Gardening for the soul

A long time ago in a land far far away...

I had some wonderful grandparents, all of them, whom I thought a lot of this weekend.

This weekend, I spent a lot of time working on my garden, replanting tomatoes I had grown in a pot and re-spacing my herb bed.

My maternal grandparents had a garden when I grew up that was the size of the land I now live on. I fondly remember Grandpa taking us for rides on his John Deere garden tractor while he worked. We loved it!

You name it, they grew it, and Grandma and all my aunts would help harvest, can and freeze the bounty. I used to hate having to go into the garden to help pick the vegetables:

"Uh they sell this stuff in the store why are we doing this?" I thought.

I LOVED helping pick the strawberries; two for me - one for the basket! ha ha!

Then one day, I broke out in a rash while picking these delicious berries.

Yea, I thought, I don't have to stand out here!

Boo, I don't get to eat the berries.

Instead I got a bowl of green beans and got to sit on the porch and snap off the ends.

Later we found I am not allergic to the strawberries the leaves just irritated my skin. YES!!!

Now that I have grown, I find a few things beneficial about gardening:

1. Fresh fruits and veggies are to expensive at the store and for one single dollar I can grow more tomatoes than I will ever need! [I buy seeds.]
2. Getting back to nature is extremely therapeutic! It seemed I thought of nothing while I gardened and felt so refreshed! More so than if I had gotten 8 hours of sleep.

I also find some things about gardening that I don't like:

1. Texas is the hottest place on earth to try to garden! I have finished before 9 every morning and was sweating so much.
2. It's hard to figure out the watering schedule. The ground is moist about 4 inches down but dries so fast above that.
3. I am talking to my plants and explaining to them that I am moving them around for their benefit! [I have seriously lost my mind!]

I miss my Grandparents so much! Grandpa B worked for John Deere as long as I can remember, he was a tall man who was very tender and loving. Grandma B was always a homemaker, she never drove, she was a wonderful baker and gardener.

Truly wonderful people that I hope I take after. I have always had what I call a black thumb, I didn't inherit their green thumbs, but I did hopefully inherit their personalities.

I know this is sounding like random babbling, but I wanted to honor them.

RIP Grandma and Grandpa B.