Plant This!

My mother had a vegetable garden throughout my childhood. The best part, as I recall, was the snapping of green beans before throwing them into a boiling pot. Of course, I'd sneak a few raw ones. The crunch was certainly more satisfying than the unsalted, uncooked taste of those green, velvety beans. When Dad suggested I make a little money by taking over the garden and selling the produce at the Farmers' Market, I quickly became enthused. Mom's reaction was a bit more sober.

It made sense that I take over the garden. After all, Mom worked and my babysitting jobs didn't occupy my entire summer. Of course, I would weed it! Of course, I'd keep up with the picking of radishes and carrots!

Dad usually had a few money-making schemes for me. Once, he built hutch to raise rabbits. He recognized the fast-growing market for rabbits in Kirkman. But fortune was not on our side. We quickly learned that the phrase "breed like rabbits" was a big, fat lie. Not only did our rabbits NOT breed, but they died. Maybe we just lacked the skills of a proper bunny whisperer.

Dad also drew Tippie the Bird for me several times in attempt to win that big cash prize offered to the best artist under the age of 18, as advertised in the TV guide. That only landed us an invitation to attend art school. No cash prize. I always wondered how many kids were kicked out of that school once they realized the parental sketching involvement.

When all else failed, there was always a farmer's field to walk. Since Dad never acknowledged any of my valid excuses (such as my strict exercise routine), I assumed growing a garden might relieve me of the awful job of pulling button weeds from a soybean field.

So, it was a plan.

This is what I envisioned. Still do.

No matter what the age, planting a garden is exciting. It seems so... noble! Carefully laying the seeds in the freshly hoed ground. Watering the rows just so, making the dirt a deep, rich brown. Then waiting and waiting and waiting for that first sprout. When it does, it's magic.

Anyone who grew up in Kirkman knows how easy it was to get distracted. My two best friends and I had things to do (beyond exercising), such as keeping up on Young and the Restless and General Hospital. We were also called to listening to the groundbreaking albums of Joan Jett, Michael Jackson, and The J. Geils Band. (It wasn't so easy to keep up with pop culture in the days of no cable and no Internet.) No matter, it's no surprise it didn't take long for the garden to go to hell, just as the sage in our family had predicted.

Well, I'm a bit older now. I've dabbled in flowers and vegetable gardening throughout the nearly 27 years of our marriage. Sure, I've had some failures. But I've had a few successes as well. The thing I like about this particular hobby? For every fifteen failed projects, it only takes one success to make you feel like an accomplished master gardener. One beautiful lily bloom is all it takes to offset your six failed tomato plants.

I finally convinced Doug to till me a garden again. I've been asking the last few years, but he would usually give me a similar reaction as my mother did all those years ago. Either I wore him down, or he was tired of my never-ending list of house projects now that we are full-fledged empty nesters.  The last time I had a real garden was back at the old house when the kids were little. Alex would sneak the fresh strawberries from our patch, just as I did the green beans.  Cole was too young, but I doubt I could've convinced him to try a vegetable or fruit from the garden––unless of course it would've tasted like a cheeseburger.

So, here I go. The new garden is half-planted. My enthusiasm for this project is over the moon. Who knows if anything will grow? We can be fairly confident that weeds will grow. But I hope, hope, hope I can deliver a few fresh green beans to my mother.

Wish me luck!

A rare pic
of the kids amidst flora...note the gardening Crocs.

Electronics Free Week? OMG!

See these lovely, voluminous elephant ears? The beauties reside outside our front entrance, eager to greet our scant visitors. Sorry to wallow in my conceit, but every year I attempt to grow these most awesome of plants and fail miserably. And at the beginning of this summer season, it had appeared I was en route to do the same. The plant was gangly. Almost dead. I was heartbroken.

Isn't that what we always do when something doesn't work out? Just keeping doing the same thing? Waiting for a better result? Then, we bitch.


But I did something different. I changed the location. I starting talking to the lovely greenery with each nightly watering. And voila. Finally, results that exceeded my expectations!

Doug and I have been quite annoyed with our children's seeming addiction to all things electronic. WAIT! Aren't we the parents? Don't we have the right of rescission?  Yes. Yes, we do.

So, next week will be declared E-Free week! No computer, DS, phone, TV (very limited anyway) or WII. And it will be hotter than Hades outside! What will these kids do???? I'm sure the first order of business will be to....mope.  I've always bragged on their creative minds. Let's just see them prove me right.

Weeds

No, this post is not about the HBO series NOR any illegal substance. It's merely about weeds. It's a topic that enters my mind often as I'm pulling shoots of unwanted growth.

Remember the days of picking dandelions and giving them to your mother as a gift? Then, all of the sudden someone bursts your bubble and tells you that a dandelion is merely a weed. (Certainly the informant wasn't a "mother," who would never dream of appearing unappreciative of your homemade gifts...could it have been a father?)

When I first started gardening, I remember my master gardener friend Sharon explaining how certain flowers (like daisies) are practically weeds and become too invasive. I thought to myself, "Good, something easy to grow." Well, now I'm trying to kill off Spider Wort, so I can relate. Sort of.

Since the beginning of summer, I've been purposely growing a weed in my rock garden. You see, it had a bud on it. I couldn't bear to pull it. So, patiently I waited and TAHDAH!

Isn't it pretty? Well, here it is again...a few days later:


Not so pretty. But by the looks of the weed's skeleton, I'll be getting a few more. In the scheme of things, what's another weed?

History of a "Lime" Green Thumb

Circa 1979:The mothers of my two best friends and I come up with an idea to give us kids a bit o responsibility for the summer...a vegetable garden! We'd take our harvest to the Farmers Market for moolah. Dollars and cents fill us with hope. Certainly this will be the start of something big! But after planting the seeds, the newness quickly wears off. Mom does the weeding and harvesting. But she still lets us keep the $2.68 we earn from our Farmer's Market sales.

Circa 1987:My college roommate finds my solitary plant in the trash and gives me a bit of a lecture. Jean revives the plant before it is destined to the dumping ground. I feel like I just killed a cat. I'll never again throw away anything green, unless it's moldy bread.

Circa 1994: Just married, living in town and I (in my early attempt to prove my domestic worthiness) decide our rental house desperately needs a dose of floral accents. After all, we live next to retired green thumbs with inspiring flower beds, which make our house look pitifully barren. I throw a few pretty flowers in the ground and voila! They flourish, creating a nice, homey appearance for our now quaint home.

Circa 1995: Move to the family farm. Can't wait to get busy on the vast amount of yard to flaunt my obvious knack for gardening. But something goes amiss. My only successes are the flowers already planted by my mother-in-law. Everything else seems to flounder. What in the heck happened to my green thumb?

I come to find out that my early horticultural successes were entirely due to our green thumb neighbors. They'd sneak over while I was at work to cultivate, replant or fertilize, and consequently, creating my delusional green thumb.

But if anything, the setbacks make me more determined. After all, who doesn't want to live in an aesthetically-pleasing environment. So, after years of experimentation and talking to other real gardeners, I consider myself, well, a novice really. But I still love it! No doubt it takes patience, of which I lack. But it is so rewarding when a design finally comes together.

Yesterday, we toured the Lauritzen Gardens (where the photo was taken above). Talk about inspiration! But on a much smaller scale, I can have the same enjoyment at my very home...See my lilies below? It's taken me four years, but now I sneak out several times a day to peek at them. (Obviously, I'm on vaca.) As my mother always says, gardening and flowers are wonderful therapy. I hope you enjoy as well.