The Garden Grows, The Lilacs Bloom, I Mellow
Growing up in Southern California in a single parent family, we did not have the time or the space to garden. My mom always kept our yard and house spruced with pretty potted flowers, but apart from the ubiquitous fruit trees, growing food was unheard of.
Several weeks ago, thanks to my husband’s adventurous fortitude, we planted some seeds and they continue to grow, some at lightning speeds, and some seemingly much slower than last year.
As my husband is the one working the long hours outside the home, watering all the little growing things has fallen to me. I hate being out in the plain view of my neighbors, who might yell at me for not picking up dog poop in our shared front yard fast enough, but I’m enjoying the garden time in spite of myself. I even find myself pulling weeds.
Heck, the Green Zebra, Purple Cherokees, and all number of others veggies aren’t the only things growing right now. I’m growing too!
I’ve always joked that my inertia is at rest. I’m certainly not much of a doer.
If it weren’t for my husband, who knows how long it would take to discover my love of growing fruits and veggies?
He’s been asking me daily where I think we should put the fennel, or the radicchio, or the Japanese eggplants, and Armenian cucumbers, not to mention all the tomatoes – six varieties! And every day, I answer, “I don’t know, babe.”
Because until today, when I found myself enjoying the watering and the weeding, Ididn’t realize how much gardening space we’ve lost to the path our neighbor is putting in.
But, now I look forward to getting out there with Tim and squeezing all these little guys in our limited space. Some will have to go in pots, I think.
I count myself lucky that I married such a patient and encouraging man. He doesn’t nag at me, but he gently urges me to help out with the gardening, and slowly, I become less afraid to do things I’ve never done before. I cannot wait until the fresh veggies are coming out our ears.
And, as I often do, I’ll quote the little girl on the Shake’N Bake commercial, “And I helped!”
