Gardening to a Healthier you!

Taking a bit of a break from the After Affects rise and grind I decided to detour on a little adventure with my youngest and start a veggie garden.  Being a big proponent of using natural skincare products I wanted to mirror that with some natural and healthy produce.  We all know about GMO’s (genetically modified organisms) and toxic pesticides that much of our produce from the grocery stores offers.  I first went into this journey wanting my little finicky eater to learn about where food comes from, how it is grown and that trying new foods isn’t a scary thing.  My little guy stopped eating “real foods” about his 10th month (he’s 5 now) and it has been a chore to say the least- ok it has been hell on wheels- ever sense getting him to get back to eating fruits and veggies even some pasta!  But once I got the tools to start our little garden I began loving the thought of just growing my own food and knowing exactly how it was being grown.  What water I was using, what soil I was using and even what pesticides(all natural) I wanted to used to keep those pesky varmints from bothering our crops.  Since we live in an apartment I didn’t really have the means of growing in the ground and with the way Spring(more like Sprinter) had shaped up I decided we would get some starter plants, but the real fun was starting some crops from seedlings. 

Since we were growing an “urban garden” I needed to find out what we needed to make this happen after the nursery phase.  I researched with tenacity just as I did before I started After Affects.  I learned about companion crops, what was a better solution to using commercial fertilizer, how to harvest, when to harvest, what to look for, what herbs to use to deter insects.  i know I am not done learning and we will be ready for next summer to have a larger crop that will I hope keep us in produce year round.

My little shadow was really enjoying this project.  He was adamant about planting carrots and corn so we did just that.  Further along I decided to get a mini nursery and plant the rest of our crops and just nurse them as I would a new born baby. Although Mother Nature was truly having fun with us and by the time our sprouts were big enough to transfer to some of the larger planters it went back to being colder than they could stand and we lost some of those precious “toddlers”.  So we saved what we could and replanted some we lost.  By middle of May we had nice healthy crop before us!

We truly were having a great time growing our food and the fact that you need to care for your inside the way you do your outside is what makes a whole healthy body.  My oldest was even coming out to check on what we were growing (cool like) and asking questions.

Giving The Shadow more responsibility with the garden he took to watering because he loves playing it in too (no surprise). But one day we were in the garden and my little guy was picking the florets on the broccoli crop.  I didnt act like I had seen him nor was I going to make a big deal but he began eating them and liking them.  Who knew my little non eater was eating raw broccoli! I can only hope this will be the beginning and he will try other produce he has grown especially the two he wanted to plant (corn and carrots).

Once I harvested the broccoli and tasted it I found it tasted 10X better than that from the grocery store.  No they didnt look as large as the big headed stalks you get at the store yet they packed more flavor without cooking without seasoning and just solidified what I had been saying about food without preservatives is always going to be better for your body.YUMMY!! If you grow nothing else everyone should grow broccoli at least once in their lifetime.  I swear you will not buy store bought broccoli ever again.

Needless to say we are still nurturing our crops and waiting to harvest more produce but in the meantime what I have tasted so far there is such a massive difference in eating garden produce, tastes so much cleaner so much tastier and I dont know just fulfilling being able to grow what we eat. 

 

As I said, taking care of what you put on your skin and in your body go hand in hand, one without the other is counter productive with being healthy and giving yourself a fighting chance against such diseases as Cancer.