Planting Season

My sister was given a bucket full of seeds as last year's gardening season came to an end.  Too many to use herself, she gave lots to me.  I was thrilled---images of neat rows of brightly colored vegetables peeking out from bouquets of green leaves filled my mind.  I returned home and delightedly presented the seeds to my husband who received them with far less enthusiasm than I had hoped.  His late father had been an avid gardener so I thought he might welcome the chance to reconnect through time and labor in the sunshine.  But it was precisely the experience with his father's big garden plot that made him less than enthused about my plan.  He told me the work of a garden is far more than I had imagined, and the fun far less than I had dreamed up.

I took him out back to visualize the perfect placement of the rows.  He half-heartedly helped me strategize.  Soon I decided I am on my own with this project!  Even a quick retelling of The Little Red Hen where no one wanted to help until they smelled the irresistible aroma of her baking bread did nothing to sway him.

I recently watched a documentary on Hulu about the production of food in America which only served to make me more interested in eating locally. How much more local can you get than your own back yard?  

I am set to try this!  I know nothing about growing plants.  It is true that summer is my least favorite season as I don't like to be hot.  I admit I am the indoorsy type.  Perhaps my husband's lack of interest in serving as my farmhand is not such a mystery.  This could be a disaster, but I am going to give it a go.  I am issuing a challenge to myself to learn something about which I know nothing, and to take a chance!

I am reading. I am wistfully perusing gardening blogs and magazines filled with rainbows of vegetables.  I have been dreaming of ripe, juicy vegetables, and this week I have started some seeds indoors.  The mudroom is full of potential, granted it looks like dirt.  Still, it is potential I am just sure.

Written April 13, 2011

March 2016-This week I planted seeds again, all the while thinking about the optimism I felt in 2011. Five years later I know I will never be a great gardener.  I lack the stick-to-itiveness once the mid-summer heat hits. I do love to have about a dozen plants of different types growing in pots or a mini-plot.  Watering with the hose before beginning my day is a meditation.  Measuring growth keeps me grounded in the present.  Occasionally, there is even the reward of a vegetable or two.