I’m adding a new category to The Scoop: gardening. I’ve written about composting before, but as I’m learning more and more about keeping a garden, I’m realizing just how important it is. I’m not pretending that our garden (a handful of used wine barrels in our backyard) is going to provide all of the vegetables we need; I don’t have that kind of time. What our little container garden WILL do, however, is provide us with a connection to the growing of our food, to the fact that every plant food that you eat is grown somewhere. That sounds overly simplified to the point of silliness, but it’s pretty easy to forget that that banana you just peeled, that tomato you just sliced, and those strawberries you’re going to eat for dessert all were grown from seeds or bulbs or shoots. Our fruits and vegetables are grown in soil, which means that the health of the soil where they’re grown is directly tied to the health of the plants themselves, and thus to our own health.

These things are much more difficult to forget when I’ve got a bunch of little growing plants in our yard that needs protecting and nurturing. We created the healthiest soil that we could, we bought starts that looked well-nurtured, and we’re now in the process of figuring out how to protect our garden from our dogs, who are all too eager to have an early harvest of their own. (Case in point: this morning I came home from a meeting to find that two of our squash plants had been dug up and thoroughly enjoyed by one of our dogs; the culprit has yet to come forward.) All of these things cause us to think about our food, to obsess over its growth and to care about its well-being. So, while we’re not going to be growing enough to really make a dent in our grocery bill, we’re certainly growing enough to renew our commitment to consuming quality produce. It’s hard to forget about food quality when your hands are covered in dirt.

My hope is that I might inspire some of you to start a small garden of your own. I started out with just a few pots of herbs like thyme and basil, so don’t be intimidated. Start small, and that way if you fail it’s not that big of a deal. At least, that’s what I keep telling myself.