Well, I finally got a gardening catalog in the mail the other day! I love to look at all the beautiful pictures of vegetables, fruits, flowers, trees, grasses. I get good ideas of what I'd LIKE to do, but alas, I do NOT have a "green thumb." If I can grow anything at all, it's a major accomplishment! But I still like to think and dream.
I get a kick out of the gorgeous pictures, thinking of what you actually get in the mail. One time a friend had ordered some kind of hedge bushes for her yard. When she got them in the mail, they were literally tiny twigs! Those awesome pictures that make you drool for delicious fruit and vegetables show what you'll (hopefully) EVENTUALLY get. They're showing the end result, and to get there, there's a lot of work and time and cooperating weather involved!
Dad always talked about the huge garden his folks (Grandma and Granddad C.) had when he and his siblings were growing up. They'd go out and knock bugs off of the plants into a can with some kerosene in the bottom. Doesn't that sound like a fun job? But it saved the plants from destruction and resulted in food to eat. I guess one thing they grew was asparagus, and as a kid, Dad didn't like it at all. Then when he got older he liked it, but by then he had to get it in a high-priced can from the grocery store!
Grandma W. (Mom's mom) talked about one time on the farm when she had planted tomato plants. A cow got out and ate the tops off of all those tomato plants. As it turned out, those plants produced wonderfully that year! I guess the "pruning" did them some good.
My gardening attempts have been mediocre at best. But one summer I had a couple of tomato plants in a couple of buckets in the back yard. They weren't real prolific, but put out a few tomatoes, though kind of on the small side. But time for the county fair rolled around, so I got brave and entered the tomatoes. The entry called for five, and that was ALL I HAD! So I put them on a plate and hauled them with my other various entries to the high school for the exhibits. When I saw the other tomatoes entered, I despaired. They were nice-sized ones, and made mine look puny. But I left them anyway, and just had fun with the idea that I actually took some garden produce to the fair!
Later, we went up to see how the judging had gone. Wow, was I shocked. A blue ribbon! And the others had reds! I couldn't figure out why, though maybe it was consistency and lack of blemishes. The small size hadn't made a difference. So that was sure a fun surprise for this "no-green-thumb" gal.
Mom always tried to do things with flowers, but trying to grow stuff in the icky gyp dirt we had was sure a challenge. But I remember our yard, at various times, having neat flowers such as tulips (lots!), irises (my favorite!), lilacs, roses, lilies, Bouncing Betty, carnation, hollyhock, etc. We also had a few fruit trees while I was growing up, and I can still "taste" that REAL fruit flavor yet! We had apple, apricot, peach and cherry trees. Mom would make apple butter and cherry cobbler occasionally.
So though I'm not good at it, I like gardening stuff. And it's interesting to me to think that this was the first job for Adam and Eve --- to "dress" the garden. Plus, it's plants and grasses and trees that feed the world in one way or another. I appreciate anyone who is good with these green, growing things, whether it's geraniums in a pot on the front porch, or a huge field of wheat. I feel like we all have an important job to be good stewards.
I get a kick out of the gorgeous pictures, thinking of what you actually get in the mail. One time a friend had ordered some kind of hedge bushes for her yard. When she got them in the mail, they were literally tiny twigs! Those awesome pictures that make you drool for delicious fruit and vegetables show what you'll (hopefully) EVENTUALLY get. They're showing the end result, and to get there, there's a lot of work and time and cooperating weather involved!
Dad always talked about the huge garden his folks (Grandma and Granddad C.) had when he and his siblings were growing up. They'd go out and knock bugs off of the plants into a can with some kerosene in the bottom. Doesn't that sound like a fun job? But it saved the plants from destruction and resulted in food to eat. I guess one thing they grew was asparagus, and as a kid, Dad didn't like it at all. Then when he got older he liked it, but by then he had to get it in a high-priced can from the grocery store!
Grandma W. (Mom's mom) talked about one time on the farm when she had planted tomato plants. A cow got out and ate the tops off of all those tomato plants. As it turned out, those plants produced wonderfully that year! I guess the "pruning" did them some good.
My gardening attempts have been mediocre at best. But one summer I had a couple of tomato plants in a couple of buckets in the back yard. They weren't real prolific, but put out a few tomatoes, though kind of on the small side. But time for the county fair rolled around, so I got brave and entered the tomatoes. The entry called for five, and that was ALL I HAD! So I put them on a plate and hauled them with my other various entries to the high school for the exhibits. When I saw the other tomatoes entered, I despaired. They were nice-sized ones, and made mine look puny. But I left them anyway, and just had fun with the idea that I actually took some garden produce to the fair!
Later, we went up to see how the judging had gone. Wow, was I shocked. A blue ribbon! And the others had reds! I couldn't figure out why, though maybe it was consistency and lack of blemishes. The small size hadn't made a difference. So that was sure a fun surprise for this "no-green-thumb" gal.
Mom always tried to do things with flowers, but trying to grow stuff in the icky gyp dirt we had was sure a challenge. But I remember our yard, at various times, having neat flowers such as tulips (lots!), irises (my favorite!), lilacs, roses, lilies, Bouncing Betty, carnation, hollyhock, etc. We also had a few fruit trees while I was growing up, and I can still "taste" that REAL fruit flavor yet! We had apple, apricot, peach and cherry trees. Mom would make apple butter and cherry cobbler occasionally.
So though I'm not good at it, I like gardening stuff. And it's interesting to me to think that this was the first job for Adam and Eve --- to "dress" the garden. Plus, it's plants and grasses and trees that feed the world in one way or another. I appreciate anyone who is good with these green, growing things, whether it's geraniums in a pot on the front porch, or a huge field of wheat. I feel like we all have an important job to be good stewards.
No comments:
Post a Comment