I Love To Garden
I love to garden! I’ve had this passion since I was a little girl and remember spending time with my mother on summer evenings while she tended the vegetable patch just outside our kitchen. She grew many varieties of vegetables for our large family, in addition to perennial and annual cut flowers for our kitchen table. I can still “taste” the fresh dressing she made for our salads and the vegetable dishes she prepared.
I moved to the San Diego area as a young adult and in the first two weeks of moving to California, I bought a Meyer’s lemon tree and placed it in a pot in the entry to my apartment. That lemon tree symbolized my first impressions about San Diego – the wonderful sunshine, abundance of fresh produce all year, and mild winters that I longed for as a young adult in Iowa. Although I loved the variety of fresh produce available in the supermarkets, I knew their flavors were no match for the taste of freshly picked fruits and vegetables from the garden. For the next twenty plus years, I had a garden in every place I lived and planted greens, tomatoes, and fruit trees mostly. In my free time, I absorbed all the books I could find on gardening and edible gardening in particular. I attended classes all over San Diego, focusing on methods of organic gardening that enhance the soil biology, while providing a habitat for beneficial insects.
In 2010 my husband and I turned our typical suburban yard into a mostly edible landscape that provides us with fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs and more. The organic edible garden we started that year soon expanded from a few fruit trees and salad beds to numerous vegetable beds, 40 fruiting trees and shrubs, fresh eggs from our three hens and a habitat for birds, butterflies and more. Meals we create from the garden capture that taste I remembered from my youth, and I longed to show others how they could do the same. So…I soon traded a fast-paced career in business for one that expresses my passion and reconnects me with nature and Edible Garden Creations was born.
My favorite time to go out in the garden is early morning when the dew is still lingering and the birds and other wildlife are milling about. I pick lettuce and other greens for the day and check on what else is ready for harvest. I feel a deep satisfaction in growing fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs for my family and creating recipes that showcase our harvest. As I start my day, I feel all is right with the world!