It's that time of year again where I put out the plug for home gardening. It is warm enough here in AZ now to get the soil ready and begin the planting. If you have paid attention at all to what is going on with Monsanto and the seeds they are producing, you understand why it is so important that we grow plants ourselves. Monsanto is in it for the money. Completely. They are taking our seeds and corrupting them with pesticides so that all the seeds now become toxic. They are slowly buying out seed companies right and left and soon will be the only company out there. They are shutting down family farms with law suits and corruption. The head of Monsanto was appointed to the FDA by our own Obama. What a perfect marriage for Monsanto.
I don't know about you, but this doesn't sit well with me. I want safe food. It is bad enough that our water has junk in it, but I want to start with good, healthy seeds left as God made them. You need to buy heirloom plants. You can use seeds from heirloom plants to grow new plants. It just takes a little dedication. There may be a time that the only way we are safe is if we grow it ourselves. That time seems eerily close.
If you only have a small space, get a small planter. Grow one thing if you have to. If I had to pick one thing, I would grow collards or kale. It grows easily and abundantly and is such an amazing food for our bodies. We pick leaves daily for our smoothies. If that is all you had for your greens, you would be blessed.
I am adding another 56 square feet of garden tomorrow. I have a large garden on the west side of my house that doesn't get enough sun. I never thought about building a raised planter along my North fence line but the sun is perfect. I can hardly wait to have it up and running. My pepper plants are going to be so happy there! If all you have is an area that gets little sun, you can still grow some leafy greens. Mine do very well in my shady spots. The broccoli does not! Watch your yard for a day to see where your sun is. You want at least 6 hours per day. You can buy pots and stick them in various sunny locations if you have to. I am to the point now where I care more about what I can produce on my land then what the landscape looks like. It can be pretty if it is taken care of. I would much rather have a plant giving me food than a bush giving me flowers.
I had a great meeting with some wonderful women last night. They are all trying so hard to change their lives and help their children. There wasn't one of us in the group that was without struggles. We all had children that require extra help through nutrition. Our food matters so much. It costs extra to be healthy. However, you will always save in the long run. My kids haven't been to the Dr. for illness for at least 7 years, no lie. Food is the best medicine.
Grow something. It does the body good.
Click on my "gardening" label to the right to get more gardening tips.
7 comments:
Just wanted to point out that year-round gardens are possible here in AZ. I was shocked when a neighbor mentioned that she didn't think a garden would grow here during the winter. For the last 5 months our garden has produced 40 tomato plants, carrots, radishes, turnips, beets, lettuce, spinach, kale, bell peppers, swiss chard, collard greens, broccoli, cauliflower, arugula, and a variety of herbs. We'll be replacing those plants with our summer garden in a few weeks. Gotta love Arizona for its year-round gardening capability!
You are awesome!
Absolutely! I always have something growing! I will now have two gardens so i dont have to pull out plants that are still growing to put the next garden in.
Thank you! We all need to be talking about this issue. Maybe in time if we can show that healthy change is possible enough people will be convinces and this atrocity can be reversed. I pray!
I have a great winter garden. Still have lots of kale and cauliflower growing! Carrots too! I'm not sure what to do with all my broccoli plants. Most of them are flowering now. Monasato is such an awful company. Is there any where they haven't hit?
Use the leaves and stocks of your broccoli plants! It is all edible and great for you!
You can go online and find a list of "safe seeds". Companies have signed a list against Monsanto so you know they will not use any of their seeds. I asked the nursery who they use and then checked out the company. Any heirloom are safe. Heirloom are always first choice and it is easy to find heirloom seeds. You can even have heirloom plants shipped to you. I googled and found all sorts of sellers.
so depressing. Gag. Just makes me sick. I swear, is nothing sacred? The devil is gonna pay! Food should be pure, but apparently not anymore.
Shari, I have a bell pepper plant that I planted last year sometime, I can't even remember now. (When I planted tomatoes) Tomato plants died in the summer, but this plant survived, amazingly. NOW--it has bell peppers growing on it. Not 1 or 2, not even 8. It has 25 peppers on it! I'm astounded. I bought organic plants from a gardener that sells his products at The Orange Patch Too. Thought you'd like to know. (my tomato plants, by the way, grew 4-5 feet tall, but I never got tomatoes from them...)
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