After a long, cold winter of eating from the cold storage and the freezer, nothing tastes better than a fresh salad.  Greens are my tonic, giving me energy and vitality.  I eat salads lunch and dinner and throw greens into quesadillas, soups, eggs, and more.

I always plant an early crop of hearty greens. The beauty is that these greens can withstand freezing so you do not need to wait until the danger of frost has passed.  This year due to the early thaw I planted some greens on the south side of the house in February. The ground was still frozen underneath, but the hearty greens and the lettuce still came up. 

But the older I get, the more I appreciate food that I don’t have to sow.  I have several varieties of perennial greens as well as some self-seeding annuals. These are brilliant because they come up whenever they are ready. You don’t have to stress about planting them at the right time, or at all. They just take care of themselves. You probably already have some of these in your garden, and right now is the perfect time to plant the ones you don’t have.

• Orach. Red, purple or green, orach is a relative of spinach and self-seeds readily in the garden. It has a very mild flavor and can be eaten fresh or cooked. The purple variety looks awesome in salads, and the green variety can be used as a straight-up substitute for spinach. 
• Lamb’s-quarter. Another relative of spinach, you...

I hear it all the time... "but not everyone can garden!"

As if gardening is a leisure activity that only the wealthy people can afford. 

The reality is that millions of people all over the world garden out of necessity. 

Gardens and small family farms still feed over half of the population of the world. 

Not so long ago, this was the only way to feed all but the very elite. 

I, myself, rely on gardening to feed my kids healthy food. Just a few years ago when I was in the throes of a divorce and rebuilding my business, I took comfort in knowing that at least we wouldn't starve. 

In fact, in many ways it was the gardening that got me through. When I was filled with anxiety about the future, or grief for my loss, the only thing that would bring me back was some weeding. A trip to the raspberry patch gave me strength to keep on. 

Which is why I believe that gardening should be a right. We should all have access to a piece of land to grow something on. 

Everywhere I have traveled outside of the US, I have seen people growing food in gardens.

In Cuba I saw vegetable gardens everywhere. Over 90% of fruits and vegetables consumed come from food gardens on just 3.4% of urban land. Havana alone has over 25,000 allotments, which produce food year-round using no chemical fertilizers or pesticides. 

During my studies in Russia I passed miles and miles of dachas riding the trains out of St. Petersburg. Russians grow over 50% of...