One Saturday four weeks ago, I spent nearly a full day pulling, cutting, breaking, and generally dismantling the items in my garden that had had their day.

Up came the pepper and tomatoes, some over-the-hill beans, and all those withered sunflower stalks. Up, too, came my basil, but not before I harvested 12 cups of basil leaves.

Needless to say, I spent Sunday with my food processor, making six batches of pesto (sans parmesan cheese) for the freezer. It’s my way of calling summer back to life in the midst of winter’s chill. The plants that were not yet withered or withering, those still quite green and alive (thank you very much), I allowed to have their last few breaths in peace.

This coming weekend is our community garden cleanup event. I suspect most of what I had given a reprieve a month ago will have succumbed to the scattered chilly nights and occasional chilly days. The rhubarb, the iris, the marigolds… they’ll let loose their leaves or roots and go willing.

A part of me hopes the chill-hardy parsley is still harvestable; parsley pesto would be a nice addition to fish dishes in midwinter. I will also make some on-the-spot contraption that will, hopefully, protect my oh-so-beautiful rosemary plant. For the last three winters I’ve attempted to overwinter rosemary inside. Poor girl, she never survives in the low-light and low-humidity conditions in my home. I’ll see what some mulch and burlap can accomplish. Wish me luck.

Vegetable gardening is on the rise

This past weekend I attended an event for my other life (that of an editor for a commercial greenhouse and garden center publication). Among other topics, the conference discussed how to offer you, gardeners of all skill levels, the stuff you want. We take surveys, follow trends. We see which way the wind is blowing.

Our conclusion? The winds are shifting into the vegetable garden. I won’t bog you down with polls and numbers. You’re the gardener, you know vegetable gardening is on the rise. Whether in large backyard plots, in patio containers and window boxes, or interspersed in a perennial flower border, veggies are back in the American garden.

The reasons are many: we may be anxious about food safety or concerned about the rising costs (fiscal, ecological and otherwise) of transportation; we may want to repair the disconnect between ourselves and our land; we may want our children to be active members in the food cycle; and we may relish the flavors of truly fresh food.

Whatever your reason for turning to growing your own, you understand it connects you to nature in a way only a few things can in this modern world. So, keep doing it. Whether you’ve been a veggie gardener for a day or a decade, whether you can muster only an herb plant on a windowsill or harvest enough to carry you through winter, keep your veggie garden going. Your combined voices have been heard and you’ve gotten the industry’s attention.