Garden

On Saturday I went to an amazing garden store. They give you a map—it’s that awesome. There are water features and an entire section dedicated to Japanese maples. I think they sell upwards of 50 varieties. I was there for two hours and didn’t even see all of it. It’s all the best things about a garden but you can look for free and buy what you want to take home with you—that exact plant, in its current condition.

We bought some raspberries (several varieties) and some grapes, and some starts, because we have not been able to start our garden properly due to the move, which is still ongoing and is beginning to feel draggy and pesky and somewhat awful. It’s my least favorite part: 90% completion. Just enough to tempt you that it’s over, but the dirty work of cleaning and patching are still not done.

Maybe next year we will get some kiwi. We have four blueberry bushes, three strawberry pots, and we even have some wild huckleberries in the yard. I now am the proud owner of a cold hardy pomegranate tree, a dwarf Meyer lemon tree, an avocado tree, and a banana palm. (Dwarf cavendish.) If I could, I would have a grapefruit tree and an orange tree. Last priority is a lime tree. I do not know if we will get pears, but we got two apples and a nectarine. We want a good variety. We want all sorts of tasty foods. We want the kids to know what it is like to plant, watch, harvest, process and eat their own food.

We put up a little fence to keep the bunnies out of the garden, which has rich dark brown soil that has been fortified over years and was not bad to start with. This year we will have broccoli, beets, onions,  red and green cabbage, several types of lettuce, and some kale. We will also have acorn squash, Hubbard squash, zucchini and a couple kinds of cucumbers.

I love gardening. I love how the plants respond to care. They grow up and curlicue here and there and produce the yummiest of things for you if you just show them a little love.

I think people are a lot like plants. They will do wonderful things—not just for you—if you show them love.

So let’s love the plants and the people—and maybe show people we love them by feeding them the plants we tended.