By Susan Tomlinson

 It may be December, but the weather today seemed too good to pass up the chance to get out there and do a little work on the veggie plot. In fact I’ve wanted to get out there for a few weeks now to put the plot to bed for the winter, which I was planning to do by turning piles of compost and chicken manure into the soil. It was a chore that I was both dreading and looking forward to—the former because it involved a gardening task, digging, that never fails to aggravate my sciatica, and the latter because, well, it was gardening. And if ever I needed to be out in the garden, it was this week.

Gardening is a task I enjoy nearly all the time, and in all seasons. I appreciate it most, however, when I am under a lot of stress. That was the case today, following a long week of medical emergencies involving my elderly parents. What I needed most was some good old fashioned winter sunshine and hard labor, and getting out there today and digging in the soil amendments was just the ticket to usher the worries to the back of the line. And, when you get right down to it, isn’t this the main reason we garden? Losing ourselves in all that pruning, and clipping, and planting allows us to “dig in” and withstand the ups and downs in life.  

But there is another other good reason for digging in, both literally and figuratively. In physically tending our gardens—tilling, composting, weeding, planting—we come to know and connect to our own soil and the place it represents. 

Digging in steadies us. It plants our feet solidly in our home ground, so life’s weather can’t push us around. It’s worth our effort and sacrifice.

These days I’m dug in up here in the panhandle plains of the Great State, where the views are wide and dry. I’ve been an ornamental gardener for years, with an emphasis on xeric plantings, but this past season I made my first attempt to grow vegetables. I started a little produce plot at the back of my yard and discovered that there is a world of difference between the two types of gardening. Even so, I haven’t been able to resist the urge to create a vegetable garden that also serves an aesthetic function. And thus the “prairie homesteader’s kitchen garden” was born. In it, I am attempting not only to garden sustainably and productively, I am also trying to create a true sense of this place in which I have made my home, and which I have grown to love. 

I am pleased to be a new member of the blogging crew here at Country Lifestyle Magazine, and hope to share both my triumphs and struggles with this little experiment of mine. Maybe we can dig into it together.

Susan Leigh Tomlinson blogs regularly at The Bicycle Garden. She has a forthcoming book, How to Keep a Naturalist's Notebook (Stackpole).