How Does Your Garden Grow?

I just made my first batch of zucchini bread and I'm proud of myself for learning how. I don't know why but fruits and especially vegetables that are foreign to me are incredibly intimidating. I don't eat zucchini but it's delicious in bread. I don't eat tomatoes but they're delicious in soups and chili. I don't eat onions but they add so much flavor in practically any dinner item. And it was so easy too, I just had to peel and grate the zucchini and add it to the batter. Oh the batter, let me tell you......autumn in a bowl, it was delicious! I probably could have gotten another muffin pan full of zucchini muffins if I didn't eat so much batter. But it was just too good!

I'm debating whether or not to plant a garden next year. It's a debate because of two reasons: #1 I want a garden and I want to learn how to can and freeze foods for the entire year to save money on our grocery bill and be self sufficient. But #2 it will be completely impossible and even unimaginable if I am pregnant.

That's the debate. Do I or don't I? We have the perfect space for it, the side "dog run" is completely fenced in and just the size for a small garden. That being said, we'd have to rip up the grass in that area and rototill it all under and add manure and what not to get the soil ready in the spring. Just talking about it makes me so excited! I love working outside and it'll be neat to see the seeds sprout into recognizable plants and then to eat the produce ourselves and can it for the winter! Genius!! It's like free food! It just takes a little know how but being raised on a farm, it shouldn't be too difficult, right? Growing up I remember we had to weed our garden and orchard (which were gargantuan by the way) and finish up the other chores (feed all the animals, pick rock, move pipe, clean the stalls and pens, weed the flower beds, etc.) all before we were able to play. We worked hard together but of course we played hard together as well, some of my most cherished memories of my childhood.

Anyway, so this is my debate for the winter and hopefully by spring I'll have made up my mind. Looking back, I wish we would have at least planted some pumpkins this year because we use a lot of them for our Halloween party. I wasn't exactly thinking about gardens at the time, I was trying to figure out how to be a mother and that took me some time to figure out. Oh well, there's always next year.

"The prophet said to plant a garden, so that’s what we’ll do.
For God has given rich brown soil, the rain and sunshine too.
And if we plant the seeds just right and tend them carefully,
Before we know, good things will grow to feed our family.

We’ll plant the seeds to fill our needs, then plant a few to spare,
And show we love our neighbors with the harvest that we share.
Oh, won’t you plant a garden, too, and share the many joys
A garden brings in health and love to happy girls and boys!"
- LDS Children's Hymnbook