The Evolution of an Organic Garden.

As mentioned in the introduction, although I didn't realize it until many years later, my family grew the fruit, berries and vegetables in our country garden the organic way. During my years in school and during my urology residency in Minnesota there was no time for gardening. However, when we returned to Northern California in 1973 I returned to my roots and began to garden again. In my Danville garden, I grew my vegetables and flowers in two separate areas. In fact, the roses and flowers around the lawn were separated from the vegetables by a solid six foot high redwood fence. When we moved to Alamo a few years later, I repeated the landscaping scheme, again keeping the flowering plants completely separate from the vegetable garden, proving once again, as one of my professors once said, that I was an extremely slow learner. This all changed when we moved, for the last time, to our present home in Alhambra Valley. By this time, I had read Geoff Hamilton's wonderful book on organic gardening and had came to the realization that the goal of the organic gardener was to grow things that pleased the eye and fed his mind, flowers and plants with colorful leaves, in the same beds that he grew the fruits and vegetables that nourished his body. So today, my organic garden is a place of tranquility composed exclusively of a series of small beds connected by winding enchanting paths covered by sections of wood and stone that allow me to wander through the garden without stepping on the soil. The beds contain a variety of dwarf fruit trees, flowering plants and vegetables all of which are randomly mixed together in no particular order, other than to provide sufficient space for each plant to reach its maximal growth potential. Many of the flowers were chosen because they attract honey bees to the garden. Honey bees are essential to a garden because they help pollinate plants like squash, melons and cucumbers that will not bear a crop unless the pollen from the plants anthers reaches the stigma of the plant. The buzzing of the bees also adds greatly to the serenity and peacefulness of the garden. My primary goal for the garden is to have something colorful in the garden to please my eyes as well as something nutritionist that I can gather for our kitchen table during every season of the year. It, admittedly, is easier to achieve this goal in the spring and summer than it is in the fall and winter, but it is rare that there isn't something flowering in my garden at any time and there always is new crop of vegetables for our table, irrespective of the time of year. In conclusion, an organic garden can be, and should be, something more than just a place to grow vegetables and other things to eat. Rather, with a little planning and foresight your garden can be a peaceful place of beauty and a place to shed the troubles of the day and receive inspiration for the days ahead. Peace and serenity are lurking between every plant and flower in your organic garden, trust me it will not be hard to find them.