How Does Your Garden Grow?

May 18, 2009

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Gardening is an exercise in optimism.
Marina Schinz, photographer and author

I went to the garden store on one of those
warm days. Now it is cold. I've got a little
red wagon filled with plants. I've got my first ever
topsy turvy planter holding an unsuspecting
tomato plant. I can't wait to see if it's really
as good and as easy as those infomercials
proclaim it to be. I'm going to try a cucumber
vine in the other one I bought.

I've got one quarter of my flower beds dug up
and ready for new plants. I'm scratching my head
trying to remember the name of the plants which
I planted last year. Some are quite prolific.
They are filling in just as I wanted them to do.
I don't suppose it matters if I know what they
are in the grand scheme of things. I'll just
enjoy watching them grow and be pleasantly
surprised when they are all grown up for this
season. Maybe by then I'll remember what they
are.

I've got fresh rhubarb. The plants I brought
here from Dad's three years ago have finally
established themselves. The lilacs are in
full bloom under my bedroom window along
with the lilies of the valley. I wish it would
warm up so I could have the window open
and drink in their scents, especially first thing
in the morning. Ferns are unfolding in their
shady nooks too - all that I didn't accidentally
massacre with the weedwhacker last week.

Every year I am determined to buy a trellis
for the wild blackberry bushes. I think of this
when I am hanging out clothes and those little
thorns grab my clothes and leave painful
scratches on any exposed skin. Maybe this
will be the year I actully accomplish this
task.

I'm trying to fill in the flower beds with perennials
to minimize the care needed. But gladioli and
iris - and dahlias when I plant them - they all need
to be dug up and replanted each year. I'm not
good at doing that. Kneeling is already impossible.
Bending over is easier now that I exercise regularly
but gardening gets more labor intensive with each
passing year.

I've got my basket of pansies from Easter which
I have managed to keep alive. I have the haul
from my trip to the garden store which patiently
waits for their place in the sun. I have two broccoli
plants which a friend gave me. I have several
packets of sunflower seeds which I hope will have
a chance to grow rather than ending up in a
squirrel, chipmunk or bird's stomach.

Thanks to Jim Faulise, my sunflower mailbox is
back in service. Thanks to Ryan Wood, the lawn
finally got mowed. Hopefully, we'll keep ahead of
the grass from now on The rest of the work at hand
is up to me. In fact, I should be out there working
instead of writing about working. The weeds are
already winning in the front flowerbeds.

I cheated this year. Last year I started things
early from seed. This year I bought one of those patio
cherry tomato plants. It is loaded with green tomatoes.
In fact there are two of them almost ripe enough to pop
in my mouth.

Although most of what I plant fails to grow as
bountifully and beautifully as the pictures in the
garden magazines, I will do it every year for as
long as I can move. I do like exercising optimism.
One of my success stories is my super-size milkweed
plants. I fed them Miracle-Gro one year and now I have
a bumper crop. I have to warn those who like to pull weeds,
that the milkweed growing in MY garden does NOT
get pulled. Milkweed attracts monarch butterflies,
which proves to be delightfully entertaining.

I wholeheartedly agree with Maria - the photographer
and author quoted above - "gardening is an exercise
in optimism." It requires rigorous physical exercise
to get things in the ground and to keep the weeds
at bay. But it is sheer, soul filling joy to watch
everything grow and bloom as the summer progresses.

Even though it is only in the sixties and breezy today,
Memorial Day is not far away. Excuse me now, I have to
go exercise my optimism. I may have to wear my long johns
and a flannel shirt to keep warm, but I've got lots to do -
and, for the moment, optimism to spare and share.
Happy Gardening!