We’ve gone a few years without any kind of vegetable garden, and this year finally got back to it.

Our little organic plot should provide lots of food for us this summer, weather willing. I’m encouraged to see more people getting into vegetable gardens (again). Last year I dug up a big corner of backyard lawn, and it spent a fallow summer. I moved six yards of garden mix and manure by wheel-barrow from the front yard where the delivery truck left it, onto that backyard patch this spring. Now we’re planting, and the whole experience brings back wonderful memories.

Growing up in rural Manitoba, gardens played a key part in spring and summer activity. My relatives on the farm had huge gardens, as did my grandmother who’s garden I would eventually inherit the use of.

As kids, we’d be sent out to pick corn or peas or beans, working our way through rows that were 40 or 50 feet long, hauling in huge baskets of fresh veg. I can vividly remember sitting in my aunt’s living room, watching daytime soaps and game shows on TV, while shelling peas for hours.

What we didn’t eat fresh for dinner went into the freezer. And that was the ritual all summer long.

No one talked about ‘organic’ gardening – organic was the only thing they knew. A visit to the manure pile netted as many wheel barrows of organic fertilizer required.

Getting rid of weeds was simple – you pulled them out. It was a daily ritual – usually done first thing in the morning before it got to hot and the soil was still moist from the overnight dew.

But through the sixties, more and more ‘helpful’ chemicals made their way to the gardens. Like everyone else, my relatives eagerly adopted these as labour saving solutions; they were cheap, easy to use and boy where they effective. The same thing was going on with the crop fields – the wonders of modern science killing weeds, bugs and blight. I have a vivid picture of one of my favourite aunts in her garden in the early 60′s – a can of deadly pesticide in one hand, and a cigarette in the other.

Twenty years later, when I inherited the use of my grandmother’s garden plot, I wanted to grow my vegetables organically. It was the early 80′s, and because I didn’t know any better, the idea of growing everything organically seemed perfectly simple. My grandmother’s garden was huge – and I had no idea how much work I had taken on.

Gardening in rural Manitoba is a full contact sport.

The weeds and the bugs are epic, not to mention the weather which usually includes, at any given time, and in any given combination: hail, drought, flood, wind and frost.

I got lucky that first year. The weather cooperated and it was just a battle against weeds and bugs. I’ve never pulled so many weeds in my life – but was thrilled when the vegetables took over and kept the weeds out.

The bugs weren’t quite so easy, and they seemed to devour plants young and old. My fancy organic gardening books had recommended sympathetic planting to control bugs, and my veg garden was full of flowers planted with the food crop. This proved to be of great amusement to my relatives – and seemed to do nothing to deter the ravenous bugs. When I asked my grandmother for advice, she smiled and said it was simple. “Start early in the morning, go barefoot, pick the bugs off the plants, squeeze them between your fingers, and rub the guts back onto the leaves “.

Great.

I got pretty good at that by the end of the summer, and learned a few key lessons about organic gardening:

• There’s no easy way to grow vegetables organically – it’s work pulling weeds and controlling insects.
• A little bit of time spent weeding on a regular basis is key – leave things too long and the weeds take over.
• Manure is your friend. My relatives spent their lives hauling the stuff away and I’m paying good many to have it dropped into my yard, but it does wonders – way better than any box of fertilizer.
• Nothing tastes like organic vegetables you’ve grown yourself. Nothing.

The crop that first year was mammoth. I left boxes of fresh vegetables on the doorsteps of many of my friends on many weekends. I learned to appreciate the food on the table in a way I never had before, and I learned to appreciate what goes into growing it.

An organic garden is really a labour of love. It can be frustrating and disappointing when the weather and bugs conspire against you, but the rewards are always worth it. And it can be on a small scale – even a downtown balcony.

One year we just had 3 small boxes next to the fence (the ones in the photo) planted with various kinds of lettuce. We had fresh cut salad every night all summer long.

That patch of lawn in the backyard I dug up ? We won’t miss it for a minute.