When we moved into this house in 2007, it came with a huge yard and included a space for a vegetable garden. My son took an immediate liking to this since he has always wanted to plant his own vegetables. I don’t why, as he does not eat any vegetables. Anyway.. that first year we had a lot of yummy tomatoes.

This year, my son planted Sweet 100’s. Now, I don’t know much about gardening so when he dug and planted four of these plants, I figured we would have a steady stream of tomatoes to take us through the year after freezing and canning (like I’ve ever done this).

Let me just say that the first year, he maintained the garden. The second year…not so much. It’s on the side of the house and I rarely go out there and it cannot be seen from inside the house so when my husband told me that he wanted to pull all the plants out I was appalled! What?!? So I wandered out there. Oh my goodness. The four plants that my son planted turned into a wild, untamed jungle of sorts. I spent the next two days picking tomatoes, trimming them back, and lecturing my son about the whole incident. They taste pretty good though.

So I found it highly amusing that I came across this review of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver this morning. Kingsolver and her family make a decision to eat home-grown or locally grown food for one year and this book chronicles their efforts. I find the idea fascinating but extremely time consuming. I just don’t have the time to cultivate food for my family to eat. Even with the tomatoes, the aphids were completely out of control and I would not want to use pesticides and I know the alternative methods require a consistent hand.

Has anyone read this book? Were you inspired by it? We have the space to do something and with the cost of produce it does sound appealing. Do any of you have vegetable gardens?