When I was a little girl I asked my mother if I could have a garden. Multiple times, actually.
The answer? There is no place in the yard for a garden. Too much shade, or whatever, every time I asked about a spot.
Disappointing. But I remember trying at one point to grow watermelons down by our swing set from seeds of a watermelon we ate. I’m sure my mom must have agreed because I wasn’t the type of kid to do something without permission. But the watermelons never grew. Maybe my mom was right, maybe there wasn’t a good spot for the garden. Although now I know that there is so much more than just putting seeds in the ground and having them grow. I’m still learning more each year now that I am gardening.
When I got married, I had my first garden. I created a two-tiered “garden” by the back step of our apartment where I planted basil in the top and marigolds in the bottom. Those both grew!
The rest is history. We expanded the garden when we bought our first house, trying corn (learning that you have to plant a minimum of 4 x 4 rows to get proper cross-pollination), broccoli (which I served to my parents and dad had a worm in his – last year is the first year I tried broccoli again) and of course tomatoes! When the kids were young, Andy took over the vegetable garden and I took care of the flower garden. But Andy eventually got tired of gardening and I took it over a couple of years ago.
And wonder what took me so long.
It sure is a lot of work gardening and preserving food (freezing and dehydrating) – especially on top of work – but the satisfaction of growing and eating my own food is incomparable. I have so much to learn! And look forward to it. Got some catching up to do for all those years I missed.
I still haven’t tried growing watermelons again. I suppose I will someday. Just to bring this all full circle.
By the way, Andy still does the heavy work, putting in a fence, tilling the soil, making the raised beds, tending the compost….thank goodness!