Earthy

Things are looking spic and span in our backyard these days. It's shady back there now that the leaves on our big oaks have come in, so we have lots of shade-friendly plants like hostas and ferns sprouting. For the same reason we planted most of our garden plants in pots so that we can move them around for maximum sun exposure if we need to.

If you look closely you can see a marked difference between our yard and the neighbor's on the other side of that chain-link fence. I only point this out because it is not my doing. Yard-puttering runs on the Klooster side.

In the pots we have four tomato plants and four bell pepper plants. In the raised bed we planted green beans, peas, carrots and onions from seed. I also have some herbs in pots on our back deck: thyme, peppermint and basil.

Clockwise from top left: Peas, Onion, Green Beans and the raised bed.

I'm growing the beans, peas and carrots for Jude because I don't feel like shelling out the dough for store-bought organic stuff, and pesticide residue is hard on baby tummies. If we get pests on our plants I'll pulverize them with a lethal mixture of veg oil, garlic and red pepper flakes (booo-ha ha ha haaa!). Recipe to follow if I run into this problem.

With all the food scares we're getting every year now (thanks for your good work FDA), we figure it's best to grow your own grub if you can. If the garden doesn't work out because of all the shade, we'll join a CSA next year. (If you live in our area, here's a good one.)

Speaking of organic and living on the cheap, I came across a list released by the Environmental Working Group of 12 fruits and veggies that are best to buy organic because of high pesticide use ("the dirty dozen"), and 15 fruits and veggies that you can get away with buying conventional without compromising your stomach lining ("the clean 15"). It's on my fridge, and I find it very handy. You can also print out a wallet-sized list from their site.