My Grandmother has served multiple terms as the National Garden Club president and has served as a judge for garden shows for over 40 years. She “quit” the show circuit a few years ago (around her 80th birthday) but wasn’t able to leave the garden for long so she started volunteering to create a Wildscape Garden behind the clubhouse. She will no doubt be immortalized by the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens once she is finally able to let it go.
So while it’s been quite a few years since I followed her around the garden pruning and playing, but in the back of my mind I always thought that green thumb gene was there; that when I had a use for it I could activate my horticultural heritage like a super power.
I moved into my home in mid-summer 2 years ago, and broke my foot last spring, so this was the first year that I started out determined to make a yard out of the weeds surrounding my house. I started as everyone does, by pulling out all the weeds I could. It didn’t take long before my actual super power activated: Hayfever!
In between sneezes I’ve managed to clear 4 flowerbeds and made a birdbath out of old terra cotta pots that have been hiding in the undergrowth. I managed to break my hoe, {insert your own dirty joke here} and I only had one truly girly moment involving a garden snake and an undignified shriek.
So now I have a few freshly mulched flower beds and a beautifully mowed lawn. I did flashback to a few hot Julys in my childhood when grandma taught me how to prune roses and to “pinch” my chrysanthemums so they are full and strong by fall, so I’m confident I can keep my yard going through the summer, but the reality of just how much work is involved is daunting. Not to mention that scary greenhouse in the back corner of the yard that is so overgrown it looks like a jungle. I might wait a few weeks to tackle that one.
Green Thumb Activate!
Jenn.
No comments:
Post a Comment