The Revenge of Gardening
So last year I told you all about my adventures in starting my first real vegetable garden. This year? Not only are the vegetables back, but I’m madly researching flowers, shrubs, and trees. I have to admit I didn’t anticipate this when the subject of buying a house first came up between my life partner and me. At the time we were living in a generic high-rise apartment building. I envisioned purchasing a lovely old house with history and personality, with enough space for us each to claim a separate office room. Location was important. Public transit was important. A garden didn’t really enter into our priorities, or even our thoughts, beyond “oh yeah, we’ll have to mow our lawn.” We ended up with all those things, PLUS a large urban yard with nothing in it. 1250 square feet of fertile soil, almost twice the size of the one-bedroom apartment we’d lived in for years. Blank slate, wheeeeeee! Now, two years into home-ownership, we’ve become devoted plant-growers, enthusiastic and slightly less clueless than when we started. (Home-grown carrots? Best thing ever. Even when they’re shaped funny. Same for tomatoes, but I hadn’t realized how much I missed the taste of real carrots….) Honestly, I don’t quite know what hit me.