Back in 2020, when the world was holding its breath and uncertainty was a part of every day life, I, like many others, sought comfort in something simple, something tangible.
With a stay-at-home order in place, I craved the outdoors and hence turned my terrace into my own little flower garden. A place where through the chaos of the world, I found peace in the rhythm of planting, watering , pruning, and watching things grow.
Around the same time, my aunt started her vegetable garden on my family’s land in Charleston. As the years went on I became a frequent visitor of hers– trusting her home grown vegetables to those that travel hundreds of miles before making it to a grocery store.
But life, as it tends to do, shifted again. In those years, I welcomed my son into the world. And with that incredible new chapter came the realities of motherhood: less time, fewer quiet moments, and a different set of priorities. Slowly, the garden took a backseat. And the time that I once poured into tending to my flowers now went into nurturing my son.
But at the beginning of this year, I was determined to bring it back! But this time I wanted it to be more than just flowers. I, too, wanted to grow vegetables!!
Watching my son in my aunts garden brought me more joy than I could have ever imagined. Seeing his curiosity, his desire to be helpful, and his interest in nature expand made me realize how badly I wanted him to experience that in his every day life. And at almost 4, I wanted him to understand that real food comes from what is grown (not from the packaged goods we have in our pantry lol).
So this past April (which was much later than I had intended) I began our vegetable garden up on my terrace. I ordered a few planters from Wayfair, made a list of the vegetables I wanted to plant, sketched out a diagram for where each plant would go, then made several trips to our local nursery and Lowe’s.
We planted peas, mint, watermelon, strawberries, blackberries, onions, lettuce, basil, zucchini, tomatoes (both small and large sizes), garlic, broccoli, peppers and rosemary.
Day by day, we’d watered it and practiced our patience. Over time, he started running straight to our garden when he’d arrive home from school yelling “it growed, it growed” and I can’t tell you how much it warmed my heart every single time!!
Of course, there were a lot of lessons (aka mistakes) along the way. I learned more than I cared to know about pesticides and outdoor critters that like to snack on my fruits and veggies as much as we do!! I learned that I could burn plants with chemicals and that watering 2x a day isn’t enough in SC heat. But with each lesson came knowledge. And, over time, we started to see things sprout.
The first were the peppers!! I’ll never forget my excitement when seeing them come in. It may have been too much excitement because when I turned my back that day, Teagan picked it “for me”. Though I was super disappointed I thought it was soo sweet that he, too, was excited over a vegetable.
I was excited one again when I saw the berries on the strawberry bush start to turn red, and when the garden tomato bush kept producing more and more green tomatoes. But what made Teagan most excited was seeing the watermelon sprout! In fact, he insisted we harvest one (wayyyyy too early). It was small– only giving us like literally 4 bites– but man was it sweet!! The joy on his face radiated as the watermelon juice dripped from his chin and in that moment I realized… “this is the whole point”!!!!
Since planting the vegetable garden, I’ve hosted a few garden-inspired parties, but have had even more fun preparing dishes made from what we’ve grown. I’m even getting Tegan to try more vegetables these days!!
Two salads that have been on repeat this summer are: this Peach and Heirloom Tomato Salad and this Grilled Peach Salad
I hope to continue nurturing this space, adding new crops each season, learning more about gardening, and creating more vegetable-focused dishes that act as a reward to the effort and love poured into their garden.
As it turns out, when gardening, growth doesn’t only happen in the soil. Sometimes, the real change happens within!
Be sure to follow along with us on PINCK Living Substack for real time garden updates, and links to the recipes I’m using to host friends and feed my family!
