.com) She loves them and consistently gets a decent amount of produce from a small space. Green beans and zucchini grow very easily. Good luck and have fun!
WOW, Jayne, you are a wealth of information as usual! Thanks so much! I’ve heard of Gardeners Supply Co. but didn’t know if their stuff was quality (see, I really don’t know anything about gardening at all) so on your advice I’m going to check them out again. Your garden sounds fabulous. Can’t wait to see what delicious things come out of your kitchen as a result! Thanks for sharing. =)
Thrilled to see you are starting a garden, and your blog is delightful!
My father taught us to garden back in Buffalo, and those are some of the best recollections. We grew everything organically, before that was a name, because that was the way they did it.
If there is one hand-me-down from those days long ago, it would be to enjoy every minute in the good dirt, every thing that sprouts, every storm that waters, and that first bite of something you grew. Just looking at the garden growing is a joy. Sharing the bounty with friends and neighbors is a treat, too.
For practical purposes, nothing beats tomatoes from your own yard. They like fairly even moisture and not too much nitrogen or they may go more to greens and less to the berry. Healthy soil reduces pests, and the nutrition comes through biologically rich soil, so compost is your friend.
One of my favorite dishes is fresh tomato sauce for pasta. You can use any tomatoes not just the plum, though they are delightful. Just chop the ‘maters, skin them first if you like, and marinate for a couple hours with a skosh of good olive oil, garlic and a few fresh herbs and fresh pepper. Speaking of, a red pepper flake might be something to think about. The sweeter herbs like basil enhance this simple sauce.
But the tomatoes are the star of this show. Add a pinch of Celtic sea salt at the end – too early and it will be runny – and save some of the juice – if there is extra – for another dish. Cook up fresh pasta, toss, grate cheese, and heaven! Side with a salad of fresh snipped lettuces or mesculun, some toasted nuts on the salad, and you are ready to break bread. Good luck!
Thanks for the tips, Aunt Susan, and thanks for reading! I hope you enjoy the rest of my content and keep checking back. I’ll definitely give your tomato sauce recipe a try. =)