Everyone Can Have A Victory Garden

If you simply want a few "plants" around to decorate your homeor apartment, or if you have a desire to harvest a fresh salad for supper, you can have a "victory" garden no matter where you live and how much space you can call your own.
There are kitchen gardens that produce fresh herbs to tantalize and delight gourmet dishes you make for family and friends. Windows are not only the gateways to the world, they can provide the sunshine needed for plants to grow and thrive. From African Violets to Easter Lilies, potted plants can bring color, and scent into your home for just your time and a bit of care.
Have a patio, porch, or even a deck? Then container gardens are a god-sent. You can line up sculptured pots filled with cherry tomato plants, berry bushes, and even line a long planter with herbs and spices. As you sit on your patio in the warm weather, you can delight as nature brings fresh ingredients and menu ideas right to your door. Small children can find adventure and education combined with fun and accomplishment with a small red wagon filled with just enough soil and drainage to produce lettuce, strawberries or even a cucumber or two. Don't forget that flowers can also bring enjoyment to a child as that tiny bud opens up to a gift for "mom". It is not the quantity of products, but the quality of seeing nature take its course, and good food as fun and tastier than boxed treats.
If you have a back yard or even ten acres, then the world is your oyster and you can pick and choose from catalogs glowing with pictures of perfect plants to taking a trip to a plant nursery and not being able to control the urge to buy one of everything. From sun warmed tomatoes, to fall squashes that will turn into autumn meals, you can accomplish a garden that will give "harvest" new meaning and will bring "victory" to your meal plans. Growing herbs, to growing flowers, you are joining with nature and as partners, each of you have a job to do. In the end, when it is time to gather in what all your hard work has brought about, then you can stand tall and know that life is good, the world is not such a bad place after all, and well, you just can't wait to do it all over again next year.
A great side result of gardening can be that your grocery bill will be easier on your wallet, and that fresh flowers can be yours, instead of passing by a florist and knowing that you just can't spend the cash for a vase that will dress up your table. Even bouquets of fresh herbs make your kitchen feel like a dining room of a fancy restaurant. When family and friends come around, your minted lemonade will find ready takers and your salad of just picked lettuce, cucumbers, radishes and chives is just the right touch for warm weather eating. The economy can take a back seat to lavish eating when you grow your own food and you know that you don't have to worry about additives and colors and flavors made in a laboratory with chemicals and even toxic ingredients. You can pronounce every item in your meal plan and well, food just tastes better, is more eye-appealing, and the scent of fresh herbs will take your love of food to new heights. Food you serve will be healthier and more fulfilling. Even children will enjoy eating what they "just picked" and what they watered, weeded, and planted. Meals can be real family events, instead of fast food containers and wrappers. Sound too good to be true - just get your rake, shovel, and give it a chance. Victory is yours if you want it and that's quite a deal for your money.
Something to think about
©Arleen M. Kaptur March, 2008