January 22, 2023
Something Is Blossoming..
Since we bought our home 7 years ago, I felt the desire to make our yard an edible landscape for our family, for our six children, specifically. I wanted our kids to be able to roam the yard and taste all the sweet and crunchy morsels that our yard provided!
As a family, we often hiked in the Boise foothills and while doing so, stoped along the trails snacking on the numerous currant bushes. We also found old homesteads in the hills and picked the plums and apples that were still producing from those 100 year old trees. We would get weird looks because most people are taught that if there is a wild berry, and its not a blackberry, then its poisonous. As I know that can be true, we took the time to identify the edibles and to teach our children. My husband and I made sure that our children noticed the world around them and they were rewarded with natural sweet treats because of it.
As a country, I knew that most people have lost the connection to where their food comes from. It doesn’t have to come from the supermarket, it can come from your yard. I also know that there is a movement to reclaim the perfectly manicured lawn and create a beautiful, productive and diverse edible landscape! I agree with this and believe if you are watering your yard, then it should be giving something back to your family.
Fast forward to now, I want to share my passion for this through my garden consulting, coaching and planning business: Boise Backyard Gardens.
I don’t claim to have it all figured out, but I know that everyone romanticizes about growing their own food to some degree but they don’t know where to start, they don’t have the confidence or they think that they don’t have the space. I want to be able to help you figure out your space, draw up a plan, and help you get started on your journey. I’m confident that everyone can grow something!
Having a garden doesn’t mean that you need a huge dedicated “garden space.” Using intensive planting and companion planting, you can have a diverse and productive garden in a very small space. You can also plant edibles throughout your existing landscaping!
If you have kids, a garden is a great way to teach them where food comes from. They will love watching the process of seeds growing and I can almost bet that they will take a little nibble of lettuce leaves even if they aren’t “salad eaters”. Our kids love seeing the first red strawberry or pulling up the first carrot of the season!
January 21, 2023
The Kindred Life by Christine Marie Bailey
The Kindred Life calls us to create organic connections – both thru food from our land (no matter how small) and with your “people” and community.
I was awestruck with the similarities between the author and myself. We both worked in the Christian music industry in TN (I graduated from Visible School in Memphis, TN with a Certificate in Music Business and worked at Ardent Records for a time). After that, we had both spent time working with organic produce companies (I worked off and on at Brown Box Organics for quite a few years, each time having a different role in the company.) We both had started small in our journey to the Kindred Life. When I first started gardening, all we had was a small balcony at our apartment. I was very proud of what I was able to grow in that 20 sq ft – tomatoes, peppers, and even a passionfruit vine!
Christine now has a small farm in TN and hosts farm to table dinners along with having a farm store opened on the weekends. I don’t have any plans of having my own farm in the near future but it did get me thinking of the times that we’ve hosted dinners at our home on a regular city lot and how people comment about the diversity of what we grow. It makes me SO happy to see “city” kids, ours included, go around our yard and snack on raspberries, blackberries, grapes and blueberries, pick snap peas or pull up a carrot from the garden.
Reading this book is really where my heart’s desire started blossoming. After 12 years of essentially having a newborn or 2, my baby brain fog was lifting and I could see something on the horizon. It kind of scared me, because I knew something was going to change and that I may get pushed out of my comfort zone. I’ve been Brian’s cheerleader for the past 11 yrs as we have grown our business, but I’ve always stayed in the background where it’s comfortable.