My Garden Interview - Part 4

***i'm currently reading an older garden book titled, "Gardening From The Heart - Why Gardeners Garden" by Carol Olwell. The reason for this book is interesting, because, as she points out, gardening is hard work,

considered pretty much low grade manual labor, and is rarely lucrative -

so why do we do it? She compiles the story of many gardeners who were interviewed for this book. i am barely past the introduction, but i feel compelled to put into words how i myself came to be a gardener, and why....***
continued....

Q: Do you have anything you want others to know about you?

i'm amazed at all the yards in our suburban neighborhoods that have nothing but grass and a couple trees growing in them. My God, at least stick one tomato plant somewhere! Many people i know never go outdoors,

are scared silly of bugs, and we have actually met some who don't know where eggs come from! If they ever had to live off the land to survive, they'd be dead in a hurry! I'm sure even i would have trouble doing that, having been a "city girl" all my life, but i think i'd manage better than they would..

i make it a point to live as simply as i can in our normal American Midwestern life. i have a lot of things to do, but always try to just sit in the garden a few minutes, or walk to the park. If i see a hummingbird and want to stop and watch it, i do. It takes me about 45 minutes for a decent walk in the park, and if i can't find 45 minutes for myself, then i feel something's wrong with my life! i take all the

breaks and lunch hours and vacations i'm entitled to at my job. i feel that all of that is vital to my well-being. All the workaholics i know either have heart disease, or cancer, or diabetes - or have already died!

i try to be as environmentally "careful" as i can, too. i don't know why - i don't have children, so it's not because of my concern for my descendants having clean air to breathe! No, it's just something i feel i have to do for my OWN peace of mind. Don't get me wrong, i have a car, and gas heat, and central air conditioning, and a microwave and a computer - all the luxuries of modern life, but i don't abuse them. We use our central air maybe as

much as two weeks most years, when it's really necessary for sleeping. A lot of acquaintances put their air on the first 80 degree (F) day, and don't turn it off until Autumn! I walk if possible - i don't start the car to drive across the street! If i find a tiny spider in the house, do i call the exterminator? No. Either i gently take it outside, or the cats get it (!), or i leave it - especially in mosquito or gnat season, a couple of spiders in the house is a natural, self sustaining extermination system!

All anyone has to do is THINK a little to improve their lives and the planet.

 

Our current home has about a third of an acre, relatively large for a city lot, but it's conversely not enough and too much for me! One side of me would love several acres of a large, maybe partly wooded lot, but on the other hand, when i get home from an 8 hr workday, a huge area would be daunting! i already have areas that "get away " from me in the summer, mostly because i have my leaf castings to work on now, so even though i work outside, i still can't work ON the outside! My husband does the mowing and weeding (but only the recognizable weeds!), and enjoys the yard when it looks nice, but the work is not out of love, as it is with me. One time i complained to a friend of mine (who is a non

gardener married to a "plant nut" like me) that it would be nice if DH was as passionate about the plants as i was, but she said, "Yes, but then you would always be arguing about what plants to buy, and what location to plant them in, and in what configuration, etc. This way, you can do what you want without another person with different ideas getting

in your way." Well, i thought that was quite the wise thing to say, and ever since then, i don't really wish as much that i had married a horticulturalist !

My Garden Interview - Part 3

...A continuation of my hypothetical interview...

***i'm currently reading an older garden book titled, "Gardening From The Heart - Why Gardeners Garden" by Carol Olwell. The reason for this book is interesting, because, as she points out, gardening is hard work,

considered pretty much low grade manual labor, and is rarely lucrative -

so why do we do it? She compiles the story of many gardeners who were interviewed for this book. i am barely past the introduction, but i feel compelled to put into words how i myself came to be a gardener, and why....***

Q: Any garden organizations?

i became involved at that time in the Master Gardener program - the very first year it was offered in my area (1991). It was a wonderful program, and i got to "shmooze" with fellow gardeners! The only downside was that most of my fellow "students" were retired folks - and i was in my thirties! i thought it was a good deal - the fee was $25, for the

literature and instructors (there wasn't anything offered online in THOSE days!), and you agreed to give back so many hours in volunteer time, i believe it was around 20 hours back then. It quickly became a very popular program, and a lot more people became involved with it. Later it was decided that you had to give so many hours each year to

"recertify", which i just did not have time for in the growing season. NOW the fee is up to $175, you have to volunteer 50 hours, and need 10 hrs. of volunteer work plus 6 continuing education hours annually to recertify! Whew! So, even though i have not recertified, i do still call myself a "Master Gardener" anyway - seniority ought to count for

something!

Q: Any funny stories?

We sold our first little house in '97 to a very young couple who were not even in their 20's yet, it was November, but they were very impressed by the gardens. I had taken photos and had a few enlarged to show prospective buyers. Unfortunately, they both had jobs and went to school, and had no clue how much work that was gonna be! i did take starts of my favorite plants to go to the new house with me, but left just about everything.

The following July, i received a phone call from my former neighbor. All she said was, "Oh my God, Nanci, they're tearing out all your plants and throwing them away!" i was there within 10 minutes, on the pretense of visiting said neighbor. The young people weren't QUITE throwing away everything, but threatening to, and i could see why. When i had lived

there, i walked around virtually every day, automatically weeding, deadheading, pruning...they had done none of that. The Hollyhocks were 7 feet tall, the vines had literally absorbed part of the yard, the groundcovers were covering WAY too much ground, my arbor that i painstakingly created from PVC pipe was broken and laying in the vegetable garden space - it looked like an abandoned property! To their credit, the new owners were very considerate and told me i could dig up

everything i wanted to, so i borrowed a shovel from my friend next door and started digging in the 90 degree heat. An hour later, after i had filled the trunk AND back seat of my car, i called my husband and told him to come over with his pickup truck and more tools! When we came home with the plants, i had no idea what i was going to do with them - it was early July, in the middle of a heat wave.These plants were my

BABIES! Now that i had rescued them i was NOT going to lose them! So we shoved them all into our 2 garbage cans filled with water and i spent the next week or so finding spaces for them. Now, planting in weather like that should only be done in emergencies (like this was), but - it CAN be done.Out of about 40 plants, only 2 did not make it, i am proud

to say!

 One more unfortunate thing - about a month after that, I

discovered that the vinyl lattice we had put up all along the fence row was gone - the young couple had taken it down and put it out for the garbage pickup - all five hundred dollars worth of it!! i almost cried over that - wish i had known. BUT, to this day, i really have no idea what i could have used that for at the new house! It was such a waste,

though...

My Garden Interview - Part 2

...A continuation of my hypothetical interview...

***i'm currently reading an older garden book titled, "Gardening From The Heart - Why Gardeners Garden" by Carol Olwell. The reason for this book is interesting, because, as she points out, gardening is hard work,

considered pretty much low grade manual labor, and is rarely lucrative -

so why do we do it? She compiles the story of many gardeners who were interviewed for this book. i am barely past the introduction, but i feel compelled to put into words how i myself came to be a gardener, and why....***

Q: Did anyone inspire you?

After living in an apartment for several years, surrounded by houseplants, we moved into a little house with a little yard, and i began to think beyond only houseplants and veggies. Flower boxes, hanging baskets, perennials...Around that time i met Adrian, my new boss at work. She wasn't a typical boss, she was full of fun and had a great laugh, as if she had just heard a dirty joke! She was fairly spiritual, believed in the paranormal,.. and gardened. When she talked about some of her plants, she would describe them in detail and with such excitement that i started to realize that i had that same passion, too, but had kept it inside because i hadn't realized that anyone else felt that way, and, evidently it released my inner "Plant Maniac"! i eventually acquired several plants from her, and still have them today, almost 20 years later. We lost touch, and i don't think Adrian ever knew what an influence she had on me - i didn't even know at the time,either! But i think of her -every year - when her Festiva Maxima Peony blooms in my yard.

Also, my husband's grandparents lived on a farm (a REAL one), and they were also a big inspiration to me during all of the years i was fortunate enough to share with them.

A start was all i needed, and soon the yard was filled with hundreds of plants, many grown from seed, and many shade loving plants (Our yard was 80% shade). i built a coldframe and an arbor using PVC pipe, we attached white vinyl lattice (when it was first available around here and pretty expensive!) to the chain link fence around the backyard, making it more

private, and ringed the beds in red and grey bricks.

My coldframe

It was a tiny yard, but a wonderful sanctuary, much more than i realized at the time.... When my husband was diagnosed one June with cancer at the age of 40, i think i was devastated even more than he was - we knew nothing about cancer, i just assumed i would be a widow in a short time! Having that garden to retreat to was the only thing that kept me sane! (By the way, we know a lot more about cancer these days -plus he is now 56 and is, i'm happy to say, still around to bother me!).

My Garden Interview - Part 1

***i'm currently reading an older garden book titled, "Gardening From The Heart - Why Gardeners Garden" by Carol Olwell. The reason for this book is interesting, because, as she points out, gardening is hard work,

considered pretty much low grade manual labor, and is rarely lucrative -

so why do we do it? She compiles the story of many gardeners who were interviewed for this book. i am barely past the introduction, but i feel compelled to put into words how i myself came to be a gardener, and why....***

Q: How did you become a gardener?

N: First of all, i need to point out that it was never really a conscious decision to "go forth and garden!"

i never knew my grandparents on my father's side, but i do know they were avid gardeners, so i'm thinking i had it "in my blood", since i sure as heck know it wasn't thru my parents! They didn't even like to be outside! i think Mom took me to the park several times when i was young,

and they liked to sit out on the porch in the evenings in warm weather, and THAT was probably only because we didn't have air conditioning back then, and it was the only way to stay cool! We had a fairly large and swampy back yard- (this is the Black Swamp area, after all) , but except

for some hideous foundation plantings of evergreens, one Poplar tree, one rose bush and one white Spirea, that's all there was in the whole area! Being an only child with few neighbor children, i spent many long

days in that backyard on my own, getting hundreds of mosquito bites and black bare feet from the muddy yard - how i didn't end up with Hepatitis or some '60's equivalent of the West Nile virus is beyond me.

Anyway, we were visiting my uncle's house one summer day, and my cousin and i walked into one of the farm fields surrounding their property. She told me that they knew the owners of the fields, and that they were

allowed to pick some of the produce out of the fields if they wanted (whether that was true or not, i never really knew...Being 12 and very naive, i didn't question it ). She picked a tomato right off the vine

and handed it to me, and actually had to instruct me to eat it right there, as i just looked at it for a second - i had only seen tomatoes in salads before that (yes, i had an extremely sheltered childhood!). When i bit into that beautifully ripe, warm tomato, standing in the middle of

that field, that experience it was so awesome that i had an epiphany of sorts - and actually changed the course of my life! i did not immediately know what to do about this new feeling, but within about 2 years, i had a small vegetable garden plot in our backyard.

i did have somewhat of a social life in my late teens, so of course with other things on my mind, i didn't have as much time to garden. Until after i was married - and for a few years we lived in an apartment, so except for the 40 or so houseplants i acquired, i did not do much gardening. i tried to keep my plot going at my parents' house, but they wanted to stay inside when i was there and expected me to sit inside and visit with them! So that was not feasible for very long.

CONTINUED SOON

i used to have quite the T shirt collection. Radio stations, comic book characters (still have my "Elfquest" shirts!), rock bands, etc. Of course, that included my gardening interests, too - but i didn't go for " Happiness is Gardening" or "Gardeners Have The Best Dirt" - noo..my humor is a little different...

Don't know if this company's even still in business, but i loved the shirt! i don't really wear it much anymore - my "tomatoes" don't really line up! LOL

...And from my favorite nursery, Plant Delights, came this funny ( but sensible) play on words. If you're not sure, an 'annual' is a plant that lives only one season and dies. A lot of folks in my area spend tons of money on flat after flat of 'tunias and marigolds (for "color"), and do it all over again the next spring. Hey, i buy 'em too - after all, that's how most nurseries make the majority of their income - but i also use a lot of perennials (that come back in the Spring) so i don't have to buy everything yearly!

But, whatever you gardening humor, or no matter how i feel about it, just plant SOMETHING!