I know that I’ve told this story before, but it is the perfect time of year to tell it again. One evening, some 28 years ago, I was having dinner with Kim and her grandparents. We were well into our meal and starting to think about seconds. The meatloaf came around for a second trip, and being a polite young man, I asked Grandpa Kerby if he wanted seconds. He looked me straight in the eye and said, “Joey, I am a vegetable eater.” (You have to say it to yourself in a grandpa voice for it to have its full effect.) I don’t remember what my reaction was at the time, but twenty-eight years later, I still clearly remember him saying it.

And he WAS a veggie eater. More than that, he was a veggie gardener. If a plant didn’t produce something to eat, then “he didn’t have any business with that” (another favorite phrase of his). A tree should produce fruit, shrubs are required to have berries, and flowering vines aren’t needed to cover a fence when beans will do. And why plant frivolous flowers when peppers and tomatoes will produce all of the colors of the rainbow? He didn’t always get his way, Grandma Kerby had plenty of flowers, but if it was up to him, a plant would do something for you.

I bet a lot of us wish we could follow in his footsteps. If everything in my yard produced something to eat, I would be one happy gardener. I don’t see green grass when I dream of a beautiful landscape, I see rows of spinach, lettuce, and arugula. So let’s do it. Let’s become veggie eaters and vegetable gardeners. It is the perfect time of year to get started. Seeds, soil, and veggie plants are all in stock at the nursery just waiting to be a part of your spring veggie garden, and see below for links to our virtual Veggie Gardening Seminar and Veggie Q & A. I’ll take veggie gardening over digging out of snow any day.