This rain is exactly what my garden needs! Sunny days are essential, but every once in a while it's nice to have mother nature give my plants a thorough wetting. I think the vegetables & flowers must feel the difference between being watered with a can and a nice rain, like we know the difference between water filtered through a Brita pitcher and a drink straight from a natural spring!
There's nothing quite like delicious produce from your own garden! Whether your crop of choice is flowers, fruits, vegetables, or a little of each, growing a garden is a thing of beauty and bounty. I can remember my mom planting a garden over the spot where the drain field used to be. That soil was rich and the plants grew out of control. The best was the tomatoes! I lived on tomato sandwiches all summer. If you haven't harvested your own tomato for your sandwich, you are missing something delicious. Even the best grocery store tomatoes taste bland in comparison.
There was other produce and my dad planted some fruit trees (which sadly the birds got to before we could), but we always had something growing at our house during spring & summer. I suspect my mom got her gardening acumen from her grandparents. Grandma Wellmann lived in the city, but she had a successful little garden. And Grandma & Pappy Fortney (at least when I knew them) lived in the 'burbs with a little garden and lots of flowers! Always red geraniums in window boxes at the front of the house. This love for beautiful flowers and homegrown food was passed on to me and so was the green thumb!
I have had various kinds of gardens in my homes. A terraced garden filled with vegetables & strawberries and a "kitchen garden" overflowing with herbs at the old farm house. A big vegetable garden of watermelons, pumpkins, sugar snap peas, cucumbers, tomatoes, pole beans, and sunflowers all fed with home made compost and harvested by little hands at the split-level. Ever pick and eat a sugar snap pea while standing in the garden? "Yum" doesn't quite cover it! Even red beets & carrots in a small urban garden in Ontario!
Alas, our last move brought us to a yard filled with rocks, so I've been confined to containers for the past 8 summers. My success with container gardening has improved, but it is limited to flowers & herbs. Both of which I love, but I miss garden tomatoes & veggies (those things were always a big fail in the pots). So this year I decided to build a small raised bed and planted 2 kinds of tomatoes with marigolds for protection, bush beans, and cucumbers! I cannot wait to eat that first tomato sandwich! My pots are filled with beautiful flowers, including a few red geraniums and edible flowers like pansy and lavender (which already smells divine). Of course, I may have to fend off Peter Rabbit and his friends, but that's part of the challenge and the charm of growing food! Here's a picture of the newly planted garden.
I have the cutest little garden intern! She loves to garden as much as I do and was very helpful in choosing and planting the flowers & veggies. Eager to learn, not afraid to experiment with color, and loves to get dirty: excellent qualities for a gardener in training!
How does your garden grow? And since this is Tasty Tuesday, share your favorite homegrown treat, even if it's not something you personally grew.
Your Partner in Ministry (and green thumb),
Shelly
P.S. If you've not had a drink from a natural spring, I know of one and will direct you to it. Just let me know in the comments.
"Kind words are like honey - sweet to the soul and healthy for the body." Proverbs 16:24
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