This time of year always makes me want to garden.
I have several friends who enjoy gardening. There are gardening ads all over the place, and you see people planting and harvesting their gardens on social media.
I love the idea of it all. I want to wear cute garden boots, a floppy hat and have adorable garden gloves with a perfectly pink pail that I put my garden haul in.
Gardening, self-sufficiency, and having the knowledge and skills to grow a successful crop are important to me. These are skills I have always wanted.
Have you ever played the game in your head where you build your team for a zombie apocalypse? I have, and I’m not convinced I should be on anybody’s team. I’m a great connector and organizer, though, so that will most likely save me and allow me to join someone’s team.
All joking and pretend scenarios aside, I do take it seriously that we do not have the same skills as our grandmothers. I know we have new skills that they never needed, but I would like to have our updated skills and the ones of the past.
This was the year I was going to grow a vegetable garden. I was going to start with carrots, peas, potatoes, onions, and garlic.
Here are a few current facts about me.
- I am heat-intolerant.
- I react to chemicals, plant food, and even organic pesticides.
- I am currently dealing with hand weakness.
- I don’t like bugs.
- I absolutely do not like getting dirty.
- I don’t like most vegetables due to sensory issues.
- I genuinely did not realize how long it took some crops to grow.
Knowing all of this about myself, I still marched down to my local garden center earlier this spring to see what I needed to start a garden.
I met an amazing master gardener. She showed me pictures of her garden. Her garden looked like it was out of a magazine. Then she mentioned how she is on year five of trying to get a successful crop of carrots. Um… WHAT? I have zero chill. Five years of trying to grow a crop with little success? No, thank you.
I spoke with her at length about all of my issues, likes, dislikes, and hypothetical zombie team as we walked the aisles of the garden center. Comically, we couldn’t go down the aisle with all the food and fertilizer because of my allergic reactions to them.
Then she gave me a gift that I didn’t know I needed.
She said, “You know- for the same amount of money it would take to start up a garden, and much less effort, you could learn how to can food.”
My jaw dropped.
She went on. “Learn how to can, dehydrate food, bake bread… heck you can even buy freeze dried food that last 25 years on a shelf.”
The idea of buying food on sale and preserving it sounded like a much better idea to me!
Gone was the stress about the heat and bugs. The logistics of how to pick out and use food and fertilizer that I couldn’t even get within 10’ of.
Not only did my new friend release me from feeling like I had to be something that, even though I wanted to be, wasn’t necessarily the best thing for me to be, I felt a new lightness and excitement that I didn’t know was not there when I was thinking about gardening.
I may have “wanted” to be a gardener for various reasons, but I wasn’t going into it joyfully or with enthusiasm.
But with just a few sentences, she let me know that I don’t have to be “that” just because I see it, it looks appealing, or I want to. I should find out what is best for me. What works best for my needs and abilities. Not to worry about what I am seeing others do, but worry about what I can do.
This is a concept I feel I have done well with in other areas of my life, so I was surprised that it happened to me with gardening. It just shows that we can always be learning and paying attention to why you think you would like to do something.
Yes, preserving food is not the same as growing it. But that is okay.
Instead of a garden in our yard, I will be dedicating the space we have to pollinators.
I am going to learn how to can and dehydrate food for longer storage. I “may” even get back into sourdough baking!
The lesson here is that sometimes we are still trying to fit in a box that we don’t fit in, without even realizing that is what we are doing. I spent years longing to be healthy enough to garden, only to figure out that learning to preserve food, is actually way more interesting and exciting to me.
With a garden, I have to be outside tending to it daily. On good health days and bad. Heat waves or just regular southern hot summer days.
With canning and dehydrating, I can control a lot more of the circumstances. There are no bugs or dirt, no handling chemicals that I may react to, and I can go buy a bunch of carrots that were grown to perfection and potentially even on sale!
Chronic illness can take a lot from us, in this situation, I thought it was taking something it was not.
The lesson for me is that I need to make sure I actually WANT to do the thing I think I am missing out on.
Questions to help you determine which direction may be right for you.
Budget:
Gardening: What do you have to spend? What can you spend yearly? Will you be okay if your garden is a complete flop and you get nothing out of it? Don’t forget the increase in water usage that will be reflected in your monthly bill.
Food Prepping / canning / dehydrating: What do you have to spend? You can start as small as buying extra rice and beans in your weekly groceries to going huge. Can you spend the money opn buying everything you need to start canning?
Effort:
Can you add gardening to your daily schedule? Nature does not take a day off. Can you physically water and weed your garden? Will you have help? Can you install a watering system if needed?
Canning can take several hours and is in the kitchen. Can you manage the heat and time needed?
Fun Factor:
Which one appeals to you? You will have to learn about whatever you do, even if you decide to buy freeze dried food and store it in your garage. We have enough to do in our every day life that is not super fun. Pick an activity that you will enjoy!
For example, we don’t even have house plants because I react to plant food and the idea of any kind of bugs, nats or whatever else happening inside my house is not my idea of fun. Cut flowers bring me joy, so about every other month, we buy some for our kitchen table.
Everything about learning to garden felt like a chore. Learning to buy freeze dried food and preserve food, sounds interesting and exciting.
