Thinking about gardening at work
I stumbled across this today and my gardening yen hit me hard:
"OMG, I could tear down all the crappy weeds on top of the rock wall over the garden beds and plant SUNFLOWERS and watch BEES for SCIENCE!! OMG where can I find that strain of sunflowers..."
Which quickly turned into:
"Ooh, and then I can add ground cover...NASTURTIUMS! Oh man, seeing those spill over the side of the rock wall would be killer! Wait, what about the invasive strawberry plants that are everywhere...those would keep the bunnies from eating the sunflowers! I could do both...they eat the nasturtiums too... And then in fall, when the sunflower heads start to die back...if I beat the birds to it we could have SUNFLOWER SEEDS! Why have I never thought of this before!"
I quickly quelled these thoughts, as I may not be living at Dave's parents anymore by the time the sunflowers start to droop. I wouldn't be able to keep accurate records for the sunflower-bee people. So...NEXT YEAR. YES.
As it often does, this gardening line of thought brings me back to the house I grew up in. I learned rather recently that the absolutely abundant backyard we had was not planted by my parents. For some reason that was always my assumption, even though my parents showed very little interest in horticulture. I remember one or two years where Mom tried to grow seedlings in the small greenhouse that was attached to the back of the house. We once planted daffodils alongside the road. I think we even put a rosebush in, once. But the majority of yardwork was always minimal maintenance, and little more.
Yet we regularly had raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, and grapevines galore. We had two beautiful crabapple trees, a green apple tree, two pear trees. There were peonies, lilies, snowdrops, daffodils, roses, forget-me-nots, lavender, chives, those awesome little purple bulby flowers that look like grape bunches upside down. Once we tried planting strawberries where the playset used to be, but no one knew what they were doing so it failed. I believe I was the impetus behind it, too... Next door was "Farmer Tom", who, now that I am older, I realize is not really a farmer, just a really avid gardener. He had a good acre behind his house just for a giant plot of garden. He had four or five stone fruit trees, as well.
With all this wonder and beauty and gardening glee growing up, why was I not more involved? Why wasn't I over at Farmer Tom's EVERY DAY asking him about gardening? Why didn't I learn how to help blueberries thrive, or apply more time to the strawberry bed?
The reason is: People don't appreciate things until they don't have them anymore, realizing only then that what was lost truly meant something to them. Plus, I'm sure the fact that I've turned into an avid semi-vegetarian foodie helps a lot. This interest just naturally spills into growing your own food -- if you want the best, the freshest, the only way to get it is if you grow it yourself.
Or if you bribe the farmer, like in Ratatouille. :)
I've talked about this before, haven't I? Oh, well. Have I talked about the random chicken farm in the middle of Groton? Well, I went there yesterday to pick up some delicious, truly free-range, grass fed eggs, when I noticed a chicken had gotten out. I roused some help (a farm worker, I think?) and witnessed an honest-to-God chicken chase, circa 1800. Seriously, those bastards can RUN.
...they make the best noises. :) I'm gonna have sum one dai.
"OMG, I could tear down all the crappy weeds on top of the rock wall over the garden beds and plant SUNFLOWERS and watch BEES for SCIENCE!! OMG where can I find that strain of sunflowers..."
Which quickly turned into:
"Ooh, and then I can add ground cover...NASTURTIUMS! Oh man, seeing those spill over the side of the rock wall would be killer! Wait, what about the invasive strawberry plants that are everywhere...those would keep the bunnies from eating the sunflowers! I could do both...they eat the nasturtiums too... And then in fall, when the sunflower heads start to die back...if I beat the birds to it we could have SUNFLOWER SEEDS! Why have I never thought of this before!"
I quickly quelled these thoughts, as I may not be living at Dave's parents anymore by the time the sunflowers start to droop. I wouldn't be able to keep accurate records for the sunflower-bee people. So...NEXT YEAR. YES.
As it often does, this gardening line of thought brings me back to the house I grew up in. I learned rather recently that the absolutely abundant backyard we had was not planted by my parents. For some reason that was always my assumption, even though my parents showed very little interest in horticulture. I remember one or two years where Mom tried to grow seedlings in the small greenhouse that was attached to the back of the house. We once planted daffodils alongside the road. I think we even put a rosebush in, once. But the majority of yardwork was always minimal maintenance, and little more.
Yet we regularly had raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, and grapevines galore. We had two beautiful crabapple trees, a green apple tree, two pear trees. There were peonies, lilies, snowdrops, daffodils, roses, forget-me-nots, lavender, chives, those awesome little purple bulby flowers that look like grape bunches upside down. Once we tried planting strawberries where the playset used to be, but no one knew what they were doing so it failed. I believe I was the impetus behind it, too... Next door was "Farmer Tom", who, now that I am older, I realize is not really a farmer, just a really avid gardener. He had a good acre behind his house just for a giant plot of garden. He had four or five stone fruit trees, as well.
With all this wonder and beauty and gardening glee growing up, why was I not more involved? Why wasn't I over at Farmer Tom's EVERY DAY asking him about gardening? Why didn't I learn how to help blueberries thrive, or apply more time to the strawberry bed?
The reason is: People don't appreciate things until they don't have them anymore, realizing only then that what was lost truly meant something to them. Plus, I'm sure the fact that I've turned into an avid semi-vegetarian foodie helps a lot. This interest just naturally spills into growing your own food -- if you want the best, the freshest, the only way to get it is if you grow it yourself.
Or if you bribe the farmer, like in Ratatouille. :)
I've talked about this before, haven't I? Oh, well. Have I talked about the random chicken farm in the middle of Groton? Well, I went there yesterday to pick up some delicious, truly free-range, grass fed eggs, when I noticed a chicken had gotten out. I roused some help (a farm worker, I think?) and witnessed an honest-to-God chicken chase, circa 1800. Seriously, those bastards can RUN.
...they make the best noises. :) I'm gonna have sum one dai.