My sister, who lives in the country on enough land to feed two families.. doesn't like to garden (never did long before she developed her "disease"). Anyway she and I have been debating the gardening perks. She has decided to till up a spot and I promised her I would get her started.


But during my debates with her and some others who don't utilize the full potentional of the growing season, I came to this conclusion:

I like to garden because I like to watch things grow.

But the real reasons I like to garden besides all the economic and fresh issues are as follows:

I like being able to find what I want in my own back yard! This way I don't have to worry about getting out to get what I want when I want it. Particularly when I'm in one of my "inspired" moments of creativity (like when I just watched a cooking show).

Being able to find what I want actually encompases a number of scenerios. I like to cook. I like things to be flavorful. So the herb garden, garlic garden/patch, and pepper plants help add what I can't find at the farmers' market or around here in the grocery store. At certain times of the year I can't find the things I want at the farmers market because they just ran out, or no one has them still growing, or up yet, etc, etc.

Heck, I've got to go to work. I hope this stimulates some discussion

I like to garden because I love:

beauty; creative expression; exercise that creates something; absolutely fresh vegetables and fruits; to be part of the solution, not part of the problem of the destruction of the earth.

Rabbit,

Hitting this post mainly to say HI GIRL.

Now about that gardening thing, been thinking about that.

Hubby says I garden more for experimenting, rather than actual growing to harvest. Of course I beg to differ.

I only experimented with a few plants this year: One being celery, that I have decided is a great plant to grow, as long as you only plant a few, and I like the cut and come again feature. It works like parsley. And the dried leaves are great! Very flavorful. And drying means nothing is going to waste! And you can add that to your herb collection, in case you were trying to decide where celery would fit into your scheme of things! Woo Hoo! Haha

So, where ya working now? How are your children, and what has made ya laugh soooo hard lately, that ya had to take a breath before moving on?

lisaann

I like to be competent. And I like a challenge, and gardening is that. I like to put up food for the 'long hard winter'

I am not a great flower grower, but my pride and joy is my vegetable garden, I like to get and find food, I like having chickens or picking wild berries for the same reason.

mk

I do mostly perennial flowers becase we're away from home a lot in the summer and don't have a chance to care for vegs. I love it because...

1. I feel a connection to my ancestors who were all farmers from way back in the 1700's.

2. It is so rewarding to plant a little seed, or a tiny seedling, and watch it grow into something beautiful and/or delicious.

3. I love digging in the dirt!

This is my first garden although I have always wanted one. I love gardening because I love giving my family the best. I love the way my children's eyes light up when we see a toad or a bug the've never seen before or when they pick fresh vegetables and argue about who will bite it first. I love learning new things and then trying them. But the best reason for my garden is that I like feeling like I am truly apart of the earth.. I like knowing that I can live in harmony with the environment and still prosper!

I started out gardening by growing herbs on the porch at my apartment in So. Cal. I am a self taught gourmet cook, and I hated paying the insane retail prices for a bit of herbs! Discovering how easy they were to grow, I then container planted a tomato one year; a yellow pear tomato! Yum! How cool it was to go out and eat something ripened on the vine! TOMATOS expecially, at the retail level - might as well be a red cucumber, bleck! Tomatoes from your own garden? YOWZER!

Then I graduated to MORE containers, BIGGER containers and had great success with that, plus discovered even eggplant and zuccini taste better than store bought! Imagine that?! Then I scrapped together the money and had a friend help me build two wide raised beds - wow - that was a job, and "grew" my own dirt the first year, piling everything I could think of in there, and turning often - including WORMS! for the first year.
Then I got more tables for table top stuff, then I discovered micro greens! (The same thing with the retail, I purchased them there first, then decided: "I can grow these".) Watching cooking shows, they use micro this and micro that alot as garnish. So this year I started experimenting with anything I thought would be good in a micro size :~D CELERY - ANISE - UMMM...You can trim them up to 4 times. Micro greens are sold by Ferry seed, they not organic, I dont think? And I wonder what they do to them to keep them micro. Because, I've let them go before, and they just go to flower eventually at about 4" high.
I like to harvest my lettuces when they're young, (just the outter leaves as needed), and I call them "teenager" lettuce. We have: sprouts, then micro greens, then "baby" greens, heheee, so you can have this salad w/ 4 or 5 sizes of greens!
I used to sprout everything in calif. too, alfalfa, buckwheat, broccoli, mustard, radish... here; in Oregon, pfft - I barly get 2 TBS in two weeks of fussing with them grrrr!

If money was no object, I would quit work and garden! Feed my friends and neighbors!

I garden because it makes me feel good and it is a challenge. The relentless pursuit of growing that perfect tomato plant or corn stalk!! The work involved in mixing others garbage (leaves, wood chips etc)and manure and used coffee grounds to create perfect compost!!! The fact that it is ever evolving and I continue to learn the little tricks of the trade(thanks to all you folks here in the forums). I love watching things grow!!! It makes me feel parental in that I have to nourish and protect my plants from the elements and the critters that think my garden is their smorgasbord!! I love to see the faces of my friends and co-workers when I bring them free fresh vegetables. I love walking out to my plot and picking a fresh tomato and eating it like an apple. I could probably go on for hours. I JUST LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT IT!!!!

I like to grow my own vegetables/flowers,
How much more nutritious can my vegetables/flowers be.
Can they make me much healthier ?
What kind of records should I keep ?
Can I get more answers from which of our Universities ?

I have much, much, more questions.
I think, this “Organic Farming Forum” is helping me a Great Lot.
We seem to have a variety of expertise, right here on our Forum!
I’m glad we have our Forum!

Thanks very much,
bill in socal

why do I garden?

the answer seems elusive

why the need to breath?

I have to agree with the challenge of it all. Can I take a plot of dirt and a little bitty seed and make it grow up into a thing of beauty, be it a flower or a vegetable. I just think the fact that every year I do this is just incredible. I just gives me a rush.
I thinks thats why I don't like fall. All my work and anticipation is over for a while.
datgirl

I like it that I can take a piece of ground that has been neglected and left to wrack and ruin and with time and patience, turn it into a place of beauty...someday it will be beautiful anyway.

I like figure out better ways to do things, the opportunity to experiment and study and learn, the poetry of growing things in harmony with the signs, rhymes, seasons, and rhythms of the earth.

I like learning the taxonomy of the plants I am growing and of the bugs and birds that visit. I like learning new words and terms, "terminal meristem", "pistel", "parthenocarpic".

As a gardener, I am a food producer, a scientist, a natural philosopher, a biology watcher. I'm feeding my family, I'm healing my planet, I am stretching my brain, and at the end of the day, I am calm, quiet, content.

I garden for security. I love knowing that there is stuff in the freezer, canned, dried or cold cellared in case bad stuff happens--economic, natural disaster, or whatever. I also like the challenge of growing things that I have never grown before or that aren't supposed to grow here. This year I had success with leeks, celeriac and salsify--none of which I have been able to grow before.

ctdahle.. I like the way you think.

I garden for all the reasons above, and I just LOVE it!

Not a good year this year... my tomatoes got blight for the first time ever here in NY (traced to being imported on purchased plants from a BIG store chain here! )

Also, no summer, too much rain...Ok, I will stop whining now...THERE'S ALWAYS NEXT YEAR!