Voila! Gardening! One of my goals is to be a Master Gardener. I started at age 30 and I still feel passionate about it.
As soon as the weather was good we would move outside. The fresh air, the chirping birds, the smell of dark earth – I loved it all. My kids would eat the plants I taught them to eat. Ike would crawl around with a big rock in his mouth, Hannah would swing as high as she could and sing loud, Gabe would play Spiderman on the trampoline, Noah would roll up lambs ear leaves and stick them in his ears and crawl around saying, “Baa, Baa” until I patted him on the head.
In the garden with cousin Curt - 1995.
Roland knew it was a good day when he would come home after a long day of money making and find me and the kids in the backyard covered with dirt, grass and dried leaves. I loved it when he would pick the dead-headed flowers out of my ponytail. It was so romantic.
If you want a garden, this winter is the perfect time to start. Go to the library and check out all the interesting gardening books. Pour over them this winter. Make a binder and jot down ideas, things you like, pictures that inspire you, lists of plants you would love to have. Draw your yard and sketch in flowers and bushes, trees and herb gardens. Use colored pencils. I still have mine from years ago and they are fun to look at. I even took pictures of my yard for future reference and kept a garden journal with suggestions for improvements and records of what worked and what didn't.
A page from my Garden Journal 1995. I made the plan in the winter and the red pen has the spring update.
Gardeners are the nicest people. If you have questions about gardening they are quick to help and even give you some plants! One of my favorite web pages is GardenWeb.com http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/ you can find all kinds of helpful information and regional support! I even found a semi-annual plant swap here in
So, if you are looking for a new hobby, consider gardening. You’ll get lots of good exercise, your yard will be beautiful, your kids will be healthy, you will even have a more passionate marriage (it must be the gardening…).
20 comments:
You are absolutely inspiring! Now I want to get out there and prune something and rip out something and mulch something! I will take master gardener courses with you. I've always wanted to. Steve's mom is one and she is SOooo... knowledgable (did I even spell that right?)
I love to garden!! Nothing is more rewarding than picking weeds out especially those ones that get stickers in them (I can't remember the name). Do you like a manicured garden or English type with everything just growing together and is a jumble of color? Guess which is my favorite? (We have a lot in common Robin. I think I need to meet you some day!)
I have always wanted to garden, and I'm really interested in making my home have better curb appeal... I'll be working on this all winter now! Thanks!
Robin, this is a great post. You really are an excellent gardener and that is because you have a true passion for it.
When you came to visit me in D-ville a few years ago and helped me plan my garden--that was so fun. We bought a ton of plants and planted them, and it was so satisfying to watch them take root and grow. And everything you said would happen did--the puny tiny lavender plant just busted up into such a gorgeous flowering bush, the irises we divided grew perfectly, and the chicken manure did really help the plants (though it almost killed us and the neighbors).
Next time we move, I hope you will help me with my garden. I really want to have a vegetable garden.
Jenibelle - I like a riot of plants, cottage style, deep borders over flowing onto the grass in the back yard - it is a ton of work and I love it. And I like the garden more subdued, organized and well groomed in the front yard.
I like to garden, until about a week after the harvest begins. Suddenly I feel like, "Okay, what's next?" and after get bored with eating everything raw for awhile, start getting overwhelmed with the food prep required to make really tasty complex dishes. Maybe after I'm done with school I won't feel so exhausted by it all. But the planning, tending phase of gardening is my favorite!
Robin, this is exactly what I needed right now--my yard is desperate for some TLC. But I need a tutor. Are you willing to give me a little of your spare time?
This is where it is painfully evident that I'm not an Austin woman. But I am, but I'm not.
I hate dirt. I can't stand weeding. I don't do bugs. Truth be told, sitting on the grass makes me itch. When we bought our house, I thought that maybe I could get into it, but I was wrong.
Fortunately, where we are, you don't have to garden, nature does it for me. (and my kids help me plant pots for the deck)
You are cool Robin.
I am inspired. I know what I like but I don't know HOW to achieve it.
I love gardening too--but I can not get the hang of planning ahead on paper. Luckily my husband is in to that big time--he'll even plant things straight. It's saved us. We shared our garden this year with some friends in an apartment and that helped with the end of the season harvest blues--except they didn't want as much as we thought they would--oh well. We have a short growing season so I got in on the end of the season cover the garden (yes the whole garden) this year.
I would love to have Robin come in the spring or summer and help me buy and plant. Sally, you're so lucky!
I love to garden. Unfortunately, I can't do it anymore. All the bending makes me dizzy.
I'm more related to Melissa than Robin in this aspect...yes, grass does cause itchiness. Bugs are annoying, and I don't seem to have the motivation to keep a garden growing. I bought a house with a fabulous garden and in one year it has gone sour...my bad.
I have a lovely crop of mallow though (really bad weed with roots all the way to China).
Wow, I never knew I even wanted to garden until I read this post! I'll try and forget it quickly so I don't feel guilty that I'm not doing it.
Robin,
You need to teach a 'how to be as cool as me' class. I would sign up. I planted pots for the first time this past summer and now am really itching to try something more challenging... I am going to the library tomorrow to do some research...
rach
Sign me up for the 'how to be as cool as Robin class'.
I always love your outlook on child rearing. 30 min of pre-trip planning was on a good day.
I'm considering digging up a few of my herbs for an indoor herb garden this winter.only problem is the winter drought they'll surely suffer when we are gone for a month to S. Calif. But I'm formulating a plan: put a plug in the kitchen sink with 1-2 inches water, then put the herb pots in the kitchen sink, water them thoroughly, & tightly cover the sink with clear plastic. In theory, with all the sunlight that comes in the windows above the sink & the water in the bottom, it should make a pretty good terrarium & the herbs should thrive. What do you think? Has anyone reading this blog done this??
A great post on gardening, Robin. Your yard always looked great. One of my memories of your Boise house was trimming back some of your bushes after you had moved and taking some starts for myself, which are thriving and make me think of you.
The new owners took out the tree by the front light post. It looks bare-naked! It was such a beautiful tree. I love how you planted everything with the idea of privacy and blocking windows, etc; from the neighbors.
Hey, I am in for the "How to be as Cool as Robin" Class. You are such an amazing woman! Seriously, I have done a little of what you do in the garden, but on a smaller scale, and your beautiful flower bed this year showed it! You plan so beautifully. There really is very little that is better than working in the earth though, is there? I love it!!!
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