Keeping the home gardens growing

Spearmint, Chocolate Mint, Purple Sage, Lemon Balm, Rosemary, Savory, Thyme, Bell Peppers, and Tomatoes.

This is the pride and joy of our homestead in training. The home garden. I might have poured my love and words into the telling of this tale but Rhi dug this baby out with her own hands. Colin and I bought the majority of the plants and when Rhi goes off West this summer, the tending of the home garden becomes my responsibility.

I'm looking forward to it.

This is were we begin. A patch of fertile soil, compost, organic top soil mix, young plants, water and sunlight. Too many people rely on chain conglomerates and specialty stores to get herbs, vegetables and fruit. Herbs...the easiest and by far best loved thing we grow here. We buy them as sproutlings and tend them well, in turn they reward us with lovely little flowers and flavorful leaves that season our meat, bread and make our tea.

That lemon balm in the bottom left corner came from a $1.00 sprout from the Market SquareFarmer's Market and will be three times as large by the end of July. By the end of the growing season I will still have enough lemon balm to see me into the beginning of next spring. With very little effort, my lemon balm will keep me in good company for the rest of the year. Outside of a farmer's market, I couldn't tell you were to find lemon balm. Or chocolate mint for that matter; a variety of mint that honest to goodness smells vaguely like Thin Mints.

Keep the home fires burning is a common saying but lately I have been thinking "Keep the home gardens growing." The power to fill our pantries, stomachs and souls is within our grasp. The idea that you must depend solely on grocery chains is a fallacy; it is an illusion. It is important for us to take back the power of controlling our food by getting our hands dirty. Literally, get dirt on them. Dig yourself a garden, plant some mint in a pot, get a coop and raise a pair of chickens for eggs. If you crave an authentic life, it is out there. You just have to find it.


 I just have to find it.