Before we bought our home in Englewood, I never considered the value that perennial plants add to a landscape. Herbaceous perennials grew on the land my parents’ tended in Alabama, but because plant life abounds in that climate, flowering annuals easily reseeded and became permanent fixtures in the garden beds there. When the perennials leafed out each season, I did not recognize their differences from annuals.

Greens and I did not hit it off when we met back in the 1980s. Back then, I preferred sour cream and onion potato chips and ham and cheese Hot Pockets to the homegrown collards, mustards, and turnips my family grew so easily in our southern soil. Only after I went vegetarian in 1997 did I open my eyes to the glory of lettuces and dark, leafy greens. While I'm no longer a strict vegetarian, I still eat a larger than necessary amount of greens every week. With several years of

Not long after diving into Let it Rot! The Gardener’s Guide to Composting, I learned that my love of fermented foods is not unlike my love for creating home compost. Both rely on aerobic bacteria’s labor to produce a successful end product. In the case of compost, success is marked by organic materials so well decomposed that they have broken down into what looks like rich, dark soil.