My Fledgling Garden

For years and years and years, I've wanted a garden. I've dreamed of growing my own herbs and vegetables, of walking outside to snip fresh basil or thyme for meals. For a few years, I gardened with and for my mom. She had a huge garden plot and one year, DH and I tackled it with a rototiller, seeds, young plants and plenty of sweat equity. We planted peppers, squash, carrots, zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, beets, spinach, chard. We planted lemon verbena, stevia, thyme, oregano, basil, parsley. It was a lovely sight. We faithfully watered and watched the plants grow. My mom and I would walk through the garden and caress the herbs and inhale their lovely scents. Everything tasted amazing even straight out of the dirt. I loved everything about this whole process - from working the dirt to planting the seeds to weeding and watching and waiting. For me, there is great pleasure in just watching things grow.

Last summer, Anna and Megan got the pleasure of raiding my mother-in-law's small raised garden beds for herbs and vegetables. Megan mostly liked to pick flowers with Grandma, but Anna liked to taste and smell the edible stuff. She would come running into the house with a handful of small green beans and wash them off and eat them raw just like that. She tasted every herb and loved them all - basil, parsley, mint. She loved smelling the herbs and talking to the vegetable plants sweetly, encouraging them to grow. I started craving a garden even more - for me and for my girls.

Lucky for us this year, we have a house with small garden plots of nice pre-worked earth! Since unpacking and settling into the house, I've been outside planting. All my plots are bursting with flowers - vincas, petunias, impatiens and hostas. DH and the girls sowed wildflower seeds and planted giant pumpkin seeds. I went berserk and bought vegetable plants - cucumber, squash, zucchini, tomato and pepper. I went more berserk and bought herbs - basil, cilantro, parsley, oregano, rosemary, stevia, pineapple sage and lemon thyme. I planted a big lavender plant by the front door. There's no more room for plants!

I have big plans for next year. Next year, we'll make our garden plots bigger. We'll plant more herbs, more vegetables, more hostas. We'll plant green beans and berry plants and sunflowers all along the back fence where the sun is hot and bright all day. But this year, I'll enjoy our small garden. After school ends, the girls can help me water and tend the plants. We'll go out and caress the herbs and inhale until our lungs feel like bursting. We'll harvest our veggies and eat them raw with just a little bit of salt. Anna will eat the herbs straight up, just as they are. It's going to be great.

I'm very excited about my big lavender plant. I plan on telling the girls when they get worked up and need to take a break, to go outside and smell the lavender. I hope it will be calming. I hope it will help ease the transition from school to home routine for the summer. Maybe I'm wishing too big, but my fingers are crossed!