Your Garden: Not Just For You

Picture this: orange chunks of sweet, juicy cantaloupe; crisp, dew-dropped lettuce; warm, fresh-roasted sweet bell peppers; firm, juice-gushing vine-ripened tomatoes.

Is your mouth watering yet?

It’s gardening season. For years pallets of bagged soil and six-pack starts in store parking lots made me cringe with guilt. Everyone always said that you need to plant a garden. I have never had my own home. I have never had enough space for a garden. To top it all, for a long time I had zero desire to garden.

My positive thoughts on gardening came on gradually until a major life change—becoming a stay-at-home mom—opened up enough home-focused time in my life to give me a chance to embrace gardening. But I don’t think I would have ever had the desire to plant a garden for myself if it were not for years of examples of wonderful gardeners from my past.

First: my parents. We tried to plant a garden every year of my childhood that I could remember. We most often failed. Our soil, climate, yard orientation relative to the sun, and infiltration of gophers just didn’t make for much success. Then we had a dog that ate our green vegetables before we had a chance to let them ripen and harvest them. That didn’t help things either.

More recently, even though the nest is mostly empty, my parents keep plowing ahead with their gardening efforts. Over the years, they’ve acquired citrus trees, which have been their best success, and now my mom’s homegrown lemonade is becoming the envy of summer wedding receptions in the area. My parents, even after decades, are still working and learning to make the best of their home and bit of earth.

But our struggles were not universal to our area. I could list a good handful of ward members whose thumbs were completely green. My wedding reception was held in the fairyland-like yard of one of those ward members. When I was a kid, we used to pick apples for a widow in the ward who didn’t have the energy to can anymore. Although I never pictured myself as a gardener for a long time, the success of these beautiful yards still filled me with an awe that I could not deny.

Finally, there are my in-laws. They are amazing gardeners. They have a huge backyard. They buy fancy seeds from a catalogue. Their produce looks better than what you can buy from the store. They have so much experience that they generally rotate from a fruit garden to a vegetable garden every other year just to keep themselves interested because they are such experts. And they are probably the ones who impacted me the most with regards to gardening. Why? Because they have shared.

A fall hasn’t gone by since I have been part of their family when my in-laws haven’t given us several laden baskets of beans, grapes, squash, berries, tomatoes—you name it. At first I felt bad about these generous gifts. I hadn’t done any of the work, and here I was basking in the riches of their labors. I felt even guiltier when I realized that their generosity was also saving me a lot on my grocery bill. But in time I realized that their garden produced more and to spare. They loved sharing the joy of their harvest, and they had so much that they needed to give a lot of it away.
It was this sense of generosity and bounty that really attracted me to gardening. My in-laws’ home-grown gifts brought me a lot of health and happiness, but I could tell that the health and happiness that the givers felt was many times more than what they gave away to me.

I have heard it said that the greatest joy of wealth is the ability to give it away. I have learned that the same is true with planting a garden. It is wonderful to grow your own produce, but even more joyful to have so much that you can give it away. Even our first tomato plant produced much more than we could dream of consuming. I loved giving tomatoes away to everyone that I loved!

I dragged my feet for years and years about planting a garden. Even now, I don’t own my own home; I live in a small apartment and garden out of a small, homemade garden box. Maybe you only have room for a small pot. Whatever it is, I hope you choose to garden at least to give. I aspire to being a neighbor or in-law who can’t help but give baskets of gorgeous tomatoes away every year. I want to be the older ward member who invites the younger families to pick and can from my fruit trees. I want to garden so I can give; how about you?

Your Garden: Setting Up for Success

So, you’ve decided to start a garden. Whether that’s in a small pot on your windowsill, a makeshift box on the balcony, a tiny plot in the side yard, or a full-sized gardening-dedicated backyard, here are a few ideas from a gardener who was in your novice little galoshes not too long ago on how to set yourself up for success.

1. Get Advice
Why reinvent the wheel? People have been gardening since the Garden of Eden—why start from scratch? Look around for some good advice—people in your area who are good at gardening, the bestselling books at your local bookstore, or even an internet search on gardening in your area. One of those pros in your ward might even be willing to come take a look at your gardening space and give you some helpful suggestions and tips. Anyone who loves gardening would love to help you get started!

For myself, my mom and sister recommended the Square Foot Gardening method by Mel Bartholomew. Having a handy guide that was geared for beginners was extremely helpful to me in getting started. Plus, I originally borrowed the book from my mom for the first year until I decided I wanted my own copy. You could probably do the same and borrow a book from someone you know loves to garden as well.

2. Start Small
You don’t need to plan on eliminating your produce grocery budget in your first year of gardening. Make sure that you feel like baby steps are okay. When my husband and I decided to build a garden box outside of our apartment, at first I thought we should use three times the space that we finally settled on. I changed my mind when I realized that it would be okay to add a second box later on. It was really helpful to start small and learn how to maintain a small area before adding more space.

3. Start Easy
Some of the advice you’ll want to ask for from the gardeners you know is what is easy to grow in your area. Gardening books will tell you a list of crops that are easy to grow almost anywhere, such as zucchini or tomatoes. Although we all laugh about providing zucchini for the whole neighborhood from one plant, easy-to-grow crops will give you a lot of encouragement and sense of success. Why not set yourself up for that?

4. Get a Head Start
I decided to plant my first garden late in the year and didn’t get it all planted until the very end of June. Because of this, one of my mentors suggested that I use plant starts instead of seeds. That was incredibly wonderful advice.

By that time of year, all the plant starts were on clearance, and I bought whatever was left for really cheap. I don’t think waiting that long to get started is worth it unless you have to, but it was really nice to have an “instant garden.” If this is your first time gardening, consider buying mostly started plants instead of seeds to help set yourself up for success and give your garden a little head start. You can take on the challenge of seedlings when you have a little more experience under your belt.

 5. Learn and Grow
Some of those starts I bought for my first garden were cabbage, which I learned my family didn’t like to eat and I should never grow it again. I also planted onion seeds late enough in the season that the onions did not have time to develop all the way before the fall frost. Despite these setbacks, my zucchini, tomatoes, and carrots were sterling successes.

Be willing to learn and grow with your garden. Don’t expect everything to turn out perfectly, but be all the more grateful for your successes. Live and learn and grow.

The Church teaches that “planting a garden, even a small one, allows for a greater degree of self-reliance” (“Growing a Garden,” http://providentliving.org/content/display/0,11666,6637-1-3427-1,00.html). Make the decision to feel the blessings of earth, soil, and sunshine by setting yourself up for success.

Your Garden: 5 Reasons to Get Started

 “There is a great work for the Saints to do. Progress and improve upon and make beautiful everything around you. Cultivate the earth, and cultivate your minds. . . . Make gardens, orchards, and vineyards, and render the earth so pleasant that when you look upon your labors you may do so with pleasure, and that angels may delight to come and visit your beautiful locations.”
- Brigham Young, Deseret News, Aug. 8, 1860, 177.

I am a gardener, and I never thought I’d say that.

In the past, gardening was always something I associated with the mature folk, with retirement and stiff knees, with everybody but me—with people who had extra time on their hands. But then, all of the sudden, I found myself wanting to garden last summer. I was a new mom and despite the demands of an infant, I knew that changing to be a stay-at-home mom suddenly opened up enough time in my life to garden. Even more surprising than that, I actually wanted to do it. And I didn’t even want to do it for provident living, self-reliance, or any other commandment—just for the joy of it.

I’ve thought about whether my intrinsic gardening desires are manifestations of a heritage from generations of agrarian ancestors across the centuries, but I think that it’s more likely that wanting to plant, cultivate, nurture, and harvest is an endowment from my heavenly ancestry. Elder Uchtdorf has said, “The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. . . . Your very spirits are fashioned by an endlessly creative and eternally compassionate God” (“Happiness, Your Heritage,” October 2008 General Conference). I have found that, as Elder Uchtdorf said, “Creation brings deep satisfaction and fulfillment” in gardening.
This year I planned my little garden and bought seeds in February because I was so excited about it. I started growing plants from seed indoors in March, and I’m growing twice as much as I’m going to plant so I can give my extra starts away to friends who might need help starting their garden.

I am so excited about this joy that I’ve found. I feel like people in my life talked about the joy of gardening to me for years and I never listened, but now I want to share it with everyone. If gardening doesn’t seem like your thing; if you never, ever picture yourself in galoshes, gloves, and a straw hat; if you can’t bear to get your hands dirty and don’t care about where your vegetables come from, I still encourage you to give gardening a try—this year.

Maybe you have a backyard to fill, maybe, like me, you only have a tiny plot of earth to work with, or maybe you only have one little pot of basil. Whatever your situation, give it a try and share in the joy of the miracle of creation. These are the top five reasons I think you should.


1. Get Outside
Gardening got me outside last summer. As a new mother, I needed the fresh air, the sunshine, and the green grass to help me cope with all the changes I needed to handle in my life. We all have changes and challenges going in our lives, and whose trials can’t be helped with a little sunshine and fresh air? The world is for our enjoyment and is so full of beauty. Gardening might be just the thing to get you out there and enjoying it.

2. Be Grateful
I have an aunt who gardens with her middle school class. She reports that there have been students in her class who honestly didn’t know where produce from the grocery store came from—that it originated in the ground or on a bush, tree, or vine. That’s not how I want my children to be raised, but who is going to teach them unless I do by gardening?

Doing the work yourself can help you appreciate food and farmers, technology and agriculture, but above all gardening has taught me what a miracle life and growing and the whole world are—all as a gift from God. Yes, I did make a garden box, filled it with dirt, planted seeds, weeded and watered, but in the end I still can’t believe that a dozen carrots appeared in the ground. It was such a miracle. I can’t wait to watch it happen again.


3. Feel Pretty
The only flowers we planted last year were marigolds to help keep the bad bugs away. Marigolds: bright and smelly. The bees loved them, though, and that flattered me enough to make me love the bees.
No matter what you plant—flowers, vegetables, trees, shrubs, grass, whatever—gardens are beautiful. I felt happy every time I saw my pretty little 7’x2’ garden. The world always needs more beauty: Plant a garden.

4. Enjoy the Fruits
Oh, the vegetables of my labors. My father-in-law always says, “Now this is a tomato!” at least a zillion times every summer after they pull in their massive tomato crop. I never really believed him until I ate my own home-grown carrots. My life will never be the same. Plant a garden and enjoy the fruits of your labors!

5. Unify Your Family
The Home and Family Relations manual says, “Families who work together in a home garden build family unity because they share a common purpose.” Even though my family consists of me, my husband, and my baby, I found this to be true. I love letting my baby play alongside my garden. It makes me feel like he’s helping even though he’s too small because I know that one day he will help. Even though my husband works all day and doesn’t have much time for the garden, calling it “our garden” means that I tell him all about its progress and point out all the growth to him, even if he only has time to help out on an occasional Saturday. President Kimball said, “There is so much to . . . harvest from your garden, far more than just a crop itself!” (Ensign, May 1978, 79). I have found this to be true even in my little family.

I am a gardener of exactly seven cubic feet of earth, plus a few random flower pots. I wouldn’t call my thumb exactly green, but I guess that gives me something to aspire to when I’m mature, retired, and have too much time on my hands (which we know will probably never happen).

The Lord has said, “All things which come of the earth . . . are made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart” (D&C 59:18). I have tasted of that joy; I have had my heart filled with gladness from my garden. I hope you can experience it too.

Things I Learned From Making My First Thanksgiving Meal

1. Brining a fresh turkey is the way to go. There was not a dry slice on our bird!

2. I cannot get enough of homemade whole berry cranberry sauce.

3. Light egg nog is not worth the lack of calories.

4. Fat free whipped topping that you add melted chocolate to for a chocolate cream pie is.

5. College kids sleep a lot! I guess it's been a while since I was one and I forgot!

6. I'd rather eat stuffing and gravy than mashed potatoes and gravy--especially stuffing cooking in our amazing brined bird and gravy made from those delicious drippings.

7. Cranberry cheesecake is my new love.

8. Making the rolls early and reheating them would be better than stressing about them being the last thing out of the oven when the guests have already arrived.

How to Survive Gestational Diabetes

I failed my three-hour glucose tolerance test miserably from the start. Frustration and guilt overwhelmed me. Had I eaten too much Halloween candy? Why was this happening to me? I was healthy—I loved vegetables and I didn’t stop jogging until I was four months along in my pregnancy. What else could I do to take care of myself when I was doing my best already? How would I survive the holidays, let alone my third trimester, without my favorite desserts?

Laughably, I think I passed through all the stages of grief after being diagnosed with gestational diabetes: depression, guilt, anger, tolerance, and, finally, acceptance. To be treated for gestational diabetes, I was put on a strict low-carbohydrate diabetic diet. My doctors monitored me closely to make sure that I was getting enough to eat to grow a baby but not getting too many carbohydrates that would raise my blood sugar too high. Going on the diabetic diet was difficult but doable. Some women also have to take medication and/or insulin to get their gestational diabetes under control.

The end of the story is that I survived and had (and have) a healthy baby. Although any sort of complications during pregnancy are scary, gestational diabetes is not the end of the world. You can make it! Whether you or a family member or friend has been diagnosed with gestational diabetes, here are my ten snippets of advice on how to survive and how to help.

1. It is Not Your Fault, and You Are Not Alone
Gestational diabetes has developed in your body because of the way that your body reacts to hormones during pregnancy, not because you’ve done something wrong. Although 2-4% is small percentage of pregnant women, but that means that there are probably a handful of women who have had gestational diabetes in your ward. Start asking around for comfort, advice, and support. Any woman who has gone through this would love to help and will be full of ideas.

2. There are Perks
If you follow the diabetic diet, you won’t gain very much extra weight in your pregnancy and you’re likely to be back down to your pre-pregnancy weight in a jiffy. If the perks don’t motivate you enough, just remember that following the diabetic diet will decrease your chances of needing a c-section and/or birthing a large baby. Of course, doing what is best for your baby is your prime motivation as well.

3. Give Up the Baked Goods
It’s pretty rough to find ways to substitute both flour and sugar, the two demons of carbohydrates in baked goods. Feel free to experiment as much as you want with Splenda and almond flour, but don’t let yourself get too frustrated. Do the best you can at home, and just accept the fact that store-bought baked goods are probably out of your diet for a few months.

4. Say Yes to Protein
Keep high-protein snacks ready-to-eat in the fridge to fill in between meals and snacks. Some good ideas are sliced cheese (buy a bunch of different kinds to keep yourself excited about it) and eggs (hard-boiled, deviled, omelets). Nuts are another good high-protein filler.

5. Creativity is the Key
Embrace your low-carb menu like it’s a game. How many different types of vegetables can you eat with dip instead of bread? What can you eat in a lettuce wrap instead of as a sandwich? How can you eat the most with the fewest amount of carbs?

6. Eating Out is Out
It’s easier to control your diet when you make your own food and difficult to find low-carb options at restaurants. If you do want to eat out, try to find nutrition facts online for the restaurant (although in my experience this usually means my option is the house salad).

7. Watch That Diet Label
“Low carb” and “diet” labels can be misleading. Be sure to read the nutrition facts for yourself to make sure you’re choosing the best option. Sometimes foods that are labeled diet are better than the ones marked low carb. Sometimes foods that don’t have either label are the best choice.

8. Communicate With Those You Love (and Those Who Feed You)
Being pregnant and diabetic during the holidays seemed like complete torture at first glance, but communicating with your friends, family, and whoever else you will be eating with can really ease the pain of not eating what you want. Be upfront: let people know that you really wouldn’t appreciate a plate of holiday cookies this year. I asked my mom to please not serve my favorite dessert so I wouldn’t feel tortured. At events, work with the hostess to make sure that there are enough low-carb options that you can still feel festive.

9. Countdown to Freedom
Most likely this is only temporary and you won’t be diabetic anymore after you give birth. Keep yourself motivated by remembering you only have a few weeks longer and thank goodness you don’t have to do this for the rest of your life.

10. Be Aware
Your baby is likely to have low blood sugar after the birth, so be on the lookout to make sure that your baby has the stamina to eat enough during those first few days. Watch closely for signs of dehydration: not enough wet diapers, sunken or ridged head, dry or cracked lips, lethargy, weight loss, unhealthy skin coloring.

Gestational diabetes really helped me count my blessings and appreciate the fact that in general my health is good. I feel a lot more sympathy, respect, and sensitivity for people who have strict diet restrictions from allergies or chronic illness. I also feel very motivated to do what I can to prevent type-2 diabetes in my family by eating healthy and being active. Above all, I’m grateful for modern medicine and doctors that knew how to keep me and my baby safe, because, honestly, a hundred years ago I probably would have died in childbirth. With that in mind, I think I can give up pie any Christmas and still smile about it.