It Ain't Easy Being Green!
Green Thumb? Me Neither!
With the help of my husband, I planted a small garden this year. I have little skills or knowledge for such things, but I gave it a whirl and the returns were amazing! I also found that the stuff I produced was far tastier than the vegetables I bought in the grocery stores.
I learned how to grow layers of things in wide rows. I learned to re-use the earth over and over as different fruits and vegetables came and went. I was surprised that March and April aren't too early!
Swiss Chard was prolific and I served it several times a week all through the summer - we never got sick of it! Although I grew herbs in the past (no one can kill chives!), I'd never frozen them. This year, I tried my hand at herbs, too, and I was richly rewarded. I went the distance by freezing a bunch of them this year and I have lovely, relatively fresh herbs to cook with all through the winter!
The garden was small, in raised beds. I used the Garden Way's Joy of Gardening by Dick Raymond as my main reference material.
If you don't have room for a garden, don't despair - you can grow a couple of things in containers that can serve two roles -- aesthetics and nutrition. Peppers, cherry tomatoes, chives are good container starters. Jalepenos are very ornamental. Cherry tomatoes come in different sizes and are quite pretty too!