The most healthful vegetables growing in your backyard could be weeds. Lambsquarters and purslane, described by Michael Pollan as “two of the most nutritious plants in the world,” are common wild greens. They thrive in urban environments, popping up in garden plots and sidewalk cracks from Toronto to Texas.

Brought to you from the Pond Blog: an informative graphic to convince you of all the benefits of gardening.

I’ve always found that eggs are the hardest thing to get locally. The farmers markets are always sold out unless I arrive right at opening, and they are ridiculously expensive unless I find a neighbor who raises hens. Everyone wants eggs, it seems, putting them in really high demand. Of course, whenever something is hard to get from someone else, my immediate response is to figure out how I can make it myself (or get a hen to make it for me).

In a previous article, I discussed the importance of sustainable cuisine. Originally inspired by Bill McKibben’s Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future, I have begun to teach my son, Reid, of the importance of sustainable living. Even though he’s only three, I would like to believe that he is listening to what I teach him, and learning what he is able to.

This past summer, I embarked on a bit of an experiment. I was inspired by the Dervaes family, fellow Californians who have utilized every inch of space that they have to grow edibles (what they don’t eat, they sell to local restaurants). While I do not have the time to devote to a project as expansive as theirs, Reid and I decided to grow our own vegetable garden and enjoy fresh, homegrown veggies. Here’s how we did it.

Have you heard of Katie Stagliano? When she was in the third grade, she put some cabbage seeds into the ground, and the cabbage that grew ended up being about forty pounds. Not wanting it to go to waste, she donated it to local soup kitchens, where it fed hundreds of people. Since then, she has been growing fresh vegetables to donate to local food drives, homeless shelters, and soup kitchens. How’s that for locavore activism?

Nobody likes to be bugged, or appreciates a pest. However, when the annoyance is of the insect variety, dislike can quickly progress to hatred. When being plagued by insect guests, any solution, up to and including an all out war on anything with over four legs, seems entirely reasonable. Poisons quickly transform from an extreme measure to a viable solution.

The balance between needing to protect your plants and trying to find an environmentally friendly solution presents a dilemma every gardener must eventually face. What is often forgotten is that the battle between insects and humans has existed as long as we have, and historically the war was fought without the chemical aids we now have at our disposal. In general, most people are also unaware of the ongoing, and long running, battle between the plant kingdom and insects. Viewed over a longer evolutionary timescale, plants have evolved with insects, and have adapted with far more successful natural defenses than humans have been able to come up with.

Yesterday, I enjoyed a couple of sweet and tangy Lemon Boy tomatoes from my neighbor’s garden. A few days ago, I noticed that they had some large, green Big Boys, which looked perfect for frying, so I picked a few, and in anticipation of the Austin Food Blogger Alliance‘s pie baking contest, I also grabbed several of their ripe peaches. I take food from their backyard often.

Actually, we have created our own little CSA. Initially by default, and now with a more concerted effort, we have been growing various fruits and vegetables and sharing our harvest. We have been neighbors for nearly 10 years and have been steadily increasing the amount of space that we devote to gardening each year.

It’s a reflex by now: I look out the train window and mentally check off the edible and medicinal plants I see. Today there’s burdock, red clover blossoms, dandelions, plantain, wild carrot, nettles. All of those are edible and medicinal as well. Food? Check. Field first aid? Check. There’s a baseline security to being able to identify wild edible and medicinal plants.

Have you ever seen someone burn a rustic-looking bundle of dried herbs to cleanse their new home orwork space? Well, that herb was most likely white sage. Though some people may find this practice alittle odd, burning sacred herbs as a safeguard against evil or negative energy actually dates centuries back to ancient Babylonian practices. In most recent history, Native Americans continued this ritual throughout North and South America and burnt this culturally-sacred herb to ward off negative energy and rid their homes and temples of bad spirits. The botanical word for sage, ‘Salvia’, actually comes fromthe Latin words, meaning “to heal”, and its medicinal properties as well as its natural ability to repel insects (like ladybugs), is probably at the root of its mystical history.

The seed and plant nurseries have got us gardeners right where they want us at this time of year. We’ve had just enough time to rest from outdoor work; enough time to forget, perhaps, just how devastating last year’s failures were, and more than enough time to regain our optimism that this will be the year we revel in natural splendor and the most abundant harvests ever. We are ready to plan this year’s garden-to-be.