The vegetable garden

(examples of home-grown vegetable gardens)

I think that growing any plant is a wonderful process.  It’s an exchange of vital energies through joys and sorrows: we and our plants follow each other through our life cycles, cross seasons, fight bad weather and sicknesses, encourage sprouting and enjoy a good sunny day. Sometimes funerals may occur, too.  

Growing fruits and vegetables has an even more intimate dimension: we pick, taste and ingest the fruit of the plant. It becomes part of us!

I have always loved using vegetables and fruit trees in gardens, even mixed with species of different kinds, even in the same pot:

They are so beautiful.

We observe a daily growth and transformation process.

We learn how much energy, time and effort each plant deploys to produce a tiny fruit, and we may be reminded of this when we shop our grocery and fill up our fridges and trash bins.

We create a pleasant environment for other creatures. A living space.

We heal our souls – so science says.

There is no need for advanced gardening skills, if we do not aim at food self-sufficiency and we are ready to share part of our harvest with birds and insects passing by.