Gardening 101 - What Do I Plant Nau?

I must have been born with a harvest gene. It always gave me pure joy to see fruit hanging from a tree and moreso, picking them. I didn’t necessarily have to eat the fruit. There was more satisfaction in seeing things grow and ripen, and finally in harvesting. I always dreamt I would have a garden someday filled with my favorite fruits and vegetables. I enjoyed “reading” gardening books and watched countless YouTube videos on gardening to learn stuff but mostly to get that vicarious fix, the euphoria that flowed in the harvesting.

In January 2017, I decided to retire and start enjoying life. I traveled, indulged my creativity in jewelry making, starting this blog, and finding ways to live a healthier life. With all the horror stories of what our food has turned into and how much it has harmed us – made our young generation obese and diseased, I started buying only organics and set a goal to eat more plant-based meals. But while organics are the better choice, they are also very prohibitive because they are so much more expensive than non-organics.  Nutrition-wise, they are probably not much better because they are planted and harvested in some far away state, travel cross-country in trucks then sit in the grocery store shelves. By the time they get to your table, there’s not much nutrition left. So with time on my hands, it wasn’t such a hard decision to start raising my own organic vegetables.

You’ve all heard it say, “If you build it, they will come.” As soon as I got interested in gardening, I found groups on FaceBook and met experts, and learned new things like permaculture, microclimates, soil amendments, foliar feeding, compost tea, worm castings, rainwater harvesting, etc. Aside from raising my own vegetables I also decided to turn my backyard into a food forest of fruit trees. As of this blog post, I have 14 fruit trees – desert gold peach, aprium, Indian jujube, mulberry, calamundin, 2 pomegranates, trovita orange, meyer lemon, Barbados cherry, star fruit, white guava, moringa, and sugar apple. Coming soon are fig, jamun tree, Jamaican cherry, Malaysian red guava, mango, papaya, banana trees, passion fruit, avocado, and grapes (yes, they grow here!). Does this list sound tropical? Because it is. There was a time when we thought we were doomed to olive trees and citrus in Phoenix because of our desert landscape. With excellent soil and creating the right conditions, one can practically grow anything in Phoenix now.

So, why garden?

I have often believed that only a select few have been gifted with the proverbial “green thumb” and definitely not me since I have killed quite a few plants in the past. Now I understand there is no truth to this because we now have all the help we need to give plants a better fighting chance at living, growing and becoming prolific producers. Besides, gardening is trial and error and we can only learn by doing. I have learned to love gardening and found so many benefits from it. I know there are so many more out there but here is my list as I have discovered for myself.

Know What Goes in Your Food

Thanks to Monsanto and its genetic engineering and production of such evils as the insecticide DDT, PCBs, Agent Orange, aspartame and bovine growth hormone, our food is slowly but surely making us sick and will eventually kill us. When you grow your own food, you can be assured that you are eating fresh, clean, and healthy fruits and vegetables because you know what went in to growing them.

Improve Your General Health

You are eating nutrient-dense, tastier, naturally-ripened fruits and vegetables because your food does not need to travel from far away. Nothing beats a few steps from garden to table. Your produce is also safe from e. coli, salmonella and other food-borne contamination that is common in manufactured food.

Gardening reduces stress and has been found to lower one’s blood pressure and ward off depression and anxiety. I have found my garden to be my special place to decompress and sort out my thoughts and feelings. It puts me in the “zone” or that transcendent state as in meditation that is calming and just good for the soul.

Not only is gardening a good form of aerobic exercise where you can burn up to 300-400 calories an hour through walking and stretching movements, it is also a good way to build muscle. Digging, lifting that 60 lb. bag of compost or that 5-gallon fish emulsion fertilizer can give you a serious workout.

Sleep Better

Sunshine, fresh air, and dirt do the body good. When you garden, you fill your lungs with fresh air. Being out in natural light boosts Vitamin D levels. Getting your hands in the dirt and grounded to the earth resets your circadian rhythm and helps you sleep better.

Save Money

Like I mentioned earlier, the price of store-bought organics is prohibitive and not accessible for everyone. Growing your own fresh and nutritious fruits and vegetables cost a lot less. That pack of seeds or tomato transplant you bought for $3.50 can grow and bear several pounds of fruit that can supply your family’s needs throughout the season. As your garden grows and produces, you will find your grocery bill decreasing. You can even have another revenue stream if you have more than enough produce and decide to sell them at the farmers’ market.

Encourages Self-Sufficiency

Growing and preserving your own food gives you the assurance that you and your family will be provided for even in the case of something unexpected such as a loss of income or something more drastic as a disaster, war, or political upheaval that would bring down the food industry or infrastructure you depend upon. This brings to mind the Victory Gardens during World War II. People did not go hungry because they were growing their own food.

Benefits the Environment and Ecosystem

Creating green spaces benefits the environment by reducing heat buildup, prevents soil erosion, improves air quality, encourages water conservation, and lowers energy consumption. Soil can also absorb carbon from the air, which helps reduce carbon emissions. Gardens also bring back the bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds, natural pollinators, to ensure a healthy ecosystem. Through gardening, you are doing your part, no matter how small, in slowing down climate change and making this earth a better place.

Develop Friendships and a Sense of Community

Since I started gardening, I have met so many like-minded individuals, from pros to newbie gardeners like me, who have actually formed a community where everyone shares knowledge and expertise, ideas, resources like seeds and grafts, services, and even actual produce. Everyone is willing to offer support, advice and tips to help each gardener succeed. Some of these connections have even turned into friendships.

Learn Important Life Lessons

If you want to learn patience, garden. When you garden you work with Mother Nature and she has her own timeline. She will not be rushed. You cannot hurry a seed into sprouting, a flower into blooming, or a fruit into ripening.  While it is a difficult lesson to learn, it comes with a reward – the satisfaction of seeing your plants take off. Gardening also teaches you the value of hard work, perseverance to keep on trying if you fail, pride in one’s work and the importance of celebrating successes, no matter how small. It helps you rediscover your childlike wonder and appreciation of nature and all living things. It teaches you to be more nurturing and compassionate. Finally, gardening makes you grateful for all the abundance you have that you sometimes take for granted.

Whatever the reason, I encourage you to start now and reap all the good things that gardening offers. If I haven’t convinced you, I saved the best reason for last:

it beats mowing the grass in the summer!

Now, I really DIG that punch line!