Kitchen Garden Photos Sent In By HuffPost Green Readers (PHOTOS)

Thank you!

We asked HuffPost Green readers to send in photos and descriptions of their kitchen gardens (or victory gardens, if you prefer), and they did! From the many, many submissions, we've picked out just a few to hold up as interesting examples.

By no means are they all the most impressive examples -- some of your photos were incredible! A couple of them looked like a kitchen-garden-themed amusement park!

But we wanted to show a variety, and to show that anybody can do it, in all kinds of different spaces. Thank you again!

	1 / 11		First Lady Michelle Obama planted a kitchen garden to set an example for her country. Growing your own food saves money, saves energy, connects you with the land and connects you with delicious food! HuffPost readers sent in photos of their own kitchen gardens -- some have been growing their own food for decades, some were inspired by Michelle and others are just doing it because it's fun, cheap and green. Plus, check out tips from the pros! Make a garden like Michelle's or make one in your tiny apartment.

And if you absolutely can't grow your own food, another great way to get connected to the food that you eat is through community-supported agriculture. You develop a relationship directly with a farm that grows your fresh fruit and vegetables (and sometimes eggs and dairy and flowers), and you pick it up once a week. Sounds delicious, right?

Plus, it's a good way to stay on your toes as a cook! See what HuffPost Green's Johanna Smith had to say about the "mystery vegetable" effect.

Comments

[AngieMom57]

04:10 PM on 04/29/2009

A friend just emailed me this, made me laugh so I'm playing it forward:

Your life is your garden, your thoughts are the seeds. If your life isn't awesome, you've been watering the weeds. -Terry Prince

[SurrealPumpkin]

09:34 PM on 04/28/2009

I have some tomato plants that decided my kitchen sink was the perfect place for them! Doing the dishes is getting very awkward :)

My grape and blueberry plants are arriving this week. I've just built a trellis out of bamboo from the stand of the stuff we have. Now all I have to do is figure out how to spot bamboo shoots before they're too big to eat.

[burtmckinly]

10:10 AM on 04/29/2009

I know for some varieties its best to dig up the rhizome before it emerges.

[JG Dodge]

09:11 PM on 04/28/2009

My mom is in her late eighties and she still raises a garden. She loves her garden and plants.
Lots of pics here... http://www­.network54­.com/Forum­/616213/

[CornSyrupAwareness]

08:26 PM on 04/28/2009

Anyone that would like to share their garden photos, we'd love to have you post them over at LaVidaLoca­vore.org, here are my garden photos from today http://www­.flickr.co­m/photos/3­1510200@N05/sets/­7215761744­9950882/

[lynnn]

07:58 PM on 04/28/2009

Oh y'all sweet potatoes are really great for people who don't want to do that much.

[lynnn]

07:54 PM on 04/28/2009

We're trying sun-chokes this year. Natural source of insulin

[lynnn]

07:53 PM on 04/28/2009

Y'all would freak over my garden. It's so fly!

[lafrance]

07:26 PM on 04/28/2009

I love the pics. I have been gardening for a long time and use to work in a garden center as the lead in perennials and roses.
For me, march is the time to start needing to inhale the scent of fresh dirt. By April the obsession for buds opening is overwhelmi­ng.
Seeing Michelle out there in her garden is so fantastic because it sends the message that not only can you grow your own food but, beautiful plants and it's so good for the body and mind and soul.
Thanks for this article.

[hyperlocavore]

06:37 PM on 04/28/2009

Don't have space, time or strength to grow your own alone? Start a yard sharing group on hyperlocav­ore - a free yard sharing community

[lynnn]

07:54 PM on 04/28/2009

There's also a lot of things you can grow in pots. I suggest baby Romaine. Fresh lettuce is real easy.

[AngieMom57]

05:36 PM on 04/28/2009

I was reading a study that was done with violent criminals and vegetable gardens; amazing transforma­tion and the accounts that were written by the prison officials, OMG!

[helmboy]

06:17 PM on 04/28/2009

reconnecti­ng to mother nature through the land or through animals makes you a better person.

[BlueZoo]

05:23 PM on 04/28/2009

Are there any gardeners out there who grow things just for the sheer joy of watching the grow? The edible by-product­s of gardening are a real plus but I can't say they match the day-to-day checking on my herb garden and just watching it grow. Living in a 2nd floor apartment, I didn't feel I could grow things but, from seedlings, I now have basil, thyme, mint, rosemary and parsley just going crazy! I purposely touch the leaves so I can have the scent of the herbs around me. When I go out on the porch in the mornings now, the rest of my day seems lighter. There are many more benefits to gardening that eating your crops. In a very small way, I can understand the farmer who looks over his fields of waving wheat and is gratified.

[missmcgillicuddy]

05:21 PM on 04/28/2009

Seedlings are coming up beautifull­y! Planting spinach, tomatoes, arugula, and mesclun in half whiskey barrels this weekend. Also growing sunflowers from seeds--I'm so excited!

[lafrance]

07:29 PM on 04/28/2009

My husband ususally does the food part of our gardening. I got a shipment of perennials right before I was scheduled for an operation so I got out some old pots from plants past, cleaned them up and potted them up. They are doing beautiful and I cannot wait to plant them.
Still waiting for a few roses and shrubs.
Getting online at reputable places like Wayside, White Flower, ect., is so much cheaper and you get some great varieties of plants that the garden centers don't have.

[burtmckinly]

04:32 PM on 04/28/2009

For an extensive blog database, including photos and informatio­n related to mostly edible tropical plants (mostly perennials and fruit trees) see: http://ant­hrome.word­press.com

This guy's got an impressive collection­, all in urban nurseries and previously vacant lots.

I was referred to the site through a list of the Top 100 Botany Blogs, a good resource for related info, http://www­.online-co­llege-blog­.com/index­.php/featu­res/top-10­0-botany-b­logs/.

[lynnn]

07:55 PM on 04/28/2009

Thanks!

[hypnus]

04:15 PM on 04/28/2009

What a wonderful First Lady we have.

[1088]

03:48 PM on 04/28/2009

Garlic and water in a spray bottle, is a good insect spray for plants.

[burtmckinly]

04:24 PM on 04/28/2009

Habanero (or anyother very hot pepper) work well too, crushed up, soaked in water overnight, then sprayed.

Neem oil is a fantastic organic insecticid­e and fungicide as well. So is Pyrethrin.

[lafrance]

07:32 PM on 04/28/2009

Oh, neem. that is a really great thing for even for japanese beetles. So is milky spore.
Those beetles do more to frustrate a gardener then anything. But, I've heard many great things about neem.