Did you know potatoes are dug up from the ground? Did you know there are hundreds of different kinds of tomatoes? If you’ve never grown your own vegetables you might only know about the small varieties offered in the grocery store. Well, there’s way more than that!
There are different ways to grow fresh vegetables and pretty flowers. One way is called organic gardening. That means there are no harmful chemicals used, such as bug killer sprays.
The Sisters of Providence have an organic garden at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Ind. They also have 343 acres of farmland that is state certified organic. One year they grew blue corn that was used to make awesome blue corn chips. Yes, blue chips!
Pest management
No, pest management isn't about your pesty younger brother or sister. We’re talking about bugs here. Some bugs are bad for the garden and some are good.
Certain plants are planted in the garden to attract good bugs, such as ladybugs and praying mantis.
Some plants are planted in the garden to keep the bugs away. Marigold flowers come in bright orange and yellow colors and look pretty, but most bugs don’t like Marigolds. So planting Marigolds near certain vegetable plants is a natural bug repellent.
The energy of the plant in the middle is not as good as the ones beside it. All three of these plants are growing in the same part of Earth with the same amount of rain, sun and care.
Forces and energy
The successful growing of vegetables in the garden depend on the forces of nature — sun, rain, air and wind. You should also know there is energy in a garden. It can be good or bad. See the picture at left to see what we mean.
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