One of my favorite books to read to my daughter is called “In Our Garden” by Pat Zietlow Miller. It’s a child’s book about a little girl who inspires her class to grow a garden on the rooftop of the school. They grow cauliflower, carrots, and more!
My family has a had a garden almost every year since I can remember. It was one of my chores when I was younger to water the garden each day. As the summer went on and I got older, it was also my responsibility to help harvest and preserve the food. One of my favorites were garden-fresh green beans. I also enjoyed picking tomatoes and harvesting potatoes.
I have enjoyed gardening for many years and it is a wonderful way to save money, get exercise and sunshine, and fill your family’s bellies with fresh, nutritious food. We also froze and canned certain vegetables to be enjoyed by the family all year long. (I’ll have another post about preserving.)
You don’t have to grow all of your food to help save your family money. While that is a great goal for some, it’s just not feasible for everyone. I’ve lived in an apartment and had only a couple of plants on my balcony before. I still was able to grow some tomatoes and peppers. I found out the following year that there were small plots (which were fenced in) towards the back of the property. Our manager allowed us to use two of them! We ended up also inheriting two more plots of other tenants’ who moved out before the end of the summer. It was a huge blessing! In our current town, there is a community garden as well. I drive past a church regularly that has a blessing shed and every summer has extra produce for the community to take and use.
As you can tell, there are a lot of options, whether it’s a community garden, “blessing” barns, pots on the balcony, or the more traditional backyard garden (raised plots or sowed directly into the ground – we have both!). Even if you choose not to preserve, your garden will add delicious, nutritious food to your family’s diet all summer long!
The pictures above are food from gardens I’ve had (or my parents). The left and right picture were already from our garden this year (and there’s much more growing!). The middle picture was a harvest from my parent’s garden years ago. What are your favorite foods to grow? Comment below and let me know!