This blog started as an idea my husband and I had about making our home into a sanctuary, our own urban Eden. I already am very big on cooking from scratch and feeding our family quality food with ingredients we can actually name and spell. It is important to me.  Last year I started a garden in a small section of our backyard, a very small  4×4 foot space. I was really surprised by how much we could grow in such a small space and it was amazing to have fresh vegetables all summer long.

So I had a long talk with him a few weeks ago and told him I wanted to take over the entire backyard.  I couldn’t help but laugh as I asked him if he would have a problem not cutting the grass in the backyard. He looked at me really strange and asked me why I wanted to get rid of the grass.  My response to him was:

“I WANT TO GROW SOMETHING…”

So naturally he wanted to know what I was going  to grow.  I showed him my Pinterest board with my ideas for the garden and he responded with:

“What ever you want to do honey…”

and continued to watch basketball.  Sidebar: He is a coach and he watches basketball 24-7.  He even records it and watches classic games. 

I have some great ideas about food security in our city and I feel like my vision and action should always begin at home. I have decided to do this for a number of reasons:

1. Growing our own food is good for the environment.
2. Growing our own food means we will know exactly what is and is not in our food and it will be healthier.
3. Gardening is good exercise. You can burn as many calories in 45 minutes of garden as you can in 30 minutes of aerobics.
4. Working with plants is calming and can help reduce stress. (LORD KNOWS I NEED THIS!)
5. We can enjoy food without chemicals. The EPA considers 90 percent of fungicides, 60 percent of herbicides, and 30 percent of insecticides carcinogenic, while the National Academy of Sciences considers pesticides to cause 4 million yearly cases of cancer, birth defects, nerve damage and genetic mutations in the US.
6. It is less expensive that going to the grocery store.  A single pack of seeds can cost $1.00 and produce so many plants that you wont be able to consume all the food they can provide.
7. We can avoid GMOs. I can’t even begin to say how much this is important to me. I don’t trust these companies that are trying to take over, hijack and patent our food supply.
8. Being able to share the surplus of food with family and people that need it. 
   

You can get more information on how you can start your own raised bed garden at http://www.raisedgardenbedshowto.com/ they have a great step by step tutorial.