A few weeks ago my friend started a recession garden to calm her fears about the recession. If she got laid off and couldn’t find a job, at least she had food. Now “sprouties” are appearing in her tiny patch of dirt and she is ecstatic. Green beans! Radishes! Lettuce! She has never enjoyed eating lettuce so much.

“Now the seeds are all sown and, like a miracle, food is growing in my yard,” my friend wrote in the LA Daily News, where she works. “Along with the green things, I regrew some sense of purpose. ”

If you are interested in gardening and/or coping with economic stress, I highly recommend reading her story.