The Prophet said to plant a garden........

"so that's what we'll do...." sing with me now, Primary graduates....

A few years ago Mom and I were visiting the farm (my grandmother's home) with Natalie and Dallin, and a couple of nights we had "veggie nights" for dinner where we'd walk out to her gardens in the backyard, pick greenbeans and tomatoes and raspberries right from the bush, bring them in, wash them and eat them. First of all, it *was* delicious and healthy, but it was also rewarding and fun to be able to harvest something that Sammie had worked so hard to grow herself.

My grandma and grandpa had long rows of raspberry and blueberry bushes at their home in Indiana- and a fond memory I still have was being able to walk around in the yard for 10 minutes and come in with fresh berries to munch on.

A few months ago while visiting my parents mom was making a meal and simply asked me to walk out to her flower garden and bring in some fresh parsley, oregano and a few tomatoes.

When we lived in Utah, I remember thinking it was so cool that I could go out in Tim's parent's backyard to their garden and dig up carrots and potatoes for dinner that night!

Anyway-all these experiences (along with the prophet's counsel of course) have driven me to really WANT to have my own garden this year. A pretty one with lots of yummy veggies and hopefully a couple raspberry bushes... SO, I went to a gardening class at church last week and learned a TON, but a few things that I thought were EXTRA cool:

1) To avoid weeding and watering: once plants have come up and there has been a good rain (or you have watered sufficiently), lay 2-3 layers of newspaper on the soil in between the rows and plants; then top with 1-2 inches of grass clippings. The lady teaching the class said unless it's been 5 weeks with no rain, she doesn't water! And if it has gone that long, she takes a hose and just slips it under the newspaper to water the plants. When the grass clippings start to thin, just add more. (My mom says Sammie does this already...)

2) Certain plants inhibit the growth of other plants if they're planted next to each other.

3) When you decide how to plant your garden, draw a map of where you plant everything, so that next season, you can move things around. That reduces bug/soil problems.

Wish us luck with our garden!