How Does Your Garden Grow?

Mel, Mel, it looks so swell . . .
How does your garden grow?
With sweat and toil and mink poop soil,
And four children laboring in a row!

Actually it's more like Craig and I and the rest of the neighborhood laboring in the rows while the kids run around crazy and whine that it's too hot, but we try! Our neighborhood is unique in one way: each year we turn an empty lot into a community garden. We till and plant together, divide sections by family to weed, rotate watering days, and then get together to pick the fruits of our labors. It is an amazing experience—one we love to participate in.


We also do a garden in our own yard each year to grow those "weird" things like beets, cabbage, cauliflower, and herbs that don't make it into the community garden. For the last couple of years we've had a berry patch on the side of the house, too. But our favorite is our fruit trees! We have two peach, one nectarine, and this year planted two pear. Fruit trees are the least labor intensive and the fruit tastes the best because it's so sweet. That many peaches makes me a busy girl in the fall with canning, but we love having "homegrown" peaches all year, so it's worth it! It's been fun finding the "inner farmer" in ourselves the past few years, and since we love to eat more than mow, we can't think of a better way to use our space!