Starting An Organic Baby: Conception

For a long time I have been considering starting an organic vegetable garden, but never have.

I have been to lectures on how to start one. I have looked through numberous websites. I have envied friends' gardens. I have made excuses about our property not having enough sun or a proper location. I have entertained the idea with my husband. You name it, I have "haved" too many times.

I always compared starting a vegetable garden with having another child. The idea of having one is fantastic, but the reality is 100% love, commitment and hours of hard work. (In fact, I have wanted a third child but as I say, "it takes two to tango" and if my husband isn't interested in signing my dance card, it is not happening.)

A garden requires a bit of the same in terms of commitment, dedicated loving hours, and hard work-yet I finally realized if I wanted one, I could make it happen myself. I didn't need any dance partner to start my organic baby.

I found a sunny spot along the side of my house and started digging and thus my organic garden was conceived. I am no longer a "have not"...and will soon be a "have." I didn't even bother to ask my husband. I just told him I was going to start a vegetable garden.

This was huge for me because I am usually so afraid of failure or not doing it "right" that I end up keeping whatever I want to do or see in my "sometime in the future" list of things. I am not sure what changed in me. Perhaps I was tired of spending so much money at the local organic markets, or visiting a friend that just became a sharecropper at a local farm, or perhaps it is that turning 42 thing...or maybe just that I decided the best tasting and economical food is the food I grow myself.

No longer was it about doing it right or wrong, it was just about doing it. I stopped worrying about the outcomes. I have enough "gentleman and lady farmer friends" around me that I can ask for help along the way. In fact, my friend even brought me a bag of organic compost from Stone Barns at Blue Hill. For me that replicated the christening of a ship's maiden voyage with a bottle of bubbly. I am just as happy with organic waste and manure. I will save the champagne when I make my first serving of rainbow swiss chard grown just feet outside my back yard.

It's funny because I don't remember specific dates of when my children starting walking or talking, but I do remember the dates of their conception: June 1, 1997 and June 28, 1999....and now for my third: April 2, 2010.