Plant strawberries and your children will come home from school and pick them. They will tell their friends, and then their friends will come over and pick them Now suddenly, they are playing in the garden, instead of playing on electronics. Walk Grandma to the back garden and ask her to pick fresh zucchini with you and she will begin to recall her memories of a time when families were more self sufficient and relied on the kitchen garden to provide fresh food at the dinner table. The reason to grow it was to it eat! There is a lot of pride in that memory.
Ask the awkward preteen to come into the garden and turn the soil and dig the holes and maybe some of the angst will subside because this feels good. And possibly working in this garden could become the preteens pride and joy of accomplishment.
Plant an urban garden in a concrete jungle and all of the neighbors will come out. In fact they will stare in amazement at all the fresh beauty. In the headlines recently, several non profit organizations and individuals are growing fresh food in neighborhoods where fresh food is unavailable, and also creating job opportunities for locals to maintain the gardens and sell produce.
Do you want to meet your neighbors? Ask them to come over and pick large beautiful tomatoes off of the vines and they will be pleased. It helps to make good neighbors. This summer, on a warm evening, have a garden party. Let’s really have drinks and dinner around the raised planter beds of fresh herbs and vegetables and pick lemons and limes to squeeze into the cocktails, and pick fresh figs from the fig trees for dessert. How fun does that sound?
So to all of you who are still dreaming about a garden in your life…….roll up your sleeves and get started. Gardens are powerful, magical stuff and I promise that you will be surprised how many will come to admire your achievement.