Eco Living Series
You Can Garden Too!
Thursday, January 28, 2010
For all those naysayers that gardening is not for you - let Gloria from GBC Style, our resident Eco mom, tell you just how easy it is!
I've been gardening since I can remember. My earliest memory is my father planting tomatoes in our backyard with very little attention given to creating visual appeal. And every year, our very own sweet and delicious tomatoes came up. His dabbling proved to be a very gratifying experience for my family and it planted a seed in me (no pun intended). Soon enough, my seed blossomed into a deep appreciation and love for all things agricultural.
My first real fascination with gardening happened accidently when I moved to a charming town - Stony Brook, Long Island. In this town, everyone seemed to possess what seemed to be a natural stewardship of their land. For those who believe in fate, and I do, I fatefully became acquainted with true garden aficionados. Each of these gardeners had her breathtaking gardens, her own interpretation for design and a mind full of wisdom to share. So I joined my first garden club and was proud to become a member with all of its proper ladies. I was so enchanted by all of their stories for keeping roses from developing black spot, tricks on making sure the lawn was green, rigorous talks on the importance of hygiene in one's garden, prize tomatoes and techniques to shine when entering competitive flower arranging shows. Little did I realize that their experiences would someday become the catalyst for the birth of my design business - GBC Style.
So are you ready to get started?
If you are you considering starting a garden, whether for personal reasons or influenced by the "green movement" taking place in our country, just give it a go. Gardening can become one of the most gratifying experiences for you, despite its back-breaking intensive hard work. While a garden, regardless of size, will continually test your patience and provide opportunity for disappointment, a garden will also provide constant amazement and a sense of accomplishment. There is honestly nothing more gratifying than a beautifully maintained blossoming piece of land that you helped design and the bounty which comes from that land.
Are you truly aware of the value of gardening? Gardening is eco-friendly and brings so much value to your family. I am so passionate about gardening, so please indulge me by allowing me to share more about my experiences. The truth is that most people don't know or don't care about the benefits of growing your own food. It can be a chore - that is for sure. But most things worth doing can be a chore at times.
The more obvious reason is that by growing your own food, you can manage and control the quality of the food that your family consumes. You also help promote good physical fitness by doing physical labor to maintain your plot and you reduce the amount of fossil fuel dumped in town landfills by composting kitchen scraps. And we can't forget the best reason – the emotional reason - that euphoric state of mind that gardening puts me in whenever I'm in it. Good wholesome infatuation! Like falling in love every time I step foot in my garden. There really is something magical about stepping into your own garden and seeing the fruits of your labor (that pun was intended).
Why do I Garden now?
It's easy – I really am in love with my garden. There is nothing I wouldn't do to nourish my garden so it naturally grows. Another huge reason and more important - I am spoiled, in a good way. Gone are the days when produce from the supermarket are appealing to my finicky pallet. I find it hard to swallow (quite literally) the half-ripened produce grown in distant lands, tainted with chemicals, and picked by poor migrant workers that are paid less than minimum wage. I just know too much about the agricultural business and its dirty little dealings in corporate food production to trust that they are truly looking out for the welfare of my family.
Gardening has become an excellent opportunity to teach and interact with my family – my boys Michael (12), Jack (10), Greg (25) and of course my husband. You see they might not realize it, but by me actively being a positive example; my goal is to present a future where the garden is integral to their beings. Hopefully they will have a solid appreciation for the experiences derived from the act of gardening like planning, physical labor and patience aid and encourage mindful food consumption and question its nutritional integrity.
Even now in the winter, the garden manages to teach us. The daily task of taking kitchen scraps to our compost (more in a future blog) in the cold and snow is an annoyance, but yet every day they alternate doing it. This is also the time we start the dreaming process for the coming season. Our crop plan for the season seems to be determined by the many seed catalogues we go through and how magnificent the plants look in the pictures.
During the summer, my son Jack loves to wander in the garden barefoot picking raspberries for dessert and sharing his little surprises with friends. They pick berries, potatoes, eggplant, asparagus, onions, garlic and melons, and surprisingly I hear him explaining how the vegetables and fruits grow. The reward of what we've grown is great and the enthusiasm for it from the boys is even greater; my passion rubs off on them – what a blessing! As the teacher, I invest so much of my energy and my love in our garden. I am counting on our boys to someday plant their own plots to dazzle their young ones in the same way the lovely ladies did with me so many years ago. We learn together the value of hard physical work to produce nutritious and organic food, along with beautiful flowers to brighten up our home. Not bad lessons to teach our boys.
Remember, it only takes a few changes to make a difference. Start by planting a few herbs at the kitchen window. Gardening can come in any shape and size, so start with what works for you and let it grow organically. I've said it before… become mindful of your food which includes equal parts of consciousness with what we buy, eat, consume and grow! Local Living at its finest!
I am eager to hear your thoughts and ideas on gardening. I also want to share ideas with each other on how we can invest together in a growing community to teach our youth the value of growing and eating good organic food. Together we can once again become a community based on teaching by example rather than an isolated society feeding off an industry which is not mindful on building solid values for the future.
Check out GBC Style here.
gbcstyle by gloria Facebook
@gbcstyle on Twitter.
I've been gardening since I can remember. My earliest memory is my father planting tomatoes in our backyard with very little attention given to creating visual appeal. And every year, our very own sweet and delicious tomatoes came up. His dabbling proved to be a very gratifying experience for my family and it planted a seed in me (no pun intended). Soon enough, my seed blossomed into a deep appreciation and love for all things agricultural.
My first real fascination with gardening happened accidently when I moved to a charming town - Stony Brook, Long Island. In this town, everyone seemed to possess what seemed to be a natural stewardship of their land. For those who believe in fate, and I do, I fatefully became acquainted with true garden aficionados. Each of these gardeners had her breathtaking gardens, her own interpretation for design and a mind full of wisdom to share. So I joined my first garden club and was proud to become a member with all of its proper ladies. I was so enchanted by all of their stories for keeping roses from developing black spot, tricks on making sure the lawn was green, rigorous talks on the importance of hygiene in one's garden, prize tomatoes and techniques to shine when entering competitive flower arranging shows. Little did I realize that their experiences would someday become the catalyst for the birth of my design business - GBC Style.
So are you ready to get started?
If you are you considering starting a garden, whether for personal reasons or influenced by the "green movement" taking place in our country, just give it a go. Gardening can become one of the most gratifying experiences for you, despite its back-breaking intensive hard work. While a garden, regardless of size, will continually test your patience and provide opportunity for disappointment, a garden will also provide constant amazement and a sense of accomplishment. There is honestly nothing more gratifying than a beautifully maintained blossoming piece of land that you helped design and the bounty which comes from that land.
Are you truly aware of the value of gardening? Gardening is eco-friendly and brings so much value to your family. I am so passionate about gardening, so please indulge me by allowing me to share more about my experiences. The truth is that most people don't know or don't care about the benefits of growing your own food. It can be a chore - that is for sure. But most things worth doing can be a chore at times.
The more obvious reason is that by growing your own food, you can manage and control the quality of the food that your family consumes. You also help promote good physical fitness by doing physical labor to maintain your plot and you reduce the amount of fossil fuel dumped in town landfills by composting kitchen scraps. And we can't forget the best reason – the emotional reason - that euphoric state of mind that gardening puts me in whenever I'm in it. Good wholesome infatuation! Like falling in love every time I step foot in my garden. There really is something magical about stepping into your own garden and seeing the fruits of your labor (that pun was intended).
Why do I Garden now?
It's easy – I really am in love with my garden. There is nothing I wouldn't do to nourish my garden so it naturally grows. Another huge reason and more important - I am spoiled, in a good way. Gone are the days when produce from the supermarket are appealing to my finicky pallet. I find it hard to swallow (quite literally) the half-ripened produce grown in distant lands, tainted with chemicals, and picked by poor migrant workers that are paid less than minimum wage. I just know too much about the agricultural business and its dirty little dealings in corporate food production to trust that they are truly looking out for the welfare of my family.
Gardening has become an excellent opportunity to teach and interact with my family – my boys Michael (12), Jack (10), Greg (25) and of course my husband. You see they might not realize it, but by me actively being a positive example; my goal is to present a future where the garden is integral to their beings. Hopefully they will have a solid appreciation for the experiences derived from the act of gardening like planning, physical labor and patience aid and encourage mindful food consumption and question its nutritional integrity.
Even now in the winter, the garden manages to teach us. The daily task of taking kitchen scraps to our compost (more in a future blog) in the cold and snow is an annoyance, but yet every day they alternate doing it. This is also the time we start the dreaming process for the coming season. Our crop plan for the season seems to be determined by the many seed catalogues we go through and how magnificent the plants look in the pictures.
During the summer, my son Jack loves to wander in the garden barefoot picking raspberries for dessert and sharing his little surprises with friends. They pick berries, potatoes, eggplant, asparagus, onions, garlic and melons, and surprisingly I hear him explaining how the vegetables and fruits grow. The reward of what we've grown is great and the enthusiasm for it from the boys is even greater; my passion rubs off on them – what a blessing! As the teacher, I invest so much of my energy and my love in our garden. I am counting on our boys to someday plant their own plots to dazzle their young ones in the same way the lovely ladies did with me so many years ago. We learn together the value of hard physical work to produce nutritious and organic food, along with beautiful flowers to brighten up our home. Not bad lessons to teach our boys.
Remember, it only takes a few changes to make a difference. Start by planting a few herbs at the kitchen window. Gardening can come in any shape and size, so start with what works for you and let it grow organically. I've said it before… become mindful of your food which includes equal parts of consciousness with what we buy, eat, consume and grow! Local Living at its finest!
I am eager to hear your thoughts and ideas on gardening. I also want to share ideas with each other on how we can invest together in a growing community to teach our youth the value of growing and eating good organic food. Together we can once again become a community based on teaching by example rather than an isolated society feeding off an industry which is not mindful on building solid values for the future.
Check out GBC Style here.
gbcstyle by gloria Facebook
@gbcstyle on Twitter.
