Plant a Garden [publisher's letter]

Reading the articles in this month’s edition made me think back to how my family inadvertently did our small part in reducing our environmental impact. We had a garden in our backyard when I was growing up—our bit of dirt where we spent hours digging, weeding and eating the delicious vegetable bounty. That was at a time when you had to soak crucifers, like broccoli and cauliflower, in salt water to get rid of the worms (which would float to the top, should there be any).

Many years later, my husband and I bought our first little house, which came with an equally little garden! We decided we should try our hand at gardening because by this time, the vegetables we bought at the grocery store had changed to the point of being tasteless. It was so exciting to have a garden again, and as the “icing on the cake,” the seller had brought in some beautiful topsoil, so there was optimum chance for success in the short growing season where we lived. So, we got to work seeding, which didn’t take long in the postage stamp-sized spot.

Well, I can only say, “Wow, what a crop!” We were overrun with veggies of all kinds—radishes, carrots, potatoes, onions, green beans, peas, among others. It was almost comical how the little square patch appeared to be just about bursting! And around a couple of edges, we planted nasturtiums, as I had learned in one of my university courses on companion planting that they are good at repelling certain bugs. An added bonus was that we could top our fresh salads off with a few of these tasty, colorful edible flowers.

One day while in the garden gathering some veggies and flowers for our dinner, I suddenly noticed a huge bee after me. A little afraid of bugs, I was about to drop everything and sprint to safety, but hesitated for a second—just long enough to realize that it wasn’t the world’s largest bee, but, in fact, a tiny hummingbird, most probably there to relish in the nasturtiums’ exceptionally sweet nectar! He was right there near my legs “buzzing” around, no doubt trying to accomplish what a bee would have been successful at: running me off and away from “his” garden.

Today, I no longer have a garden, but I’m thinking that it’s time to get back to it and plant some veggies, herbs and a few companion flowers, which would not only be good for me, but also help the environment and attract our little flying friends.