Vegetable Gardeners: Garden with the Seasons

You don't have to live in the country to better connect to the seasons by growing your own food. Vegetable gardening with the seasons empowers you to get in tune with nature. Become involved in the growing cycle and increase your awareness of the year's natural turn. You can change your approach to food by growing a home vegetable garden, even on a small scale. While you probably won't supply all your own vegetables and fruit, you can certainly supplement your diet (and your budget) by growing some of your own fresh, organic produce. Learn to work with nature as you follow earth's cycles, tending your plants in the fresh air, sunshine and rain. Watch the natural growth patterns and cycles of your plants over the smooth succession of the seasons. Find yourself in a more meaningful, soulful connection to Nature, grateful for the food she is providing. Some simple ways to grow some of your own food while you get in tune with the seasons include:

• Grow dwarf fruit trees in large containers on your deck or patio. Some fruit trees, figs for example, even prefer the crowded conditions of a container. Fruit trees are an exquisite way to connect with the turning of the year, through bud and blossom in Spring, leaf and fruit through Summer, harvest and colour change over Autumn, leaf fall and bareness over Winter then reawakening with the glory of Spring's bud and blossom.
• Large containers placed in frost-protected positions can also be used to grow greens through the cool and warm crop cycles. For example, you can grow bok choy and kale in Autumn, spinach and silverbeet over Winter, snowpeas and celery in Spring and lettuce and broccoli over Summer.
• Tomatoes are an old favourite for producing excellent yields in small spaces, and are one of the most worthwhile fruits to grow at home. Plant from seed in late Winter, transplant seedlings in Spring and enjoy watching your tomatoes swell and ripen over Summer. Enhance your Summer evenings by biting into freshly picked tomatoes while you sit outside enjoying the lingering evening warmth on your deck. The juiciness and flavour of a freshly picked, home-grown tomato is unbeatable.
• For something quite different, try a mushroom log inoculated with mushroom spawn placed in a damp, shady spot near your house. Shiitake mushrooms make an intriguing display as they puff out from the log into elegant cascades. Different kinds of mushrooms fruit in different weather conditions, triggered by the coolness or warmth of the season. Button mushrooms can be grown quite easily inside the house year round, and also provide an interesting spectacle as they burst forth from their compost.

So take the opportunity to tune into the seasons by working with nature to grow some of your own food. Your planet will thank you with delicious, healthy produce.