An Unlikely Gardener

Two years ago I didn't understand the passion for gardening.  Oh, sure, I knew that it is a good thing to plant vegetables, and I appreciated a well-laid-out garden.  But to garden properly requires time, and there were so many other things to do.  Also, I couldn't help but noticing that people who really got into gardening were just so . . . well, not so much like me.

For years my part of gardening was to go to the fairgrounds and get a load of manure, which I would then haul to the garden plot and dump.  I mixed it into desert soil and then left the choice of what and how to plant to my wife, Tryn.  She seemed to enjoy it more than I.  I also had to construct sprinkling systems, and motivate the boys to weed.

I liked the fresh tomatoes, and sometimes the squash.  I rarely go to taste the strawberries because the children ate them whenever they found them ripening, always before I got home, it seemed.  I did care about the fruit trees we planted, but couldn't seem to get them to produce very well.

In the fall of 2009 we moved into our new house in Georgia.  It has a good-sized yard, which needed some work.  We knew we wanted a vegetable garden, and I wanted fruit trees and bushes.  So I began trying to figure out the best place for the garden, which I decided was on the hill behind the driveway.  That required terracing, and a lot of work.

Somewhere in the process of moving the dirt, I began to acquire a taste for this gardening stuff, and my ambitions began to grow.  I began to understand in my aching muscles and peaceful, satisfied mind, the anonymous quote, "You can bury a lot of troubles digging in the dirt."

Now I find myself spending free time working in the garden, and even reading books on plants and garden / landscape architecture.

Remember those people I mentioned?  I've become one of them.

But I'm still a novice, knowing very little about the science and art of planting and growing things.  I'm experimenting and learning.  And this is where I'll record and share my experiences-good and bad-and insights.  Maybe you'll pick up an idea or two, or maybe you'll share some of your own.  I look forward to the encounters.

Let's dig in!