“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden*

Why I Chose to Grow All My Own Food

I Have a Passion for Gardening

The biggest reason I grow gardens is I have a passion for gardening (see another post). There is nothing I appreciate more than being outside. I love hiking, boating, fishing, walking, snow, rain and all there is about outdoors. Well, I do not much care for the bugs and insects though.

But gardening is special, it produces life and makes you feel more alive, connected to living. It is practical and even though it takes energy, it produces energy. It is a feeling of ‘Well Done.’

“However, many years she lived, Mary always felt that ‘she should never forget that first morning when her garden began to grow’.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden*

I Can Be Organized

I like to be in control of things, like everyone else does. And we should – be in control of the areas we can – in our health. In fact, when I gave in and let others control my health, well, the end did not end well, if that makes sense?

I have an inherited trait to control, but I also have a latent one to just let things be, do not mess with things as they are. I remind myself of that tendency with a phrase “rabbit in the cage.” I had a dream about a healthy rabbit sitting in a cage looking at me. I do not know why it bothered me so much, but after a while I realized that I was very comfortable letting that rabbit be. I was very comfortable with letting things go the way they tend to. There is nothing really wrong with that, but I realized that I could do something about the things that concern me. I do not have to just “let things happen.” I wish I would have realized that sooner, my life would have taken many turns a different way.

“My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece”

Claude Monet*

I Love to Feel Healthy

I felt the best I ever did when I was 28. I loved life and the direction I was heading. I was married and I did not HAVE to go to work. I loved that time. I was living the way I wanted to – in a 100-year-old cabin with no one around. I could make that life go anywhere I wanted to. I thought I had absolutely no problems. I could pursue my passions for crafts, art and of course, gardening. It was the very beginning of my life. I was having a very unique home built. I was waiting for life to open up.

I Learned to Appreciate the Need for Nutrition.

My friend’s husband confronted me one time, in anger, about the need to take supplements for his wife. He lived on a farm and thought that was all he needed. He was right in many ways. I could only respond that because the nutritional contents of our food can be very poor, there are some nutrients that you cannot get except by supplementing the good food you take in. Nutrition needs to be balanced to have the greatest effect.

Besides my RN courses, I studied nutrition and became aware of the necessary conditions needed for getting all the nutrients you can from the food you eat. I love reading and researching, so I took in a lot of balanced information. It all led to the need for healthy food, healthy nutrition.

It Just Makes Sense

“The greatest fine art of the future will be the making of a comfortable living from a small piece of land.”

Abraham Lincoln*

I think Abraham Lincoln said it very nicely. I love being able to have a passion and make it happen. I love seeing people and living things grow. It is amazing the direction that it will take you in life. I have gone through times where I could not pursue that passion, and it caused me to feel hopeless.

And Just Because I Can

Why not? Why not take advantage of freedom to grow the food we eat? Or to partake of the efforts of others? I love Farmers Markets and groups like that. It’s fun and good.

*All quotes are from Gardening Quotes (270 quotes) (goodreads.com)