Summer is here (Green Gardening)

Yep, you heard it here first, you can ignore your calendars - Summer is here. How do I know? Well, I picked a nice, juicy, ripe, red strawberry out of my garden yesterday. And in my silly, nostalgic weirdness, I planned to take a picture to post the evidence here. However, the wonderful scent and beauty of an organically grown strawberry beckoned to me so I ate it first. And it was good - not just good, but delicious. The best strawberry I've had since last September when I ate the last strawberry out of my garden.

Depending on where you live, Green gardening can be a lot of extra work. Luckily for me, it's just been a little extra work and making the right choices.

Building materials:
We built four raised garden beds last year. We decided on raised beds for the weed control since we've watched our neighbors struggle with weeds for years. For weeks I stressed over what material to build them out of - untreated lumber would rot and cause us to have to buy new boards every few years; treated lumber leaches chemicals into the ground and thus the fruit. We ultimately settled on composite boards - the best of both worlds. We got a great deal of them from a local building supply company who had just 8 fascia boards left and were considering throwing them out since it wasn't enough for a big job or so they thought - perfect for our four 8X4 beds that were twelve inches deep.

Soil:
Next I had to fill the beds. Again, I stressed. My original plan was to dig it out of our soil since we had awesome soil, but unfortunately that proved extremely difficult and then I would have had to fill the hole afterwards. So I contacted a local man who had screened loam from a local construction job. Perfect for me. Cheaper and better than buying bags and bags from the store. So we had that delivered and it was very rich and nice soil. I did however put some soil from our yard in the beds mainly because I wanted worms in there so I did dig a few holes and put them in there when I found them.

Plants:
You have two choices here - buy plants and plant seeds. If you want to do green gardening going the plant route, make sure to buy from local places. Not only will you save the environment unnecessary transportation carbon, but you'll also have locally grown plants that will be hardier and better suited to survive in your region. I opt to plant from seeds because its cheaper and for me a little more fulfilling. I'd love to buy local seeds, but I haven't found any suppliers yet so I opt to buy them at a local chain to support the local economy (or at least that's what I tell myself) verses a Wal-mart. I also try to buy organic seeds when I can, but don't get to see many of them. This year I bought three varieties of green beans, okra, zucchini, organic yellow squash, watermelons, peppers, and pumpkins. I have strawberries from last year.

Tending:
Here's where the extra layer of difficulty can come in. If you want to garden the green way, you have to be careful what you put into the soil and on the plants. I opted not to use anything for pest care or fertilizer last year. To pump up my soil this year, I bought some compost instead of getting chemical laden fertilizers. I want to make my own, but need to get a compost bin first so I bought a few bags. I avoid pesticides. Another benefit of the raised beds is that they keep out a lot of pests. The few times I saw pests on the plants, I removed them and smashed the bugs myself verses using chemicals.

Rewards:
So why garden yourself? Well, not only will it save you money if you grow the items you eat, but you can control what's on the produce. Additionally, I've found that my produce tastes so much better. It reminds me of the taste of items from the garden from my childhood. That strawberry I ate - so flavorful (unlike the ones you buy in the store). Finally, you have the produce at the peak of freshness.

I'm looking forward to continuing gardening for years to come and to share in it with my baby girl so she can learn about it and enjoy the bounty of it along with me.