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del.icio.usHealth and horticulture
Tell us how gardening has helped your health and win a prize.
BY KATHY MANWEILER
The Wichita Eagle
Green thumbs run in my family, but gardening didn't come naturally to me.
Tomatoes were the stars of our vegetable garden when I was growing up. My mother picked out a few plants, gave them a sunny spot and showed my sister and me how to weed and water them properly.
I really hated the weeding, but as the tomatoes grew bigger and ripened, it was fun to pluck off a few of them each afternoon and bring them into the house for dinner.
Every year, the garden produced plenty of tomatoes for our family's meals, but one summer those plants really went wild.
Day after day, we picked baskets full of the red beauties and sliced them into salads, sauces and my personal favorite -- BLTs. We sent some tomatoes home with relatives and took a bunch of them to church.
We were tired of tomatoes, but our plants weren't exhausted at all. They were gifts that kept on giving.
So one weekend, we packed several paper bags full of our unexpectedly generous crop and walked all around the neighborhood giving away tomatoes to anyone who would take them. My best pitch went like this: "Would you like to have some of these tomatoes? Please? If I have to eat them for dinner one more night, I might run away from home."
Our neighbors obliged us, and by Sunday night, our house was a tomato-free zone. Then we just had to figure out what to do with all the zucchini that people in the neighborhood had begged us to take off their hands.
Sure, we could have skipped the effort and sweat by just buying some produce at the store, but our family garden saved us money and put plenty of vegetables onto our plates.
And when I see what markets are charging for tomatoes these days, I'm tempted to try my hand at gardening again.
Now it's your turn to tell me a gardening story, and you could win a $50 prize. Let me know by May 20 how gardening has helped your health. Has it given you an enjoyable way to get some exercise? Do you eat more vegetables because of your garden? Do you save money by growing your own herbs? Does gardening help you zap stress?
The reader who submits the best tale on how gardening has helped his or her health will get a $50 gift card to Dillons Marketplace. All other entries will be put in a drawing for a $30 iTunes gift card.
How to enter
• E-mail: Send e-mails with tips to Alive & Well Editor Kathy Manweiler at kmanweiler@wichitaeagle.com.
• Mail: Send letters to Alive & Well, P.O. Box 820, Wichita, KS, 67201.
Your entry must include your full name, phone number and mailing address.
Alive & Well reserves the right to publish any and all comments and tips unless you mark your submission not for publication. Entries that are not for publication are not eligible for prizes.
Reach Kathy Manweiler at 316-268-6266 or kmanweiler@wichitaeagle.com.
