playing in the dirt, still

I work in a garden center. Our busy season is just around the corner. (duh). Gardening is also one of my favorite hobbies, it's a dying art.  Most of my generation thinks of the word "gardening" as a synonym for hard, monotonous, punishment.  They are really missing something. Let me paint a few mental images for you.

Picking apples in your backyard with your children during a crisp fall afternoon.

Letting your 3 year old niece eat raw sugar snap peas from the seeds she helped you plant.

Letting the neighbor boy catch butterflies/lightening bugs/other creepy crawlies living in the flower beds.

Eating heirloom tomatos with a little salt and a cold beer (I like brandywine)

The first salad of the year, on the back patio.

Soft warm soil between your toes while you weed barefoot.

Learning the diference in smell between nasturtium and fragrant gladiolus.

Fresh basil for pesto, rosemary for leg of lamb,  chives for baked potatos. and extras get frozen for winter.

Strawberries still warm from the morning sun.

Giving everyone you know the hottest peppers, sweetest onions, biggest zuchinni they have ever seen.

Eating the heart out of a watermelon and throwing the rest away because you have 20 more.

Running your fingers through the lavender on your way out the door, and having the smell stay with you half the day at work.

Spending quiet time with your spouse in the garden (or having a rotten tomato fight with them)

In the garden, I am god, I create, I destroy, Everything in it exists for my pleasure. Sure, plants die that I can't save. Weeds always come back. I can't control the rain or frost. But still I have control, The good always outweighs the bad, and there is always next years garden.

Everyone has space to do something, a pot or three of flowers by the front door, a square foot for a tomato by the garage, the windosil in the kitchen for herbs.

Don't worry about being a "good gardener" just have fun. Don't worry about killing plants, they aren't children, or pets, think of them more like seasonal decorations.  I'm a professional and I've killed more plants than most people I know. Plant them, enjoy them, when they get ugly or die, replace them with something else.

My generation dosen't know what they're missing