Our Food Needs Nourishment, Too!

After being inspired by a few friends, I ordered organic seeds from Seeds of Change so we could plant our first garden.  I spent hours on their website, researching the types of plants that would thrive best in our hot Southern California climate.  We live in a rural area where it gets over 100 degrees and can get down to as low as the mid 30's.  I had to find seeds that would germinate in the lower temperatures because it was early Spring when we planted, and seeds that would thrive in our intense heat.  Some seeds I took a gamble on, mainly because I really wanted to grow specific food types.

 For the last 3 years, my husband has been prepping our soil with the intent of one day planting a garden.  When we moved into our house 5 years ago, you could barely see the ground, that is how many weeds were covering the backyard.  In fact, my husband borrowed a walk-behind weed whacker from my parents and discovered a motorcycle track that had been hidden by the thick, tall, and dry weed overgrowth.  We picked a flat area where the sun and shade both hit.  We fenced it off and rotor-tilled the land to turn the soil and increase its potential to grow some amazingly nutritious food.  My husband made rows with a drainage well in between the rows to allow for a good soaking of the roots.

So far, we have been able to enjoy our Chard, Spinach, and Emerald Oak Leaf Lettuce.  We just pulled our first beet out of the ground the other day and can't wait for the rest of our garden to be ready to harvest.  Here are some photos I took this morning of our growing garden:

 Our first ear of corn is growing!

 Here, you can see our corn, beets, and red onion.

 Our chard is very moist and you can eat it straight from the garden.  No cooking or added ingredients needed!

 Emerald Oak Leaf Lettuce.  This stuff grows like crazy!  I can pick enough for salad for a week and then I have enough for another week ready to be harvested!

 Beets.

 Carrots are almost ready!

 Zucchini!

 My first little cucumber!

My mini watermelons are starting to get their vines!

Just as our bodies need to be nourished properly to thrive, so does our food!  Lots of sunshine, water, and care goes into the food we grow, as this is the food that strengthens our immune systems and fights off free-radicals that cause cancer.  Love your greens!