Gardening

I am basically a city girl with a country heart. In every house that I have lived for the last 20 years, I have planted a garden. I have grown okra, pumpkins, tomatoes, watermelons, carrots -- lots of things. Unfortunately though, I am not an expert gardener by any stretch of the imagination.

In my first garden, I planted pumpkins because someone gave me some free seeds. I had vines at least 20 feet long crawling all over yard. Out of all ten of those vines, I got one pumpkin. I tried pumpkins again two years ago, and got vines everywhere, but not even one pumpkin.

My second garden wasn't even in my yard. I asked my neighbor if I could use their flower bed and I planted a bunch of vegetables --no vines this time. It did okay until the aphids attacked. Oh, and out of five bell pepper plants, I think I got two peppers. Some mysterious herbivore ate the rest of them.

I have to tell you before I describe my latest efforts at gardening, that I like to grow my plants from seeds. It's kind of like baking a cake from scratch. It makes me feel like I'm a real gardener. I told my husband that I was going to plant a garden. I have found that the best way to get him to help me is to just start doing it myself. I drew a picture of the garden and showed him where I was going to put it. Then I told him I was going to rent a roto-tiller and dig up the yard :-). Next thing I knew, he was out there with a shovel, turning over the soil and making a beautiful garden for me -- what a great guy.

I planted my seeds in perfect rows and even put little labels on the ends of the rows. I figured all I needed to do now was wait, and I would be eating delicious, fresh vegetables in no time.

Part of this country-girl heart of mine makes me adopt pets. I really should be living out in the country. I had just adopted a puppy when I planted my garden. She was the latest addition to a family (at that time) of three kids, three cats, and probably a rodent or two. I'm not sure if I had the fish then or not. My sweet, adorable puppy was a digger. And she got into my garden and scattered my perfectly placed seeds all over the place. I now had no idea where any of the plants were, or even what plants they were. I spent weeks nurturing a tiny little seedling that turned out to be a weed. Meanwhile, I had plucked out most of my carrot seedlings, thinking they were weeds.

This year, I have planted okra, peppers, potatoes (including blue ones!), cilantro, parsley, tomatoes, yellow squash, sunflowers, and cucumbers. I have an out-of-control raspberry section (in the back of the picture) that has threatened to take over the entire yard. My threats have not scared it. Not even the rabbits have scared it. Maybe I'll sic the dog on it.

So far, something is eating the potatoes, the peppers, and the cucumbers. I stole a couple of lady bugs from my five-year-old's lady bug collection (I believe I took Lotsaspots and Baby) and put them in the garden. I will be in big trouble when my daughter realizes they are missing. Good thing she can't read yet.

I see a rabbit in the yard, so I better go defend my territory. Happy gardening!