I’m a gardener. No matter how much I protested in the first half of my life, this truth has always stayed the same. I ran from it as a teen because I was destined for bigger and better things that did not include working in the dirt. I went to school at the University of Pittsburgh because it was the furthest academically from Penn State (the agriculture school). I turned up my nose at Botany and other plant related classes at Pitt, instead focusing on Microbiology and Human Health. You see, I had plans and it didn’t include gardening!

Fate and our true nature has a way of ignoring what we think we want. As I was running away from all things plants, I was becoming an avid collector of houseplants long before the current fad. At one point, I had a 15 foot Philodendron that encircled my small bedroom in my first apartment. I acquired and grew orchids in grad school – so many that I had to build a light cart that took up half of my living room. I always had plants on window sills and became adept at rooting cuttings from friends or giving away parts of my collection. Still, I wasn’t a gardener.

I’m not sure when it happened, but I have finally accepted that I am a gardener. Tracy and I started indoor gardening in the fall of 2017 when she said something like this, “wouldn’t it be cool if we could grow our own kale?” We had just been reading about the latest recall on contaminated kale or spinach or lettuce. As we moved more and more towards a vegetarian and vegan life-style, we were becoming increasingly concerned about the quality of food we had to eat. But it was fall! Of course, Tracy the visionary said, “Can’t you build us an indoor grow bed?” I can’t remember for sure, but I likely complained about the idea for weeks and told her it was not possible. And then promptly set about to construct the grow bed (see first picture).

That was Dec 2017 when we planted our first kale plants in our first bed. Almost 5 years later, we have expanded a lot and changed many of the details based on what we have learned along the way. But much remains the same. We grow what we can year-round so that we do not have to rely on the commercial food system to supply much of our food. We currently grow kale, lettuce, basil, lettuce leaf basil and are experimenting on tomatoes this fall. We currently produce enough kale that we can eat it every day if we so desire. We haven’t purchased kale or lettuce in at least a year. Fresh basil is just a short walk to the basement. While not totally self-sustaining, we are moving step by step towards that goal.

Who knows what the future holds or what ideas Tracy will have next. But no matter what, you can be assured that you will find me in the basement or the garden or the flower garden or the orchard doing what I can to be more self-sustaining. Because, you see, I’m a gardener.