This year, our family joined Build It Up because we are excited to grow our own food! Time has been our biggest challenge, especially keeping up with the grass and weeds. It takes constant work to keep them from taking over our garden, and it feels like a never-ending battle most days.
Despite the grass battle, we’re growing lots of exciting things. Our pumpkins are huge right now – it’s amazing to see how much they’ve grown from seeds! We can’t wait to share them with our kids and neighborhood children this fall. We also planted corn, beans, tomatoes, and peppers recently, and some just popped out of the ground this weekend!
Our blue potatoes might be the most exciting crop. Adam can’t wait to make blue french fries, and he thinks he’s more excited than the kids will be! There’s something special about growing food that’s hopefully tasty, fun, and different.
A great thing about this program is that another family in our neighborhood is doing it too. We talk about our gardens and share our experiences. It helps to know someone else is going through the same challenges, especially with stubborn grass and daily maintenance. We keep each other motivated by sharing our stories.
We keep at the constant work. It’ll be worth it between the future pumpkins for the neighborhood kids and the promise of blue fries! Even with all the weeding and maintenance, watching our garden grow bigger each day makes it rewarding.
~ Erin Jasenak
