Beauty Is Not Frivolous, It Can Be Practical Too!
It’s almost garden season! Which means if you haven’t gotten your seed order in IT IS TIME!
BEFORE you do read this post about my journey from growing a highly practical garden to a garden full of beauty and production.
Typically I'm extremely practical. I don’t like to shop like most girls. I don’t own many things that don't have one or more uses or functions. My vegetable garden used to be the same way. No flowers just vegetables. I would often plant similar colors and varieties found in grocery stores.... My garden was bountiful but rather dull.
Then I started a CSA- Consumer Supported Agriculture. Basically the customer helps take on the farmers risks by paying in advance for a seasons worth of vegetables, fruits, flowers and so on. The benefit to the customer is high quality food direct from the farm. When a farmer sells directly to its customers the goal is to make them as happy as possible. It’s a known fact that people like color. Hence the rainbow colored carrot craze, the multicolored egg baskets and the multitude of flowers that are sold annually. Naturally I jumped on this ban wagon when I started my own CSA.
As I thumbed through the seed catalogues I was looking for vibrant colors, hardiness and practical food that was prettier than the store bought varieties. Oh boy, did I find what I was looking for! Radishes and carrots of every color. Lettuces that were bright green and splattered with red splotches. Flowers and herbs galore. I grew as many beautiful things as I could fit into my garden. Every time I delivered to my customers they were thrilled! Even better they learned that carrots are not just orange, potatoes can in fact be purple and different colors means different flavors. I learned something too! Purple cabbages and other purple vegetables are less susceptible to damage from cabbage moths! Not only that, but more color brings in pollinators and boosts your production like crazy! I also learned that growing a rainbow in your garden brings such joy! From seeing the vegetables growing to harvesting them and cooking them. Color brings happiness and beauty is not frivolous.
To this day when you walk through my garden there are flowers and herbs everywhere. I still plant many colors of the same vegetables. I absolutely love pulling a rainbow of radishes out in the early spring time when winter has been so devoid of color for months on end. Harvesting a salad full of color adds a pop any plate and makes even my kids happy to have it. If you have been suffering from seasonal depression adding colorful vegetables to your diet might just be the thing to help you get through.
I may not have wealth in money but I do in many other ways. There is no better food than that grown right outside your door. The flavor is better, the colors are brighter and the nutrition is higher. There is something deeply rewarding when you bring in eggs from the hens, milk from the goat and vegetables from the garden every morning. When you lavish upon your house the beauty of flowers you are indeed a rich person.
Have you ever seen such a beautiful salad mix before?! I just cant get enough of these beautiful greens!!! There would be more happy people in this world if they grew salad like this!!! Need some happy? Need some beauty? Grow a rainbow in your garden this year! Use the code ESTHERSEDEN10 for 10% off your seed order at Heirlooms Evermore Seed Co.
Some of my favorite things to grow are violets of every color, berries (pst cold climate gardeners berries are your friend!), roses and peony, red orach which you can purchase from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company, swiss chard, kale, nasturtiums, green & purple basil. Edible flowers offer multiple functions such as a boost in pollination, they are edible and beautiful. I encourage you to grow for not only practicality but also beauty this growing season!
May your gardens produce abundantly and your spirit be lifted with the beauty of spring. Remember beauty is not frivolous.
Learn & Grow
-Esther
