As you think about what seeds to plant in your garden this year, pay attention to the colors of the vegetables and fruits. Different colors are indicators of different vitamins and minerals that are essential to our health. Some help clean out our digestive system and process foods better (Niacin), some boost our immune system so we don’t catch colds as easy (Vitamin C), some help our circulatory system by lowering cholesterol (Pectin in apples) and blood pressure (Potassium), and some nurture our cells so that they can divide properly and repair damage, giving us nicer skin (Vitamin A). Now who doesn’t want all those benefits?
There are great resources online and in books that give you the lists of the vegetables and fruits and what they can do for you. (I’ll post a link for you at the end.) If you are like me though, it is really hard to memorize those charts and it would be tedious to constantly be making sure that all your meals have each vitamin. The solution to making sure you get all those nutrients is to make sure that you plant and eat out of your Rainbow garden.
To design a rainbow garden, pick 2 or 3 vegetables or fruits from each color. Here is a list of a few vegetables and fruits by color to get you started.
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Red
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  Photo taken by Zsuzsanna Kilan |
Orange/Yellow
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Green
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Blue/Purple
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 Photo taken by Zsuzsanna Kilan |
White
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This year I’m planting a rainbow of small tomatoes! I can’t wait till this summer to share pictures with you!
Comment question: What fruit tree/bush you would plant if you had no limits of space and climate zone? I’ll be posting about my dream garden next time.
Enter the Contest for 3 Packets of Renee’s Garden seeds! Just leave a comment on a post and share a post with at least two friends before the end of February 5, 2011. The winner will be announced on February 9, 2011.
Resource: http://www.disabled-world.com/artman/publish/fruits-vegetables.shtml
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Hi, Caren! Great post! I’m following you from the Think Green Hop Along. Thanks for stopping by Life The Green Way.
If I could plant my dream garden, I’d plant strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, squash and lemons.
Happy SITS Saturday Sharefest! I love this time of year, browsing through the seed catalogs when the ground is covered with snow. One of my favorites is rainbow swiss chard, yummy and beautiful, as well as the deep red kale and beets with red leaves. dream garden: any kind of fruit trees!
I absolutely love the seed catalogs… I can spend hours in those! Thanks for stopping by Elizabeth!
You seem to know a lot about this. This is good blog. A great read. I’ll certainly be back.
I’ve heard that make a colorful plate of food is the best for us… Thanks for sharing this fun post.
Nice insightful post. Thanks for sharing the information.
Thanks! I try to make my posts interesting and appealing while giving the reader information that can help them lead a happy life.
Congratulations on having one of the most sophisticated weblogs I’ve come across in some time!
Great thoughts – thanks for sharing. It is nice to come across quality sites that get to the point.
You seem to know a lot about this. This is good blog. A great read. I’ll certainly be back.
I don’t usually reply to posts but I will in this case. My God, i thought you were going to chip in with some decisive insght at the end there, not leave it with ‘we leave it to you to decide’.
Thank you for commenting. I know it would be great if there was some exact list of what to eat, however I think we would get pretty bored with that given we all come from different backgrounds and some people are very picky eaters. My gist to Coloring Your Garden in Rainbow is that no matter what you plant in your garden, it should be what you and your family like to eat (my kids are pretty picky) and it should cover a number of vegetables and fruits that have a wide variety of colors. The different colors give your body the different nutrients it needs. I think sometimes we get into a rut of eating the same things over and over and sometimes dinner becomes ‘presented to you by the color orange/brown’, where there is no variety. If we just keep in mind that we need to have a colorful plate, then we can have some peace of mind that we are probably getting most of the vitamins we need from natural sources.