Grow More Food, Early Winter Garden

In the May/June 2007 issue of The American Gardener magazine, Roger Swain was asked in an interview in his role as a garden communicator and author what is the single most important thing you want to convey to your readers and audience? He answered: "To get to the true essence of gardening, we have to get back to growing food plants; they’re the reason gardens were invented in the first place. The absence of anything edible in so many American landscapes these days can only be viewed as people missing out on the total gardening experience." I could not agree more with Roger. I guess that is the reason why I garden and more specifically why I am a vegetable gardener. A garden without any edible plants would not be a real garden to me. If we do not eat from our own garden we lose that connection to our natural world. While a garden full of plants and blooms is nice, in my opinion, it is sterile and incomplete without food plants.

My early winter garden is nearly empty now. I harvested the last of the carrots in one of the beds, but still have one bed of carrots left. All the rest of the plots are empty except for the walking onions which I planted in November. Now is the time to start planning next year's garden. Planting time will be here before you know it. Happy New Year!!