I’ve worked at job #1 (as in, not APP) for 13 years. I started there as a student, and worked to pay my bills and supplement my financial aid. After graduation, I kept working there; partly because I needed a job and didn’t know where to go to get a job within my major, but mostly because I love my alma mater. I love the way the leaves change in early October on Franklin Street; I love watching students move in every August, full of hope and potential and excitement. I love how snow blankets the trees in Monroe Park in winter; how everyone in my department has a part to play and we all work together as a team in a crisis or to get a problem corrected. I’ve loved this place and have never been able to leave.

I worked in my position for seven years, cultivating working relationships and friendships, fine tuning my craft and overcoming challenges that made me proud and excited to be a part of the department.

In April, I applied, interviewed, and was promoted for a new position, supervising 90 people, all people I had been working with for years. I was excited for the possibilities, taking over and attempting to fill the shoes of the best supervisor I’d ever had, and for all the things I could do to make the department better. Giddy doesn’t begin to describe how I felt when I got this job.

Now, almost immediately after starting it, the job is over. The powers that be have decided to outsource and “abolish” the positions of those I supervise, as well as abolishing mine as their supervisor. The goal of so many layoffs (over 100 including two other areas of the division) is to save money. Everyone needs more money. The students need more money, the staff and faculty need more money, the powers need more money. If everyone needs more money, who has all the money everyone needs? Sigh. I digress.

So 13 years of working here has come to this. I received my “walking papers” today. I don’t know

what comes next. I’ll either have a (different) job come July 1, or I’ll be looking for one. The feelings are hard to deal with sometimes. Analogies to funerals and grieving have been mentioned several times by numerous people going through this with me. It doesn’t just affect the 100 families being left without jobs; it affects the family we have in the department; those friends and relationships we’ve built through mutual respect, trust and the various triumphs and failures that brought us together. I’ve been grieving for days; I continually go through a few stages of the process in one day and then take 3 steps back and start over.

It’s exhausting, more than anything. I fall asleep exhausted every night but wake up a couple of hours later unable to sleep.

It’s embarrassing, when everyone asks how you’re doing, and makes it difficult not to think about it all the time. I got home from work today and the husband asked me, “what are you feeling?” He was referring to dinner, but I was so used to everyone asking me how I was feeling all day, I answered with “sad.” Which made him laugh.

It’s obviously stressful. I’ve picked up an eye tick since this started, and feel an ulcer coming on.

I want to use my experience for good though, so if you’re a spouse, friend or loved one who has been laid off, or is being laid off, here are some tips:

1) Listen. The person being laid off knows there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it. If they bring it up to you, it means they trust you with the information and just want to get it off their chest. You might feel helpless, but you’re actually helping a lot just by listening. And if they don’t want to talk, don’t be offended. Sometimes it’s necessary to stop talking about it for 5 minutes, and to redirect the brain to something more pleasant – like the sound of a car alarm or fire truck.

2) Be patient. Your loved one’s brain is going a million miles a minute, then doing a 180 and completely blanking on everything except the impending doom. They will forget things. They will misplace phones/keys/glasses/etc even more than they usually do. They will burst into tears for seemingly no reason; just ignore it and help them find a tissue.

3) Don’t offer to pay for everything to infinity and beyond. It’s embarrassing. If there’s occasion for it, great. If we go out for drinks, and one round is on you, I’ll take it. But if you don’t already typically pay for meals or events, it’s going to get awkward if you suddenly start paying for everything because you feel sorry for the person losing their job. You might feel like you’re helping, but it will help more if you refer to #1 and #2.

I don’t write this to garner sympathy or pity. Writing is cathartic for me and helps me deal with the experience. I hope you have not had to deal with this experience personally; but if you have, feel free to give me any more tips on how to deal with being laid off, or tips for family and friends to deal with a loved one who is dealing with it. It could be really helpful to anyone coming to grips with losing a job and a lot of relationships they really loved.

The post I Fall To Pieces appeared first on Allison Patel Photography.

Well, my friend. No more! I’m offering a monstrous giveaway in May. I’m offering a night out, away from kids, away from routine. I’m offering everything except the babysitter (I tried, but Hauser had a hard time learning how to change a diaper).

The giveaway is running today through midnight Sunday night. You can enter by clicking the link here. But what exactly are you getting if you win? Here’s a rundown:

The two of you will meet me at Bev’s on a warm afternoon/evening in Carytown, for a scoop. We’ll take it outside and walk around Carytown for 30 minutes. Window shopping at Luxor, playing with the toys at World of Mirth, browsing through the books at Chop Suey Tuey, or parking it on a bench and people watching – we’ll do whatever you want to do for 30 minutes, while I take photos of the two of you together. How long has it been since you’ve gotten photos of just the two of you together? Too long, for sure.

Once our 30 minutes together is finished, you’ll ditch me and take your time heading to dinner together at Ginger Thai, my treat.

After dinner, if you want to stay a little longer and see a $2 movie at the Byrd, I won’t tell.

Yes, we are doing ice cream before dinner. It’s okay, the kids don’t have to know. Once you ditch me after our 30 minute wandering, you can wait as long as you want before you go to dinner. It doesn’t have to be immediate.

The only thing that does need to be somewhat immediate is the use of the winning date night. We need to have our date by the end of July, so keep that in mind as you enter. Three months is enough time to find a babysitter, right?

If this sounds awesome and up your alley, you can enter the giveaway here. Enter as much as possible to give yourself the best chance of winning!

The post Date Night appeared first on Allison Patel Photography.

You start a new job, blink, and it’s been seven years and you’ve become your own boss. You fall in love, blink, and suddenly it’s eleven years later, you’re married with a family and can’t remember life before that. Life can be a blur, moving in an endless hurried pace from one event to another, with never enough time to catch a deep breath; just moving forward and forward and forward. It’s not until tragedy strikes or a loved one is diagnosed with a terrifying illness that we realize we should have taken more time to just be together. More time to learn more about what makes your husband tick, what makes your wife laugh, what your children’s dreams for the future are.

Too often we allow moments, hours, and days to pass by unheralded, thinking that an ordinary day is something to be shrugged off until the next big thing arrives. Those ordinary days, even the dreaded Mondays, are what make your life YOURS. The ordinary moments that connect the extraordinary are what make up your life. Take a few minutes to commemorate those little moments. Take a deep breath, and ask your husband what his favorite song is. Learn what makes him tick.

All of the photos in today’s blog are from my Instagram feed. Join me on Instagram for more day-to-day photo fun – @allisonpatelphotography.

The post New Beginnings appeared first on Allison Patel Photography.

This one is listed as being for maternity clients, but the color scheme would look great on any classic couple. This particular guy’s outfit is from Banana Republic, the dress from Old Navy, and the necklace is an adorable punch of color I found on Etsy, at JustineJustine.

The outfit collection below has something for the whole family. A dress for mom is the focal point, with daughter’s dress, son’s sweater (assuming it’s still cool enough, but a shirt in the same color would work just as well) and a polo for dad that all complement (and compliment) Mom. (Perfect for a Mother’s Day session…)

You don’t need to find this exact outfit (that might be difficult anyway), but use the theory to find something that works for your family. Start with the person hardest to dress. That’s likely the person who stands in front of the closet the longest before deciding on what to wear. (Is that you? It’s me in my house.) Whoever it is, find something for them to wear that they/you love, and build the rest of the family’s garb around that. As long as everyone is comfortable and happy, you can’t go wrong.

Have you found one outfit you love, but just can’t seem to build corresponding pieces to go with it? Email me at allison@allisonpatelphoto.com with a link or a photo of that gem, and I’ll help you come up with something terrific (no strings attached, of course).

Don’t forget to take advantage of the Spring Mini Sessions I’m holding on Saturday, May 4 at Belle Isle while you’re planning! $75 gets you 30 minutes of session time and 5 photos on a thumb drive, just in time for Mother’s Day! I’ve only got 4 spots available, so don’t wait!

The post Spring/Summer Wardrobe Inspiration appeared first on Allison Patel Photography.

“In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.”  - William Blake

Harvesting

It is a very exciting time in the gardener’s life when plants start maturing and fruit starts to ripen. When those luscious tomatoes shift from rosey to deep red, the anticipation can be overwhelming. Peppers can be picked and eaten at any stage between green and orange/red but resist the urge to pick your tomatoes early. The best flavor and sweetness will develop with full maturity. Many vegetables such as cucumber and summer squash can be picked young and smaller, and their flavor and texture are in fact better at this point. If you have friends or family that garden, especially if you are growing similar varieties, don’t be afraid to ask for their experience on the best time to pick a particular vegetable. Keeping records on your planting dates and plant progress when you’re out in the garden will also help you anticipate harvest based on the number of days to maturity stated on your seed packet.

Savygardener.com: When to harvest your garden vegetables

University of Minnesota Extension: Harvesting and storing home garden vegetables

Weekend Gardener: Vegetable and Fruit Harvest Guide

Tucking in the garden for the winter

Inevitably the primary growing season will come to a close as the warmer weather gives way to chilly nights and our gardens will become less and less productive. If you plan to grow cool weather crops, you may consider pulling less productive plants late in the summer as the weather starts to cool to make room for your lettuces, spinach, broccoli, kale, etc. If you are only growing during the summer, taking steps now to prepare your garden for next spring will save you time later.

After you have finished harvesting, chop up (a shovel or hoe works well) and compost or dispose of the past season’s crop wastes. If you don’t compost, you can still add leaves, grass clippings and any vegetable waste (avoid fruits with seeds) to your vegetable beds and mix into the soil to naturally break down over the winter. Lightly cultivate your beds and add organic matter in preparation for next season. Avoid composting or adding back into your garden any plants which show signs of disease – these should be burned or thrown out.

You may consider planting a cover crop of clover that can be turned in with a shovel or hoe later to add nitrogen. Cover crops or “green mulches” help protect your soil from wind and water erosion and keep the soil from being baked dry by the sun. If you are using an additional fertilizer, consult the manufacturers instructions – there may be notes on continuing to feed your soil.

One of my favorite things about gardening is the cyclical nature of growth, death and rebirth in the garden. If a crop did not go as planned this season, do not give up! You will have another chance next season to troubleshoot or try another variety. We are working hand in hand with nature,  but we do not control it. Sometimes the solutions to problems are not immediately evident. This is where gardening helps us develop patience and fosters community. Food brings people together. Talk to your neighbors and friends and others who garden and learn all you can, share your harvests and seeds, and know that you are participating in and helping to preserve tens of thousands of years of human knowledge.

I recommend the following resources for more in-depth reading, including technical information on creating garden plans, building healthy soil, composting, transplanting, saving your own seeds and efficient harvesting.

Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times , by Steve Solomon: A barebones method of growing food efficiently and effectively. The book is written from the viewpoint of starting a garden and making sure you and your family are fed and that your garden is sustainable. No fancy tools, ingredients in the soil mixes are easy to find, and the book is a no-frills expose’ in gardening for those with little to no experience.

Rodale Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening : I have no idea how many editions of this book have been printed, but I have two and I have seen additional editions on the bookshelves of others. A great quick reference for gardening concepts in the A-Z encyclopedia format. If you can find it used or on sale, it is an especially good deal.

The New Organic Grower: A Master’s Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener , by Eliot Coleman: Eliot Coleman is a problem solver, and as a farmer in Maine growing food year round, he has contributed a huge amount of information about using clever ideas rooted in science and experimentation to increase yields and maximize space in the garden. While this text is geared slightly toward the market grower or those looking to start a small farm, I highly recommend this book for the information on soil science and crop planning, which will be useful to the gardener growing at any scale. It also includes considerable information on building a small arsenal of simple tools (many popular in Europe but only recently introduced to the US) to make garden work more efficient.

The Backyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre , by Carleen Madigan: Most of us don’t have a quarter acre to work with, but if you are the crafty type who loves to experiment, you will have a lot of fun with this book. It starts off with standard vegetable gardening but includes a lot of useful information on building trellises and maximizing space, growing fruit trees and berry bushes, growing and using herbs, preserving your harvests, saving seeds, making wine and bread, and many other topics.

Tender: A cook and his vegetable patch, by Nigel Slater: The author is based in England but most of the information is very much relevant to gardeners in the US. The book is divided into sections by vegetable, and includes some information on growing each, but more importantly it includes a list of recipes for preparing each in different ways. One of the common complaints that I hear from folks that are beginning to garden is that they have too much food and are not sure what to do with it. Learning how to use vegetables in different ways can drastically increase your arsenal of cooking skills. At over 500 pages, this book is a mountain of useful information on getting food from your garden onto the dinner table for your family.

Even if you want to start small with one or two plants or herbs while you learn how to care for your seedlings, just growing one crop to help supplement your other produce can help you save money and give you such a sense of accomplishment as you pick veggies from the garden for that night’s dinner.

Thank you so much to Jared Karnes of Onetribe Jewelry for writing and providing so much helpful information!  If you aren’t familiar with Onetribe, visit their site and see the all-natural, all handmade, gorgeous jewelry that they make and sell right here in Richmond. You can also view the blog post review I did last summer when I visited their shop south of the river.

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“It’s difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato.”  ~Lewis Grizzard

Now that we’ve covered where and when to plant, we can concentrate on what this is all about – what to plant! The easiest way to answer the question “What should I plant?” is to start with the much more simple “What do my family and I like to eat?”

Here are suggestions for your late spring into summer crops. Most of these are primary staples that immediately come to mind when discussing gardening:

Beans (Pole and Bush)                 Potatoes

Chard                                           Pumpkins

Corn                                            Tomatoes

Cucumbers                                  Squash

Eggplant                                     Sweet Potatoes

Melons                                        Zucchini

Peppers

During cooler periods (fall through early spring) you might consider planting the following crops:

Mildly Cold Hardy

Beets                                           Chard

Carrots                                         Lettuce

Cauliflower                                  Parsnip

Very Cold Hardy

Broccoli                                        Mustard Greens

Brussels Sprouts                           Onions

Cabbage                                      Peas

Collard Greens                             Radishes

Garlic                                           Spinach

Kale                                             Turnips

Each of these plants is available as a wide range of varieties with different growing habits (some may be compact and perfect for containers while others need plenty of space to sprawl), colors, flavors, length of time to harvest, etc. Most dedicated gardeners start getting excited in late winter and early spring when the new seed catalogs start arriving because it provides a chance to plan a garden that fits exactly the needs of the gardener and family. Perhaps the kids love eating super sweet cherry tomatoes right off the vine while parents might appreciate nice large slicing tomatoes for sandwiches. I have even heard of folks who garden in their front yards growing tomatoes with unusual colors to prevent passers-by from helping themselves to the traditional ripe and juicy red tomato.

Here are my favorite places to look for that perfect variety for my own garden. Most have online catalogs, and some have print catalogs that you can receive at the start of every season. I also highly suggest talking to local gardeners to find out what varieties they favor. You will very likely be gifted some seeds!

Southern Exposure Seed Exchange

Territorial Seed

Victory Seeds

Johnny’s Selected Seeds

I prefer growing from seed so that I have the freedom to choose specific varieties and can control their early growth so I know that I have healthy plants for my garden. It is also far more economical than purchasing transplants. However, it is certainly possible to purchase plants for transplant into your garden from your local home improvement store. Most big-box stores have an assortment of traditional garden plants available starting in early spring. Look for plants with healthy, vibrant green leaves and thicker stems. Plant them as soon as possible because plants can become root bound in small pots and this can slow future growth.

If growing from seed, you will want to start your tomatoes and peppers indoors 4-6 weeks before the last frost so that you can transplant them into the garden after the danger of frost. This will give your plants a head start and allow you to receive more yield over a longer fruiting season versus sowing directly into the ground. In areas where summer comes late and fall comes early, this head start is necessary to ensure a harvest. Most harvest dates listed in catalogs and on seed packets for these plants are from transplant to harvest.

The remainder of your plants can be direct seeded in the garden by following the directions from your seed vendor. If you have the time and space, many other vegetables can be started indoors in pots and transplanted, which can increase your yield significantly over the growing season. Transplanting also improves garden efficiency. Rather than sowing seeds outdoors and having an unpredictable germination percentage (or having seeds eaten by birds), you are putting established plants directly into the garden.

More information on transplanting into your garden can be found at the below links:

Royal Horticultural Society: Transplanting Vegetables

Virginia Cooperative Extension: Evaluating Vegetable Transplants

Maryland Cooperative Extension: Growing Vegetable Transplants (PDF)

This guide includes lists of vegetables with the recommended number of plants to grow per person if you wish to obtain a specific yield (PDF)

Now go and sow some seed! Our last post will discuss harvesting those goodies you grow this summer, and then prepping your garden for winter so it survives the cold Virginia winter.

The post You Are What You Grow appeared first on Allison Patel Photography.

“People are like dirt. They can either nourish you and help you grow as a person or they can stunt your growth and make you wilt and die.” - Plato

Soil is the life force of your garden. Within that brown stuff lies not only the vitamins and minerals that your plants need to survive, but an entire ecosystem of microbes, bacteria, fungi, invertebrates and bugs that all rely on each other’s contributions. Healthy soils have large amounts of organic matter known as humus. If you’ve ever taken a walk through the forest, that rich, dark, sweet smelling layer of soil below your feet is a good example of your ideal garden soil. It is composed of layer upon layer of organic matter that has broken down and fed the soil flora and fauna.

If you are growing in a raised bed, you will need to obtain soil. You can purchase bags of garden soil at most home improvement centers, or you can have soil delivered from a local landscaping company. I generally choose the delivery as a truckload is more economical than bag after bag of soil, and I trust composted topsoil from a local business more than I trust pre-fertilized bagged soil. There exists volume upon volume on soil science, so I will not delve into the technical aspects. Ensuring a good supply of organic matter (compost from your grass clippings, leaves and kitchen scraps helps immensely) goes a long way toward keeping your soil happy. Additional fertility can be had by way of the growing number of natural fertilizers in powder or liquid form which can be added to your soil. Follow the supplied directions and keep a record – over fertilizing can have negative consequences and lead to sad, underproductive plants.

For more information on soil science and building healthy gardens oil, consult the following resources:

communitygarden.org: Soil Health

Gardener’s Supply: Building Healthy Soil

Healthy Soil and How to Make It

Stay tuned; on Thursday we’ll talk about what you should plant (finally!)

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When to plant? Once you have selected a site for your garden, your next step will be to learn more about the climate in your area. For the purposes of agriculture, the United States is divided into zones by the lowest average temperatures reached. Your zone will help you determine what you can grow outdoors during the winter. Virginia has a surprisingly varied climate and the state contains five growing zones.

View the map below to find your zone. Richmond straddles zones 7a and 7b, two of the warmer zones which fall across the state.

USDA Virginia Hardiness Zone Map

The other climate factor is your average first and last frost dates. This allows you to know when it’s safe to plant your first crops outside in the spring and when your last harvests will likely be in the fall. The University of Virginia has a handy list of Virginia cities with columns for frost probability of 90%, 50% and 10%.

While cool weather tolerant crops such as salad greens, beets, peas and carrots can reliably be grown in colder weather throughout the state, your staple summer crops including tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, beans, squash, etc. should be planted on or after the date in your area’s 10% column to minimize the risk of plant damage from frost.

UVA Virginia Growing Season Chart

Here in Virginia we have a wonderful resource for gardening – a locally owned and operated seed bank where we can purchase ethically produced heirloom vegetable seed that grows very well in our region. In addition to providing seed, the staff is very knowledgeable and has provided a must-have crop planting guide especially for Virginia residents. The guide includes approximate planting dates for coastal, plain and mountain areas for a huge range of vegetable crops.

Southern Exposure Seed Exchange Planting Dates (PDF)

They have also compiled a very helpful beginning gardener guide which covers planning, starting seeds and planting. All of these charts and dates may seem overwhelming, but this is information you really only need to find and remember one time. It is an important part of the garden planning process that will help ensure a stress free growing season.

The post How Late is Too Early for Planting? appeared first on Allison Patel Photography.

Once you’ve decided you want to grow your herbs and veggies, the first step in creating your garden is to decide what scale and where you would like to put it. If you are limited to pots on a balcony or even in a window indoors, don’t worry, you will still have plenty of opportunities for a wonderful yield; you will just have to be more clever with your planting choices to maximize your space. Check the below resources for more information on getting the most veggie yield for your space. (Each link opens in a new window)

Virginia Cooperative Extension: Vegetable Gardening in Containers

University of Illinois: Successful Container Gardens

Clemson Cooperative Extension: Vegetable Container Gardening

If you will be starting a garden in the yard, you will want a spot with 6 or more hours of direct sun per day (this is considered “full sun”). Assuming you reside in a relatively urban area, and especially in an older city, it is probably best to consider raised bed gardening for your food due to the unpredictability of soil contaminants and the often poor health of urban soils.

A raised bed is a simple frame of any shape or height (10-12” or higher is recommended) into which you will fill healthy new soil for your garden. This will sit on top of your pre-existing yard and allow you to concentrate more on caring for your plants than tilling and weeding. Some maintenance is necessary but it is considerably less than keeping an in-ground garden tidy.

My non-profit, Renew Richmond, generally builds raised beds 4’x8’ in size and 10” deep. This is accomplished with three 2”x10”x8’ boards: two boards for the long sides of the rectangle and one which is cut in half to form the short sides. This lumber is readily available at most home improvement stores. You can also stack boards on their edges and raise the garden significantly, which gives the added benefit of less back strain during cultivation and harvest and far more soil depth for your plants (and it looks wonderful), but it also increases both the lumber cost and soil volume dramatically, so keep that in mind.

Be sure to either use untreated lumber and a non-toxic sealant or newer pressure treated lumber which does not contain arsenic or other toxins or metals.

The below links will provide more detailed construction notes on various types of raised beds:

Popular Mechanics Raised Bed Planning & Construction

Organic Gardening: Build a Raised Bed

University of Florida Extension: Building a Raised Bed Garden (PDF) (This one shows a few options such as cinderblocks or framed wood and includes information about a grass barrier from cardboard or landscape fabric underneath)

When planning your garden, consider the sunlight, access to water, and whether the location is convenient for you and pleasant to work around. Drawing your initial garden plans allows you to compare different places and formats, and helps get in the habit of laying out your actual crop plans on paper during the planning stages. It’s also a fun exercise to involve the family in – pull out the crayons and markers and get busy!

Have you seen some useful information so far? Do you have friends who could benefit from this info too? Share it with them so they can get started on their own garden!

The post How Does Your Garden Grow? appeared first on Allison Patel Photography.

There is a wonderful resurgence of gardening happening in the United States and indeed around the world.  In the past several years my home town of Richmond, Virginia has seen an explosion of family and community gardens and farmer’s markets providing locally grown produce to city dwellers. Every day more individuals, families and communities discover the benefits of whole body wellness, increased food safety, and the joys of growing, preserving, cooking, and of course eating food from the garden.

There are many reasons why you might consider growing your own food. Here are some that I hear very frequently:

• healthier options for yourself or your family

• reducing your grocery bills, especially if you are already being conscious about your purchases

• a larger variety of choices than you’ll find at the grocery

• food allergies or personal food choices (vegetarian/vegan/gluten free, etc)

As the founder of a non-profit organization which aims to increase the well being of communities through access to healthy food, I would like to offer additional reasons why I feel growing food is very important:

1. Growing food can be used as a fun family learning tool. Whether growing a few pots of herbs for the kitchen or a large vegetable garden to feed the family year round, the act of gardening presents many opportunities for personal development and learning real-world skills at any age. While the applications of math and biology may be obvious, gardening also reinforces very important personal skills such as patience, confidence, responsibility, planning and organization. Especially for children and teenagers, gardening presents an opportunity to be hands-on and actively learn in a multi-faceted environment. Gardens can even be used to generate income and start small businesses, which greatly increases the potential for learning and personal growth.

2. Growing your own food is a wonderful way to catch some sun and slow down. You’ll feel wonderful after some time with your hands in the dirt. I use gardening as a working meditation – my time in the garden is very important to my personal well being. It is my time to think and it helps me focus on being quiet and paying full attention to myself and the things around me. Despite running a business full time and doing volunteer work in local communities, I am adamant about planning time in my garden. With the benefits ranging from relaxation to dinner, I can’t think of a more positive and beneficial act to set aside time for.

3. Why settle for what the grocery store has on hand at any given time? If you love carrots, you’ll be delighted to know that the best carrots come after a frost, and in the Mid-Atlantic region they grow best late summer through late spring. Nothing compares to the crisp, sweet crunch of a perfectly grown carrot, and with the right preparation they are very easy to grow. Love tomatoes but can’t stand the mealy, mediocre approximations of tomatoes from the grocery store? Virginia is wonderful for growing tomatoes, and you literally have hundreds of varieties to choose from. Tomatoes have flavors that range fro hearty to sweet; colors ranging from green to orange and red, purple and near black, and even with stripes. Interestingly, brighter colors and more of them in your diet means you are getting a wider range of vitamins and nutrients! Amazing salads can be had nearly year round with minimal effort. Many vegetable varieties not sold in grocery stores are great for canning, drying or will keep in the basement or a cool closet for months. By taking control of even just a part of your food supply, you can ensure that you are always eating the most beautiful, freshest, healthiest, safest foods that you already love.

4. Since the 1970′s there has been a huge push by the food industry to consolidate and industrialize with the goal of maximizing both output and profits. From a business perspective it makes obvious sense, but businesses exist in the real world and capitalist economic theory does not take into account costs which are externalized by businesses. These costs include environmental pollution from large scale agriculture, the degradation of soils from the repeated application of toxic fertilizers and pesticides, and the social costs to our health. Our skyrocketing instances of food allergies, heart disease and diabetes are without a doubt linked to the standard American diet. We are also putting our country in a very precarious position by allowing only a handful of huge corporations to control our food supply. Investors warn heavily against investing in one kind of asset and suggest a varied portfolio, and yet our food system exactly mimics this consolidated monoculture. Decentralizing our food system makes us all safer and fosters healthier and more resilient communities.

Getting started in gardening is very easy, and it is possible to take on as little or as much as you feel comfortable with. The most important thing to keep in mind whether you are growing herbs in pots or a large garden is that we do not grow plants – plants grow themselves. The plants we eat have been evolving with us for thousands of years as we selectively chose and planted seeds from plants that exhibited the traits we enjoy, whether it was growing quickly, tasting lovely or withstanding pests and disease. It is the sole purpose of a domesticated vegetable seed to grow and yield food to consume and seeds with which to sow the next generation.  It is our responsibility to organize the right conditions for the maximum benefit of the plant, the environment and ourselves. The result of this organization is our garden. Stay tuned on Tuesday for info on how to start a garden of any size.

What other reasons do you have for growing your own food? Share them in the comments!

The post Gardening 101: Why Should I Grow My Own Food? appeared first on Allison Patel Photography.