I so very much want you to garden. Even to enjoy it, to look forward to the process, to revel in the results. Yes, you. Here in Homer we have the wonderful opportunity to garden with clean soil, water and air. What more could we ask for? Initiative. Gumption. Get up and go. Common sense. Take your pick, then dig around inside yourself and find some. The time is now. The results are becoming more important. Garlic is imported from China. Think about that one.

Homer is a microcosm of the entire United States, the great melting pot. I think that most ethnic cultures can be found right here. And if not the real thing then there are those who have adopted the ways of others they admire.

We are meant to garden. It is part of the human experience. We were not put on this earth to depend on Safeway. There comes a point where we need to be able to fend for ourselves.

Now, I am not asking you to go overboard and give up toilet paper. But I am asking you to break ground and plant some vegetables.

A friend lent me the book “Lasagna Gardening” by Patricia Lanza. She advocates laying down wet sections of newspaper right on top of the sod (weeds, grass, clay, rocks, an old garden that hasn’t been worked in years) and build up the plot from there. Layer on materials that will eventually break down and become soil, a compost pile in place so to speak. Rake up the leaves under the alders, horse or cow manure, straw or hay and layer these materials.

This being the Far North, this method may take too long but go ahead and make the layers and finish it off with a nice topping of soil and plant the strong healthy starts that you have purchased from one of our excellent local nurseries in there.

I mention this book because the “breaking ground” part of gardening just may be the most daunting. How many of you have a rototiller? How many of you can afford to hire someone who has one? How many of you are not physically able to take a shovel and dig through the sod? How many of you do not have the TIME to prepare a vegetable plot?

Time. That seems to be the deciding factor. Perhaps you need to make time management a priority. So you work an eight-hour day, sleep eight hours, let’s say for the sake of argument, you have four to six hours in a day that you could be home. You do not need four to six hours to tend a garden that will produce top quality produce for you and your family. How does 15 minutes sound? Manageable? Certainly.

You most certainly will not start your vegetable plants on a window sill from seeds. I am not talking competitive gardening here. I am not talking about plants that have four word names, all in Latin. I am talking about peas, lettuce, broccoli, radishes, potatoes and carrots, just to get you started.

Actually all of this can be seeded directly into the ground. No starts. Think about that. It is all becoming more possible isn’t it?

You won’t know until you try.

And just how big should this vegetable plot? How does three or four feet wide by eight feet long sound. Sounds like 15 minutes of gardening to me.

Pull a few weeds which you won’t have many of because your plants will be closely spaced. Give it some water when it needs it, which won’t be often because of the organic materials you have added to the soil will help retain water. You are not feeding a third world nation, just your family. And your family is an excellent place to get started

There are those of us, myself included, who have been gardening for years, who truly love to garden, who will take/make the time no matter what, who have prioritized gardening into our lives.

My maternal grandparents’ vegetable garden has been my source of inspiration. It was stuffed with gorgeous produce. There were fruit trees, berries and even a little vineyard. All of this was hard up against the Erie-Lackawanna railroad tracks. The glass cold frame was periodically broken by chunks of coal flying off the cars, the ground shook, and no one batted an eye.

They preserved everything. The trek down the rickety, barely lit, spidery stairs to the pantry stocked with Mason jars glittering in the light of the single bulb hanging from the ceiling was an adventure. The smell alone was worth the trek: a mixture of homemade wine, apples and my grandfather’s supply of cigars. My father mastered the Italian triumvirate of tomatoes, eggplant and peppers in our own back yard but depended on his in-laws to supply everything else.

And supply they did.

The garden is also a most excellent spot to listen, really listen to what your children have to say. There is something liberating about chatting outside in the fresh air. A child can get a lot off his/her mind while a parent is pulling weeds and listening. There is nothing contrived about working and listening in the garden.

The snow is going fast. Pick you spot in the sun and give some thought to the whole process. Think about what you want to eat. About how you want to live. About the quality of your life. About why you are in Homer and how you can make the most of it.

Rosemary Fitzpatrick has been gardening with gusto in Homer for 28 years.