Especially during these quarantine days, I am feeling the pleasure of having a dinner all sourced from my own garden. Both in the means of self-sufficiency and mental well-being, gardening gives a lot of peace to me. I can not brush away helps of being physically active in the garden in order to dismiss the negative impacts of lock down. While all the humanity is locked down in flats, even rooms, if you are not that lucky enough; we have the amazing opportunity of going for a walk or growing your own food, putting it into a plate and sharing with your friends. After physical effort on my garden, I found an enthusiasm to be inside and focused on more digital analysis of my garden.

1-Irrigation system separates the garden into four spaces.

2-These separated lands are digged enough to plant seeds, roots and leaves. All of the plants need to receive water.

3-Plants are located according to their sizes, requirements for sun and water. Peas are located near to the wall since they will be tall enough to block sun and create shadows on other plants. Leaves require more span between each other since their diameter will be bigger. Onions and garlics are planted closely.

4-The land is covered with earth again and after some weeks natural compost is added. Also some weeds start to appear in the garden. Weekly weeding is needed to protect plants. Arugula seeds didn’t appear. The spacing between plants with leaves could be less. Plants are protected by mulch blanket from cold and wind.

5-Empty spaces are planted again with onions and seeds of  vetch. The mulch blanket protecting the plants are taken away and compost is added one more time, also some kind of ash is mixed with the earth.

At the end of the winter season, my garden was dominated by the fava beans. Even though, I have planted more peas than fava beans by seed, the result was very fast growing, tall and very productive fava beans. I harvested onions and garlic before they got really big, I preferred to consume them in those formats. 

After I had harvested my cabbages, I cut them into little slices and put them into a mixture including water, salt, vinegar and lemon in order to pickle them. For me gardening is not considering only growing the plants but also how you use them after harvesting.

I wish that everybody will have a chance to grow their own products in order to understand the importance of the gift that has been given by the nature. We can stay positive and consider these days as time to learn how to be productive again and not only be a consumer.