Addressing the State of the Garden
Michele Owens is one of the founders 
of the popular blog, gardenrant.com, where people comment on issues in gardening and the environment. Michele’s new book, Grow the Good Life: Why a Vegetable Garden Will Make You Happy, Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise, is a manifesto promoting homegrown vegetables and fruits. Michele (who has been a speech writer for 20 years and a garden writer for five) started gardening because she wanted better-tasting food. She discovered that she was able to get more than oceans of fresh produce for the table. She says she found out that she liked the exercise of digging; that the nagging pain in her shoulder disappeared; that she loved the way the garden looked and smelled; and that she got intense pleasure observing the creatures who share her garden – the toads, birds, spiders and others. She liked turning the stuff other people threw away – apple cores, potato peelings, and carrot ends – into compost that would yield beautiful food again: the cycle of life. 
Much of the book is based on detailed research on the problems with food production in the United States, and some of our citizens’ health issues due to them. Then she presents the benefits of growing food as close to the house as possible. Economic estimates range as high as $25 worth of produce for every dollar invested. But the bottom line is taste. We know fresh organic food tastes better, and Michele explains the chemistry behind more intense flavor and why food degrades as soon as it is picked. Is there anything as wonderful as a warm tomato right off the vine, and spicy greens that melt in your mouth? To Michele, there isn’t. (Michele photo, Eric Etheridge. Grow the Good Life, gardenrant.com). Listen to the interview, below.
Click on the small black arrow at the left on the bar below to start listening, or click on the MP3 link to download the show into Windows Media Player or iTunes:
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