Kale is such an elegant plant…

I’m especially excited with my garden this year. My first experimental growing season really allowed me to know how things grow, how much space, and how many of one species of plant I need. Six months of composting and diligent organic fertilizer has reaped me a ton of produce that constantly gives me something…virtually every day! Here’s what I’ve got growing:

Grapes
Peaches
Artichokes
Apples
Tomatoes
Blueberries
Raspberries
Sweet and hot peppers
Eggplant
Kale
Swiss Chard
Mustard greens (not my favorite; but they’re very good for you)
Lemons
Cucumber
Corn
Collards
Zucchini
Onions/Leeks/Chives

Carrots
Broccoli
Herbs: oregano, sage, rosemary, thyme, cilantro

The artichokes have been harvested and we’ll steam them and eat tonight…

I’m working on creating an herb mix for chicken and fish using my herbs…a combo of celery leaves, oregano, lavender, basil, rosemary, sage and two different kinds of thyme. I’ll be dehydrating this afternoon and let you know how it goes!

I’m also overloaded with lemons this year, so I’m going to dehydrate them for future use when the tree goes dormant.

I’m especially excited about the fruits, too. We bought a peach tree, and I can’t wait to bake paleo-friendly peach cobbler and dried peaches for snacks!

And of course, all the apples coming..and grapes, and berries!

I’ve found that fresh, natural and organic eating is essential to my health and vitality. What you see in this post is the real fountain of youth, and I hope all of you will adopt ways of growing your own produce–even just a little bit can make a difference. You may think I must have a lot of land to grow such produce, but don’t be fooled–we’re only on a quarter acre of land. We just used the slab of concrete previously meant to be a patio and built raised beds, so we could have 100% control of soil quality. The outlying areas have fruit trees and berry and grape vines, but we’ve heavily amended the soil and those plants are doing well, despite the low quality soil we initially had when we first moved into this home seven years ago.

Like growing sprouts indoors! It’s probably the easiest gardening you can do. As the weather heats up, my lettuces that grew so well during the cooler months are now going to see, so I’m growing sprouts indoors, which is about the easiest thing you can grow. Just get a plastic flat, poke some holes in the bottom, put some potting soil in and sprinkle the seeds on top. Press them in with your hands, water, and watch them sprout in just a matter of days. This is a good solution for apartment dwellers who don’t have a patio or backyard but have a sunny window. These sprouts can thrive with as little as four hours of sunlight, and they’re packed with vitamins and nutrients. Put them other a salad, in a sandwich–anything.