I love lots of things about our house. But the no-man’s land behind the garage has never been one of them. This barren, uninspired spot once served as the foundation for a hot tub. So imagine, if you will, hundreds of deep, spiky dandelions embedded in six inches of compressed river rock.
Horrendous.
On the upside - I’m an optimist, there has to be an upside - the area gets tons of sun. So my husband and I had a vision: Raised garden beds. Two of them. We’ve always had flower boxes of basil, rosemary, mint and oregano. But we are homeowners now. It was time to step it up.
Little did we know, we were in for a two-year rollercoaster. Creating this simple garden zone became an exercise in persistence. A constant reminder that nothing fruitful ever comes easily. Gosh, isn’t so much of life just like gardening?
You enter in with an fuzzy picture of what could be.
You make room. You create space.
You clear the debris - all 2,000 back-breaking pounds of it - so something new can take root.
You build the framework.
Suddenly, you can see it.
Next comes the basics.
Soil. Compost.
Seeds. Water. Sun.
Barefoot companionship.
Then, hark! Things bloom! Things grow!
Things get wild…
Weed.
Eat.
Repeat.
With a smidgen of success, it’s again time to plan.
Dare you think it, time to expand?
Well into year two, it finally comes through!
Friends draw near.
Some too close. Too hungry.
Yet on the whole, you see… white hope.
… green buds.
… sweet red fruit.
Plenty.
Gardening sure exposed the limitations of my green thumb. The cauliflower was a bust. (I always meant to wrap it! Why didn’t I wrap it?) We didn’t learn how to properly prune spinach until it was too late. And the collard greens are way too dense.
But we didn’t give up. And as a result, we haven’t needed to buy greens or cucumbers during a pandemic! And the tomatoes on the way hold the promise of salsa and caprese salad well into September.
Bottomline, though my fingertips turned to sandpaper cleaning those mud-caked rocks, and my husband raked his way to Nebraska and back, we kept at it. And the garden grew.
And right alongside it, we grew as gardeners, too.
